Many years before, Sofia had come to the conclusion that there was cold, and then there was cold. Skyrim was cold all year round with a seeping chill that plucked at the flesh and caressed the skin until goosepimples spread and grew. The winters and especially the regions universally known as 'The Pale' were the pure embodiment of true cold.
This was a cold that was as merciless and unforgiving as the plague and killed much more quickly. No matter how well dressed you were or whatever fancy magicka you could enchant yourself with, this cold and frigid touch of Kyne would freeze the blood in the veins and kill any and all it could reach. Only by removing oneself from its grip could anyone hope to survive and this was one of many reasons why the majority of the Pale was utterly uninhabited.
With the jagged peak of Mount Anthor rising above its lesser siblings to the south and other similar ranges to the east and west, a large majority of the worst weather from Atmora was channelled and compressed into the Pale. Dawnstar and Winterhold might be permanently covered in snow but the Pale was well known for the season encompassing storms that lasted entire months. The glacial fields in particular were unpassable during the long night of winter, and the storms could and frequently buried the area under dozens of meters of snow.
This fact left Sofia unsure whether she was more concerned about the intent to stay in the Pale during one of these 'season storms' or the fact that she would have to ration her drinking to ensure that she would get through the following months without running out.
At least this time they were travelling by wagon, along paths in the stone for the most part before they began moving out over the glacial iceflows. Every wayward squeak and crack of ice left them all gripping the sides of the wagon in preparation of leaping to safety despite the driver's assurances that this road was safe. For kilometres in all directions there was little to see but the rare rocky hills and jagged peaks that erupted from the ice. They were short and quite pathetic to look upon in comparison to their larger cousins surrounding the icefields if one didn't know that the ice was dozens of meters thick. Those tiny outcrops of rocks were in their own way icebergs, sinking deep under the surface and hiding their true bulk under the billions of tonnes of frozen water.
"Well Kaius, when you want to take a girl somewhere special you definitely mean it."
Kaius was sitting with his back against the side of the wagon, boots on one of the crates of supplies piled towards the front and he barely even looked in Sofia's direction. Ever since Winterhold he had been quieter than usual, which was a hole that Sofia had filled even without conscious thought.
"It's only a bit of ice." He said, pulling his wolf cloak tighter and shrugging it and his hood over his face from the creeping cold.
"This is not just 'a bit of ice' Kaius." Serana added, looking about and still somehow appearing enraptured at the sights before them. Even the four-day journey from Winterhold and the lack of sights that didn't include clouds, rocks and endless glaciers had failed to dampen the ancient vampiress' spirit.
"It's cold and dangerous and we're going to be living in it for a while. There's not much else to it."
Serana and Sofia shared a look of exasperation for a moment before Sofia rolled her eyes. Kaius had been… grumpy for the lack of a better word ever since Winterhold. Between his mood and the situation they had found themselves in the three women accompanying him had bonded, somewhat to their surprise. While there wasn't exactly trust between Sofia, Lydia and Serana, there was an ever-building amount of respect at least.
One of the things that Sofia and Serana held in common was a similar appreciation for sights such as that they found themselves faced with. While to most it was an empty expanse of nothingness, the two women found themselves spellbound by the majestic beauty of it. Where the ice was visible under the rolling snowdrifts it was a crystalline blue-green and so far from anything described as civilisation there was no trace of habitation, no swirling clouds of smoke from hundreds of cooking fires and industry and no stains that man and mer inflicted.
All except the tiny collection of wooden huts erected at the edge of the glacier that the wagons were rolling across. The glacier was so enormous that the trio of buildings appeared as though they were specks of dirt upon a moonstone shield and there was no doubt of the overwhelming size of such a place.
"Welcome to the excavation." Called out one of the several individuals sitting on the nearest wagon. "Or the 'Edge of the World' if you are that way inclined."
Even the other Orcs that they had met in the Dawnguard's ranks would have matched the sheer physicality of Yag gra-Gortwog's personality from years of supervising miners and labourers. As the wagons ground to a halt within a stone's throw of the buildings she hopped out and landed with an impact that cratered the hard-packed ice and immediately began shouting orders.
