Never before had Loldirr seen a landscape so white and untouched. The sun shone high in the clear blue sky, forcing its bright rays to paint a picturesque terrain. The wind stirred up the loose snowflakes to cause a gliding white wave across her path and into the distance.
It may have been cold, but it was beautiful.
As her feet sank into the snow, she giggled like a little child hearing the crunch of her footsteps. As she turned her head to gaze at the forty burly men in her presence, she remembered that her reaction was perhaps not the most appropriate.
Looking up to the sky with only the sun in its presence, it felt empty and neverending. It gave Loldirr the feeling of being so small and irrelevant. Not since Greenhaven had she felt that feeling, yet this time she embraced it. So much had happened since her cries for adventure, so much she regretted, but this was the first time that it was the adventure she had imagined.
That was until she remembered why they were here. To fight a witch and her dragon.
"It's not really a dragon, is it? It must be some kind of Fæordic metaphor?" Loldirr asked as Hrok walked by her side.
Hrok chuckled before passing a piece of dry meat to his walking companion. "No metaphor, a real dragon."
Loldirr tore a piece of the meat before shaking her head. "I don't believe you."
A deep growl bellowed from Hrok; it wasn't until Loldirr looked at him that she realised he was laughing. "You fight a Death Wraith yet do not believe in dragons?"
Loldirr smiled, something she realised she had not done in a long time. "A winter ago, I did not believe in either; I did not realise I had powers or meant to be an Empress of a great empire. A winter ago I was surrounded by a forest with no escape from my life; now I have visited three impressive, vastly different cities, experienced the sea and have come to see this beautiful icy wasteland."
"The gods have strange plans for us all," Hrok answered before tearing into his piece of dry meat.
Loldirr rubbed her scarred cheek as she realised smiling, provoked a dull pain from it. "I do not believe in the gods."
Hrok stared at her emerald green eyes, "It does not matter, they obviously believe in you."
Unable to counter his argument, Loldirr smiled once more, ignoring the discomfort it caused her. She looked around at the other men that had come on the journey—a warlord from each of the ten tribes of the Fæordic with three of their best warriors. "Are forty men enough to take on a dragon?" she asked.
Hrok growled once more, laughing even more heartedly than previously. "Gods no, that's what makes it even more fun."
Loldirr scrunched her nose at the answer. "You are a bizarre people!"
"Your father said something similar to the warlords of his time. There is no greater death for a Fæordic than to die in battle. Those who die here today will be greeted in the halls of the gods, where they will dine and feast and tell stories of their great victories and challenging defeats. To be Fæordic is to face the battle and embrace the challenge." explained Hrok.
"You want to die?" Loldirr asked.
"Hah!" laughed Hrok, "of cause not, no one wants to die, but everyone wants to live. The Fæordic know how to live."
Loldirr listened to his words and understood their meaning. Never had she been so alive as the times she flirted with death. Never had she been so powerful as when her life was being stripped away.
"That look, you understand what I mean?" Hrok smiled.
Loldirr nodded in response.
"Perhaps you are more Fæordic than you realise."
Loldirr had come to like her new companion despite their initial frosty meeting. His abruptness and simplicity took some getting used to, but he was the most genuine person she had ever met. He was undoubtedly not an Ethelston, but something about him seemed to call for her to trust him. "Have you faced this dragon before?"
"All warlord's must face the dragon as part of our trials. All of us must take something of value from the cave of the witch. A successful incursion shows fearlessness, survivability, cunning and strength, all essential traits to lead a tribe. All men who follow you today have survived the dragon and witch at least once before." Hrok explained.
"How many times have you?" Loldirr asked as Hrok raised three of his fingers. "And how do we best it?"
Hrok laughed once again. "We don't, we survive it and distract it long enough while you steal from the witch."
This whole adventure had taken a bizarre turn, yet Loldirr could see the joy it was giving her hairy colleague as he explained. Survive a dragon, face a witch and bring something of value. If only it were as simple as it sounded. "Will your people hold up their end of the bargain?"
"Even Halfhand can't deny you if you complete this task. We have each sent messengers to our tribes to gather our forces and prepare our ships at Iordrek. Once we return, if you return with us, then all of our forces will sail for Ravenscourt."
While the thought of an army preparing itself for her brought joy to Loldirr's heart, Hrok's use of the word if brought her nothing but doubt. "And if I don't succeed?"
