Chapter 3

Ophella danced across the snow as she wove in and out between the trees. She was used to being restricted by cluttered masses of branches, trees, and rocks when she used to run in the Green Veil. But here in the south, the trees were so sparse that she could easily make her way through the thinning forest. The cloak on her back flailed around, desperately trying to keep up with her, but she refused to slow her frantic pace.

Her raven-black hair flowed behind her pink, pointed ears. Her yellow eyes remained steady as she took in the surroundings of this curious new landscape. Any normal human would risk frostbite in a place like this, but fey blood kept her warm as she pressed forward. It was nice to not have to hide her more elven features. Ophella lowered her head as she broke into a sprint. She knew she should find Alistair and Yrgsen as soon as possible.

Her father had made the south seem like such a boring place. He would ramble about how these primitives left the continent with their wicked gods to become cannibals and vermin in the snow, and how they rejected all the children of the fey god Torren. For a moment, she wished he was here to see how wrong he was. Then she began to hear his lecturing in her mind and thought it was better that he was not here after all.

The heathen guide had warned them to stay close to the path in the snow left by previous travelers. Even the most seasoned trackers that lived in the Heathen Harbor could get lost in the white wastelands filled with gorges, ravines, and cliffs. Certain death awaited any who were led astray. Naturally, Alistair abandoned the path on the second day of travel. And here she was, sprinting after him. He had even left her behind at camp, taking the guide with him. She hoped that at least Yrgsen was close behind that bastard.

The tree line became denser as she moved closer to the sounds in the distance. The pine trees began to grow closer and closer together. The depth of the snow began to shrink, revealing stones and frozen dirt underneath. 

Then she saw it. A massive bone rose out from the ground, covered in lichen-green fur atop a large rock in the snow. It was three times the size of the tallest pine tree. The monolith was the heart of the forest that she was navigating. The trees stopped suddenly, creating a wide-open space around the bone. She had read about how the magic of the giants was so powerful it lingered beyond death—that their bodies gave life to a place where life had no business being. For the first time, she was seeing physical proof with her own eyes. It would have been nice to stop and marvel at the giant’s bone giving life to a forest amidst the bitter frost… 

But the sight of Lord Alistair urinating on the bone was quite distracting.

“Ah, Ophella! Good to see that you are finally awake. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to join us after all.”

The young man finished relieving himself and began to look up at the top of the bone he had been leaning on. His short blonde hair fluttered a bit in the breeze beneath a large fur hood. He had a thick padded jacket on with a large cloak draped over his shoulders. The saber at his hip had a simple leather sheath. Any onlooker would have assumed he was a handsome fur trapper rather than nobility, but that was always the kind of man Alistair was. Eccentric, noble, and possibly insane. 

She tried to keep her distance from where he had been melting the snow. “You know it is far from proper for a lord of Casval to leave a lady unattended at a campsite. And if you keep peeing like that, the wind might freeze your piss straight to you.”

Alistair chuckled. “Please. I’m only giving some warmth to this land. You were quite tired from making our fire last night for us. I thought you might want to sleep a bit more today.”

She walked around to get a better look at the giant bone in the ground. “Some scholars used to write about how plants could grow using magic within the remains of giants. The whole forest must be growing because of this one bone.”

“Amazing!” Alistair’s eyes lit up as he ran his hand along the bone’s surface. “The guide told me that this was once a rib of a giant. A rib! Imagine how mighty the giants must have been…”

As Ophella examined the structure, something caught her eye. “The back of this bone seems to have been shaved off by something.”

She ran her hand along several deep grooves in the back of the bone. Like stripping bark from a tree, it looked like someone had harvested strips of bone from the rib with some sort of tool.

Alistair walked over and knelt to look. “Interesting. The scribes at court wrote of monsters that fed on the remains of the giants. They say the monsters in the south make ogres of the Botto Ran look tiny by comparison. I wonder if these marks were from those creatures.”

“These marks look like they were made by a person,” a familiar, gritty voice called out.

Yrgsen Thane emerged from the forest followed by their native heathen guide. Yrgsen was much taller than the guide, and unlike the native, he was armed with a sword and dagger at each hip. His eyes were somber, with a long scar running down from his left ear to the base of his neck. As usual, his face betrayed nothing beyond stoic apathy. But Ophella had traveled with the veteran long enough to notice a look of annoyance in the wrinkles of his eyes. 

The heathen guide had a tan face with a single braid of hair. He wore so many layers of clothing that he looked like a barrel of fur, his eyes wide with apprehension. She took pity on the poor local. It was not easy keeping up with Alistair’s adventurous spirit in a place like this.

“The guide still wants to return to the path,” Yrgsen said to Alistair.

“Nonsense. The path goes for miles out into open snow. I wanted to see monsters and mountains, not snow and more snow.” Alistair tried to brush past Yrgsen. The guide grabbed Alistair's wrist and quickly let loose a volley of frantic words in protest.

Alistair looked at the guide, then back at Yrgsen. “What did he say?”

Yrgsen placed a hand on the hilt of his sword. “Something about seeing tracks while we were walking. I saw a few of them myself. He says we need to return to the path.”

Alistair reluctantly gestured to the guide to lead the way. As they began to walk, Ophella began to walk side by side with Yrgsen. 

“Have you seen anything like this place? Think of all the history left in the ice. The enclave always asserted that the giants were simple brutes that were nothing compared to the beauty of the Nymphs. I almost want to see my father again just to show him how wrong his ridiculous assertions were. What do you think?”

