Later that morning:
Looking behind them, the group could see Angleford stand quietly as it got continuously covered by the morning snow. They didn't stay for nearly long enough, but what little they experienced was like a breath of fresh air. Yet, what laid in front of them was a vast expanse of white, a forest that stood between them and whatever they were destined to meet.
Now that their little side quest was over, they didn't even know what to do next.
Queenie was the only one here that was familiar enough with the terrain—by familiar I meant she had a map. She took that bad boy out from what appeared to be an abyss between her chest, checked it's contents, confirmed her route, and showed it to the group.
"Do you guys know where ya heading next? I'm going home, it's been quite a while now that I think about it."
Scrutinizing the map in front of them, the group looked at the place Queenie was pointing towards… her home.
The map was pretty simple, merely being an overall illustration of the area and its inhabitants.
At the bottom was the ocean between the lower and middle layers, and just above that was Angleford and the beach.
To the north was the Snow Wood's Forest, the very one that the group were just facing. Sometimes it's just referred to as the mega forest for the sheer amount of area it encompasses compared to those surrounding it. In reality, yeah that title would be appropriate as the forest has a surface area of about five million square kilometers (almost two million square miles).
This happened for a really easy reason actually. Squirrels.
Yep, squirrels, you did not read that wrong. Okay, fine, it was supernatural squirrels that were filled with soul juice. In other words, old habits die hard. But part of all of this happening was also due to the Snow Wood tree itself.
It was strange because the trees' nuts had such a high surface area compared to its size that water easily stuck to its surface. Consequently, ball-like cocoons of ice would then form and the squirrels were fascinated by its increased size. It was actually a cool adaptation as it would practically stop ordinary animals from consuming or nearing them.
But back to the squirrels, you know how they be… always putting the nuts into their mouths and burying them for later. And because it was an instinct for them to bury the nuts whenever they see them, they did it pretty much everyday and sometimes in big piles. Come summertime, they dig ones they can find and have a nice ol' celebration; as for the ones that they forgot about or didn't bother to dig up? they'll have a chance to sprout.
And so, with their fanaticism towards these nuts of the Snow Wood trees, they single-handedly spread its territory to the point that other trees went extinct or lost most of their land; they were relentlessly sent into small reservations. Indeed, within the Snow Wood's forest, the only trees to exist were Snow Wood trees.
And yet, right-smack-dab in the center of this forest was a city—Queenie's home city.
The city of the R.B.R.
…
Further north was just more of the forest until it hit the Yellow mountains, and because they were at an angle due to its spiral nature, the west had less land than the east.
The west led to a snowy mangrove that was surrounded by several small islands. Curiously enough, the map marked the mangrove in a red circle.
To the east was a bigass lake that had frozen over. Initially, it was part of the ocean, but the golden serpent's body essentially separated it from the rest. However, this place was also marked with a red circle. Not only that, the small sliver of space between the lake and the Yellow mountains was marked with red circles as well.
Right ahead of the lake was another city. Every single city illustrated on the map appeared the same and was generic, but this one caught Ran's eye because of it's name.
Frostborne.
Apparently, according to the name of the city, this was Elana Maxwell's, Max's, home city. The very one she said to go to if they needed help; she even gave them a letter of recommendation so they can avoid any hassles. After that, even further to the east had other named cities that none of them knew of. Sprinkled about also were a few named tribes that lived within the area.
Eventually however, because of the uneven spiraling of the golden serpent, it's body meets itself furthest to the east, cutting off passage to the top layer… How convenient.
There were other places that also had red circles marking them. A few were marking named tribes, one was north of Queenie's home.
One, however, was placed at the very edge of the east where the serpent's body meets itself, except this one was different. It was black.
And… that's it. It was a crude-ass map that barely laid out the terrain surrounding certain places and merely gave a general impression of the middle layer of this world.
…
As Queenie watched everyone look seriously at this map, she quietly thought to herself.
They really seemed to look at it seriously, as if they hadn't known about it's contents. Then, she remembered that they didn't have a set destination… and I think you know where this is going.
"I-if you have nowhere else to go, why don't you come with me to visit my home? If you're looking for something, maybe you'll find it there…"
The group, who were trying to memorize the map, were stunned by her words. Ran was actually going to suggest heading to Frostborne, but it seemed Queenie had beaten him to the punch.
He was reluctant and kind of wanted to refuse, but he didn't want to hurt her feelings… yeah, 'cause obviously the most important part, someone's feelings. Alright fine, you caught me, it's just a plot device; he did feel this way though.
"Well…" Ran didn't really want to say more, but Queenie was astute enough to see his hesitation.
"Wait… don't tell me you're still feeling guilty about what happened? I already said don't worry. Plus, my father is super strong, so everything should be fine."
She tried to convince Ran, but the recent events definitely seemed to take some toll on him.
Finally, she couldn't take it anymore.
"Or… would you prefer to go back to sleep again?"
Hearing her words, Ran almost shivered. He looked to his side, but failed to find Ann. Only when he looked behind him did he see her, and only then did his body shake. What was she doing standing behind him? And why was she smiling?
He gulped a few times before turning back around to face Queenie. Seeing her enthusiastic face, he sighed.
"Alright, fine, we'll go there."
Everyone else agreed with his decision and soon, they headed out north.