Placing his big strong hand on Loldirr's shoulder, Hrok looked directly at her. "Do not fail!"
It was not exactly the encouragement that Loldirr had been looking for, but deep down, she knew that Hrok and the rest of the Fæordic would suffer for her failure. Hrok had bet everything on Loldirr's success. He was desperate for her to succeed as it would bring unity, and with it, prosperity to all of the tribes. He may have seemed simplistic, but his mind and love for his people were indeed not.
***
The walk to a cave in the frozen wasteland had been relatively more straightforward than the previous treks that Loldirr had endured before now. As the dark cave became visible in the field of white, she took a sigh of relief as the entire journey was without incident.
There were no Death Wraiths, no horrendous weather and most importantly, no dragon. With a few hundred metres to go, perhaps this would end up being the most straightforward task she would need to partake in her journey.
"Remain vigilant, the dragon is here somewhere, never will you find such a cunning creature," Hrok advised.
As Loldirr relaxed, her companions had not; each of them was continuously scanning the horizon for any sign of this monstrous beast. Even Sigurd Halfhand appeared on edge, a man that felt compelled to excrete confidence seemed agitated and nervous. It looked like the quiet of the wasteland, and the hum of the breeze had been not what they expected.
A loud roar echoed in the distance, a growl of epic proportion glided like a spectre across the snow. It sent a lingering unnerving shiver down Loldirr's spine. The roar, deep in sound, whistled around like a tempest wavering with every ounce of energy it could muster.
Looking around frantically, Loldirr could not distinguish where the sound had emanated from. As she glanced to her Fæordic companions, it was apparent that none of them did either.
It was eerily quiet once more, the breeze glided across the plain, and the levels of anxiety seemed to lower once again.
The crunching of the snow continued as each of the warriors gingerly took steps towards the cave hoping that the roar was of little importance.
Without warning, the dragon's substantial blue frame glided inches from the ground before swooping up above the group, slicing its back claws into two unsuspecting warriors. In between the deafening flapping of its wings and the screams of the torn apart men, Loldirr watched in awe as the creature of devastation flew over their heads, causing the warriors to be easily bowled over.
Its pale blue scales and greyish skin seemed insignificant as its enormous bat-like wings pushed its long muscular frame into the sky. As its tail instinctively glided behind its body, the fearsome talons that caused such devastation could be seen, before it effortlessly flew high into the sky and out of visibility.
The devastation was horrific. Two grown men, sliced through like paper. Their entrails were strewn across the landscape, a bloody mess painting a picture of grotesque horror that only a creature of its size could achieve.
"SCATTER!" Hrok shouted, knowing that the order was too late to save the two unfortunate souls.
The Fæordic scattered, weapons at the ready, their shields prepared for the bombardment they were about to endure.
Loldirr watched as these men were equal in fearlessness as they were in stupidity. As she wanted them all to run away desperately, she realised that her hand was held tightly on her bow and she was standing her ground as steadfast as the Fæordic.
Courage or stupidity? Only time would tell.
Suddenly, the dragon landed with a loud thump between the warriors and the cave. It growled angrily as its enormous lizardlike head watched threateningly with its penetrating white eyes. Its long piercing snout puffed in frustration as if waiting for the Fæordic's next move. Showing a glimpse of its coal coloured fangs, the warriors seemed to start circling their way around the beast attempting to contain it.
The warriors had rehearsed this move and watching the dragon's eyes dart from one person to the next, Loldirr could feel that it was starting to get anxious.
Staring at the eyes, though, Loldirr felt like she could feel something else develop on the dragon's face. Something like a maniacal smile.
Lowering its head briefly, the dragon pushed itself into the air, flapping its wings wildly. The noise was initially deafening. It appeared to hover a few metres off the ground, waving its wings with anger, but as the snow began to displace and cause a blinding cloud around it, visibility for the warriors quickly became negligible.
"Shit!" Hrok shouted, knowing that Loldirr was still within hearing distance.
"What is it?" shouted the huntress as the flapping continued.
"The dragon, it's never done this before, it's counteracting our tactics. MEN! ON ME! SHIELD WALL!" Hrok called as loud as he could, hoping that someone could hear.
As his command was echoed, some of the warriors closed their gap on his location, desperately trying to lock shields together with the man next to him through the limited visibility.
"Loldirr, if you see an opportunity to run to the cave, take it," Hrok commanded.
