SWNOVELS Chapter 25: Frozen
Alyenna stumbled through the blackness. Her bare and frozen feet were shredded by the rocks and forest floor. She had lost all sense of direction, feeling in her limbs and in her thoughts had retreated to the far recesses of her brain. So she continued to blindly climb. She had to keep going.
The snow began to fall. The icy flakes like daggers against her bare and exposed skin. She had to keep going.
The frozen air in her throat burned. Whisps of her breath floated in the air in front of her face. Her fingers were turning blue. Her numb feet had removed themselves from her mind. She walked now on frozen ankles burning and peeling with the icy mountain air. She had to keep going.
Her tears turned to icicles that clung to her cheeks her hair rigid and frozen in a crown of snow and ice. She stumbled. Her body fell hard to the icy rocks beneath her. Fresh red blood sprinkled the snow. She had to keep going.
Her purple and screaming fingers grabbed wildly at roots and branches. She lifted herself up. She looked through the white-blanketed winds. She had to keep going.
Help me! She cried to no one. Her shaken voice falling silently in the snow filled mountains. No echo held her voice. No one for miles would hear her call. Please. She whispered helplessly as she fell again to the ground. She pushed again. She had to keep going.
A dark howl sounded in the distance. Instinctual fear coursed through her veins. She had to keep going.
The howling grew louder and multiplied. The cries sent new shivers down her spine. Her breath faltered and her legs collapsed beneath her. Blackness enveloped her mind. Silence placed a gentle blanket on her soul. She had to keep going.
“Baellnar,” She spoke feebly to the falling snow. “I am sorry.” She collapsed limply onto the frozen tundra. She flinched, and then her breath stopped. She couldn’t keep going.
Snow continued to fall forming a gentle blanket on her frozen body. She no longer moved.
Cameron poked absentmindedly at a small fire. He rested deep in the recesses of his familiar home. A cave, hidden deep within the Hakkar mountains. For years he had hidden from the world. For years he had remained silent. Dragonkin, his only company. His shame and his pain a dark and familiar friend in his heartless life.
A pale golden strand of light floated into the cave. Weaving around the rocky crevasses and stalagmites. It swirled around Cameron. For so long he had lost touch with the world. He was grateful for the permanent silence. For the lack of accusatory stares. It was his fault the world was dying. He ignored the light. He did not deserve contact with the world. Especially not with him. It continued to swirl aimlessly around his head. It grew bigger and bigger enveloping his hunched form. As it grew an echo-filled the cave with a familiar voice. One he had long hoped would forget him. One that should have moved on with his life, and left him to his repentance.
Come on Cameron now is your chance, please.
“Go away!” He cried to the disembodied voice.
Come on Cameron now is your chance, please.
“There is no chance. I destroyed all of the chances.”
Come on Cameron now is your chance, please.
Cameron waved wildly at the golden light. “Go away!”
Come on Cameron now is your chance, please.
Cameron sighed heavily. Glaring at the disembodied swirling glow. “What do you want?”
Suddenly the light wrapped tightly around him and dissipated. In his mind’s eye a familiar smile appeared, an all too painful pair of eyes twinkled at him. “Why must you torture me with her face, brother!”
Again her face appeared, smiling in the glistening glow of the musical light.
Come on Cameron now is your chance, please.
Cameron threw the poker against the side wall of the cave angrily. “Enough! Stop it! Stop the torture. Please stop.”
He stormed out of the cave angrily wrapping fur his cloak tightly around his body. The strand of glowing light followed him. He turned away from it angrily, storming off in another direction. The glow again followed, this time it again swirled around him. Her face shining back at him with those twinkling eyes and an effervescent smile. He waved wildly at the cloud. Trying to spread it thinly to erase her image. “FINE” He turned again. The glow again swirled then raced off ahead forging a path. Begrudgingly he followed.
