Saviour of Neither

10 - Freumhan

It takes two days just to arrive at the border of the country. I thought the journey from Hilsbury to Magairleag was long. This journey, however, I find a lot less dull; listening to Nora and Chester's chatter and anecdotes is entertainment enough. Who knew the coach driver could be so talkative?

"Really!?" Chester gasps at some point during the second day, waking me from my nap. "You've ridden a dragon before?"

"It comes with having a speciality in understanding animals." Nora says serenely. "I've befriended kraken before, which incidentally saved half the fairy population as they were threatening to permanently flood their coast."

"Can you let me ride a dragon someday?" Chester says excitedly, and this is when I realise the voice is above me. "Wait! Adrian!" he ruffles me on the head. "We can ride dragons together!"

Am I leaning on him? Did I actually fall asleep on his shoulder?

I shoot bolt upright and turn beet red. Nora laughs out loud.

"This is not funny!" I hiss at her, thoroughly embarrassed. And to Chester: "Why didn't you push me off!?"

"Your head's really comfy." is his immediate answer. I blush harder and glare reproachfully, resolving to avoid him for the rest of the day.

Obviously, I am not the only person accompanying on this journey; Oscar Whitton, who seems to be Chester's personal advisor, is coming with us, as well as a doctor in case something goes astray whilst we're in Klochstein. Her name is Louise Carpenter, with golden hair cut to the shoulders and honey-coloured eyes; she is fidgety but perfectly agreeable. Her favourite hobby, apparently, is to watch clouds, and knows a surprising amount about weather patterns.

For a doctor, anyway.

"We picked a bad time to visit Klochstein." she tells Oscar, two days after we had crossed the border. "See those clouds over the sea over there?"

We look; indeed there are a few fluffy cotton buds hanging over some islands.

"Those volcanoes over there are going to erupt. There'll be a storm arriving soon with the northernly wind."

"We'll be fine!" Chester says dismissively of her concerns. "I can sort it with magic."

"Those volcanoes were created magically as the gateway to hell, home of the Demons. Any weather that arrives from it will also be magically charged, so good luck."

Louise is also very well read in geographical knowledge.

Klochstein's landscape is very different to Ceatha Tor's; I am more accustomed to fields and forests and wind-swept moors, the odd hill and valley here and there. The vast majority of the trees are deciduous, with proud oaks and silver birches and rustled willows, the surrounding riverbanks littered with catkins in spring.

Instead what I am faced with are mountains. Lots and lots of mountains. The jagged landscape is peaked with snowy caps, and the base of the mountains are carpeted with pines and ferns. Wolves and bears wander freely here, residing in slate-grey caves carved into cliffsides over thousands of years. Brooks splash down into ice-cold gorges; hares scamper about without giving us so much as a glance. It is strange how nature in Klochstein integrate so easily with the civilisation.

None of this particularly shocks the others, presumably because they've already paid several visits to the Dwarf Country. It doesn't stop Oscar from pulling out his sketchbook, however, when we rush past a particularly magnificent waterfall, so much that it forms a small rainbow of sorts.

His artwork is rushed but full of life; he's already drawn a stag, a beaver and a pair of hares.

"Those are very good." Nora says casually, looking over whilst he sketches. The usually surly man burns tomato red before slamming the book shut.