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Blizzard Season
The Tale of a Hunter: Prologue
TW: Death Mention;
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Wind whipped and snow drove down from the darkening sky and Ghelne’s tears froze in streaks from his eyes and into his mane. He lowered his head to the fresh snow once again. Every moment not moving forward was wasted time. His next breath filled his lungs with the empty tang of ice and ozone. It shot through him like knives and sent a shiver up from his core. Nothing new.
He turned, the smallest sweep of angle he could manage pressing himself down again. The wind shifted around him. This time there was more. The snow’s taste on his tongue was joined by another much warmer scent however faint it was. His spirits Rose for just a moment.
“Ghelne!” The call came quiet, whipped away by the blizzard. The tundra’s stance slumped. Rorik’s bulky form crashed to the ground in a powdery plume. Their body was more a mass of furs and cloth than anything recognizable as a dragon. “Ghelne-Ayel,” the said once again, brushing the snow from his cheek, “thank the gods we found you.” as they spoke, two other forms clambered from their back, a wildclaw and tundra. He smiled despite himself, huffing a thank you as they draped a mostly dry fur over his shoulders.
Luda nodded solemnly, standing at his cousin's side while handing one of his own furs to Kastik seeing as she lacked a fur coat of her own.
Rorik's continued through it all, beginning to ramble about the storm and the mountains and how worried they'd been all up until Ghelne spoke, “I'm not going home.” The guardian stopped in their tracks. “You know that. I told you all that. I'm not going home until she's with me. I have to find her.”
The wind filled the silence between them. All the fear and righteous anger of a guardian in peril washed through Rorik's features, pinching their face as their whole body shuddered in the driving snow. “Ghelne-Ayel please. The clan needs you safe. I need you safe.”
“I'm the best tracker we have. That's why I-”
“That's why we can't afford to lose you too!” They raised their voice with every word now. Luda laid his claws noisily in the snow, stamping out a simple rune: 'protection’
Ghelne drew up the furs around himself. The smell of the three of them together was more than enough to bring the warmth and safety of home to mind and he longed for it. He ached for it. But there was a hole there. A missing piece of the puzzle, it's absence bright in his mind's eye. “I'm going to find her even if none of you will help me.”
Now came Kastik’s turn, her voice bitter with desperation. “You can't just walk away from us. It's Deaths End. Height of Earth! Winter is here, Ghel!” She reached out and turned his face to hers. “Do you know that? I don't care if your iceborn. I don't care about your coat or your lineage or any of that! This mountain will kill you. Like it will kill all of us. Like it killed Naka-”
“Don't you dare!” Tears welled up and froze as the wind pulled them from his face. “don't you dare finish that sentence! Don't you say her name!” He shoved her away, stumbling back as the three of them stared on. Three sets of white eyes in the dark. “She's my sister. She's my sister and she's alive somewhere and I have to save her!” He bent down in the snow, a sob wracking his body. “Just go of you won't help! Go all of you!”
Luda raised to his hinds once again, this time with with a twist of his wrist and a breath of icy air. The contused Ghelne fell to the ground.
Rorik rushed in to scoop him from the snow, withholding the tinge of anger they felt as they turned to Luda. 'Home’ the tundra signed in the air.