No matter how tough one thought themselves, having an Orc of Yag's stature bellowing to get out of the wagons made everyone scrabble in an instant. She moved along the wagon train, calling out orders and beginning to stamp her verbal mark onto everyone in earshot even as they, and the dozen or so other hired hands piled out of their own wagons.
"Gods damned does she have a set of lungs." Muttering to herself, Sofia pressed a boot into the snow and ice under her feet and tried not to feel some sort of trepidation. A part of her mind, assisted by the books she had read about the area told her that she had nothing to worry about but even with hundreds of meters of ice under her feet it was truly impossible to remove the fear of falling into a crevice. It didn't help that less than fifty metres away was one such crevasse hundreds of metres wide as though a titan had stepped onto the world and cleaved it asunder.
Kaius didn't have eyes for the area and barely batted an eye at the Orc stalking between the dozen wagons barking orders. He instead dragged his pack off the back of the wagon and threw it over a shoulder but Sofia had been travelling with him long enough to see the way his entire body tensed.
"Kaius? What is it?"
His eyes were narrowed and she could see the tell-tale signs of his unease in the way that he went from casually moving to moving as light as feather and as deadly as a storm. Before she even realised what she was doing Sofia too had dropped a hand to her sword and moved closer, especially as she realised that Lydia appeared just as uneasy.
"I'm not sure." He was moving quicker now, stepped into the space between the wagons and the buildings with increasing strides." "But isn't there supposed to be more people here?"
With a start Sofia realised that he was right, the entire area was empty except for those few who had travelled with the wagons. The buildings were empty and hollow of life despite the smoke rising from the thin metal chimneys but there was plenty of signs in the fresh snow of people being present recently.
Closer to the edge of the enormous cliff, Serana had made her own way in search for a better vantage point to take in the sights of hundreds of kilometres of gleaming glaciers and the Sea of Ghosts far to the north. The cold was truly a home to her but such sights left her smiling, even with the Sun's draining effect on her body as she gazed across the emptiness but Kaius was the first to truly notice the problem.
"Serana? You might want to come over here."
Her expression of blissful happiness faded as she turned to see Kaius and Lydia moving quickly but carefully over the snow towards her with Sofia lagging slightly behind. The grim expressions were all too obvious, as was the sounds of the others in the wagon train calling out for those they were expecting to meet.
"Okay, what the fu-" Sofia had time to begin as she caught up to Kaius, looking about the buildings and going to scratch herself at the same time. She barely even had a chance to get the words out of her mouth before one of the many snowdrifts a handful of paces to her left exploded.
There was barely any time to react, no time for conscious thought and her subconscious reacted dutifully by making her fall hard onto her butt with a squeal of surprise. Not that anyone was able to hear her sudden and embarrassing shock from the blood curdling roar that buffeted them with its sheer force. Nothing in the bounds of Tamriel could ever hope to match the soul-churning might of a Dragon but the creature who's fangs and salivating maw that encompassed her vision was a worthy contender.
Each tooth alone was monstrously large and were as long as her forefinger and there was no doubt that she could almost fit her entire head into the jaws. The primal nature of the roar thundering through the air was enough to crack ice in the crevasse and cause minor avalanches. After all the times that she had faced vampires, frostbite spiders, draugr, dragons and countless other beasts Sofia had never felt so close to death.
That was until the jaws snapped shut and the owner straightened up giggling.
"J'darr wishes you could see your faces!" The towering wall of fur said in a thick accent that was more akin to a growl.
Despite the laughter echoing from many of the caravan hands Sofia was struggling to think or rise, her brain still stuck in fight-or-flight instincts and unable to come to terms with the fact that a being with all the size and build of a snowbear was laughing over her. It also wasn't helping to see the way that Kaius' face had grown taut or that Serana was suddenly looking extremely self-conscious and trying to hide the fact that her fingers had almost doubled in length.
