While planning to travel to the Northern Country from Mannheim, one could either take a boat up the river Rhine or brace the Elemainn Stormlands to reach through the foreboding forest on your way to the town that sits at the border of the Northern Country and where Mannheim was.
But with word of the sweeping storms of the North being particularly fierce this time of the year, Mirella feared that the river would be impassable. And just as she had feared, after one of the knights she had sent to scout the condition of their route returned, she was all but certain.
"I see, frozen solid you say?"
"Yes, ma'am. While the waters seem to thaw as the river runs even further south, we'd be stranded the moment we got past the border" the knight stood at attention in front of his Captain, who sat behind a desk, pouring over several pages including the report she had just received.
Pushing the pages to one side of the desk to reveal the map of the region from below.
"It would have been ten days by boat, but that would have put us at the doorstep of Trier but now…" she said, with her head laying on her interlocked fingers, while her eyes poured over every detail of the map.
"There has to be another way…perhaps…" she murmured when her attention was wrestled from the map to the sudden knock coming from the door As it swung open, the Captain spread to life at the first sight of the figure.
"Sir Gode, this is unexpected…" the hunter was dressed in a rough-looking, loose moss-coloured shirt tucked into brown leggings and dark leather boats that sat below his knee, fastened with two belts.
"You left a message with one of the nurses. It said I'd find you in this inn. "
"I did, and from the looks of it, it seems that you are doing quite well."
"I am…" he said, with nothing else to add, leaving a heavy silence in the room, as the guard's gaze passed between them and Mirella.
"Ehem. Well, if there's something I can still help you with, then let me know. But right now, I am quite occupied. "
"I see. Then have you decided when we are taking our leave?" he asked, folding his arms and looking over at her.
"Before we can, we must find proper passage to the Capital. With the river frozen over the further up north, we go…our journey may be…" her words gained some weight as she walked over to her chair and settled into it with her focus returning to the map.
Stepping over to the desk, Gode took in the details of the map, following the path the river Rhine carved from beyond the Northern Country, through a place marked with wooden figurines to what looked to him like the Summerlands.
"Where is this?" he pointed at the figurine.
"Trier, the Capital City of Aufwelt" Gode's expression remained stern, with a raised eyebrow. The obvious sight of a man wrestling with several thoughts caught the guard's notice. One of them leaned over to him before saying in a hushed voice.
"Aufwelt is what you call the Northern Country in these parts."
"..." Only giving a nod to the guard's gesture.
"Sadly, the same route we used to get here won't get us nearly as far thanks to the cold…which means"
"We're going to have to travel on foot," said Gode, Mirella looked up this time, now with a look as though she wanted to be sure of what the hunter had said.
"You may be right, but you are aware of what lies between us, the North?"
"Yes."
"And you're certain that we can make it through?"
"No, but we both know that neither of us can afford to wait till the river thaws." The both of them now looking at the same spot on the map. Mirella sighed as she thought about what she may have to do.
"Eh…Captain…did you find another way?"
"Indeed we have. Sir Gode, I hope you are just as capable a hunter in the snow because you may very well be our only guide through this" getting up and grabbing the map she made for the door.
"Cap...captain…where are we going?" one of the guards mumbled with a look of concern.
"To a land of Endless Winter"
The Elemmain Forest creates a southern border between the Stormlands and Aufwelt from the much more accommodating regions of the Summerlands.
The darkened canopy of the forest is raised by the Darkwoods, known for their blackened barks and piercing and ash-coloured pine needle leaves that can be brewed to produce Darkwood tea, a herbal staple of the border town, known for being quite the soothing remedy.
Ignoring just the obstacle of the massive trees, the intense snowfall they were met with during their travels to the Aufwelt severely hindered their progress.
The biting and relentless cold split the group as an overbearing snowstorm moved over them as they approached the entrance to the forest. The markings of deep claw marks carved across several black-barked trees indicated their entrance into Elemainn.
