The wind was still howling in the snow forest. She heard the whispering brush of tufts of grass and soft clopping of hooves of horses on the ground. The forest gave way to a more rolling landscape where pines stoon like sentinels of the ruins on the low hills. Some birds swooped low from nearby trees as if surprised by the presence of foreign people in the land that belonged to them.
Eltanin pointed to the right a little further away. "There is a small stream that flows there. We are going to stop the horses for drinking water."
When they reached there, Tania saw that the stream wasn't frozen and gurgled with icy water. It traversed a meandering path down the hill and veered to the right, disappearing from her sight.
