The land ahead lay in frosty white blankets of thick ice. The land is covered in thick ice as far as the eye can see. The only obvious life in sight are winter pines that are spread across the winter land standing tall and proud creating forests ranging in all sizes, often with pine needles thick enough to create roofs. And these roofs often protected from the cold and created the illusion of night when light shone on the outside. Two people with arms spread across the tree would not be able to touch each others hands.
The afternoon sun failed to penetrate the roofs of these trees except for places where the branches were far enough from each other to create gaps. Under one of these roofs of leaves was a boy clad in multiple layers of heavy fur winter gear. He carried with him a crossbow, 12 arrows, a small dagger, food and other necessities he could afford to carry. He sat on one knee hunched over fresh snow observing fresh snow. Lantern with covers in one hand to light the dark forest floor and the other hand empty to search the prints.
"Hoof prints on fresh snow, can't be more than one hour that it passed through here. So difficult to track these supid creatures, wish they could make things easier and just show themselves." the boy thought out loud.
A blizzard had recently passed through the forest leaving the forest floor with a fresh white layer of the freezing substance that ruled the land, and in this snow were recent hoof prints.
Ace, the boy who studied these tracks, stood up and shone the lantern in the direction of the rest of the tracks. Ace was deep inside a forest where the trees were thick enough to block out the sun. He was following what he guessed was a golden hide elk. These elks are twice as tall as the average human and has white fur and golden skin.
The icy winds were blocked by the winter pines and the lack of wind made the inside of the forest warmer than the outside. Ace is 14 and soon to be 15. Despite his young age poverty forced Ace to search for money and hunting was well rewarded, especially to the residence of towns and villages ravaged by the savage cold. Ace followed the hoof prints to the end of the forest from where the cold desert of ice stretched beyond the eyes reach.
"Sh*t, forget how cold it was out here." Ace said as the cold wind hit his face. Ace put out the fire in his lantern and continued following the tracks in the snow.
Rarely did it snow during the day, it only snowed during the night covering the slumbering creatures in snow. Often you'd encounter dunes of snow and mountain ranges peeking theirs heads above the clouds.
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Ace suddenly woke startled by the rattling in the immediate vicinity. In the previous day Ace had lost the trail of the elk after he had followed it from one forest through another. He settled for the night under one of the bigger trees of the new forest that now surrounded him.
He eyed the small pile of ashes that lay from the little fire he had built to warm his food.
It was near dawn and the sound that had woken Ace had not repeated itself so Ace slowly dozed off to slumber.
The warm sunlight on Aces face poking through the canopy of the forest woke him Ace. Welcomed by the morning sunlight he slowly awoke himself back to the cold and barren world. The heavy snowfall from the previous night had broken branches of the trees allowing little rays of light to break through.
This forest unlike the previous has small bushes with little berries of various colors. Many poisonous and hallucinogens, but some were safe to eat.
Ace rolled his sleeping bag and strapped it to the top of his rucksack. From his bag he retrieved a frying pan, a metal spatula and some jerky. He lit a small fire and put the pan with the jerky on the fire. He ventured off to explore the surrounding area for possible food and tracks. Ace knew from previous encounters which berries were safe to eat and which were not. In the middle of collecting berries hye heard the sound of metal on metal and ran back to his camp. Upon his arrival he saw a shadow scurrying into the woods opposite to his.
Ace was infuriated "You little sh*t head come back here, I'll eat your family for lunch!"
Ace hurriedly gathered his things and ate the small bits of jerky left my the animal in its hurry, while running. Ace followed the animal to the ends of this forest and on the white snow he could see a small cat running off in a random direction away from its hunter. Since the cat was close and visible Ace followed it with his crossbow in his hands while loading it. He followed it for an hour and was still in the region of white snow with no other life for miles around. He narrowed the distance between them to 70 yards. He was about to sit on the snow and take aim when the snow below his feet crumbled and he fell on to the caves below.
"F*ck that was a long drop. Thanks to this snow I'm still alive." Ace's voice echoed off the cavern walls.
He rubbed the corner of his head where a small pain emerged but soon subsided. As Ace sat up and tried to look around he soon realized to his horror that he couldn't. The fall had taken his sight. He was blind.