The four seasons.
They're always going to cycle amongst themselves. Spring will always give way to summer, just summer will always give way to fall, and fall forever give wat to winter, and of course winter giving way to spring.
Right now though; right now winter has laid claim to the lands between and beyond. The trees have lost their leaves and been smothered by a fine layer of snow.
The temperature hasn't finished dropping, but it's cold enough that creatures both big and small have seemingly vanished across these snow-covered lands Some have chosen to migrate across the sea in search of warmer lands, while others have locked themselves away in their dens – intent on sleeping till spring returns.
As for a figure – a huntress carried on the back of an equus and accompanied by two palamutes – she found herself wandering these snow-kissed wilds with a half-smile across her face.
She'd admit this to anyone, she'd always loved the winter.
The far-reaching blanket of white, the all-consuming gentle silence, the days in which she'd crawl up next to the fire and drink some cot cocoa as she her companions swapped stories… the loved that about winter.
Ah~ but to get caught in a winter snowfall? That was another story.
Carried on the back of a trusted friend, the huntress pressed on as her palamutes flanked her sides. She listens to the winter ambiance and takes a moment to adjust her mantle to better cover herself.
It's warm. Of course it's warm, she'd expect no less from something made from a Lagombi's hide.
"Not much longer you three." The Huntress tells her pack. "The nearest village should be close by." She told them. "We can rest there."
That was the plan anyway.
It takes maybe twenty, maybe thirty minutes to reach the village she had spoken of; however, upon arriving there is an issue that presents itself.
"Fuck my luck…"
The village they'd reached, Ashka, it was nothing but wreckage and snow. Blades of ice clung to the buildings and hung from the trees. The dead were scattered about, frozen solid, never to move again while their expressions were trapped in images of fear and horror. Many of these frozen souls were… broken; reduced to uneven chunks of packageable meat and bone.
"Looks as though something happened here." The Huntress mutters, taking a moment to get off her steeds back and looked around.
Oum, one of her palamutes made a noise, a growl at something she couldn't see right now, only for his mate to calm him down. "So many dead…" The duntress whispered, turning to her pack." Split up." She instructs them. "Search for survivors."
Be it an order or merely a request, the palamute act on her desire; and Ashe simply takes a moment to watch them go off before following suit, one of her hands on her steeds reins as she lead him on.
"Now…" She whispers. "What happened here?"
She scans the area, looks around…. and for her search all she finds are bodies, snow and debris. Still, the Hunter glides her hand over a destroyed piece of wall, feeling these frostbitten scars it now wore.
In her mind's eye she finds an image attempting to form.
In her mind's eye she saw men and women running, some away from the area while others ran towards it.
She moves her hand across a makeshift barricade of ice spears, gliding her fingers across the jagged but fine apparitions made of frost. "These formations are a product of a flash-freezing." She muttered as she pulled off a piece of ice. "Iceblight…" She whispers before toying with the shard. "This isn't regular iceblight either… normal Iceblight wouldn't be able to cover this much of an area so easily." She walked on. "Not only that." Her attention turned elsewhere, here eyes focusing on the small statues that were now greeting her. Not just of men and women, but of beasts. One of which she recognized as a Goss Harag. "You are no stranger to the frost." She muttered. "For you to be affected…" She made a noise. She looks elsewhere, her attention turned to find a collection of claw marks, all of them altering between two different sizes.
In her mind's eye she saw a band of beasts uniting, battling under the threat posed by a creature that could bend the world to suit their whims, a creature that may very well have been pulled from an age of myth.
"A Turf War…" The Huntress grumbled, dragging her hand along the claw marks. "An apex and their subjects stood against a legend… but your battle spilled out of the wilds and into this village." She mused. "But who did you fight?" Something brushed afainst the bottem of her boots before she presses on. She digs into the slow, pulling out what appears to be a crystal of some sorts. Without a word she stares at the crystal for a moment before using her glove to brush some snow off. "You…" She whispers as the image in her mind forms into something she had once heard of in stories.
A magnificent beast, who descends from the sky, appearing perhaps like a fabled deity.
"Iceborne…"
Here, the Apex and their subjects stood against a living myth. With their clash being one that would go down in history.
