Open Chronicles Mud and Snow

[Sannoru]

The golden wolf eyes stared like cold dagger, their pupils lowering and lowering as they tracked the tickle of glistening...silverine red.

Trailing slowly up gazing at the madman's eyes. The twist of emotion, the chill of internal turmoil. What a mirror to the psyche that began to outwardly deteriorate from the internal corrosion.

And the laughter.
San no longer stared still but shook their head instead, holding zero intention to stop him.
»Corpses...Are useless.«


»Die like you lived, or live to be better.«

 

[Kaelen Silverblood]

What Sannoru did or said went by unnoticed by Kaelen. His mind was elsewhere. It was impossible to say where it was though as even he was not aware. He just felt adrift upon wind or wave yet utterly stuck in place like he was entombed by stone. A contradiction of emotions. That little phrase summed everything up for him right now. He felt like extremes fighting it out within his mind, his heart, his soul. Was this what his ancestors had gone through and what ultimately took their lives? Either the sword tip in their throat was their own or another's during the heat of battle. This was the curse of his blood....

Heat. Crimson and silver upon snow. The smell of life and death. Something familiar on the most primal level.

Kaelen found the slight bit of pain and subtle sensory experiences brought him back to the outside world. Why was his sword tip against his throat? He pulled it away and pushed it into the frozen ground. Deep breaths in and out. He needed a moment to calm himself. Was he about to take his own life? That was weak of him. He had people who needed him to survive. His men back in Elbion needed him to return. They had been promised things. Things important to them that only he could provide. They were important to him as well. One duty in particular.

"I know what I'm going to do." Kaelen said going back to the previous topic. "Need to add their names to the list."

 

[Sannoru]

The town wolf approached Kaelen, closer now, dangerously close. Their posture was low. Ear twitched every so often.

And then the lept at Kaelen. With the leap an unecessary... almost unreal amount of snow was tossed around.

It only lasted a split second to notice the oddity in dispersion.

 

[Sigrith]

"If you're both quite finished..." with this nonsense, the white wolf's tone implied from where she stood afar, "we have a much more pressing issue."

In the distance a thunderous rumble echoed across the lands. The ground began to quake.

Sannoru Kaelen Silverblood

 

[Kaelen Silverblood]

Kaelen was thinking over the names of the sailors on the ship with him. How many of them had made it through the wreck like him? Hard to say with water like that around this foreign land. They were no stranger to rough seas however. The Storm Isles were surrounded by perpetual, violent storms after all and that caused the seas to be very dangerous to sail. His people could handle some roughness. But to be safe he better add all the names he knew to his list of families to visit personally and offer his condolences.

As this thought was going through his head, a cloud of snow suddenly erupted in front of Kaelen. Sannoru was the one to blame. Words from Sigrith soon followed. Before he could really wrap his attention around either the ground began to shake and a loud rumble began to come from the distance. It was not a good sign.

Kaelen blinked and could do little else in response. His body was just too tired still for more than the bare necessities of movement.

 

[Sannoru]

It was odd indeed, for the largest scatter of snow came from before the wolf, not behind. Right in front of the perching stone where the two previously were, erupted a giant beast consisting entirely of clear, transparent ice. It appeared bony and wyrmlike.

It's leaping arch carried it far above Kaelen and San before it submerged into the ground, the body trailing after it for at least 6 seconds, how long this thing must've been? Likely a fully fledged adult by the scale of it. And the cold aura it emmited, it was colder than death.

Fur that got ripped from san's tail was scattered all along the arching path. The tawny wolf gazed at Kaelen.
»Frost worm, If you want to live, do not stop moving.«

It was suprising to see such a creature this far south, especially of such venerable age. They preffered the layered snow of the northern ice plains where the giants roamed.
These beasts were the bane of many adventurers, often appearing silently out of the ground under the feet of a traveler. They carried no smell, nor were they heard or felt by most. At least in this hard soil ground, one could hear the loud rumble of splitting earth right before the eruption.

While San could've felt the serpent adjusting itself in the ground, they seemed to slightly regret the choice of warning their companion this late.

Luckily the older they got, the larger their arch and longer the still between each eruption.

 

[Kaelen Silverblood]

Kaelen watched as the sword he had stuck in the ground was sent flying by the thing that erupted out of the mud and snow. What was it? He had never seen anything like it before. Then he got his answer from Sannoru . A frost worm. Was it similar to those sand worms he heard about in the great desert west of Elbion? Hard to say and now wasn't the time to worry about it either.

Getting to his feet, Kaelen didn't worry about where his sword landed. It would just get them killed if he did. So he just began to move as soon as he had his feet under him.

Kaelen ran towards Sigrith as fast as he could. He had a feeling she was aware of the worm before it had come out of the ground. Hopefully they all made it out of the situation soon. How much longer his body could hold out for was too questionable.

 

[Sigrith]

That's right, Frost Worm.

Sigrith waited only long enough to see that both Kaelen and Sannoru were moving towards her before turning and leading them both off across the great valley scar of boulders and stones. It was easy for a wolf to pick their way across, but a man in full plate armor? Needless to say, Kaelen wasn't looking too nimble.

"The boulder field will slow it down," she said while perched atop a large pile of stone, "the village isn't much farther. Keep moving!"

 

[Sannoru]

Sannoru could almost imagine where the beast burrowes beneath the rocks. Nay... it was going deeper to avoid the surface rocks.
Every so often Sannoru stopped briefly to feel it's location once San stood upon the rocks. Good. The thing will never catch up to the wolves at least.


Frost worms were deadly before they made themselves known. Their lethality came from surprise and ambush, not the hunt.