"Would you please keep up?" The girl bit her lip and tried to keep her voice down, but it was hard when her partner was being so...difficult.
The man, struggling through the deep snow beside her, sighed and sat down. "You may as well wait for me here Snowstalker. I can't keep up with you. You're legs are much longer than mine." The Pecwae's observation was correct, for although he was her elder by 30 years, the tall Trevenici huntress towered over him.
Snowstalker smiled and crouched in the snow beside him. "Are you sure you're not just doing this to stop me from getting my prey?" A light snow began to fall around the two, covering their previous track and helping to disguise their scents. The girl smiled. "See, the earth itself favours my hunt."
Mishar sighed and rolled his eyes again. "I dislike this place. I miss the plains."
Snowstalker smiled. "I know, I know. You're a vegetarian. You Pecwae have enough dried fruit and bread to last you the long winter, but I eat more than your entire tribe together Mishar!" In her excitment the barbarian had raised her voice, scaring off the winter deer she'd been stalking. She cursed under her breath as she watched them leap off. In desperation she turned to Mishar. "Can't you talk to them? Make them stay?"
The Pecwae shook his head. "No. I refuse to talk to an animal, lull it into a sense of security, just to have it killed by you."
Snowstalker stood up and stretched. She'd been out all day hunting and for the life of her she didn't understand why she'd broughten her little friend. He hated hunting, especially deer hunting. "Why did I bring you along anyways?" She helped Mishar to stand, practically pulling his arms out of joint by accident. She nodded an apology and Mishar forgave her with a nod of his own head. She often forgot that she was much stronger than her little friend.
"We weren't out here hunting Snowstalker." Mishar struggled back towards the group of evergreen trees where the barbarian's horse was tethered. "We were out at the mines looking for turquoise. I found some and then you suggested you pick off a rabbit or two for lunch while you were out. Then you suggested that you might as well grab a deer or two...maybe fish alittle." Mishar sighed.
Snowstalker laughed. "Sorry Mishar. Next time just tell me to drop you off first." She easily plowed through the snow, having grown up in these mountains where her tribe had camped for the last 10 years. It wasn't always winter in the mountains, but it was mostly winter. Spring, Summer and Fall were all crowded into a harried 4 months before the snows started to set in again.
The gigantic horse stood, still tied to his tree, digging in the snow for grass to eat. Without waiting for his approval, Snowstalker lifted her friend to the back of her mount and clamoured up behind him. She clicked her tongue and the horse started off in the direction of camp.
"Great." The Pecwae was not prone to using sarcasm, so Snowstalker knew he was really upset. "We're going to get a ton of snow again."
"We always get a ton of snow Mishar." She was not sure why her partner was so disappointed. "I'm really sorry that I kept you out in the cold so long. I know you don't like it..." She wasn't sure what else to say, she didn't want Mishar to be mad at her.
"It's not you Snowstalker." Mishar sighed. "I miss the plains."
"I know." The Trevenici couldn't understand why though. She knew Mishar hated the snow and the cold, but the plains weren't nearly as much fun as the mountains were. Snowstalker had only been down to the plains once, when she was very young. Right now she was 19 years of age and could not imagine a life without the snow. She was loved to hunt, run and play in the god-sent miracle of frozen water. Her real name, known only by Snowstalker herself, her mother, her father and the tribe elder, even mentioned the snow falling. She'd been born on the night of one of the worst blizzards the mountain Trevenici had ever seen. Her parents considered it a sign from the gods and were not surprised when she developed a love of the white stuff and gave her her common name, Snowstalker, at the age of three. By 19, the girl had already proved that she earned that name by becoming one of the better hunters and trackers in their entire tribe. She never came home from a hunt empty-handed, even if she went during the longest winter in history when the animals had all migrated to the plains, and she could track anything, even a white rabbit through a blizzard. Unfortunately, she tried her best to refuse honing her mind as well as she'd honed her body.