Running his fingers over the claw marks and pulling pieces of the splintered bark from the trees, Gode spent some time ever pouring over the surroundings, the bent branches and the fading tracks quickly being covered by the snow.
"Sir Gode, what is it?" One of the guards that found themselves lost alongside the hunter stopped after noticing his strange behaviour.
Gode looked over at them bearing a strangely concerned expression, one he could only meet with a lost, almost confused look.
"...sir…it's Athal, Captain Mirella's Third Sword"
"Hmm…if you're the Third Sword, you should be her side," he said as he entered the forest.
"The captain felt one of her trusted companions would be able to aid you should you need anything from us"
"Well, we can't see your captain or any of her other companions so what I'm going to need is for you to tell your friends that if they don't want to get mauled to death, they'll have to stop walking down that trail' pouting down the direction of the marked trees.
Athal tried to cup his hands together to call them out against the tundral winds but was stopped by Gode, who raised a finger to his lips.
"We don't want to stand out too much" leaning down and parting the snow to get at a few stones below before, with a swift hand, he launched them through the foliage and into the knights.
Clanging against the armour, the knights quickly turned towards the source with their hands on their blades. "
"Impressive, but if you're that perceptive, then I'll take it as arrogance and not idiocy that you would leave yourselves wide open."
"What!!!" The group of six knights cried out in shock as they turned their backs only to find the hunter crouched above them atop a sturdy branch.
While Athal tried his best to catch up as his lungs burned from the chill. His face was so flushed that its tinge mirrored the colour of his curly hair.
"You guys…stop. He's trying to warn you…it's…it's dangerous this way" they watched him land beside Athal, bringing up his scarf to cover his face.
'How did he get there so fast?'
"Breath deeply," said Gode, watching the rest of the group scrambled around, now with their swords drawn.
"What kind of magicks did you just use?" A well-built figure seemed to don blue cloth whereas the rest wore only black between their white armour.
Unlike the rest of the group, this figure carried a single sword with no shield on hand, aside from a unique dagger on his hip. With twin scars moving from his hairline down to his cheeks.
His sterling eyes peered through his dark bangs, remaining on Gode.
Again, noting the same expression of confusion on Gode's face, Athal jumped between the two fierce figures.
"Sir Gode, this is Ren, the Captain's First Sword."
"Sir, I can assure you didn't use any magicks. But he was trying to warn you."
"Athal? Of what, we need to get through this storm and meet with the captain" Ren answered, still staring the hunter down.
"If you make your way down this path, you'll only find the Tottenkopf."
"The dead will not keep me from her"
"Not if the dead are Skull bears." Rens's eyes widened at the name.
"Sir...i..if...they're really here, we have…" his comrades panicked and shuffled about, in a vain attempt to spot any of the accursed beasts.
"And you know this how?" Ren's grip tightened as he approached Gode, easily standing a foot above even the fairly tall figure.
"I could tell you about the tracks, the claw marks, the urine or the bent branches everywhere, or we could leave the way we came in and circle around, near the river. Before they find out that we're here" Gode answered, strangely with a hand guarding Athal.
"Sir Ren. Please, if the captain trusts him, we should too" Athal pleaded.
"...then lead."
"Only if I can trust you watch our back"
"Wait why, it's not like we'd attack you. We're knights, you know" they cried.
"It's not us that he's talking about. It's them, those beasts... they're already here. " Ren pulled out the dagger, revealing an onyx blade with jagged marks along its side.
"Listen to me and listen well. You don't have to trust me, but you do have to listen. You need only to watch my back, and I'll make sure we get out…all of us" drawing his bow as he turned to face the path.
With shadows rushing past the white walls of snow and the weighted stomps of pacing steps getting closer, his eyes focused not on what was ahead but instead flickering between his peripherals.
'This storm may trick my vision, but not all of my senses, and not all of them at once' he reassured himself before finally drawing an arrow.
Ren moved and paired both his blades before commanding the rest of the trembling knights to get into formation, with him holding the rearguard and Gode leading the vanguard.
"All right, hunter, we're listening"