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Lumi’s suggestion was that I cut straight through the lower half of Bora and then through Alpin down to Himesh.  Most of Alpin was excessively snowy, so travelling through there would be significantly harder than going anywhere else, but the people of Bora were extremely protective of their land, so I should stay as far away from the village as possible without going into Alpin.  Lumi said I’d know where Alpin was; the snow was nearly 3 inches higher than anywhere else there.

The trip to Himesh was significantly shorter than the trip to Gelid had been, but it felt a whole lot longer because I was alone.  Bora felt like a baren wasteland compared to all the other places I’d been.  There was no wildlife or trees or anything out here.

I knew I’d reached Alpin by the time the sun was setting because of how deep my feet sunk into the snow.  Lumi had said there were people who lived out here, but how could anyone possibly live in this climate?  Walking was a hassle because of how much effort I had to put into pulling my foot out of the snow.

It wasn’t long before I came across a group of people gathered around a fire.  Fire!  And the snow wasn’t melting!  Was my previous assumption about snow wrong?  I’d assumed that since it didn’t exist in Chanda that it couldn’t mix with heat.  I approached the group of people cautiously, unsure how they’d react to an outsider.

“Fellow traveler!” a man exclaimed. “Welcome!  Are you staying at this campsite for the night?”

The warm greeting gave me enough courage to cross the remainder of the distance between us.

“Where do you come from?” the man asked.

“I left Gelid this morning,” I replied.

“Ah!  Gelid!  You’re a brave soul for traveling there.  I’ve heard they are frequently attacked by ice waves.”

I nodded. “It’s not a place I plan to visit again.”

“Are you headed to Himesh now, then?”

“Yes!  How did you know?”

“Alpin is not the place for travelers.  We are a hunting clan, and you will rarely find us in the same place two nights in a row.”

My eyes widened. “Really?  Well, I’m glad to have found you tonight.  I’m Odelle.”

“I’m Nevada.  Nice to meet you, Odelle.  We’re cooking deer meat tonight.  Would you like to eat with us?”

What on earth was deer meat?

☀☀☀☀☀

I left the next morning before the sun was even up, which in retrospect was probably not the best idea considering I was alone with only two weapons, but I made it to Himesh long before the sun set, which was a huge deal.  Maybe I’d have more time to ask around about this mystic before I had to go search for him.

The village was mostly empty when I arrived.  Apparently, the workday didn’t end until sunset.  I was greeted by the wife of the leader when I first entered the village.  I didn’t bother waiting to ask about the mystic.

“Do you have any clue where the monster on the mountain is?”

She looked at me like I was insane.  Honestly, maybe I was insane.

“You don’t want to go up there.  He’s killed wildlife and stolen our crops.  There’s no telling what he can do to humans.”

“I need to find him,” I told her.

“No, you cannot.  I will not be responsible for your death.”

“You’re right.  You won’t.  I’ll find him myself, then.”

I went off on a hike up the mountain.  I still had plenty of time this afternoon, and I’d find him if I had anything to say about it.

After a while of walking, I came across hunters in the forest of trees.  Both of them were carrying a bow and arrow.

“What are you doing?  Hide!  We’ve sighted he monster.”

I glanced at the woman who was speaking to me before sprinting off.  Sure enough, there was a streak of white moving along the ground.  The only reason I could even see it was because of the speed with which it moved.  It finally disappeared, and I skidded to a stop.  I looked around.  Where had it gone?

After a few moments of searching around, my foot caught on something.  I glanced down and noticed that I had nearly stepped over the ledge of a cliff.  Upon further inspection, it wasn’t really much of a cliff.  I probably would’ve fallen about three feet if my foot had slipped.  I sat down on the ledge and hopped off of it, landing in an abandoned snowbank.  The powder was entirely untouched but for the prints in the ground.

I followed the prints cautiously, unsure what kind of creature I was about to meet.  Findlay and Zahleh had not left such tracks when they’d moved, so I was unsure if I was even following a mystic.

The tracks led me into a dark cavern, and I had half the mind to turn back.  But then, I saw what I’d been searching for.  A large white being was seated next to a brick of solid ice that I could only assume had once been a flowing waterfall.  This mystic was different from the other two in that he was not made of ice.  He almost looked like the snow people the children in Eira had made, but he was a lot larger and had limbs.  I clearly my throat.

“Excuse me?”

I barely had time to react to the arrow that shot straight at me.  I dove into the snow, landing flat on my stomach.  At least five arrows were shot before the air was silent again.

“Don’t worry!  I come in peace!” I hollered from the floor. “I’m Odelle, and I’ve come to get the rune!”

Silence.

After a moment, I stuck my head up and glanced around.  The snowy man was standing above me then and holding his hand out to help me up.  I grabbed it, and to my surprise, it was very firm.

“What quest must I complete to receive the rune?” I asked.

“You must pass one night in the cave.  When the sun rises, you may have the rune if you have succeeded.”

I raised my eyebrows.  What was it about these mystics that they were giving me the runes so easily?  For something so important, one would think that you’d have to prove yourself, but this one was just asking me to stay the night with him.

“I can do that.”

“You can?” he asked, and it was clear that he hadn’t expected me to agree so readily.

“Sure!  I have no where else to go for the night anyways.”

“There’s a village down south.  You can go there.”

I nodded. “I know.” I titled my head. “What’s your name?”

“Fannar.”

“All right, Fannar, I’m spending tonight in your cave.”

☀☀☀☀☀

Frankly, this had to be one of the most boring quests I’d done thus far.  There was nothing to do in the cave, and there were no other living creatures besides Fannar.  He wasn’t talkative in the slightest.  He hadn’t said one word to me since I’d arrived, and I realized maybe this was why he’d challenged my willingness to stay with him.

I ended up sneaking out to the cave opening to watch the sky.  I could hear yelling in the distance, and I could only assume that they were talking about the ‘monster’ that abided in the cave.  I wondered how they hadn’t found this cave yet.  I’d found it so easily.

I ended up laying on the ground with nothing else to do.  The stars were bright out here where there was no light.  I wondered how many of those stars had people like us.

I was almost asleep when I heard loud voices approaching.

“He always just disappears when we’re near catching him.  And that girl disappeared, too.  I wonder if he got her.  It would be a shame.  She looked like a traveler.”

I was about to climb up the cliff when I saw a boot over the ledge.  I was about to run back into the cave when I saw the boot land flat in the air.  Then another boot came after it, and the woman I’d seen in the forest was standing in midair above me.  A man followed her, and I stared up at them in shock as they took a few more steps before stopping.

“He always disappears right around here.  There has to be something we’re not seeing.”

“Maybe there’s a hole around here?” the man suggested.

“We’ve searched the whole cliff, Hemant, there’s nothing here.”

He sighed. “I know.”

“We’ll come back in the morning when the sun is up.  Then maybe we’ll see something we haven’t before.”

The two of them turned back before the man paused.

“Fi, are these your boot prints?”

She followed his gaze, and I cringed.  Those were my boot prints.

“No.  My boots aren’t that big,” she replied, lining her boot up with the print to demonstrate. “Are they yours?”

“No.  My boots aren’t that small.”

“They must belong to that girl, then.” She frowned. “Poor girl.  She looked so young.  She had quite the life ahead of her.”

I wanted to climb up there and tell them I was alive and well, but I knew that would likely cause me more problems.  It would probably look like I was crawling straight out of packed snow to them.

“Let’s head back.  We wouldn’t want the monster to get us too.”