Flindra slackened her hold on the reins to make it easier
for Deru to carefully pick his way along the talus-choked path. The rocks protruding above the drifted snow
were coated with an ice crust for this pass lay within the perpetual shadows
cast by the towering cliffs. The horse
struggled with the uneven and slippery footing and stumbled several times.
"This isn't working," Flindra whispered and reined
him to a stop. She glided from the
saddle and gathered the reins in her hand.
She slipped around him and began leading him up the treacherous trail to
spare herself a potentially bone crushing fall.
She was able to step around or over the worst of the icy spots and Deru
was able to keep to his feet without her weight on his back.
While she walked, she concentrated on intensifying Rigga's
power shield. There was something gloomy
or somehow sinister about the shadowed pathway and she struggled to keep fear
from edging into her thoughts.
"Guide my steps, dear Lord," she whispered and
kept the knowledge of His presence close to her heart to leave no room for
fear.
She was relieved when they finally reached the crest and
emerged from the pass. The blast of the
north wind peppered her face with blowing ice, but she could see the landscape
around her location and felt more comfortable.
The topography was vastly different on the north side of the mountain
range. Here there were no steep slopes
or rocky cliffs. Instead, there was a
gradual decline in elevation until the slope intercepted the vast plain of the
Northern Reaches. No enemy could remain
hidden in this barren landscape.
This was the domain of the wind. The snow from the storm had blown away - had
blown up the slope and had been deposited in tremendous snow cornices on the
south side of the ridge. Lonely trees
dotted the landscape on the northern slope.
They did not grow straight but rather bent toward the ground seeking
shelter from the wind. Branches only
grew on the south half of the trees to minimize the effect of the prevailing
north wind. Their roots clung fiercely
to the ground to keep from being uprooted.
Flindra took out the crystal orb once more and checked the
direction she needed to continue. The
crystal glowed when pointed in a northeast direction, roughly perpendicular to
the axis of the Greyfell Mountains. She
mounted and continued onward.
The descent from the mountains was easy and Flindra soon
found herself looking across the barren landscape of the Northern Reaches. This was a desolate land and there was very
little vegetation. There were patchy
grasses growing low to the ground with an occasional bent and tortured pine
punctuating the horizon.
The crystal orb still prompted her to continue in a
northeasterly direction through this bleak landscape. The wind still howled from the north so she
had to keep her face turned down and to the side to escape the worst of the icy
blast. Deru also carried his head to the
side and she had to use the pressure of her legs to keep him going in the proper
direction.
By late afternoon, Flindra had seen no signs of a
dwelling. She had hoped she could have
reached Kewero before nightfall. She
wasn't looking forward to sleeping out in the open tonight. It was dangerous to stay out too long in this
kind of cold and wind.
The numbing cold had gotten worse as the afternoon had
progressed. Flindra wiggled her toes in
her boots in an effort to keep them warm.
Her bones ached from the daylong exposure to the frigid wind. She was aware that Deru also suffered in the
cold. His steps were growing stiffer by
the hour.
"If we don't stumble across the old woman soon we're
going to have to seek shelter from this wind," Flindra said as she reached
forward and stroked Deru's neck.
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