Ice Village, chapter two: Chaos Fire

[Tessar]

All right, I'm back and I've got more Ice village for you all who wanted to read it! Don't worry, the first chapter was the longest, and most are three to four pages now. Personally I'm enjoying how this story is turning out, and I hope you all will too!

I'm well aware that there are still some problems with it, so please tear into it all you like. I'm not 'attached' to how it's written now, and I like a mix of attack and praise .

Remember, if there is anything you don't understand, just ask and I'll be more than happy to expound .

Chapter Two

The sun rose wearily over the icy mountaintops, as if too tired to do more than add light. Whether the sun was truly weary or not, it certainly brought no warmth to the frozen land as it climbed higher over the mountains, almost banishing shadow to a memory... But not quite.

The first thing Danlor sensed was the darkness. Whatever the shadow last night had been, it was back. Not directly on top of him, but too near for comfort… Far too close to simply be lurking around the mountains… It was waiting for night to come again.

Letting his eyes open slowly, Danlor blinked at the brightness of the sun reflected off the pure white snow. Sitting up, he shook his head and rubbed bleary eyes. One hand instinctively checked for his sword while the other took over the job of rubbing both eyes at once. His sword was still there, and as Danlor removed his hand from his eyes he saw that everything was as it had been the night before. A warm blast of air on the back of his neck told Danlor that his san’dar was still there, and about ready to eat Danlor if nothing else was forth coming with great speed.

Pushing himself ungracefully to his feet, Danlor staggered to the vicious animal and, after steadying himself, began checking it for any injuries from last night’s battle. There were few things crankier than a hungry san’dar, one of those few things being a hurt san’dar. And a san’dar that was both hurt and hungry at the same time generally meant some one or other was going to get bitten. Seeing how Danlor was the only someone-or-other around, he wasn’t at all surprised when the blasted animal did indeed bite him. Hard.

Muttering things that would surely have made the san’dar blush if it had understood him, Danlor awkwardly shrugged his cloak off and struggled a bit to get his vest off. Wrapping the vest around his bitten arm, Danlor hurriedly bent and pulled his cloak back on to guard against the icy wind that had sprung up.

“Next time I tell you I’m going somewhere cold, do me a favor and bite my arm just like that.” Danlor said with a heavy sigh and tied off the vest to hold it in place.

With a blink of surprise, Danlor turned and looked at his san’dar more clearly. Was that Power forsaken animal nodding its head? No… it was just his… Yes. The bloody lizard was nodding its head. Probably because it had a bit of Danlor’s sleeve caught in its mouth, but still…

“Hunt!” Danlor snapped the command, catching the san’dar’s attention. Very few san’dar wouldn’t listen to that command. It meant that the animal was free to run about and find its own food for a while, although it was doubtful that the lizard would find much up here. Danlor really should have brought a kaddar… or at least a horse.

As the san’dar trotted off, snapping at the falling snowflakes in an attempt to make them go away and make sure they knew who was boss, Danlor turned back towards the village and began jogging downhill in its general direction. At the most Danlor estimated it must be five miles or more to the little town, and it would probably take him an hour or more to reach it if he could keep his jog up.

“Keeps the weight off.” Danlor huffed to reassure himself almost thirty minutes later. He wasn’t actually breathing hard at all, but he definitely wasn’t in the same shape he had been when he first left the academy. Of course he hadn’t actually been running through the snow the last time he had run five miles, but at least thinking about how out of shape he must be made the time pass quicker.

Only about a mile or so away from the town, something began nagging Danlor’s mind about the area. It looked the same as yesterday, and it felt the same. In fact nothing had changed, and that was a problem.