The cold penetrates to the bones. Snow that can cover an unwary companion forever. A wind that could blow away anything that didn't get in its way.
The sun, which had recently been at its zenith, was already bending towards the horizon. Literally another hour, maybe an hour and a half, and the snowy wasteland will be captured by night darkness.
A giant wolf, running at incredible speed, covered incredible distances in just a few measly seconds. The snow under his paws was almost imperceptible, and his fur glistened slightly in the sunlight, fluttering in the wind.
My hands held this wool with effort, all in order not to fall to the ground from too much speed and dancing. The body was bent forward, thereby helping to endure the headwind. All this was happening at that very moment, but not a single traveler could see it. Sitting on the back of the werewolf, I was in invisibility.
After meeting with the draugr, we continued our way forward, covering more and more distance. Along the way I calmed as many dead people as I could. In rare moments, Al helped me. It turned out that the dead are quite sensitive to the death of their fellows. Therefore, as soon as they feel the death of one of them, others who are not put to rest begin to arrive from all the cracks.
In order to save time, I had to spend most of the journey in this position. Still, it's faster, and the dead sense a werewolf much worse than me without a disguise.
After about four hours, we arrived at the border, beyond which the concentration of death mana grew exponentially.
Having dismounted from Ala, I looked at the other "shore." But it's true, this border was somewhat reminiscent of a river dividing this world into two opposite banks.
"I think we should move much more carefully from here," I mentally expressed my idea, continuing to look at the opposite bank. "There are too many of our friends on the other side," with a nod of his head he pointed to where the topic of our conversation was.
The crowd of draugr was amazing. I have never seen so many of them aimlessly leaning here and there. And the dead themselves looked much better than the rest of their brothers.
The bodies were not so exhausted; in the eyes, mana burned with much greater intensity, as if expressing how stronger this representative of the dead race was than the others. And the armor was much more intact, as if not such a long period of time had passed for them.
"I think you're right," the werewolf growled in response and began to shrink before my eyes. A few seconds later, a familiar wolf sat on the ground, indistinguishable from others of the same kind. - "Let's go. We have work left, and time less and less."
The wolf slowly, as if fearing something, crossed an invisible line. I watched the dead men expectantly, but there was no reaction, as if they had not seen him at all. Well, since everything is good, then we can move on.
I rechecked the correct operation of Invis and also took the next step. As expected, no reaction was observed. What a useful technique, it's really sad that it won't work on strong magicians. I am sure that countermeasures have been invented for them a long time ago. Well, they couldn't help but come up with it. And the current version of the visa can only be used here, or in similar places. Oh, so much more needs to be done.
After waiting a little and making sure that I was definitely not noticed, I carefully began to move forward, avoiding clusters of draugr.
We wandered around these places for about an hour. The sun had long since set and the sky was dotted with a whole waterfall of stars. It's amazing how beautiful they are; perhaps there is nothing in the world that can compare with them. Many stars formed different "shapes". There were some here that were similar to those that we have seen on earth, but many were completely new, incomprehensible, but that's why they were so exciting.
The landscape, oh, it was almost more impressive than the sky itself, and this is an indicator. The world around us was different from what we were used to (snowy fields to the border) like the outback countryside from the capital.
The hills that had dotted most of the area before were no longer visible. No, of course there was something similar here, but definitely not what we are used to. Why is this so if they were covering ice trees? The answer is simple, they simply could not hide it. Through each such "hill" branches of these trees grew. Each tree was special, nothing like the others, so the confidence that these were living trees grew with every second.
Imagine, I don't know, an ordinary oak tree for example. A majestic tree, with many branches on which foliage grows. The roughness of the bark, external beauty, as well as feelings of hidden strength. Introduced? Beautiful, isn't it? Now make this oak five times this one, and also make it ice cold. The entire body of the tree is ice: bark, foliage, branches, trunk. They differ only in shade. Through some branches, you can see the core of the tree, as well as the world on the opposite side.
Indescribable beauty. This is something not everyone gets to see. This makes it even more terrifying from the realization of the power that could do such a thing. After all, the tree became icy in an instant, as if it had always been that way. Beautiful, scary, incredible and terrible.
Looking at these branches from the outside is an indescribable feeling. And at night this picture is even more beautiful. The starlight that did reach the ground was reflected from these beautiful trees, creating a kind of area of light around them.
If at this moment you take a closer look at the tree itself, you can notice small "sparks" inside the ice body. They danced, collided, were destroyed, were born. So the picture absorbed me so much that Al had to pull me away by force. I was so captivated at that moment.
Walking through this garden, now and then ducking and dodging the branches, a realization comes. All this is the crown of a giant forest, an elven forest. Here and there, parts of the buildings of these ever-living creatures could be seen emerging from the ground. A sort of mixture of living things created by nature, as well as living things created by intelligent people.
All houses were connected to each other by movable bridges. I happened to see a couple of them sticking out from under the snow. Each of these houses was an integral part of the tree itself. They lived in a kind of symbiosis, complementing each other.
I would like to communicate with the creator of these places, I wanted to learn, understand, and also learn so much from him. Alas, this is just an unrealistic dream. S was well aware that finding survivors here would be an impossible task. What can we say about those who created these houses. Because of this, I quickly threw these thoughts out of my head not before now.
