The good weather they’d enjoyed in the morning disappeared as fast as it’d come. By the time they’d reached the spot they were getting dropped off at, the heavens had once more become occluded by sheets on sheets of rolling gray, dense and deep. Once more a stillness had fallen onto all the world around them, a quiet desolation descending— only the creaking and swooshing of the trees, and the last echoing rattle of the road beneath them remained. The engine purred quietly beneath them as they idled on the side of the road.

Far in the distance, all around them, rose the mountains— impossibly, towering high, high above— their peaks shrouded in dense cloud. Even what was visible, though, spoke of the wasteland— jagged rocks, dense forest, and life, a tenacious thing still clinging onto existence— and by that made all the grander.

“Well.” The driver pushed open the door, stepping out onto the snow beside the road with a soft crunch— the smoke of his cigarette catching on the wind and lazily swirling up to the heavens above. “Here’s the spot. That mountain over there…” he raised a gloved hand, pointing steadily at a towering peak not quite close but neither far, shearing at the sky above— “is where you want to go. It’s a decently nice pace— you should be able to get up most of the way by nightfall from here, if you’re a little lucky.”

“Thanks.” She hopped out of the truck-bed, bracing herself to hit the snow beneath— and still almost losing her footing. It was going to be a hard hike, wasn’t it… she could just tell

. “I appreciate everything you’ve done.”

The driver waved her off, a wry smile tugging at the edge of his lips. “It’s no big deal. Same stuff I’d do for any of the Association members trying to get this deep into the Dragonspine… though, if you do make it to those most numinous ranks of cultivation, remember me, wouldn’t you?”

Lily snorted. “Sure. Why not.” Then, with one last wave and the perfect, graceful silence of Avyr’s bound onto the ground beside her— they set off into the forest dark and deep, and to the mountains that topped the world.

Ten minutes later, and the road was gone behind them. “So…” she breathed out, sheltered just faintly beneath the wide boughs of ancient pines, their corrugated trunks rippling with age, streaked black from ancient calamity and yet still standing, still strong— “here we are.” It froze, the mist of her breath, billowing out into a plume that faded into the understory darkness, drifting away on the lazy wind. “Excited?”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Beside her, Avyr shivered. “I’m cold.” She snickered— no duh, his fur was clearly not built for this sort of weather. “Come on. The sooner we can set up camp on the mountain, the better.” Lily certainly got the idea… They strode further and further into the quiet snow, as the weather above them continued to worsen. It wasn’t more that afternoon, but with all the stormclouds boiling above them, it felt more like twilight.

Then, as they finally made their way to a small stream— frozen over, of course— and started to eat their dinners…

It started to snow.

At first, she didn’t think much of it. Sheltered beneath the trees as they were, only a few fat flakes slipped down onto the frozen stream, settling on the ice like little tiny, a dusting of stars— a few motes of white adrift on the air. The winds picked up, slowly, transforming from the laconic calm to an almost frenzy as they trudged on—

More and more.

The whole world started to turn white. As they walked, visibility steadily decreased, until they could only see a few hundred feet out in front of them. “I think—” Avyr all but shouted behind her as they pressed forward, snow clinging to his fur and bitter winds scouring between them— “we need to stop for the night! We’re not going to make it!”

Lily glanced around and— yeah, that was fair. “Just a little further! We need to find somewhere to shelter—” and the howling winds swept away the rest of what she was saying, and— they pushed forward. They were down in the valley, at least— she shivered as she imagined how bad it would’ve been if they’d been caught up on the jagged slopes with this descending onto them with all its deadly majesty.

Just as she was about to give up hope and just settle down in a tree’s hollow or something, there was a light in the darkness. Literally— out of the swirling snow and driving winds, a single and brilliant glow of golden radiance cutting through it all, a beacon in the night. The two of them glanced at each other— then changed their course and set off with a renewed haste, pushing through the accumulating drifts of snow to arrive at—

A farm, a small homestead stuck between the forest and the rocky slope above, clinging onto life at the harsh edge of the world. Terraces lay fallow, paddocks bare, a small house tucked in the corner and a larger barn off to the side. They didn’t even speak— they didn’t even need to speak, exhausted as they were, instead just plodding up to the barn and slipping inside to the oh-so-blissful warmth.

They barely made it up to the loft before they collapsed, unconscious.