Chronicles of the Six worlds - Carriage in the storm
Introduction - link.
I'll be taking a short break from Nevendar this week, but expect more soon, faithful readers.
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Polar ice storm. One of those that can last more than a week, more than a month. There is no one outside, no travelers, no birds no animals. It feels as if there is no life during the storm. The land looks barren, a white desert. A long, wide road covered by snow. On one side of it, there is what looks to be endless land colored in white. On the other side there is a hill. A short hill, but very long one. It`s covered with trees, painted by the snow, and ice. Only a small carriage can be barely seen, moving slowly. It looks well protected, able to survive a difficult journey. Outside, it looks like snow has covered the entire carriage, only two large animals can be seen in front, pulling it, tied with a large and strong harness able to withstand the strain of the journey. White, hairy, the only animal able to pull a carriage in this frozen wastelands, called a yukk and a small man holding the reins, barely seen in several layers of fur. The carriage gave fresh, stylish feel to it. It was mostly blue and white, with images of black dove on both doors, wings wide spread, as if it was captured in the moment when the beautiful bird was taking off into the air. Window frames are golden, but now they are covered with ice. The roof and the metal frame of the carriage were strengthen to withstand this southern storm. The wheels were unusually wide for this type of elegant vehicle, but this was a necessity, if they were thinner, the whole construction would sink in snow and ice.
„How long do you think this storm will last, Tel?
“I think it, it will be for another six days, Lady Nel."
“Oh please, no need for titles! It’s just a two of us here. Just call me, Nel. And about the storm, it`s six days five hours and nine minutes."
She answered in a very serious tone, while her student was smiling proudly. Nel is an older woman. Curly, shoulder length hair, that was once pure white and shiny, it's now almost completely gray. Her face is now wrinkled and tired. Her eyes have seen too much, cried too much. For a long time there were no light in those eyes. This all changed recently, when she meet troubled young aspirant, who was dedicated to joing their order. What the young girl lacked was a proper guidance, without it it was difficult to determine what she might grow up to be.
The girl, sitting on the opposite side, was smiling. She was extremely enthusiastic, full of life, eager to learn more. She had a pretty, innocent face. Her green eyes were wide opened, as if they were adsorbing every moment. Her lips were thick and slightly blushed. Blush was a unusual for snow people. Her hair was starting to lose its blackness and starting to become as white as snow around them. Tel was unable to hide how proud was she to be the one picked by Lady Nel Night Rain, to be able to see clan Night Rain's training base. That was their clan's private training ground. As most clans, they rarely let outsiders in. Only the Queen and few high ranking officials had access to them. They were members of the Sisterhood of the Snow. An order of warrior woman. Completely devoted to their Queen and preserving their icy realm. They used long thin and unnaturally sharp spears, able to pierce even diamond without suffering damage, or its edge.
Suddenly, the carriage stopped, as if some impenetrable wall was in front of them. Tel asked nervously: “Why have we stooped? This was supposed to be two days journey.”
"I don't know. Said Nel calmly.
“Stay here, I’ll go out to see what happened.”
„But what if we're attacked? Tel asked nervously, stunned by an unexpected event.
„Please, Tel. Just calm down and think of the training. We are the Sisterhood of the Snow"
She answered, while taking of her robes. Revealing armor, made of light metal and leather. Metal parts were shined to be silver in color, polished and ornate. Consisting of shoulder pads, forearms, leg guards, and four pieced body armor. Armor looked elegant, decorated, not as something you would expect in a battle. But it was not very colorful, and it fitted Nel perfectly. She looked comfortable in it. It was filled with symbols, most of them having some sort of magical properties, some were pure decoration. Some of the markings were of her order, of her clan, herself. Others were protective wards, mostly against magic.
Under her seat Nel picked up a spear. A double sided one. Tel remembered when she first saw it, as it was unusual for the Sisterhood to use double sided spears. All of them were engraved with runic markings, enabling it’s welder to channel their powers thru it, but making it very difficult to control. It required tremendous willpower and concentration to weld one of those weapons. They were designed to stab their enemies as fast as possible and to make as much damage as possible. The one Nel picked up was slightly lighter and larger than usual.
