CHAPTER 300: SLEEPWALKING

Irene’s hands were clasping the reins and she seemed to be sitting as usual if it weren’t for the precarious angle her saddle was sitting.

If someone could see her, they would see a glazed over expression and her eyes once green were glowing a faint purple. She weas still sleep walking it seemed. There was no other way to explain her actions or expression at that moment.

Not only that, but she was unbelievably cold as winds swept through, and she was inside of the snowstorm she had been preparing to avoid. However, there was no sign that she even felt the cold at that point.

Even when her hood was covering most of her face and her face covering had gone skewed, she didn’t even close her eyes or move out of the way. Her hands never lifted once to adjust the hood and get it out of her line of sight.

Eventually, the hood was blown off of her head completely, but she still was unresponsive to even that. Despite all the years she had been told about the importance of making sure her head was warm, none of it even registered to the girl who kept uttering friend in Sunstoian and looking off into the distance.

Sammy had started the journey with such determination, but as his head lowered as they went forward because the icy wind was burning his eyes and aking it nearly impossible to see what lay ahead. At a certain point, he was merely being obedient to his master. Whenever he tried to stop or change direction, she squeezed her knees harder and shook the reins.

The pace wasn’t fast but it was steady so the horse never seemed to run out of energy despite the constant forward motion.

Even when the sun set and the moon rose somewhere beyond the clouds that covered the sky and gave them no hope of the snow stopping any time soon, they continued on forward and slowly.

Only when they made it to the village they had gone to by mistake before did Irene finally slip off of the horse and fall to the ground with a thud. The snow that had piled up cushioned her fall but surrounded her until she stood up and dragged her feet in the direction she was determined to go.

However, Sammy was in distress after not eating anything for an entire day. He whinied at Irene and jumped onto his back feet, but there was no response from her—his master who usually at least acknowledged his presence.

Call it animal intuition, but he had a bad feeling about the place considering their last experience there.

He kept his distance from Irene since she had guided him to a place he didn’t trust. Soon his caution was answered when the ground around that small, abandoned village began to quake once more.

The horse kicked at that, further displacing the saddle on his body as it fell lower on his side. It caused his gait to be strange and movement to be uncomfortable. All it did was spur him to keep running and escaping the danger as animal instinct took over and his master was forgotten. He went the direction he knew from before. At least over there he would have shelter and the ground would no longer shake.

As an animal with little understanding of things, he only sought safety and nothing else.

+

"I have a bad feeling. A bad, bad feeling."

The utterings of a woman hardly conscious most of the time as she inched closer to death seldom made sense, but Kara had been saying the same things ever since Irene left for the north. It pushed Arthur to believe that there was a sliver of truth even if it would sound ridiculous to a sane person to listen to these ramblings.

He endured nearly two weeks of these words and, each time he returned to his wife’s side, he couldn’t hold back just how much they had gotten under his skin. It was making him feel restless. He wanted to trust Irene to the trip because she was more than capable, yet he also wanted to intervene and simply make sure that his daughter had made it in one piece.

It took his inability to sleep as he sipped ale and stayed in his study so that Rochelle wouldn’t worry about him that pushed him over the edge.

"I must go to her," he announced to his family. "Which means that Arne must take care of grandmother until I can return. My mother will understand that the girl who is trying to further the Sunstoian line through learning won’t be able to if she’s killed by something in the north."

Arne was old enough to step up so that’s what he did as his father left on a horse equipped for snow travel. Arther brought saddlebags full of supplies and his warmest clothes.

Unfortunately, he had to leave his metal hand behind because it would undoubtedly pull the heat from his body and ache the entire time he was out in the snow—this decision coming at the tail end of having experienced the freezing feeling where the metal met his sensitive arm. He could be out in the snow with it for a few hours, but for days was a risk he shouldn’t take if he was meant to save his daughter from a precarious situation.

The morning he was able to set out, he went to his mother’s small home and found one of her frail hands so that he could hold onto it for a few moments more. He had lost his father at the very beginning of his life and hardly remembered any firsthand details other than him being there and suddenly being gone.

However, his mother had given him everything and had been there each step of his life. He always respected her more than anyone else because of all her sacrifices and strength. She was the embodiment of the best Sunstoian qualities.

"Please hold on," he pleaded with her before kissing her forehead and ensuring her blanket was tucked all the way up to her chin. "Arne will be here. I will return with Irene."

He knew he would regret not being there if she passed, but he would also regret not going to Irene if she was in danger the way Kara had insisted that she was.

If the trip was all for nothing, at least he would have made memories with his daughter.

Admittedly, he also missed the place he once called home even if he only had the memories of a small child, practically toddler. Everything was fun. Even the danger there seemed fun at the time.

With that, the man took to the horribly rough but never not rewarding journey of going through the mountain pass and over the plateau that would lead him down to the rolling foothills over the Sunstoian region and further north.

He needed no map and traveled by memory. How a white expanse that seemed so monotonous could elicit any sort of recognition was impressive. However, that was how the Sunstoian survived the north. It wasn’t the travel that defeated them but monsters and strange occurrences not fully understood by many of them.

However, what he found worrying was that there was no sign of his daughter anywhere. Every track she would have left was completely covered by the ever changing snow.

It wasn’t until he made it to the largest township in this area that he saw signs of life other than himself.

There were buildings that had been cleared of their snow, but only one that showed it had been actually successfully opened and used. He hadn’t checked the trading post because it was unlikely she would stay there.

As Arthur’s light brown eyes scanned his surroundings, it was easy to tell by how much less snow it had on top compared to the other places—a sure sign someone had been using a fire inside.

Arthur went inside the longhouse and saw that someone had indeed stayed there, but the hearth had gone cold long before and, even though the signs were recent, they were only that. There was no presence of anyone there so he knew he had to move on shortly.

The former knight stayed there for one night before he pressed on again.

This was where the journey always got more precarious because this area was much easier to get lost inside of. If someone wasn’t aware of how to measure their position using landmarks around, it would seem like everything was all the same.

Arthur knew there would be no evidence there considering the snow on the ground was fresh. He had to keep moving to see if he could find his daughter.

To the protective and loving father, one of the most horrible sights he could imagine presented itself to him in the form of his daughter’s horse limping along with its saddle displaced. She was nowhere to be found.