Mishar on the other hand was well into his 50's, approaching middle-age by Pecwae standards. He'd been born and raised on the plains below the mountain and had never actually adjusted to the snow. His reasons for disliking it (no Pecwae truly hates anything) had to do mainly with the fact that his magic was the magic of the earth and when the earth was frozen solid there was little one could do. Also he was a vegetarian, like most Pecwae, since he had a problem with eating any animal he could speak to, and on the mountain very few edible plants grew. He lived on dried fruit and vegetables sent from his old tribe that still lived on the plains. He had moved up the mountain with Snowstalker's father, Wolf-friend, a good friend of his. The large Trevenici man convinced the Pecwae that his daughter, his pride and joy, should learn something other than how to play in the snow. Mishar had met the girl and agreed. He also suggested that Snowstalker be taught a little bit of magic, since Mishar himself was a rather prominent earth-mage. Unfortunately the girl didn't want to be tutored. She'd been raised on the popular Trevenici belief that magic is evil and shows a lack of faith in the gods and therefore didn't want to learn it, regardless of what her father and Mishar did to change her mind. Mishar had been planning on leaving when he found out Snowstalker didn't want his lessons, but ended up staying because winter had set in. He soon became good friends with the girl and ended up teaching things despite her best efforts. He taught her about nature and reading and the parts of the world that were not on her mountain, and she learned to enjoy his stories. He stayed even after the roads were clear for friendship.
"Snowstalker!!" Wolf-friend quickly approached his daughter. "You've been gone all day!! Where?"
"I told you father." She quickly dismounted and then lifted Mishar off. "We went to find turquoise. Mishar wanted to make some spell and needed the rock."
"The mines are footsteps away. You wouldn't have been gone all day for a rock!!" Wolf-friend seemed oddly anxious.
"I decided to do some hunting afterwards. It seemed a waste to travel outside the village for rocks." Snowstalker knew that something was bothering her father. He was not normally this paranoid. He hadn't even broken a sweat when she disappeared for 2 days last year after having an avalance fall on her.
"Turquoise is not just a rock." The Pecwae couldn't help interjecting. "I require it to perform my magic. I am the healer after all."
Wolf-friend couldn't help smiling, his nervousness fading away for a moment. "Sorry Mishar. We appreciate your healing ...magic." He said the word with care. Although he had been friends with the earth-mage for over 30 years, Wolf-friend still distrusted magic. Old prejudices die hard.
"What is the problem father?" Snowstalker couldn't help dragging the two back to the original topic of discussion.
"It is buisness for the adults child." Wolf-friend seemed oblivious to the fact that his 19 year old daughter disliked being called child. "Go back to the lodge and help your mother with her prayers." The older man turned to the Pecwae. "The elders would be honoured if you would further help us friend-Mishar. Your wisdom would be very helpful."
Mishar didn't seem surprised by this, only saddened. "I know friend, I know. But there isn't much I can do." He shook his head sadly. "There isn't anything I can do to my knowledge."
"What is going on!?!" Snowstalker thought about stamping her foot to prove her point, but felt that that might make her seem childish. "I have a right to know!"
"And the gods have a right to be honoured!! It's past time for your prayers!" Wolf-friend wasn't going to back down, even though his daughter was almost as big as he was.
Snowstalker sighed loudly and walked towards the lodge to meet her mother. She could hear Mishar and Wolf-friend continue the conversation once they thought she was out of ear-shot.
"I think you should tell her Wolf-friend. If you don't she'll start looking elsewhere for her information." Snowstalker smiled to herself. At least Mishar's on my side. She didn't hear the rest of the conversation as the noise from the lodge drowned out their voices. She opened the door quietly, removed her largest, outdoor fur coat and her boots, and knelt beside her mother. She picked up the chant, mid-prayer, and followed it easily. The Trevenici may refuse to admit that magic is a gift from the gods, but they make that up by being extra devout. Prayers for her tribe began every morning an hour before sunrise and every night and hour before sunset. The final phrase of the daily chant was uttered just as the sun sank beneath the horizon.
Snowstalker's mother, Evergreen, broke the silence that followed the prayer. As soon as she began speaking, others around them began to talk amounst themselves. "You were late."
"I was talking with father." Snowstalker stood and stretched her legs. "I think something might be wrong."
Evergreen smiled. "Something's always wrong. Let the adults deal with it."