"Malacath curse your striped hide!" Yag roared, charging the furred creature and smashing a fist across a fanged jaw. "How many fucking times do I have to tell you not to play your stupid tricks!"
Appearing admonished and even audibly whining, the furred being hunched down low and rubbed his face with a paw much larger than even Yag's hands. "J'darr is sorry. J'darr was just playing."
"I don't want to hear your excuses. Every damned time you do this to me. I swear you're going to give me a heart attack one day." Yag stopped in mid motion, looking about and sighing loud enough that everyone could hear. "Where's your brother and the rest of your flea infested kind?"
"Big-Boss wanted J'zhar and others in the hole. Big-Boss left me on top to keep watch."
"Ugh, of course." She turned and pointed to one of the wagon drivers and gestured towards the cliff face. "Maron, go down and tell Sulla that we have arrived and round up everyone his lordship can spare." With another gesture she encompassed the remaining people, including the cowering being at her feet. "The rest of you, start unloading."
Muttering curses under her breath and not sparing a single further glance to anyone, Yag moved off in the direction of the largest hut and left them to their own devices. Sofia was still shaking as she rose to her feet, and gulped as the furred creature that had jumped from under the snow rose to its full height and shook itself like a dog.
"What in all the gods' names are you?"
Ears twitching in her direction, a feline expression of amusement looked down on her and she felt increasingly small. "You speaking to J'darr? J'darr is a Khajiit."
A mutual expletive was shared by Sofia, Serana and Lydia as they all had to crane their necks to look up at what was now undoubtably an expression of amusement. "There's no way that you are a Khajiit." Serana stammered.
"Of course, J'darr is no mere Khajiit, J'darr is pahmar-rhat."
Sofia was blinking and trying to stop her shakes as the adrenaline continued being pumped through her body. "What's a pahmar-rhat?"
"A Khajiit about two hundred kilograms heavier than a normal breed." Kaius's tone was cold and while he too had been taken off guard by the enormous Khajiit's ambush his expression had hardened. There was also no sign to how close he had come to counterattacking in the seconds after the giant Khajiit appeared.
Despite the fact that she was somewhat annoyed with Kaius' mood Sofia and the others couldn't doubt that he was correct. J'darr was one of the largest beings she had even seen and only Cuddles; Gunmar's pet troll was larger. Even so it was not by much, as the enormous Pahmar-raht was well over three hundred kilograms and would had stood head and shoulders over Farkas who was easily one of the tallest men in Skyrim.
Purring to himself, J'darr smiled again with a maw as large as a sabrecat's and moved past them. Despite his bulk he moved softly and silently which only made him appear even more terrifying. His strength was also impossible not to notice as he moved over to one of the wagons and with a single arm plucked out a chest that should have taken two full grown Nordic men to lift.
"I didn't think that the cats grew that large." Lydia muttered as J'darr walked past carrying her weight in cargo under arms as wide as her shoulders. There was a wariness in her tone and stance at the sight of the enormous creature walked past giving the impression that it was purring a tune due to the inability to whistle.
"You should see the Senche's." Kaius replied as he dragged a chest off a wagon and gripped it tightly. "They grow even larger and the Khajiit ride them to battle."
If he had been his usual amused self and with his habit of sarcasm, they all would have been left wondering whether he was telling the truth but there was no hints of falsehood in his words. Instead they looked with growing trepidation as a handful of Khajiit and a dozen other sturdy looking men and mer made their way up from the cliff face. Each one of the Khajiit were enormous specimens but all bar one was nowhere near as overwhelmingly enormous as J'darr. The largest of the newcomers exchanged what sounded like a brief exchange of words that were a mixture of growls and yips to J'darr on the way past before moving over to the newcomers with a similar expression of amusement.
"I see you all have met my brother." He said, making a keening purr that with a considerable amount of imagination could be described as a laugh. With paws as large as shovels he gestured in the direction where he and the other labourers had appeared where stakes and ropes were hammered deep into the ice. "I'm J'zhar. Welcome to Alftand."