Cold Hearted

The Danger

Third Person

The snow-covered ground crunched under Nokk's strong hooves as he valiantly pulled the cart along, the two passengers in the cart looked up and around the icy trees and the ice-covered creeks and the occasional pond. The forest leading up to the North mountains was plentiful with life of all sorts, small snow bunnies hopped along with the wild reindeer which would scatter into the trees at the sight of the cart but would be lulled at the presence of the spirit. Not even Elena herself was aware of the calming effect she had on the forest which began to show more and more liveliness the longer the forest sensed her mere presence. But that wasn't the only thing in the forest sensing the human presence, for humans didn't normally wander up the North mountain range due to the treacherous climb and the dangers lurking from the past.

Elena was vigilant as the two worked their way up into the northern mountain range, occasional breezes of bitterly cold wind would fly by and send shivers up Harry's spine but besides that, the wilderness was still. The rivers and occasional streams were all frozen, the trees were adorned with glimmering white snow which covered the rest of the rolling landscape. It was a winter wonderland, something Elena adored as they ventured deeper into the unknown, and yet despite all the scenic views, she couldn't get the bad feeling out of her mind.

Harry was nice and calm however, only feeling a slight feeling of dread that he was able to tuck away, but he did feel that Elena was a little tense. Her constant looking behind and around them said just that, she was nervous. So nervous that Elena had pulled a certain necklace out from being tucked in to hold it tight in one of her hands. Ever since Harry had put the necklace Elena's father was planning to give to her on her birthday all those years ago, it had been tucked in but she hadn't taken it off. Whenever she felt overly nervous, she'd take a quick peek at her dad's picture inside the locket. She didn't know why or what was causing her intense nerves, but Nokk and his constant jigging told her he was nervous too,

"What's on yer mind love? Ya seem a little off"

Harry said in a warm, inviting voice as Elena steered Nokk through a creek, she sighed and could only shrug for a moment,

"I don't know, the farther up here we go the more... anxious I'm getting and I don't know what's causing it which ultimately is only making me more paranoid"

Harry hummed out of concern and snugged his arm around her shoulder to attempt to make her feel better, but not even that did it. She was too tense to even be calmed down,

"Well, we haven't had ta face possible death yet, so that's a plus"

Harry said with a light chuckle, one that for once didn't even spread to Elena as it normally does. They continued on further, deeper up the mountain range with Elena constantly on guard and Nokk showing more and more signs of anxiety. Elena did eventually chuckle a little bit, for Harry was right at that. Possible death hasn't come up yet and they've been on this journey for a few hours now.

Elena perked up at the sight of a small wooden sign dangling from a tree branch above which swayed slightly in the wind, the old hinges holding the sign up squeaked which is what got Elena's attention in the first place. Her keen, alert ears got her to look up at the sign just as they were about to pass it by, Elena drew Nokk to a halt and narrowed her eyes at the snow-covered sign. Harry looked up to it as well and knew very ahead of time that Elena was going to want to see what it said,

"Hold on bubs, Harry I wanna check this out"

Elena said to Nokk and Harry consecutively before hopping out of the cart, Harry promptly followed after her as Nokk stood nice and alert, not even bothering to put his head down and try to find some form of grass under the snow, he was too tense to eat. His ears stayed perked, he continued to scan the area and watch their backs all on his own. Elena walked underneath the sign and knew she had to clear from snow, but by simply putting her arm up she realized there was a major height issue here. She tried to jump up a little bit, but that wasn't doing it that was for sure. Harry chuckled a little bit and immediately sensed how she was trying to figure out how to clear the sign by how she was looking around in search for a long stick to knock it with,