Snowstalker bit her lip to keep from snapping at her mother. She made some vague excuse about already having eaten when she was out with Mishar and quickly left the lodge and it's occupants to eat their evening meal.
Mishar, who had just completed his own version of prayer, was not at all surprised when Snowstalker barged in without knocking. "This is my house. You knock."
The Trevenici girl pounded on the door from the inside and began her rant. Mishar remained focused on the turquoise gem in front of him throughout her entire story. "Why is it that no one will tell me what's going on? I'm nearly 20 years old!! I'm practically an adult!! I am an adult!! I can make my own decisions, I'm a vital part of the tribe, I'm responsible!! It's not fair!" She slammed her fist into the centre support of the hut, causing the whole construction to shake. "And everyone keeps calling me child!! When you call me child it's okay Mishar, because you're like...old. But my father was already married by the time he was my age!! My mother had already given birth to me by the time she was my age!!"
"Do you want to get married and have children?" Mishar's eyes were still focused on the gem.
"No." Snowstalker thought about it for a minute. "I guess I don't really...but that doesn't mean I'm not mature!"
"Wolf-friend and Evergreen just worry about you sometimes. You're their youngest daughter." An odd light began to shine from within the rock.
"I'm their only daughter!! And I'm going to be their baby forever!" Snowstalker sat down on Mishar's bed, causing the bedframe to creak. It was made for delicate Pecwae bones, not large Trevenici ones.
"Of course you're going to be their baby forever. They love you."
"That's not fair!!" Snowstalker realized that there was no way she was getting out of this conversation with her original outrage intact. Mishar was very good and making her 'see the light'. She finally noticed that the gem was glowing rather brightly. "What in the name of Vilda Harn are you doing?"
"Magic." Mishar sat in complete concentration, ignoring any of Snowchaser's futher queries in favour of finishing his spell. He murmured a few words under his breath and the light in the stone finally went out.
"What did you do to it?" Snowstalker was almost used to the fact that her friend could manipulate the natural magical forces that all creatures were supposed to have, but glowing rocks didn't seem very natural to her.
"Not much...a luck prayer really." Mishar quickly put the rock away, not wanting to Snowstalker to look to long at it. He'd been planning on making her a turquoise luck pendant for some time and he'd rather it come as at least partly as a surprise.
Snowstalker sighed, putting the magic out of her mind. "Will you tell me what's going on with my father?"
"What's going on with your father is that he's worried about what's going on in the rest of the world." Mishar slipped the pieces of thin gold, silver and platinum wire out of the way to. He couldn't help thinking sadly that if he'd taught Snowstalker well, she would have noticed his suspicious behaviour.
"What's going on in the rest of the world?" The Trevenici continued to look anxiously at him. She knew that Mishar couldn't keep a secret from her.
"Nothing for sure." The Pecwae tried to sound convincing. He was not very good at lying. "It's not like we have a Keeper of Time here to verify it, but there are rumors that the Lord of the Void has returned with his Vrykyl and an unknown ally, a race called the Taan."
"Dagnarus?" Even up in the mountains, people knew of the Lord of the Void. The Dominion Lord who sold his soul to the emptiness of evil that opposes the gods. "He's been dead for over 200 years!"
"So we thought." The Pecwae prayed the Trevenici didn't push him any farther. He knew he couldn't lie to her.
There was a moment of silence as Snowstalker read her friend like a book. "They're not rumors, are they?"
Mishar shook his head sadly. "No."
"The animals told you, didn't they."
"Yes."
The room stood in silence for a moment again as the severness of the situation sunk in. Snowstalker clenched her fist and stood up, rallying all the hope she could muster. "We will drive them back!! My people are the greatest warriors ever to walk Loerem! We will send Dagnarus and his Vrykyl back to the Void to rot!"
"And my people are the greatest pacifists to ever walk the face of Loerem." Mishar couldn't help feeling a little despair. "You might as well send us to fight them for all the good it will do. Last time it took an explosion that leveled the entire city of Old Vinnengael...and he didn't even die!!"
Snowstalker's fists were clenched and shaking. She glared at her friend, mad at him for trying to dash her hope. "We will fight him and we will win. We have the gods on our side. He has only nothingness."