Gradually we moved further and further. The total number of dead grew with every step taken. There were also more and more buildings peeking out from under the snow. Gradually the vortex of incomprehensible energy became closer and closer. Pretty creepy, I have to tell you.
Our journey passed without incident. During all this time I was not able to put at least one dead person to rest. Still, we should not forget about their sensitivity to the death of their relatives.
Walking so leisurely and remembering everything we saw, we came across an interesting place.
Stopping at the spot, we looked around. All the trees that looked out from under the snow in this place formed a kind of circle. Not a single branch crossed the invisible border of this circle.
In the center of this circle there was another tree house, of which we saw quite a large number. Only this time there was a difference. At the top of this building was a mini-tower. Created by the interweaving of branches. In the center of this tower there was a kind of passage that went sharply down.
Having looked around, Al, in the form of a wolf, began to write something in the snow. Inserts communicate using artifacts is not the best idea, tested.
'Do you think it's worth a look?' - read the somehow written inscription. Still, in other respects, it's not easy to write characters.
After reading the inscription, I carefully wrote my answer next to it.
'Not sure. You never know what could be there. Moreover, there are too many dead people around this "house," my inscription read. Still, that's how it is. There were too many dead people around this house, in a kind of square. They stood almost close to each other.
'Not a big problem. Let's go around from the side. Well, if it doesn't work out, we'll go back.'
'Are you sure about this?' — I asked a little worried. Something smacks of another adventure, and with it new adventures.
'Don't drift. Everything will be fine. Went.'
He wrote the last phrase and waited until I read it and gave a signal of readiness (I simply touched it), Al moved forward. Already at the very beginning I didn't like this action; he moved forward too imposingly. Apparently he was one hundred percent confident in this action, although I don't understand why. Anything can happen in life.
Taking out a knife just in case, he went after him. Gradually we approached the dense formation of the dead, and my nerves became more and more tense with every second. I don't like this.
Watching the werewolf, I did not immediately notice that all the draugr were currently looking at him. I was about to warn, but then what I was so afraid of happened. The werewolf was figured out.
"R-r-ah," said one of the draugr, slightly surprised, and rushed towards Al, raising his hand, holding the sword in it, upward. Out of surprise, the werewolf did not have time to react, and therefore stood like a pillar of salt in one place (perhaps the inhibition is related to the shape of the werewolf? And that is quite possible. To get something, you need to make an equal sacrifice. Equal exchange in all its glory).
It was only by a miracle that I managed to react to this attack. Oh, it was not for nothing that I walked a little ahead of the werewolf, just in case.
The dagger, clutched in the hand, jerked from the bottom to the top, prying off the cuirass and smoothly entering the flesh, cutting through the magical principle. The draugr could not react to this action, since he simply did not see me.
As soon as I put the soul of the dead man to rest, he began to crumble. The sword, which did not reach the target literally a meter, fell to the ground with a metallic law. (What did you just hit?)
The world froze. I was well aware of what was about to happen. As if in slow motion (my brain went into an incredible mode, changing my perception of time), I looked up at the rest of the dead. As if expecting this, there was a blaze in their eyes, and behind that...
- R-A-A-A! — a terrifying roar deafened me in an instant. Each dead man considered it his duty to "mourn" his dead brother. Chaos raged in the general emotional background. The pain of loss, the bitterness of awareness, and behind this the thirst for revenge (for some reason, I couldn't feel this before. Perhaps the local draugr are much smarter than the previous ones? I'll need to check. I want to find out about it). But all this was overcome by one thing: HUNGER. So terrible and dense that even Al, who was not an empant, shuddered.
Without waiting for further actions, he rushed in the opposite direction, shouting as he ran (it's better to make unnecessary noise than to use magic to attract all the dead in the area with the help of an artifact):
- Don't stand at the table! Let's run!
Even despite the reaction of the werewolf, he rushed as fast as possible.
The wind whipped at the skin, branches appeared in front of the face at the most inopportune moment. I had to dodge. Somewhere nearby a werewolf was running, in small form. The right decision, even if he was in normal form, would be in trouble. There are already too many draugr here, and the only ones chasing us are those that were in that snowy clearing. I don't want to attract even more unnecessary attention.
From time to time it was necessary to use the dagger, since Al's reaction was not up to par and he could not dodge on his own. From these actions, the number of creatures that pursued us became more and more.
What a pity that in invis you don't use any magic that is outside the body. This is certain suicide, the visa will disappear, and I will end up on the table as the main course. From this it was only necessary to saturate the body with mana and prana, as well as help the psi as much as possible.
Our dog races lasted quite a long time. I even started to get tired. Finally, another house began to loom before my eyes, but this time without security. Hoping that he could hide there, the werewolf rushed in that direction. And it was at that moment that it dawned on me - not a single draugr used a spell, as if driving us like game.
Horror at my own guess gripped me. He ran up to the werewolf and grabbed him in his arms and pulled him back. Right in front of us, exactly in the place where we were supposed to run, a giant mouth slammed shut. It was all an illusion! There was no house, but my eyes could not see it.
We just almost fell into the mouth of some chimera! Having landed on the ground, I was about to rush into another pursuit, but the ground disappeared from under my feet. Without having time to catch hold of the "walls" with our hands, we flew down.
Oh Merlin, what's this time?