But the blow never came. Slowly opening his eyes, an amazing picture came into his sight. Silver stood before him, breathless, holding tightly onto her bow that hummed with released tension. At her feet, the great creature laid, slain with two arrows buried deep in the back of its neck.

‘Not… bad…’ Jaysen panted in relief.

Silver gave him a faint smile, her face pale and bloodless in the cold.

Before Jaysen could rise, however, she teetered, and toppled over next to the Yeti’s carcass with a soft sigh.

It was dark and comfortable here. It felt as if she was being suspended, weightless amongst mild dancing motes of light.

Silver, Silver! Listen to me. There are some things that They do not want to be known. But you have to tell the world the truth!

‘Hnngh?’ Silver suddenly felt herself break through the cool swathe of unconsciousness. Slowly, fragments of friendly conversations and the welcome sounds of a crackling fire came to her ears.

‘-so I took me spear and stabbed her real hard, right between her ribs! That dark Yeti didn’t stand a chance at all!’

‘Cool, sir!’

‘What cool? El Nath not cold enough for ye, boy?’

Opening her eyes, she found herself staring up at the wooden beams of a cottage from a warm bed covered in fur pelts. Lazily sitting up in the bed, Silver stretched, enjoying the warmth that enveloped her. But a sudden sharp pain in her side made her wince. How could the old wound… Oh. The Yeti.

‘Hey, she’s awake.’ Jaysen got up from his seat next to Scadur at the fireplace. He beamed happily at her.

‘Good morning, young missus.’ Scadur grinned at Silver. ‘That was quite a scare ye gave our young friend here, swooning over like that.’

Silver smiled sheepishly, ‘Umm, sorry?’

‘Ha. I didn’t expect ye two to be able to handle one of those monsters anyway, let alone forty.’ Scadur stood up from his chair with a wince. ‘I can’t be much better either, with these cursed arthritic knees of mine. The weather here doesn’t help much too…’

Silver sighed. ‘So I guess we can’t get your help.’

The elder hunter turned to give Silver a grave look. ‘There’s a reason why I gave you an impossible task, missus.’

Seeing her disappointed face, however, Scadur chuckled. ‘But seeing yer pretty face fall makes me old heart break so. Yer young friend here already talked me into helping ye, so rest easy.’

Jaysen laughed as Silver clapped her hands to her face in embarrassment. ‘Look sir, you made the lady blush.’ He pretended to duck the look Silver threw in his way. ‘Anyway, you did admit Silver there was sincere enough in her quest to take on something you only dared to go up against when you were older than her…’

‘Quit spreading such false rumors, rascal. You’ll ruin me reputation!’ Scadur cuffed Jaysen lightly on the head. Turning back to Silver, the man said, ‘That signature on the sketch belongs to me grandpa. I’ll tell ye what I know about him, but ye have to promise not to tell anyone else that it was me that told ye, understand?’

Curious as always, Silver was about to ask why, but just in time, she caught Jaysen’s eyes. He frowned a little and shook his head ever so slightly. The message was clear: If you want to continue on your Project, save the unnecessary questions.

‘Alright, sir.’ She nodded gravely.

¤ What It Used to Be

‘Me grandpa was a strange man. His name is Salmer. Salmer Scadur. He always had this… strange, faraway look in his eyes. Me grandma told me once that he became like that after a long trip to Orbis. When I was young, I thought he was a little, ye know, touched in the head.

‘But he was always kind to us kids, and drew us little sketches or carved little animals for us. Funny thing was, he never made any images of humans or fairies. All the artists that visited the town had in their wares so many sketches and carvings of beautiful fairies and women, and brave warriors. But we never saw me grandpa Salmer do anything like that, though his skill was definitely much better than those penniless artists. I know, because he always had a sketch in his room, that he drew a long time ago. The sketch looked exactly like this one that ye showed me…’

‘Grandpa Salmer!’ Young Scadur dashed up to the old man and hugged his legs. ‘Look at me! I can finally throw the spear just right!’ He pointed excitedly to the straw dummy at the edge of the backyard. A small spear quivered on it in the light of the setting sun, its sharp edge buried in the rough cross marked on its body.

The old man smiled, his weary brown eyes looking kindly down at his grandson. ‘Good work, Scadur boy. How about I tell you a story as a reward? We can have it with some cookies and warm milk.’

‘Oh right!’ Scadur yelled in joy and dashed into the cottage. Salmer chuckled indulgently and followed the hyperactive boy slowly into the cottage.

When the boy settled down, Salmer started his tale. ‘Once, when I was as young as you were, boy, El Nath was only a small village. Small and backward as it was however, it wasn’t always covered in snow.’

Scadur nodded, happy to listen to this old tale again. ‘I know! There were four seasons, Winter, Autumn, Spring and… and… I can’t remember, grandpa.’

‘Summer. The hottest season of the year. So hot, that the young men of the village would strip off their tops to work in the fields.’

The young boy’s eyes widened in wonder. The concepts of weather being that hot and fertile fields were so foreign to the young boy who had grown up in a town perpetually covered in snow. Anyone who dared to walk around half naked would soon catch the cold of his death, and any fertile soil was long frozen beneath the layers of snow and frost that forever covered the ground.

Salmer continued, his voice almost melodic. ‘The forests around El Nath then were so beautiful. There were many other types of trees besides all those evergreen pines and firs, and when they bloomed in Spring and Summer, it was like someone splashed the forests with all the colours in the world’s paint palette.

‘The forests were completely safe then. Other than some harmless animals that the villagers could hunt for food, there was nothing dangerous there. Some adventurers from the village had wandered through the forests and built bridges across some of the ravines out there, so that other villagers could also travel to explore the lands beyond the village.’

Scadur clapped his small hands in excitement, knowing that the exciting part neared. The cookie he was nibbling on was left abandoned on the plate. ‘What happened then?’

‘Then, one year, when Autumn was supposed to give way to Winter, the weather suddenly became very cold. A strange tempest stirred up from far beyond the village El Nath and the forests around it, and swept through the forests and the village fields, freezing everything in its way.

‘Plants were immediately frozen to death. The calls of the animals that dwelled in the forests were silenced in an instant.

‘Strange creatures flooded through the barren wasteland that the tempest left behind. All manners of monsters and nightmarish beings sprung up from the dead ice-covered ground.

‘The forests were no longer safe for travelers. People who lived in the forests fled to the village for safety. The warriors in the village fought to keep out these strange creatures and build a barricade against them. Those barricades are that which you now know as the barricades that surround your town.’

The comfortable warmth of the cottage, together with the lulling tone of Salmer’s voice and exhaustion from the day’s practice, made the young Scadur drowsy. Yawning, the young boy pointed to the small framed sketch that sat on the dresser in Salmer’s room. ‘Who’s she, grandpa?’

‘One of the warriors that helped protect the village, dear boy.’ Salmer picked up the sleepy Scadur and tucked him into bed. Through the blur of slumber, Scadur faintly heard his grandpa murmur in regret. ‘Only one of the warriors. She did not deserve her fate, she didn’t.’

Watching his grandson sleep, Salmer’s grey eyes seemed to refocus on some image from the past, and grief would appear in the lines on his face…

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Chocolate chip macadamia nut banana blueberry piecrust cookies this time! XD Taken from AznRiceFan’s story, Tales of a Lost Phoneme, so go read it! link