Chapter 142: Chapter 125 – Wonder of Snow and Ice

"How to describe~ such a sight~ that snow and ice could dazzle so~

I lost my words~ to portray such a wonder~

All too be seen~ was the way the rays played on the bright surface~

It was such, a sight to behold~" - Refrain from "Palace of Ice", another famous song by master bard Ulfnar Thorsson.

 

At first, Elaina and Sidonie didn't understand why Cal decided to stay down in the gap for another week. They had thought that maybe they'd be on their way after two to three days at most. As the weather steadily grew colder and summer shifted into autumn in the tundras however, they found their answer.

 

Elaina had woken up first that day, and as she exited the tent and opened the flap the frigid wind that blew inside made her shiver even with her winter clothes on. Her shoes stepped on a thin layer of soft, powdery snow that had fallen overnight, and when she breathed, her breath was visible as a puff of white.

 

The girl went to a corner near where the lake flowed out of the gap and relieved herself as she shivered. It was when she had just pulled her trousers up and walked back towards the tent that the sight caught her eyes, and she froze on the spot, transfixed by the dazzling sight before her.

 

As the weather grew colder, the waterfall had frozen over. Instead of the streams of water, what now hung from the crevasses where the waterfalls used to flow were crystalline pillars of ice, of such clarity one could see the stone of the mountains behind them.

 

What caught Elaina's sight however, was how they looked as the morning sun's rays landed upon them. From her vantage point, she saw how the light of the sun were refracted within the pillars of ice, and often split into rainbows that turned the icy pillar into a kaleidoscope of bright, beautiful colors.

 

She hadn't known how long she stood and gawked at the sight, but she was still at it when Cal and Sidonie woke up as well and saw her. Sidonie followed her eyes and soon had the same expression on her face, while Cal, who knew what to expect, smiled warmly at her nieces.

 

The stories her father told mentioned a lesser-known view of Madginfjord, that the locals were well aware of, but foreigners rarely do. The waterfalls not only held their wondrous sight during the summer, when the molten ice caps flowed down, but also during the winter, when they all froze, and it was one reason Cal timed her travels to reach there by the end of summer.

 

Cal herself admired the sights while she prepared some hot breakfast. Grains of dried rice from her homeland was boiled in water, with some garlic and salt, until it cooked down to a thick congee. To this she added a couple handfuls of meat and fat from the wyvern they caught and butchered over a week ago, cut into small cubes, and let the meat cook in the boiling congee while she cut up some pickled mustard stems into bite-sized pieces.

 

The aroma woke her nieces from their stupor, and Sidonie quickly went and relieved herself as well, before they all washed their hands and gathered for breakfast. Cal ladled the hot congee into three large bowls, and plunked an equal portion of the pickled mustard stems onto each.

 

She also added some julienned ginger and a dash of soy sauce to the congee, before she pulled out three duck eggs, and cracked one into each bowl. The heat of the piping hot congee quickly began to cook the raw egg, and she told her nieces to stir well before eating.

 

Both Elaina and Sidonie looked slightly skeptical at the food - not surprising, as neither were familiar with Al-Shan cuisine, something Cal planned to rectify come winter - but the enticing aroma quickly had them try it. Their wooden spoons brought some of the congee to their mouths where they blew at the still-scalding food before they ate.

 

After the first spoon, both girls ate rapidly while Cal chuckled at them. She took a taste for herself and smiled. The wyvern meat imparted a meaty sweetness to the dish, not unlike the sweetmeats commonly cooked in Al-Shan, cut by the pungency of garlic and spiciness of ginger, while the pickled mustard stems gave a touch of astringency and acidity to the congee.

 

"We will be leaving for Eyjafjord in three days," Cal mentioned when they had finished eating and her nieces sat lazily on the ground, admiring the frozen waterfalls while they rubbed their full bellies. "I think you girls now know why we stayed here an extra week, no?"

 

Both Elaina and Sidonie nodded at her words as affirmation, before their eyes once again wandered to the majestic view before them.

 

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"Who goes there? Identify yourself!" Yelled a tall human man.

 

Cal and her nieces ran into a group of what seemed to be adventurers on the hunt, a large group of twenty-five men and women all heavily armed and armored, led by a particularly tall and bulky human man with messy fiery red hair and beard.

 

The man easily stood a head and a half taller than Cal, and was quite an imposing specimen for a human, well built and muscular, and the way he held his two bearded axes with ease showed much practice with those weapons.

 

"Just me and my nieces travelling, on our way back from Madginfjord," Cal said nonchalantly. She fished out her identification tag and casually tossed it to the tall man as she said her next words. "Here's my identification."

 

The man deftly caught the tag without releasing his axe, and like most, his eyes widened once he noticed the color on it. He tossed it back at her just as casually as he nodded. "Well, you certainly can take care of yourself I reckon."

 

"Might want to be on your way unless you're interested in joining our hunt though," added the man after a pause. "There's been sightings of a wendigo around these regions, and those bastards are bad news, I tell you-"

 

"This thing you mean?" Cal asked as she dumped the wendigo's skull near her feet. The tall man and his entourage of adventurers collectively gasped at the sight, and the tall man approached the skull and inspected it carefully.

 

"Unless there's two of them around, I'd say so… this looks like a… fresh kill?" Asked the man with some trepidation now. Any group that was capable of downing a wendigo with just three of them deserved respect, and caution. He had a party of twenty five for a reason.

 

"My storage has stasis enhancement, it's been dead for… a week and a half now. Ran into it when we reached these mountains," elaborated Cal to the man's question.

 

"Well damn. Guess that's one less trouble to deal with. Name's Sigval Angbadd, eldest and heir to Jarl Karli Angbadd. May I ask for your name?"

 

"Celeysria Ambervale, from Al-Shan," Cal answered. "These are my nieces, Elaina and Sidonie."

 

"Al-Shan… white hair… red eyes… no bloody fucking way! This wendigo has really rotten luck if you are who I think you might be, madam Ambervale."

 

"Dammit, I didn't think those stories would make it this far already," Cal said with a sigh. "Yes, they used to call me the Blood Demon during the war."

 

"A pleasure, and my honor to meet you, lady Ambervale. If I may be so bold as to suggest, may I offer you some hospitality at my father's place when we return to town?"

 

"Well… since you're so polite, I don't see why not."

 

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