“It’s cold,” was all Yrgsen replied. Ophella smiled as she settled into a familiar one-sided conversation.

“You spent so many years in the Botto Ran deserts as a captain in the army. This air must be very harsh for you.”

“It is not that bad.”

“I know you speak a bit of orcish. Did you pick that up from fighting in the war?” Ophella tried to ask a different question.

“Yes.”

“I could hear some familiar orcish tones in the language the guide was using. Is that how you are able to understand him?”

“I guess.”

“I hear the trolls here are more dangerous than the ogres in the east. Is that true?”

“Maybe.”

“Has our glorious lord happened to mention to you why he wants to see this mountain yet?”

“No.”

It was not easy to get this man to speak, yet that was something Ophella liked about Yrgsen. Her father had tried to talk her ears off for years, but she had learned more in just a year with Yrgsen than her father ever tried to teach her. She kicked up some snow as they continued to wander.

“Of course. Too stubborn to fill me in on the plan as usual. Did you even try to wake me up when you left?”

“Alistair said you were tired and to let you sleep,” Yrgsen said without looking at her.

“You should have at least asked him if he should wake me up,” Ophella said snarkily. “We are supposed to be comrades, Yrgsen. You can’t just follow Alistair’s orders blindly like that. Next time, can you at least pretend that you care about what happens to me? As a fellow member of the Indigo Company of Freeblades?”

Yrgsen shrugged. “He pays me to follow him. You don’t pay me at all.”

“So how much can I pay you to leave him in the snow to freeze for tomorrow?”

“Phella! Yrgsen! Come take a look at this!” Alistair called out.

Ophella lifted her knees high above the deepening snow as she ran. As she reached Alistair and the guide, he swept his hand across the landscape. Sprawling in front of them was the largest mountain she had ever seen. She could not understand how such an inhospitable mountain could support even one tree in its shadow, but against all odds, the trees were growing even more than before. Each one clung with desperation against the snow-covered rocks, building a surprisingly dense forest. She could not understand how it was possible.

As her eyes adjusted to the surroundings she found her answer: a massive rib cage that was hidden in the forest below. She saw a piece of spine with pine trees surrounding it on the bank of the valley. A fractured skull rested at the center of the land, with a single eye just above the snow that created a strange-looking cave. Ophella could almost imagine the massive eye that once rested in the socket of the skull gazing back at her. She finally released her breath in a syllable of disbelief. 

“Whoa.”

Yrgsen remained silent, but Ophella could see his eyes widen as well. Even he could not hide his amazement.

Alistair seemed to be glowing with this fantastic scenery behind him. “‘Whoa,’ indeed. This is definitely the place I have been searching for. No doubt about it now.”

“You still haven’t told us what we are doing here.”

“All in good time, Yrgsen! I have never led you astray before. Please have a little more patience. Now, tell the guide we need to make haste for the base of the mountain.”

Yrgsen quickly rattled some words to the guide. The guide suddenly waved his hands up in the air and spoke more frantically than before. The mercenary nodded, then turned to Alistair.

“He said no.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?” Alistair said in shock. “He already took us all this way. We are back on the path again. Why not go farther?”

“He says that he thought you just wanted to go into the valley. He does not want to go to the base of the mountain.” said Yrgsen.

Alistair shook his head in disbelief. “I hardly see how much of a difference that would make. All we would need to do is to go a bit deeper into the forest. Why is that a problem?”

Yrgsen turned his head and spoke some more to the guide. The guide shouted so much that his face turned red. Ophella could see a hint of tears in his eyes as spit flew from his mouth.

Yrgsen waited for the guide to finish his tirade before translating once more. “He says that the mountain is dangerous. Trolls sometimes wander down the mountainside and into the valley. He also said something about raiders. Human raiders.”

Alistair sighed. “And here I thought these guides were supposed to be fearless explorers of the southern ice. Very well. Tell him if he leads us to the One’s Throne, I will pay him double what I have already given him. We must find this relic of the past.”

Yrgsen relayed the offer to the guide. The guide bit his lip, then asked something to Yrgsen. Yrgsen’s response made the guide’s face pale. Finally, after much deliberation, the guide grumbled to himself and started walking ahead.

“Brilliant! We will be there in no time,” Alistair celebrated. He quickly rushed ahead to follow the guide.

Ophella waited until they were out of earshot before she turned to Yrgsen.

“What did the guide ask you?” she whispered.

“He asked me if Alistair could just go by himself. He even offered to take the two of us back to the Heathen Harbor without Alistair. I told him if he tried that, I would kill him,” Yrgsen said without hesitation.

Ophella gave Yrgsen a disapproving look. “Not every problem needs to be solved by threatening to kill someone. That was not even a bad suggestion from him.”

“Alistair paid us. We follow him.” Yrgsen spoke with the same curtness as before.

“Do you even know what this One’s Throne is? Alistair has not even bothered to tell us anything about it other than we have to see it.”

“I don’t know what it is. And I don’t need to know. Now, let’s go.”

Yrgsen walked away before Ophella could ask anything else. She pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders as she stared into the valley. Her eyes were drawn to the skull cave once more. The darkness seemed to deepen the more Ophella looked into it. For a second, she thought she saw a shimmer of blue light, as if a firefly was floating inside the cave. She blinked, and it was gone. The emptiness of the forest was dangerous and oddly magical. Ophella had been excited at first when Alistair had told them his plan to escape to this barren place. Why was she suddenly feeling scared? Even after all her time away from the enclave, something stirred in her that made her want to leave.