CHAPTER 3
When the sleigh stopped near the Ruin Ship Milla leapt out, not shaking anymore, and ran into the Ruin Ship.
She kept running through the bowels of the ship and many Shield Maidens stared as she passed. She only stopped when she reached the Crone Mother walking down a corridor.
"Hello, Milla" came the soft and reassuring voice of the Crone Mother.
"I, I had a vision and Tal was in it, there was a strange snake like voice that sounded like it came from everywhere that told Tal of great danger and that the shadows were returning and the land he called home would be in danger, then a shadow that I couldn't see properly threw him down the mountain. Then I came back and a while later I heard something on the sleigh and I looked and it was a snake shadow that spoke the same words to me then disappeared" Milla said as calmly as she could.
"Yes, we are aware of the incident, your friend is here" the Crone Mother replied in the calm voice of the Crones.
Milla was led into a small room with a bed and a table in it. The room had the golden walls of the Ruin Ship.
On the bed was Tal, who looked to be unconscious. Then his eyes slowly opened.
Then he managed to get up to a sitting position with great difficulty. "Hello Milla." He said.
After telling each other of the goings on of the Chosen and the Icecarls Milla went to her own room for a good nights sleep and Tal also fell asleep.
That night when everyone was sleeping someone snuck into the Ruin Ship. This person or beast took Tal and went for Milla, but as it entered her room she woke up.
Milla jumped to her feet with her knife in hand. The beast didn't seem to care; it just swiped at the Icecarl girl, catching her right in the head silently.
This beast quickly and quietly dragged the two away and out onto the ice.
When Tal woke up he was in a strange place, it looked a bit like the Underfolk Fishing Tunnels, but this place had no water. It was made with rusty metal and was like a maze. The tunnel he was in seemed to go on forever and there was tunnels going left and right all along it.
Tal then saw Milla, just waking up, next to him.
"Where are we?" Tal asked Milla.
Milla stood up and looked around. "I think we are under the ice. A beast came in the night and took us, you were asleep and I tried to fight, but the beast was powerful" she explained.
"How could we be under the ice, there is only water under the ice!" Tal replied.
"We are, and it seems someone has put us in a maze, we will have to find our own way through it, but stay close and be on your guard, who knows what foul animals lay in wait for us down here." Milla said and started to walk down the tunnel, which was lighted by unknown sources for unknown purposes.
Tal got to his feet and caught up to Milla. Then they rounded a corner, and came face to face with a beast the size of a normal Chosen. It had grey fur and was hunched over facing the other way. It looked like a wolf but was standing on two legs.
"What is it?" Tal asked in a whisper.
"I don't know, is it a Chosen creature? Or a Spirit World creature?" Milla asked.
"None that I've ever seen" Tal replied.
Then a book as big as a door flew out from around the corner and crashed into Tal, luckily it didn't make any noise. Milla noticed it straight away and grabbed the Codex which shrunk down to a normal book size. But this was not the Codex she saw before in the Castle. This had a black cover.
Tal snatched it and whispered, "This isn't the Codex, it is, well it looks like the fabled Dark Book of Ice, which I thought was just something to do with the water that freezes in the Underfolk levels, but I guess it's an Icecarl thing." Tal explained to Milla.
Then the book flung open to a page which had writing and pictures. One lit up. It was of the creature in front of them and it said it was a werewolf. A creature that is only created when a werewolf bites a human, and then the human begins to transform into another werewolf.
Then the creature turned around, and let out a great howl looking up at the roof. Then it started to barrel down the corridor, coming straight at them!
Tal leapt up while Milla jumped against the wall.
The werewolf skidded to a stop under Tal, who landed right on it! The werewolf thrashed about with Tal only just holding on. Then it smashed into the walls sending Tal back and side first against the hard metal walls time and time again.
Then Milla leapt at it and tried to stab it. The werewolf wouldn't give up even after a few stabs with Millas bone knife.
Tal focused on his sunstone and it shone bright violet. "Milla, jump when I yell jump!" Tal instructed to Milla who was clinging to the side of the werewolf.
"Jump!" Tal yelled as he leapt off the beasts back and fired a high intensity violet light straight at the werewolf.
When the light hit it, the creature just exploded in a white burst.
"Was that supposed to happen?" asked Milla.
"No, I think it might be something it did itself" Tal replied.
Then the Dark Book of Ice burst open and landed on a page. Milla and Tal looked at it.
The page explained that in these sewers under the ice every beast or monster you destroyed, an item would appear that would help you get out of these chambers.
Tal looked where the werewolf had exploded and sure enough there was something there, it was a Merwin Horn Sword.