She stepped outside. It was a blizzard, she could hardly see anything. She walked slowly next to the carriage, towards the driver. He was dead. Beheaded. Slight moment of shock was interrupted when something walked near Nel. She could see it’s form. Hideous, large four legged creature. Growling. It looked at her. She was holding her spear with her slightly bend right hand. Pointing side of the spear at the creature, as it turned to attack her. It jumped, and Nel made a slash in the air in the direction of the creature. It fell to the ground. It was hurt, but not dead, not yet. Tel raised her spear high in the air, holding it with both her hands, and stabbed the creature. It died, while making a loud growl. She was shocked. Fear was the only expression she could make.
“This cannot be! Why are they here? Why now?"
Before she realized, three more appeared. They were circling her. As they were starting to growl aggressively at her, she assumed a fighting pose. Her spear was in her left hand now. With her right hand she made a sign on her body. The sign started to glow, as did her eyes, with a faint blue light. Her spear was on her left side, held slantwise. Right palm spread, and her right leg bend forward.
Two of the creatures attacked, as the third one was waiting to attack her from behind. One of the creatures spread it’s jaws to bite Nel’s leg, but she stabbed it in the head, and sliced the other one horizontally in half. The third one jumped at her from behind, aiming for the neck. She quickly turned and stabbed it in the side of the head. She sat on the ground, recovering her breath. She was still holding her spear tight, knowing that her life depends on it.
An echoing voice filled the air. Like it was carried by the wind itself.
„Using a battle glyph? You should worry more about its side effects. You must be really afraid of me!"
A large humanoid figure walked slowly towards Nel. It was like it came right from her nightmares. It was covered in metal plates. A lot of them were sharpened and bladed. The plates were black at the bottom and red on the top. Red color looked like rust. Like it was falling apart. But, it just looked like that. It had no weapons. Nothing that could be seen. It looked like a man, a living creature. A helmet filled with glowing smoke said otherwise. Helmet had a reverse "t" shaped opening where the mouth and nose should be. It had a red color around it, the rest was black.
It appeared as if it had no eyes. It walked slowly towards Nel who was still sitting on the ground, holding her spear. She made a faint smile, and closed her eyes. Nel got up quickly, there was no time to wait for this thing. Anger and determination filled her. She wrote another glyph on her body, another battle glyph. This one was different, it required a short incantation for it to work. Her skin, started to glow as she felt pain throughout her entire being. She raised her head towards the sky, her mouth were wide opened. Nel’s eyes were glowing much more than before.
She started running as she held the spear in her left hand. She jumped at the armored creature, in an attempt to slash him, but it defended itself with its right arm clenched in a fist. Nel started to stab it quickly, as fast as she could, and as strong as she could. The blows were powerful enough to push it away. But they weren’t enough to pierce it. With his left fist, he hit her right shoulder, braking it, almost tearing it apart. She wasn’t affected much by the pain, but she could no longer use her right arm. As she looked at her arm she said
„Hm...is this all a daemon can do?"
Slowly turning her head towards him. He laughed.
„You haven't changed at all."
Her expression changed to surprise, than to anger and finally into pure rage. She squeezed her spear as hard as she could, and started running at him yelling frantically. One move to the left, and a hit to Nell's stomach. The daemon pierced her armor with its hand. As she was droping her spear, he whispered: "I will always love you, you know that?" He pulled out his hand and walked away.
Tel, who got out of the carriage was running, screaming, and yelling. Her eyes were full of tears. She fell on her knees, placed her teacher's head on her lap. As light started to disappear from Nell's eyes, she tried to say one last word.
"Tel...d..." Don't worry teacher, I find him, Ill kill him, Ill kill them all." Nel interrupted. "Silly, child."
Nel said, and closed her eyes, never to open them again.
Images links: image 1, image 2 and image 3.
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