Before he could finish the sentence, the dragon roared with intense wrath. As the roar crescendoed, it bellowed a stream of freezing ice from its throat. The screams that pierced from the slower warriors was horrific, and as the dragon pushed itself into the sky, the devastation that could be seen from the settling snow was horrid. As some men lay dead, their bodies blackened and broken, others wailed as parts of bodies disintegrated as any small move to their frozen limbs caused it to shatter.
Loldirr was initially stunned by the brutality. This massive creature was an efficient and intelligent killing machine and to this point, had caused substantial terror with no risk. They were vastly out of their depth.
Watching a man holding the stump of his shattered arm, writhing around in pain brought back painful memories of her last moments with her guardian Edric. She wanted desperately to go to the man and comfort him but was emotionally frozen in her spot.
"LOLDIRR! NOW!" Hrok shouted, breaking her out of her trance.
She clambered through the snow, pushing her way towards the cave, desperately trying to get there quickly. The snow was deep and made progress difficult, but it was the fact that she was leaving these men to fight a foe more deadly than anything she had ever encountered before that made it more challenging. A sickness rose inside of her as the thoughts of the armless man rolling around the snow came back to haunt her. Then a realisation hit, the sooner she finished her task, the quicker they could escape the dragon.
A woosh could be heard behind her, as Loldirr flicked her head around, she could see the dragon gliding behind her, ignoring the Fæordic warriors and instead, going straight for her.
Pushing through the snow, it seemed that running had now become increasingly harder, turning around again the dragon's eyes were focused only on her.
Just as the dragon had reached the retreating woman, Loldirr threw herself to the ground, narrowly missing the dense, sharp claws which had caused devastation earlier. With the dragon now passing, the opportunity to strike back had now presented itself.
In one quick motion, Loldirr had raised her bow, placed an arrow in her hand and released.
Whistling through the breeze, the shot was accurate, ready to hit the dragon in the torso. As it impacted, it bounced off its hard scaly skin before plummeting helplessly to the ground.
Loldirr grunted exasperated. Raising herself to proceed towards the cave once more, she began questioning herself, feeling responsible for the men dying behind her, it wasn't until a loud thump caused her to look up and see a fully grown dragon snarling mere metres away from her position.
The dragon roared ferociously, revealing its devastating teeth and vault-like jaws, deliberately toying with its prey before its last moments. As its roar came to a halt, it seemed as if a mischievous smile had appeared in its eyes.
Loldirr took one look and roared back. Her pitiful scream of defiance was nothing to the dragon, yet it did cause it to pause.
"Come on you bastard, if you want me, I'm not going to make this easy!" Loldirr barked antagonistically.
It raised its head, clearly inhaling deeply before opening its wide mouth and spewing its cold frigid breath causing all around it to freeze instantly.
Knowing this was her hail mary, Loldirr raised her hands, her fingers releasing an intense heat more tremendous than she had experienced before. Flames burst from her fingertips and branched their way ferociously towards the freezing breath of the dragon. As the extreme heat fought with the extreme cold, the entire region burst into steam, causing visibility to become almost negligible.
Loldirr could feel herself tiring, but she knew she could not stop, and with every ounce of energy she could muster, she held back the deadly white frost emanating from the superior creature. Just as her muscles screamed for her to stop, the dragon abruptly halted, flapping its wings to push itself high into the sky.
Panting heavily, Loldirr watched as the dragon became a speck in the stratosphere, and while questions flooded her mind, this was the opportunity she needed to jump into the cave.
With every ounce of remaining energy, she pushed her way through the snow, edging closer to the entrance. With each painful step, Loldirr was expecting the dragon to land close to her, and there was no way she had the energy to endure another blast from its breath.
Reaching the mouth of the cave Loldirr released a massive sigh before wheezing to regain her airflow, taking another step forward she could hear her breathes becoming more eased, yet her chest felt like it was burning and her breathes felt laboured.
Placing one more step into the cave, she realised that the breathes were not hers and the echoes floating around the deep cave were flowing from someone else.
"Welcome traveller, " the voice spoke from a distance, "I am Ixnja, the winter witch and you have now entered my domain."
As Loldirr instinctively hid behind a tall standing frozen rock, she noticed the rock had two legs leading up to a body, before revealing its terrified facial features. Looking around at the entrance, it was apparent that over a dozen similar frozen men could be seen.
Fear struck Loldirr's heart; this wasn't just some witch; this was a powerful entity able to manipulate the sphere of air. This was a Sorceress of the Elements.