"Nothingness is the exact opposite of the gods and that makes it just as powerful." Mishar sighed. He knew that Snowstalker trusted him completely. If he told her the sky was going to fall, she would ask him when. He hated to be the voice of reason, but if she didn't face the problem realistically, she would never face it. "Look. I'm not saying that we will lose. I'm just saying it's not as easy as picking up your sword and charging down the mountain to do battle. First off, the only weapon that can touch Dagnarus is the sword of a Dominion Lord. Secondly, I don't think anything can kill a Vrykyl. Thirdly, your father's sending a messanger down to the other villages around the mountain. There's talk of retreating back into the caves." Seeing the shocked look on his friend's face, the Pecwae clarified. "Not at this very minute, but if things get tough." He sighed, leaving all this to sink in. "It'll be one hell of a battle when it does happen though."
Snowstalker stared in silence at the door. Through a small piece of glass Mishar had mounted in the wood, the Trevenici girl could see that the snow had begun to fall outside again. She didn't know why, but she felt like she should be doing something, anything to help. She always stammered through the prayers, saying the words with her mouth, but not with her heart. Now she was sure she felt the hands of the gods, tugging her towards action. She whispered a small prayer beneath her breath and turned to the Pecwae, her mind made up. "So what do we do?"
Mishar stared at her in disbelievement for a moment. "You're not going to do anything!! I just told you so you'd know what was going on, not so you'd go and try and be a hero!"
"You can't expect me to sit idly by while something could be done." Mishar recognized the tone of voice she was using, and knew he'd lost this battle. But he wasn't going down without a fight. He started to say something, but Snowstalker cut him off. "I'm not talking about charging down the mountain, sword drawn to attack his entire army. I'm not insane. I just want...need to help somehow. There must be something we can do." Her eyes begged him to help her.
Mishar sighed. He felt an odd feeling inside of himself. This longing for the plains where he'd grown up. This same sensation that had him overly homesick all day. "I'm not sure what we can do Snowstalker...but I think we should go down to the plains."
"Why?" Snowstalker misunderstood him, thinking that he was just sick and tired of the snow. "I could get you more firewood if the cold's still bothering you."
"It's not that." Mishar's feeling seemed to get more precise now that he had acknowledged it. "I have this feeling...we should travel down the mountain...to Valda Harn."
"Valda Harn? Why would we have to go to the birthplace of my people?" Snowstalker didn't doubt Mishar, she was just confused.
"I don't know...and I have no idea what we're going to tell your father!!" Real life came flying back to meet the Pecwae. "There's no way he'll let us go anywhere!"
Snowstalker laughed. "There's an old Trevenici saying that will deal with him. Let our footprints do the talking."
"He'll send the entire village out to bring us back." Mishar tried to remain a realist, even though he felt he needed to leave as much as Snowstalker.
The Trevenici girl smiled. "I'll leave a note...but he won't find us."
"Why not?" Mishar did not like the look on Snowstalker's face.
The girl simply pointed towards the door, where outside the snow continued to fall, even heavier than before.
When the Pecwae spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper. "You want to leave tonight...travel through that blizzard."
It wasn't really a question, but Snowstalker answered anyways. "It will provide the perfect cover." She saw Mishar wasn't entirely convinced. "I fell the gods calling us Mishar, and I know you hear them too. They're trying to help us out."
"You are insane Snowstalker."
The Trevenici girl smiled and put her hand on her older friend's shoulder. "Pack quickly. I'll meet you at the kennels in an hour."
Snowstalker mummbled apologies to the dogs as she roused them and tried to manuver them into their harnesses. The animals, being half-wolf, were stubborn as all get out and absolutely refused to obey a word she was commanding. One of them even opened his mouth to howl when Mishar finally showed up. The Pecwae quickly spoke a few words to the animals, listened patiently to their complaints and then asked them nicely to help out. Snowstalker repressed her urge to kick the animals as they all quietly went to their spots and waited patiently to be fastened on.
