Excalibur's Seven | ✓ [LGBT]

~ 26 ~

WHEN THEY ARRIVED IN the North, the sun was low in the sky, painting the heavy clouds in deep shades of pink. It was the middle of summer, but the ground was covered in heavy snow, icicles hanging from the trees they'd been traveling in for awhile now.

It didn't help that they were walking through tall mountains, far closer to the sky than they would be anywhere else. The North was known for its impossibly high mountains, so high that the snow never melted in some places.

Eurion was perhaps the most miserable, though Giselle was not far behind. She was so used to the hot sands of the Southern Deserts, which reached temperatures hotter than Avalon would ever experience, even on the Summer Solstice.

Kit gave his cloak, providing Eurion with another layer of warmth, though he himself was trying not to let his teeth chatter. She didn't deny his kindness, because she knew him well enough by now to know that he wouldn't take it back if she had a blade to his throat.

"Thank you," she murmured, wrapping the cloak around herself, snuggling closer into Chalice's back. The druid was all bones so there wasn't much warmth there, but Eurion would take what she could get.

By the time the sun was down, the moon was already high above them, pale and bright, reflecting off the white snow and giving them enough light to see where they were going. Morgana would thrive here, she thought. She had a sense their search for the shard would be easier if he were here, but there was nothing they could do about it. They'd have to figure it out alone.

Eurion could feel her eyelids getting heavy when they came across a clearing, and she was jolted awake again by the sight of something other than trees and snow.

Laid out before them, buried in ice, was an old village, abandoned long ago. Rooves were caved in, bones stuck up from the ground, and pieces of debris were strewn about the clearing, bearing witness to a disaster from long ago.

"It looks like an avalanche," she observed, eyes scanning the remains.

"You're correct," Chalice replied, steering the horse around to what was left of a wide wall, which they used as a bridge to get to the other side of the village.

There was more over a small hill. A rock sat in the center of the decay, tall and sturdy and carved with knots. It looked like a marker of some kind.

"They were miners," Chalice said in a somber voice. "The village stood there for several decades without a problem, but an earthquake triggered an avalanche and... well, only one survived. Because he had the shard."

The druid stopped the horse, sliding down from the saddle and landing in the deep snow. They didn't seem to mind how deep it was, even as it reached their knees when they trudged towards the stone.

They took a moment to say a prayer, presumably to honor the dead. Then, their lithe fingers traced over the stone, searching the surface for a clue of some kind. They appeared to find something, returning to the others as soon as they did.

"I know where the tomb is," Chalice announced proudly, pulling themself back up and tugging on the reins.

They led the group through piles of snow and back into the woods where the snow was shallower, heading straight for the tallest peak jutting up before them. It looked like it would be full of valuable minerals and stones, and if Eurion was looking for a place to mine, she would certainly look here first.

They came up upon a clearing near the side of the peak, wooden pillars sticking up and recounting the scene of what used to be a busy mine.

Chalice slid from the horse again, motioning for the others to join. With their bare hands, bright red with cold, they brushed away the snow, exposing a closed off tunnel.