CHAPTER 289: A PEEK INTO HISTORY

It was an almost harrowing sight to witness.

They were skeletons of the past; the giants of legends that her family discussed the entire time Irene was growing up. The stars of furious battles, monster subjugations, and planting the ancient warriors there that had been forgotten to time, since all of their history was frozen in the north, and people had dispersed all over the world.

She stopped on the faint curve of a small hill and looked in the distance as the masts of ships reached the foggy sky. Some were partially hidden by the freezing weather they were having, causing the sky to sparkle as the clouds came from the heavens to lie against the earth.

If she didn’t know any better, it looked like the earth had grown around the ships and landlocked them. With more imagination, one might think there was once an ocean there that had dried up and left all of the ships behind in the places they stood.

However, she knew better.

To think that the frozen sea was so much further inland than she could have ever imagined struck fear into her heart.

The legends she was told as a child were filled with sea monsters unknown to the present day. Some were scaled dragons that overtook the sea called Jormandr. Later in history, there were giant monsters with tentacles called Saeskrim that were said to be able to hug and crush one of those massive ships as if it were nothing.

They were practically villages on the water. The boats were so unbelievably big, and the number of people they could carry made one of those ships sinking that much more harrowing.

Despite that, Irene found her knees squeezing slightly as she was pulled off to the frozen sea. Standing before her was the confirmation of all the stories she had heard. If she could just keep walking a bit further and get a better glimpse...

The thought of ice underneath them caused her to request that Sammy keep his pace slow. Even though she knew certainly that the ice that was thick enough to trap ships was under no stress because of horse hooves, there was still ignorance present within Irene that she was well aware of. She didn’t know how to survive falling through the ice or frozen sea.

Not being cautious for even a moment could lead to her death. She had survived this long and promised to bring home the things her grandmother had left behind. Before her grandmother could pass on, she wanted to know everything there was about being a Volna. If there were ever future children with Sünstoian blood, she needed to prepare them for the possibilities that lay ahead.

She wished that there had been someone to warn her that it was a prophetic dream that she could change, and not an entire life she had led. It would have stopped a lot of the panic and doubt she had while going forward.

The boat closest to land and first in Irene’s path was leaning a bit more precariously than the rest, and she had to imagine it had hit rocks or grounded itself for it to be in such a shape. It gave her relief that she was perhaps not over deep water.

Ten feet was the closest Irene was willing to get. Even at twenty feet, she had climbed off her horse and landed as gently as she possibly could. Her cautious movements led her closer to the boat, but she stopped at the sight of a partially sunken dock jutting out of the water on the other side of it.

She took a few steps further so she could see the full scope of the dock, but it disappeared under the dark and more visible ice close to the boat. There was no doubt now that she was over water.

As she stepped towards the boat instead with cautious movements that communicated her desire of self-preservation, she couldn’t help admiring every bit of the seemingly ancient vessel that was well-preserved the way that it was.

At the very front of it, there was the head of a beast carved into the dark wood. It made the boat look terrifying, and she imagined seeing it appear out of the fog and landing on the banks of distant lands, ready to pillage, defend, and fight. She knew that the Sünstoian who settled here were peaceful, but it was only after escaping the main group of conquerors set on making the entire world theirs. Her grandmother once suggested that their overconfidence and greed made them die out.

She walked backwards a few feet so she could see the back of the boat as well. On the other side, a tail twisted up. The ship really was meant to look like a monster, she realized.

Realizing this, she continued on in her observation of something she couldn’t quite grasp. Despite how old the ship must have been, each board carved and bent to create the outside hull was still intact. Along the bottom, going down from the dragon’s neck, there were finally carved interwoven designs. She noticed them along the top edge of the ship as well.

She couldn’t help herself as she stepped closer to get a better look. Almost instantly, she recognized that one of the patterns interwoven in it was the very tattoo she wore proudly on her shoulder.

Irene gasped. They needed protection for their souls as well, it seemed. She wondered what sort of monsters they must have seen to believe their souls were at risk.

Irene turned her head so she could look at her horse. Seeing that he was merely standing there, she took a few steps closer to the boat, daring to reach towards the wood just to see what it would feel like underneath her fingertips.

However, where the snow blew across the surface of the ice was slick, and underneath the boat, the ice started to slope downward. It caused the girl to lose her footing, and she wound up on her knees. She had to turn over so she wouldn’t slide all the way down until she was underneath the leaning boat.

With her gloved hands on the ice, her shoulders heaved as thrill rushed through. Her heart was racing, and she could only stare dumbly at the ground for a few moments.

"Right," she uttered.

The self-preservation she had just thought about before went out the window because of mere curiosity. She realized that she was acting childish by letting it get in the way of survival.

Once she was back on her feet, she moved quickly away. Only one more time did she cast a glance at the boats. It was like hesitating to love something, but they continued to make her heart pound anyway.

When she was back at Sammy’s side, he huffed at her as if he knew she was being irresponsible by going over there and leaving him behind.

"I know, I know," she responded stiffly. "Let’s get out of here before I get lured further in. Next mistake over the sea will lead to tentacles, and I’m not quite ready to face a monster of that caliber."

With a squeeze of her knees and a firmer grasp on her reins than usual as she calmed herself down, they were off to the next place.

On the map, it said that there should be the largest township in the north up ahead. She needed to move quickly to get there, based on how far away the lumps in the snow were.

There was also a hill that went along the plains. She couldn’t tell if it was made entirely of snowdrifts or if it had ground underneath. Regardless, it was the one thing that was keeping her from seeing the true breadth of the township.

The thought of another Sünstoian—even just one other person in this desolate place—would make such a difference to her. Knowing how small the community was, there was a likelihood that she was probably related to them.

Soon enough, they started at the bottom of the hill and began climbing. Since Sammy didn’t sink far, she assumed it was either rock or frozen grass underneath them as they broke the crest of the tallest point.

As her green eyes lifted, there was indeed a township in front of her, but it was just as abandoned as she feared it was going to be.

She felt a sense of hopelessness that not only was she lonely in that moment, but the Sünstoian people were as few as she had feared.

Occasionally, she would romanticize and hope that one day she would find a Sünstoian boy who caught her eye. They would have to be as strong as her father for her to even spare them a glance. They undoubtedly had to be a warrior. She didn’t care about noble status, even if her mother did.

Thoughts drifted, and that silly daydream disappeared as quickly as it came in every now and then. She realized she was being ridiculous.

Rather than dwelling on the harsh realities, she decided to keep going forward and make herself comfortable in one of the seemingly large and sturdy buildings in that place. It seemed that she had endless options for where she was going to stay that night.