"Frozen Fury" Part 5
I wake up the next morning. Sestiva's still asleep, she must be a heavy sleeper. Kuve mentioned something about a frozen lake nearby so I go out of the burrow, make a fishing pole, tie a hook to the end of the string I add to my makeshift fishing pole, and dig up some worms. Turns out there's a little bit of dirt underneath all that snow and I was able to find some cold worms. They probably froze to death. I go out to where Kuve said the frozen lake was. I push my foot against the ice to test how well the ice holds, and it seems the ice is thick enough to hold me up. I go to the middle of the lake and cut a hole open in the ice with the blade of my scythe and pull it out to reveal some water beneath the ice. I put the worm on my hook and cast it into the water. In about what seemed like 2 hours, I catch 10 fish. It's a tedious wait but it's worth it. I notice the fish look weird. They're pretty ugly looking and they're a sickly green color. They also have a bit of an underbite. I decide to dub them Gobbler fish because their ugliness and their dorky appearance reminds me of Gobblers.
I take the Gobbler fishes back to the burrow and start a fire to try to cook them. Everyone starts getting up soon afterward, probably woken up by the smell of something cooking. Finally, I deal out the fish to everyone and we start taking bites. They're a bit on the crunchy side, but they were ok other than that. Kuve was wolfing those things down in one gulp. I wonder if Ice Wyverns eat fish. Death just sits back and watches as we eat the fish, since he doesn't have to really eat. After we finish and there's nothing left but Gobbler fish bones, we begin to discuss our audience with Arubolis.
"So how do you plan on getting us to Arubolis?", I ask, turning to Kuve.
"Well, there's no way we're going to get access into his palace with the many guards that stand out front. So I plan on creating a distraction," Kuve answers, "I have a friend who is part of an Evil Snowman cult. We can get enough Snowmen to come out not to do harm, but to create a necessary distraction. They will draw the attention of the palace guards, and when they leave their posts, that's when we go in. Once inside, we find our way to Arubolis's sanctum and request for permission to go to the mountains."
"Sounds like a decent plan."
We head out of the burrow and Kuve leads us out of the village. We go for a few miles until we find a hidden valley out in the snowy plains. In that valley are some igloos where there are some Snowmen there. Kuve takes us down the valley and talks to one of the Snowmen there, apparently named Malin. Kuve explains about the distraction plan to him. Malin nods and gets a group of snowmen, about 12 of them. We head back to the village and wait in hiding behind a small building near the palace. The palace, of course, is entirely made of ice. It's pretty large and consists of towers that are made like tall ice needles. There are 8 Colossi that stand guard at the front of the palace. We then see the group of snowmen charging through town and ravaging through the streets. They raise their daggers as they make the townscreatures scatter. The Colossi notice this and leave their posts to charge after the troublemakers. We wait a few moments to make sure they're gone and then run around the corner and enter through the palace doors. It's pretty nice inside. Hanging on the ceiling are icy chandeleirs that sparkle in the light. The floor is of cobblestone and the walls are, you guessed it, solid ice. We walk through the palace and go through several tunnels that lead to various rooms. We finally get to the end of one tunnel and spot two large, tall double doors. The doors are stone with the ice symbol carved in the middle. We stop in front of the doors and stand there in silence.
"Well, nowhere to go but forward", I finally say. We push open the doors and enter Arubolis's room. The first thing I see when I enter is a large dome of ice in the center of the room. The roof was cut out in this room to let the light pour in, I guess. The floor's covered with snow since it's lightly snowing in the room. Standing in the back of the room, looking at us is Arubolis. He flies over to us and lands just a few feet in front of us as his hooves from the pegasus half of his body crunches the snow. At first, he just looks at us until he finally says in a cold, ghastly voice, "Who are you?"
I don't think he has a mouth, or even a face for that matter since you can't see anything into his hood but darkness so I guess he is speaking to us telepathically. I introduce myself and the others. I wonder if he already knows Kuve, since he lives in this world. "We are here on a quest, and I ask if you would permit us to go to the mountains outside of this village."
He doesn't say anything at first but then he finally answers coldly, "I'm afraid I cannot allow you to go. The Ice Titans are resting in those very mountains and any one of them being awakened would cause great calamity. It is for this reason that I forbid you from going there."
"But it is because one of the Titans has awakened that we are going back!", I shot back, "Please! A great blizzard has swept across the spiral and if we don't return it to it's slumber, the spiral will be one giant block of ice!"
"And I don't suppose you have any proof of this?", Arubolis says.
Before I can answer, some of the snow around the dome of ice floats into the air and begins to swirl around the dome of ice, picking up speed as it circles around it. The icy dome begins to glow with a bright light and the light intensifies for a moment and then fades away as an image appears on the dome and the snow falls back to the ground. But it's not just any image, but a face, and a familiar face at that. We walk over to find Lady Judgement's face looking at me and Arubolis.
"Greetings, Arubolis! I know it has been a long time but circumstances have gotten severe!", she began, "Word has reached that Timothy was heading to Frostus. A massive blizzard has raged here in Sorceria and the deserts and village are engulfed in snow! The folk here are not used to such conditions and are freezing over, including me! I'm guessing that the source of this ice and snow is coming from Frostus, and I bet that's what Timothy figured out. I want to let you know that you should put your trust in him, and he won't let you down!"
After those last few words, Lady Judgement's face disappeared off the dome. After a few moments of silence I finally say to Arubolis, "You know Lady Judgement?"
Arubolis turned to me and answered, "Yes, we had known each other for years and we were well acquainted. We talked to each other a lot, until we both came to power. We haven't spoken much since. But regardless, I trust her judgement." He sighed before going on, "And I suppose that includes letting you go to the mountains. But if you are to put the Ice titan back into it's slumber, you will have to recite the ancient incantation. The Great Raven gave it to me after she had put them to sleep, in the event of one of them ever waking up." Arubolis began teaching us the incantation, and we listened closely because the incantation was a bit long. After reciting it a few times, we had it down pat. "Of course, you have to recite the incantation in front of the awakened Giant, so it will not work until you have reached that location. So now I give you my permission to go out to the mountains."
I looked back to the others to see that their faces light up as well as mine after hearing the news. Arubolis lead us out and behind the palace and to a set of gates there. There stood 2 Colossus guards and he told them to open up the gates for us. The gates opened and we thanked Arubolis as we walked through. It was quite the walk, as the falling snow intensified as we got closer to the mountains. We finally got to the foot of one of the mountains and began walking up it when the ground began to quake and I looked up to see large chunks of ice falling down the hill, heading straight for us....
To be continued...
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