"Whose animals are we stealing?" Mishar whipsered in Snowstalker's ear, even though he could have shouted as loud as he wanted and still not have woken a single Trevenici. The winds howled louder than a mortal voice ever could. The snow blowed around them, whiting out the entire landscape. Vision was restricted to five feet, at best.
"Mine...sort of." Snowstalker couldn't help being a little proud. "Technically they're still in training, but in a moon they would have been mine. I'm just taking them a little early."
Mishar rolled his eyes. "Great. Traveling down a mountain in a blizzard on a dog sled pulled by untrained mutts. I can't believe I'm doing this."
Snowstalker couldn't help grinning as she snapped the reigns and the sled lurched forewards. "Neither can I. I just hope my father and mother don't worry too much for me...I told them I was traveling down into the plains with you as you were really homesick."
Mishar smiled and squeezed Snowstalker's hand. "They'll always worry about you Snowstalker. You go out to play in front of their noses and they worry. They love you very much. It's they duty to worry." But I left them a note to... He thought as he leaned back against the Trevenici girl and watched the snow fly past. ...I told them I'd protect you...no matter what. And I will.
"What is it?" The two had traveled all night. The sun was moments away from making it's appearence, if it would even be seen today through all the clouds, and the two had decided to stop to pray.
"A cave?" Mishar wasn't exactly sure what it was. It looked like a tunnel, but it had to be man-made. It was too round, too smooth, too perfect to have been crafted by nature.
The Pecwae was slightly embarrassed when his pupil got the answer before he did. Snowstalker ran her hand along one of the edges, awed by the feeling it inspired. "It's a Portal."
Now that he thought about it, Mishar realized that he could sense the magic around the Portal himself. "I guess it is..." The feeling returned, the 'someting' tugging at him from inside. By the look on Snowstalker's face, she was feeling it to.
"I think we're supposed to enter it." She knew the suggestion was stupid. Ever since the explosion at the Temple in Old Vinnengael and the Portals were sundered and moved, travel through the magical tunnels was dangerous and suicidal at best. The problem wasn't in navigating them really, all you had to do was keep walking straight. The problem lay in the fact that instead of having a pre-deteremined ending, the Portal could drop you off anywhere on the face of Loerem, in the middle of anything. As she stood there, staring stupidly at the Portal, Snowstalker had visions of appearing in the middle of the Vrykyl/Taan army.
"We shouldn't." Even though the force was tugging at him as well, Mishar couldn't help being the voice of reason.
"I think we have to..." Snowstalker took a step into the Portal, flinched as she waited for something to happen, was relieved, and slightly disappointed, when nothing did. "Mishar. The gods would not have led us this far just to kill us."
"Maybe it's not the gods who are leading us!" Mishar didn't really believe his own comment, he just didn't want to end up in the Void.
"I'm going." Once her mind was made up, it was near impossible to stop Snowstalker. "You should stay Mishar. Tell my father that everything is okay."
"Are you kidding? I'd rather end up on Dagnarus' dinner table! If you go I go." Mishar put his hands on his hips and did his best impression of a stubborn Trevenici.
Snowstalker laughed. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"Sticking with me through this whole crazy thing. I know you're not a big fan of risking your life."
"We're friends aren't we?" He walked to stand beside her in the shelter of the first part of the Portal.
"Yeah." Snowstalker put her hand on the Portal wall again, even she could feel the powerful magic. This thing was going to take them far.
"This is the stupidest thing I've ever done." Mishar turned to face the blackness that was the Portal in front of them.
"Second stupidest." Snowstalker let the dogs free and grabbed a few of the supplies. She saw Mishar's pieces of gold and turquoise in one of the bags and made sure she grabbed them.
"I give up." Mishar shrugged as he accepted his pack. "What was the stupidest?"
"Letting my father talk you into coming up the mountain to meet me." Snowstalker smiled and began walking foreward into the magic, the perfect vision of self-confidence.
Mishar walked behind her, the perfect vision of worry, concern and love for his friend. Neither knew where they'd end up, but at least they'd be together.
So where do they end up?
Background from Seasonal Backgrounds.
The world of Loerem and all creatures within were created by the art of Larry Elmore and the words of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Go here to find out more about their wonderful world.