Of course, that was considering any were alive to tell it.
Myths like the Iceborne are by all means Gods. They are less creatures of flesh and bone and more an embodiment of nature's fury. The world itself bowed before them, whatever they desired of it, the world would obey. Flash floods, thunderstorms, the moving of continents…. If they willed it, the world would obey without question.
And when their ire is drawn? When they meet one foolish enough to cross them?
The scars they leave across the land are considered the stuff of legends.
A howl catches her attention, causing the Huntress to turn elsewhere and start walking off towards it. One of her palamute has found something. Possibly a survivor, those in need of help. Following it she found Aun resting in a home half broken and covered in ice. The falling snow made it look old, like a piece out of time. The interior told her something else. The fabrics, the furniture, it was all a piece from "this time", from "today". "This was a home not too long ago. Aun is here, using her muzzle to nudge an arm covered in debris and frost. The woman buried under the rubble seemed to be protecting something, a casket of sorts. Aun occupies herself with trying to awaken the woman or rather reach for the casket that rests in deceased grasp, in the meantime Ashe just looks on for a moment before stepping forward. "Let's take a look." Bending down to take hold of the debris, and with a grunt she lifts it for her partner, allowing Aum to bite down on the casket and pull it free from its confines.
That is when the cry comes, and Aum stares down at what lies within the casket before her. "Hello there." Ashe whispers, her gaze turning to the one within the casket. A boy. A little baby boy continued to cry as she lifted him up, pulling him from his cloth bindings, taking him into her arms. "Shh~ shh~" She starts to calm him. "It's gonna be alright." She begins, patting his back and holding him close. "You're going to be alright." She whispers as she glances at the deceased woman. "I'm sorry I hadn't arrived sooner." The woman mutters. "Perhaps if I had, you would still be here for him."
Maybe, there's never any real way to tell "what could have been" or "what should have been", and it wasn't something that Ashe was going to beat herself up over.
If she did, then she'd have more regrets than her shoulders could carry.
"Still, he is here." Ashe mutters as she looks at the young one in her arms. "And so am I, so in your steed, allow me to look after this one for you." She tells her counterpart as she turns to Aun, watching as the palamute releases a howl, mourning for the departed soul. Hearing the howl the young one opens his eyes and Ashe stares down at him. As she does, surprise crosses her face. "Well well…" She begins. "You have… such beautiful eyes."
The infant continues to stare at her, and in turn, she held its gaze - for a while at least. After a moment she turns her attention towards the child's mother as the faint smile upon her lips started to fade. Aun nudged her, whimpering at the downtrodden expression on her partner's face. "I'm alright Aun." The woman adjusts the child in her arms, and kneels before the woman that had recently passed on. Ashe seems to think, considering before returning the nameless infant to the casket and as Aun presses her muzzle into it, the act earning her a half muted but happy squeak from the one trying to hold her muzzle. "I think he likes you, Aun." Ashe states, looking at the child for a moment before noticing something resting in the casket with the child.
A necklace, one that seemed to carry a natural shade of deep blue.
"She left you something." The woman muttered. "Something so you may always remember her." The Huntress adds before picking up the casket and and started to leave. She stopped for a moment, her eyes returning to the lost soul, a mother who would never see her child grow up. "May your spirit watch over him." She whispered. "Aun." Aun, she looked at her Hunter as she lead her back outside where Olaf was waiting. "Let's find Oum." Returning to the frozen village, Ashe whistled, and she herad Oum's reply in the distance.
Aun rubbed her head against the woman's leg as they moved on. Taking in more of the destroyed city as they went searching for Oum. Oum himself wasn't that hard to find. Aun could track her mate across a dozen lands if need be, and knew he'd never go that far from the pair - least not willingly anyway.
Regardless they found Oum already heading back into their direction, a hint that he hadn't found anything either remarkable or living in this place. That in turn just earned the pack a sigh from Ashe as she started leading them outside the dead village and started her way towards the far east.
West; that was the direction she'd been heading towards for a while now. It was in that direction she was going, that was the direction "home" was."
It would take her at least four days home, but she would reach it. Neither snow, nor winterbourne creature would not stop her.
They never would.