"How much further?" Derk timidly asked as he trailed behind the young thief. His hand struggled to keep the windswept snow from getting in his eyes, though with the high and frigid winds, it was proving difficult. Derk had grown up far from the freezing temperatures of the snow fields to the north and was finding it difficult to follow behind his partner Erik, who seemed to effortlessly trek through the snow.
The pair originally traveled so far north in search of a rumored treasure called the flaming ice sword. In the end, they were trapped in a magical snow storm surrounding a small town called Thieves' Cage along with many of Erdreas' thieves. Erik had managed to quickly discover that the storm was created by a monster, who posed as the leader of the town, in order to collect Erdrea's thieves to build a family of his own. The whole adventure was strange to say the least, and the duo were more than happy to be set free after just a few days rather than years like the rest of the people they met there.
"I told you to head south and wait for me at that inn." The cyan haired thief shouted back in reply, keeping his eyes forward as he moved through the storm.
When the monster was defeated, the thieves had found its cache of treasure. At first, Erik hadn't found anything worth taking, until one of the thieves they'd saved, Torna, offered a trinket that she had managed to find in her travels. A strange rune pendant made of wood that hung from a string of cord. He tried to decline at first, but the girl insisted that it was rumored to be the key to a treasure further to the north.
Who was he to say no to that?
He told Derk to stay behind while he ventured north, knowing the dangers that awaited and how little prepared his partner would be. Derk insisted, saying he'd wanted to see the treasure himself, a decision he was regretting more with each step in the storm. Though at this point, he was too far to turn back and walk through the storm alone.
"I'm not going back now!" Erik couldn't argue. The cyan haired boy responded "Suit yourself! We already passed the Fjord! She said to look for something of Yggdrasil's!"
The portly brown haired partner strained his eyes to look around, looking around before spotting a faint shadow in the distance. "Erik! Over there!" He shouted as he pointed in a northeast direction.
At the sound of his name, he turned to Derk to see where to look before turning to the northeast. There was a large snow mound ahead with a noticeable opening. It hadn't looked like something of Yggdrasil's, but it was better than nothing and it could get them out of the storm before Derk froze to death. "Come on! There's an opening we can take shelter in!"
Derk sprinted.
It was comical watching his partner run so fast at the mention of a way out of the snow.
He watched as Derk made it to the opening of the mound before stopping at the entrance. Erik noticed the movement and briefly worried if a monster was also using the space when he heard him shout "It's glowing!" before running in further.
As Erik reached the stone shelter, his eyes widened in wonder at the sight before him. The dim light filtering through the frost-covered shelter revealed a sight he would have only imagined in stories. Roots, emitting a soft green glow, had pushed themselves up from the earth and curled around a girl, almost as if protecting her while she slept. With each step he took further into the shelter, he noticed how the roots stretched and spread across the walls, covering what appeared to be old and weathered carvings that told a story he couldn't read.
"Woah." Was all he could say.
"Is she dead?" Derk asked as he leaned in closer to the girl, reaching out his pointer finger to poke her cheek before quickly backing away in case she woke up. When the girl didn't move, he relaxed and turned back to look at his partner with a concerned expression on his face, "She's ice cold".
"That's not good." He frowned before quickly moving forward. He reached his hand up to check for a pulse when a warm feeling against his chest drew his attention downward. His fingers moved to grab ahold of the pendant hanging from his neck, noticing it's now radiating light. As he lifted the pendant from underneath his shirt, the glow began to increase in luminosity.
"Isn't that the pendant that Torna gave you? This is the 'treasure'?" His portly partner questioned, while keeping a safe distance. Their gazes shifted down to the roots encircling the sleeping girl and saw as they, too, began to glow in the same light.
As if obeying a silent command, the roots gradually withdrew from their grasp on the stone walls, slowly retreating towards the cocooned girl. When the last of the roots released their hold, the girl slumped forward, causing Erik to hastily drop his pendant and lunge forward to catch her before she hit the cold ground. "Seems so" he commented as he looked at the girl. She looked to be around his age, with pale skin and black hair that was held out of her face with a piece of sky-blue cloth that acted as a headband.
"Is she ok!?" Derk peered over his shoulder to get a good look at the girl. Erik shifted his hold so he could lay her down on her back. He placed his hand against her neck, surprised to feel a faint but present heartbeat. She was alive, but cold.
"I don't know how, but she's alive, for now. We need to keep her warm until the blizzard passes." He says while gazing down at her clothes. She wore a fur cape that looked too big for her and thought that it was the only thing keeping her warm out here. Under the cloak was a dark brown vested tunic with a long sleeve white shirt underneath. She wore black shorts, exposing most of her legs except for the calf height brown boots. He pulled her cloak closed around her body and took notice of the small bag at her side before moving to his own. He had swiped some extra furs back in Thieves' Cage in the event they were stuck in a blizzard like this. He flicked the fur so it would open fully before draping it over her for extra warmth.
"We had to look for something of Yggdrasil's right? Erik, this is it. This must have been the 'treasure' Torna thought she was coming to get. Why would she be a treasure?" Derk questioned aloud.
The situation was strange to be sure. Did the rumors of the pendant change as it switched hands? Or did she hold some sort of valuable that people had been searching for? The young man's thoughts briefly remembered the bag he had seen at her side. He would have to be sure to look in it before they dropped her off anywhere. If he took anything now, he ran the chance of her finding out his theft before they parted ways.
He was a thief, but he had no intention of leaving her to die in the snow.
He glanced outside of the stone shelter, the harsh winds made it impossible to see very far, but he could still see the fading light of the sun through the snow, it would be night soon. "We'll have to sleep here tonight, she's got my extra fur, so we'll have to share yours. We won't be able to find any wood to start a fire right now."
Derk's face flashed a look of shock "We're staying here!? Wouldn't it make sense to try and find a town or go back to the inn?"
"She'd freeze to death before we could get there. We'll have to wait out the storm before moving. Hopefully she'll wake up by then." Erik reasoned back to him. He looked back at her, concerned at her lack of movement. He wasn't even able to see the rise and fall of her chest that would usually indicate breathing. If it weren't for him feeling her pulse earlier, he would have thought her dead already.
"How do you think she ended up in those roots?" Derk thought out loud as he looked over toward her one more time. Erik replied in a matter of fact tone, "It doesn't matter, you can ask her if she wakes up. After that we'll bring her to the nearby town."
The cyan haired thief took off his cloak and put it on the ground next to the girl before laying on it to settle in for the night. Derk, having realized Erik was done talking about the subject, took his bag off of his shoulder and began to dig for the fur that would serve as their blanket for the night.
"Put your cloak on the ground next to mine, it will help to keep your body warm." The young thief added, eliciting a nod from Derk in response. When he got the fur out of the bag, he tossed it to Erik before moving to remove the cloak that sat on his shoulders. As Erik had instructed, he laid the cloak flat on the ground and tossed a spare shirt on top to serve as a makeshift pillow. Once both of the boys were settled, the cyan haired thief tossed the fur over the top of them and they tried their best to let their minds drift off to sleep. Hoping that the girl would awake in the morning.