Once Brothers (Songs of War Fanfiction)

Chapter 1: Death's Road

However, even through the snowstorm's mist, Blazien's red markings glowed brightly in the haze against his gray skin.

The faint memory of his family brought a smile upon Blazien's face, warming him slightly while also giving him a moment's distraction from the cold. He continued traveling through the woodland trails that were always hidden under the large overhanging pine branches. But Blazien knew even if the trails were invisible to others, he did not need to see the pathways to hunt effectively. He had walked them every day for over three years since the Clan's arrival to their new home. He was sure he could walk the trails blindfolded if given the chance. But, Blazien was known by the other Voltaris hunters to venture away from the trails anyway. Preferring to think more like his prey and wander beyond them.

The Voltaris gave a shuttered sigh between his teeth when a shiver of goosebumps ran along his back. His exhalation of breath billowed in small wisps of clouds through his hands while he tried to blow warm air through them. Even now, he could see his trembling fingertips were darkening in color as the hours passed.

Only a few more hours before frostbite will begin to set in, he thought.

He adjusted his quiver that was slung securely around his torso; the arrows within it clattering against one another from the abrupt shift in weight. Even though his body protested with stiffness, Blazien willed himself to take another shaking step. Every second he didn't move only made the time he had remaining in the day's light shorter than it already was. He gripped his wooden bow, brushed the snowflakes off of his numbed hands, and journeyed forward.

The snow crunched beneath his feet while he scanned the thin and narrow tree trunks for any signs of life. But the wall of dense snow made it rather difficult to see anything in front of him. His body trembled from another blast of wind that sent him into a shivering fit. But still, he pushed onward. No matter what happened to him, Blazien knew the Clan needed food more than anything. Regardless of the risk. Day by day, members of his Clan, or what was left of it, would journey farther into the gnarled clutches of the forest, hoping to find anything that could help them tip the balance against their struggle.

But each day, they were left with more disappointment. Only the smallest animals would be caught, and between picking and choosing who in the Clan was fed first was obvious. Blazien had gone many nights without food in the past, and over time it had made him thin. His stomach churned and groaned with hunger at the thought of a steaming warm bowl of roasted mountain goat beside a campfire. Without the need of having to go outside in the cold ever again... It was nothing more than a distant dream.

It was during difficult times such as this that made the young hunter always miss the warm fields of his old childhood home, Voltaria. Where their crops had been grown and nurtured among green valleys. But here in the mountains, it was far too cold for farming to do any decency of good, with the ground being hardened by frost. In the event, if the Clan had ever attempted to cultivate farms here, the sprouts would shrivel and freeze within minutes and be claimed by the snow. But, the Clan had made it this long without the need for farming, and would continue to do so.

While scouting further on, Blazien caught sight of tiny holes in the white trenches. He walked over to them and crouched down, brushing away felled pine needles from the ground. Upon closer inspection, he could tell the small indentations were animal tracks, but whatever creature they had been was long gone by now, a lost cause. But those footprints hadn't been the only ones he had found today.

Further back where he'd come from, Blazien had found tracks far more extensive than these. The thing that made them more frightening was the lines he discovered protruding at the front of them. Whatever else was prowling around out in the forest was just as armed as he was in the matter of arrows vs claws.