As we stood at the end of the path gazing across the white expanse, clouds formed and crystallized around us, shielding the world from our eyes. Snow still fell, but I could barely tell as it blended so perfectly with the clean white of the sky. Kneeling, I let Jorin out of my pack, knowing I would miss the warmth of his body against my back. He promptly trotted ahead into the clouds and disappeared in a matter of seconds. Derkeethus and I shuffled forward through the deep snow, wondering what lay before us.
Suddenly there came a terrified, but angry, yip and growl from Jorin. I started to rush to his aid, but fell flat on my back as a burst of air pushed through the clouds. Immense gusts continued to shove Derk and I back down the path. Then there was a thundering rumble that sounded terrible and familiar. I drew my bow and readied an arrow, waiting for the elemental surge of energy to come. Squinting through the white, I saw a massive shape hunched on a stone wall, beating its wings slowly. The shadow rose into the air with a mighty thrust, and through the blasting wind, I heard the faintest of whispers spoken in a voice built with rocks, "Nii los ni wah kos... Krosis..." The gale increased and the wing beats receded into the sky as the clouds and snow were blown away and torn to shreds.
The sun burned bronze in the sky as it glared on the snow. Looking around wildly, I searched the sky for the dragon I knew was here only moments before. There was nothing but pale blue arching overhead and softly blazing snow below.
"Where did it go?" Derkeethus asked, eyeing the open air around the mountain warily.
"I don't know. It said something, but I didn't understand the words, did you?" I said, sheathing my bow.
"No, but it sounded familiar."
"Whatever it said. It sounded very sad." Frowning, I crossed the expanse.
Several yards ahead was a strange malformation in the air. Diamond dust rose from the ground in a lazy swirl. The glittering shards of ice flashed in the sunlight, and I was reminded of fireflies on a warm evening.
"There are voices in there. Cheering and singing," the Argonian whispered, eyes wide. "It's like one of those walls...only less painful." Reaching out, he gently stroked the strange air with his claws. The anomaly in the air rippled in response, and Derkeethus stood silent and still, his eyes ever widening until it seemed they would take up his entire face.
"What's wrong?"
"I hear Tormir crying and Sondas arguing with someone. Hrefna laughing as I'm telling her a bad joke. Now she's screaming and sobbing--someone is hitting her. She says she wants to go home. I hear you crying out, cursing, and..."
"And what?" I asked, feeling my blood running cold in horror.
"I don't know... The sound is...just. It's too many things at once," he finished, holding his head in his hands and flopping down into the snow. "I don't understand." Crouching, I carefully wrapped an arm around his shoulders and squeezed gently. "It's all my fault. I never should have made that deal. All for what? Some money? My life? She could have lived just fine in obscurity. No one would have known about her." Derk's body rocked slightly.
"You can't blame yourself forever and you can't change the past," I replied softly, "Besides, we'll see this through, right? We'll find her and maybe with the Phial we might even make a bit of gold and glory after this is all over."
Derk looked up and gave a minuscule smile at the thought. I glanced beyond him and stared at the ground for some minutes. Light glittered and danced off the snow almost too brightly, and I realized, belatedly, that beneath the drifting crystals lay a patch of snow that looked utterly pristine. Tiny clumps of ice crystals clustered on top of the pack like priceless jewels. Picking up a chunk, I held it out to my friend for inspection. "If ever there was something called 'gleaming snow that does not melt', I think this would be it." We both grinned broadly as I gingerly contained the specimen in a vial.
"Well, that's progress at least," Derkeethus said, his expression lightening.
Whining and growling, Jorin at last trotted back over to me and seized my cloak in his jaws. He pulled and tugged impatiently in the direction of the last chunk of mountain remaining between us and the very peak. When we began to follow, he darted up between the rocks.
It didn't take long to reach the top, and for a while we stood panting and breathing the thin air, waiting for the dizziness to pass. Turning, I saw a pickaxe embedded in the rock at the very tip of Hrothgar. The head crawled in a subtle glow of promise and power.
"Oh, that's a very nice souvenir," Derkeethus muttered in awe. He yanked the tool from the rock and stood for some time turning it over in his hands. As he experimentally swung the instrument, I faced the open air and looked out at the world as the sunlight faded.
Below, the world looked like a tiny model built by some impossibly talented mason. I gazed at the glittering threads of rivers and lakes in my own kind of awe. A breeze blew and I imagined myself a bird born upon the wind, soaring over the land--a magnificent hunter of the sky.
Was this how the dragons and birds perceived the world? A remote place filled with pint-sized figures that built pointless houses and monuments of stone as if they could reach the sky with their pitiful towers. I wondered, but the glorious perception of freedom overwhelmed me once more and my eye turned northward toward the pale, frozen lands forever covered in snow. Somewhere in that wasteland of white, I decided, Legate Constantius Tituleius had Hrefna.
My imaginings were interrupted by a thunderous boom that shook the ground beneath my feet. I spun, drawing my bow and preparing for the dragon that I knew had returned, only to find Derkeethus striking at a vein of ore with his new pickaxe.
"Incredible!" he exclaimed in delight, hefting a translucent green ore from the rock. "This pickaxe cuts through the stone like butter, but leaves the ore perfectly untouched." Elated, he swung at the vein in earnest, each blow sending a quake down the mountain.
"Derkeethus! No! You'll bring down the mountain!" I cried, running to him and trying to pull him away. With a rude shrug, he pushed me away and I landed, sprawling on the rock.
"Don't be ridiculous," he laughed. Jorin growled and looked at the ground wildly, dancing on his small fox paws. As the Argonian gleefully pocketed more green ore, the vein before him began to break and split. Once again, I grabbed his shoulders and heaved with all of my weight. He fell on top of me in an ungraceful heap.
"What was that for!" he growled. But before I could answer, the crack in the rocks began to grow, Jorin howled in terror, and powerful crack echoed in the still air. My stomach clenched in horror as I felt the ground beneath us begin to slide.
Our limbs jumbled together as we both scrambled and scrabbled at the stone, trying to get away from the collapsing peak. Derk swung his pickaxe at the rock, attempting to seek purchase, but the tool only cleaved the stone into chunks and our last hope of gaining solid ground crumbled beneath us.
The rocks slid down onto a bank of snow with us riding atop the heap, still trying to get away from the inevitable fall. Even as we grasped something solid, the weight of the stone loosened the long-untouched snow pack, and the entire drift on the western face of the mountain came crashing down.
We tumbled endlessly, half in free-fall, half in the mass of snow and stone. I couldn't feel anything as my sense of direction, space, and time were jostled out of my mind. As I smashed into the snow and stone, I heard a tiny snap as behind me something broke.
Briefly, I saw a flash of silver fur and heard a painful yelp.
A moment later I saw Derkeethus swimming against the icy current with his pickaxes.
While I simply tumbled as roaring filled my ears and darkness crept into my eyes.
As I plunged through empty air, I felt like I was flying.
Comments