Children Of Myths, Act One: Scotland

An icy desolation

TW: Suggestive content

The more the caravan got far from Fìor Tobar, the less spring-like the weather was. Soon they had to put on warmer clothes and cover the horses with blankets, they suffered as well.
Artica could bear the cold much better than the others, but she would give anything to have her winter fur by now. Maybe Evans didn’t lie after all, since it was full springtime but felt like January.

“Cover yourself, lad, you’ll catch a cold” Brendan put a thick wool blanket on Connor, who was blowing hot air on his hands and rubbing them together. “And your father will kill me if something happens to you” he concluded with a little smile, trying to play it down. Connor thanked him and wrapped himself in the blanket like a caterpillar in the cocoon.

“It’s actually a good think I forgot my razor home” He joked, getting closer to Artica which was tinkering with her axe’s blade to sharpen it “Look, my beard is growing again. At least my face will be warmed”

“You’ll have to wait at least another week to have a proper one even if short” She replied with a smirk while handing him a scarf “In the meantime, use this”

“Thank you, love”

The mountains were still far but the group of travelers could see menacing dark clouds in the distance, they looked so thick and dark no sunshine would even filter through, not that the situation was different in their current location. Looking up, it seemed it would start pouring any second.

Last famous words.

“THE HELL IS THIS? THE GREAT FLOOD?!” One of the hunters yelled while the horses galloped through the rain to find any possible shelter in a nearby forest.
“We’re getting soaked back here, Andreas!!” Brendan called “Found anything??”

The other man answered that the only place he could find was in a thicker part of the forest, but still, the rain filtered through the branches. Also, staying under trees during a storm was dangerous, especially with the frequent lightning.
Artica looked up the area with her eyes squinted, trying to come up with an idea as they got in that clearing… No caverns, no towns nearby, they didn’t have much of an option. Since the situation wasn’t bad enough, the blankets were wet, no way to warm up, if the Cult’s idea was making people die of pneumonia, it would work for sure.
The redhead looked at her hands and blinked, realizing something.

“Uncle I have an idea!” She exclaimed, rubbing her palms together. First attack aside, she had never tried making something this big before, but it didn’t hurt to try. After jumping to fly up, she started working her magic all around the clearing, going from a tree to another like a spider creating the web, only that it wasn’t silk strings, but thick icy slabs she gradually formed.

“Lad, ye’d better marry that lassie sooner or later” another party member elbowed Connor with a knowing smile.
That was a great idea, but as soon as she finished making that makeshift wide roof for the people, horses and wagons, she fell on her knees, panting hard.  “Fuck” She groaned while holding her spinning head. Standing up was out of the question, she felt too weak to even move a muscle, having never used this much magic all at once. Brendan shushed and sat beside her, she did more than enough and needed to catch a breath.

“Please, tell me there’s something still dry” the bearded man watched his fellows rummaging into the wagons and sighed in relief as they pulled out dry blankets and clothes that were kept inside wooden crates for any inconvenience just like this.

“This solves one problem… But it’s still freezing” Making a fire would be ideal but most of the wood was wet and no flint or rubbing sticks together would work on drenched wood.
The only option was staying close together and cover themselves, even bringing the horses close to sit so they could also share body warmth with the travelers.