Sol holds his breath. Right beside him, the girl watches as his expression turns darker by the minute.
"Are you okay? Is everything alright?" The girl's words cut through the unsettling silence that has now befallen them on this warm winter morning. The air is thin and bright.
Sol doesn't really know what to say.
"I… I'm not sure."
He moves to put himself in front of the girl. He doesn't realize what he's doing. His body just moves on its own.
His right hand tightly clutches the wooden grip of his flimsy dagger.
He knows if the Nhiven or the Garm find them, that will be it. He might be fast, but he can't win against a force of nature.
Or even worse than that, it could be Rahzar and his party.
Sol's eyes move. He senses another movement, but his eyes show nothing. His perception is clouded by too much white on white in his field of view. The cold carries sound strangely, a tick of ice, a hush, then nothing. He can only rely on his other senses to make sure this thing doesn't get the jump on them.
"We have to move downward, towards the river. It's going to be quite a long walk."
"I'm okay with walking!" Not really realizing the dire situation they are in, she smiles brightly.
Sol exhales a little. Some of the tension eases, but not all. Somehow, the girl's smile lets him calm his nerves.
_Guess there's no other option, we gotta go downward sooner or later, might as well do it while the sky is clear._ Sol tries his best not to let his worry be seen by the girl. If she sees his grim expression and panics, things are just going to be more difficult.
He scans again, trying to ascertain whether this thing is really there to murder them both.
He finds nothing. The danger comes and passes like a shadow. It feels as if something came to kill them, then changed its mind.
It's no longer there.
With that out of the way, Sol exhales a full lungful of air and takes a careful step through the thick snow, moving towards solid ground. The last thing he wants is for the snow to start moving again while they're still on top of it.
Might as well move now, while it's safe, he thinks.
The field is almost entirely white. The only other colors he can see are the tops of the pines and spruces, and only the tops of the trees. The air smells faintly of resin and cold stone.
Sol has been here before multiple times with the younglings, and if his memory serves him right, there should be a tunnel system towards the west that connects to the river down below. From the river, he just has to follow it to get to Elm. It might take him a couple of days, but it's relatively safe, as long as they steer clear of the hibernating bears and the pack of wolves still roaming about.
The sky has cleared up beautifully, a clean blue that contrasts with the white snow and the dark shades of the Stake that surround them both. It takes them almost an hour of nonstop walking to find the entrance to the tunnel, safe from the avalanche.
Sol stands right in front of the dark, gaping maw of the tunnel. The natural basalt stares at him, the stalactites and stalagmites look like fangs of a massive creature when perceived from afar; from up close, it feels more… _normal_. Cold air breathes from within.
The tunnel carries a faint current of air that Sol knows connects to a larger cavern, which in turn connects with the river, Dalmas. He just has to follow this scent, and he is confident he can.
He finds himself unable to move his feet forward.
What has transpired in the last twelve hours or so suddenly hits him all at once. The exile, the solitude, the Nhiven.
He looks at his damaged clothes. The holes expose him to the cold, but he still feels like he can move forward. But should he? The village exiled him by putting him inside Rahzar's party. What would they do if they found out he's back there, with a human girl in tow?
It doesn't really matter whether the girl is a normal human, or a natural-born sorcerer, or even a maegi. The fact still remains that he got booted from the village, and there's a high chance they will kick him out again, or perhaps kill him on sight if they see him approaching the village gates.
The Law dictates it so. An exile, the result of a crime, has to stay exiled. But what crime led to his exile?
Existing?
He looks at the girl. She stands right beside him, feet bare. It seems nature doesn't really affect her, somehow. Her white dress looks dry, her feet look fine, as if she hasn't been exposed to snow for the last twelve hours or so.
She's looking at the tunnel with eyes that glimmer with excitement. "Whoaaaa. The tunnel is so big."
She looks towards Sol. "Do you go to these types of tunnels often?"
"Uh, no, not often. I just know that this one leads to the river, and from the river we can go towards my village."
"How did you know that?"
"I've traversed this tunnel before, with my frie—" He stops abruptly. He has never thought about this before, but what if the other younglings don't really see him as their friend? "I mean, the other younglings from the village."
"Where are your friends?" There is no malice in her question. Sol knows she is just curious.
He delays his response a bit. "At the village, I imagine. They don't really have any reason to go out, especially after the heavy snow."
She goes silent for a moment, just for a couple of seconds or so.
"My name is Nia."
Sol looks at her face with a dumbfounded expression. He realizes they never introduced themselves to each other.