It leads him to the precipice of the mountain. He stood there the freezing and the familiar wind blowing hard against him, pushing him to the edge. He looked over it and down. What he saw should have been a mirage. Several hundred yards away a woman emerged from the trees. She was naked and shambling through the snow. Her body was bleeding and bruised. Her hair was covered in ice, her skin was pale and speckled with blue. She stumbled a couple of times and then fell. She didn’t get up.
He was frozen in place. His mind twisting and turning trying to understand what he was seeing. Then a pack of wolves emerged from the woods. They stalked towards her unconscious form. Adrenaline shot through his veins. He lept from the precipice and scrambled down the side of the mountain. He raced to the woman’s unconscious body desperately trying to beat the pack.
When the wolves saw him running they howled and pounded hard through the snow to the woman’s unconscious form. Cameron was not fast enough.
The wolves got there first. The pack surrounded her body creating a circle of fangs and hungry eyes. They were not facing her they were facing away from her. Two of them broke away from the pack and in response the circle shrunk. The snarling and growling and yipping growing louder as Cameron approached. They did not charge Cameron. Instead, they went towards the woman. They gently sniffed her and laid down next to her. Sandwiching her between their bodies. Tails brushing the layer of snow off her form. Revealing dark purple marks and angry red gashes on her skin.
The other wolves now formed a snarling line between him and the woman. A third wolf broke away towards her and was licking her face and nudging her side intermittently. The woman remained a frozen statue completely unresponsive in the snow. Cameron stared in shock and disbelief. The realization of what was going on began to dawn on him.
Cameron froze. Only one woman...
He tore off his cloak and bowed to the wolf pack. Posturing himself in absolute submission. He held out a small amulet. Eleanor’s amulet. The one thing he had left of her.
Then the wolf that he assumed was the alpha slowly paced towards him growling. his head lowered threateningly his teeth bared angrily. Cameron’s heart thrummed in his chest. This better work Eleanor...
The wolf paced around him in circles smelling him. His hair stood on end and he was shaking. If this didn’t work he and the woman would die. Fuck you Baellnar. I was fine with me and my fucking fire. He said angrily in his mind. He was too terrified of opening his mouth. Terrified that one misstep would cost him. What exactly would it cost you? He asked himself as the wolf paced in circles around him. You are not exactly living. This would be a fitting way to go. You deserve this. His torturous inner monologue taunted him.
He felt the wolf’s warm breath on his face. He smelled the remnants of its last meal. His instincts were screaming at him to run. Then the wolf sniffed the amulet. Cameron heard a small yelp and dared himself to open his eyes. The alpha was now bowed to him. His eyes downcast one paw outstretched on the frozen ground. The rest of the pack followed suit bowing to him. Except for the three surrounding the woman’s lifeless body; they instead howled at him and yipped. In a wordless permission for him to come forward; instantly Cameron bunched the amulet into his hand and ran to the woman. He kneeled next to her and enveloped her frozen body in his fur cloak. He brought her up to his chest and then saw her face for the first time. He gasped.
“Eleanor?” He whispered as he brushed wisps of brown hair away from her purple lips and icicle crusted eyes. Furious he ran towards his cave and the wolves followed. Howling their escort to the mountain.
Baellnar’s ears twitched. He stood at the place where the plains met the forest that surrounds the mountain. He had been standing in a clearing calling the winds name desperate for any word.
The distant howl of a wolf pack carried on the wind. Thank you. He whispered to the breeze as it gently pushed past his face. Thank you.
Baellnar wordlessly collapsed to his knees. His face upturned to the mountain. Tears of relief washed over his cheeks. He kissed his hand and raised it gratefully to the sky. A sudden gust of wind hitting him hard in the chest.
Celeste ran to him. “Brother,” she said kneeling beside him. “What’s wrong.”
“Nothing, Celeste.” He said smiling up at the peak. “Absolutely nothing.” With that, he got up checked the saddle on his horse and motioned for them to continue.