Book of The Lightborn: Rise

The Frozen Passage

"The storm is approaching, we should move on. That "forest" is not too far now."  Eraanel, a Lightborn with a slight yellow glow said. His right eye looking in the East, his left eye missing, covered by his hand in an attempt to regenerate it.

"Is it safer though?" Felemous, a Lightborn with a slight blue glow and a missing arm asked. Lightborns all around sitting down, tending to their wounds. "It could be just like the Frozen Passage, another lure." he said in spite, looking to his left, Orvus crawled up in shock.

"It doesn't matter." Manna added, she was taller than all of them now, her glow stronger than before, as she stepped between them and forward, looking at the road ahead and the looming storm. "If we stay here, a lot more will die. We don't have the power to keep the storm away, there's not enough of us." she continued, a good part of them now missing. "And even if danger is waiting, I can protect us. Not even the beast would put a scratch on me now." Manna said as she looked at herself, then changed her gaze towards Orvus, reaching with her hand for his shoulder from some distance. Her limbs were now much longer "Isn't that right, my cowardly brother?" she inquired, her eyes full of spite and powerful sparks.

A sun and a half ago

 "We've been going for two suns, how far did you say it is?" Eraanel asked. His eyes looking for an answer at Orvus.

 "Another two suns and we'll be there. Do no worry brother, soon we'll touch on new, more promising lands. I promise you." Ovus calmly answered, he was now less desperate but a lot more cautious. They've been walking for four days now and no sounds, only that of the waves and the occasional thunder in the distance. Or the large plates of ice slightly shifting under their weight. That would normally calm him some, but there were absolutely no sounds. When he first walked across the passage, some birds with six wings, a large beak with a large portion at the bottom and three eyes, that he named multiwingers, would soar the sky and sometimes plunge into the sea, catching smallfish. 

  A species of fish which had small hooks onto which others from their species would catch on and swim together, forming clutters of them. The largest clutter of them that Orvus had seen was the size of a small hill under water. The multiwingers were natural predators of the smallfish, as the smallfish were of the multiwingers. The multiwingers are plunging for small groups of them, but if the clutter was larger at the bottom than the top, it would trick the multwinger into trying to grasp at more than one could lift. That effectively made the multiwinger try to pull more than they could lift and the smallfish could swim down, wetting their feathers and trapping them on or under water. The smallfish would then unhook from the main host and savagely attack the multiwinger. Some multiwingers used this as an opportunity to gang on the smallfish. A truly visceral dance of life and death.

There were other critters, some which you would see on the pieces of ice which formed the passage. Walking orcas, timing their attacks on smallfish or clawsquids. Some were just resting above water, like greenwhales and fishbears.

On their road so far, Orvus didn't notice any of them. Smallfish, multiwingers, walking orcas, greenwhales and so on. That placed a great deal of worry onto Orvus, who now paced at the front faster, trying to make everyone walk quickly without raising suspicion. But those which were more experienced in hunting, did notice the faster pace. It was similar to an animal which knew something is not alright. With that in mind, no one really wanted to press this issue onto him, as they trusted his judgement, except for Manna that is.

She was walking by his left, as usual, when she put her hand on his shoulder, grabbing the spear with her left. "What's going on? Are you okay?" she worriedly asked.

He jumped a little at her touch, some panic could be seen in his eyes "What? Yes, of course. Everything is fine and good." he was lying, trying to hide his fear.