The Awakening of the Ancients

I. Frozen Wanderers

The wilderness breeds emptiness. Empty feelings. Empty minds. Empty stomachs. I stalked through the trees like a hungry fox, the valley eerily silent save for the soft thump of my boots through the freshly fallen snow. On a fuller stomach, I would have paused to appreciate the beauty of nothingness and the peace of stillness. Had it been a brighter day, the sun would have shone over the mountains and made the snow sparkle through the bare trees.

But I didn't have a full stomach and it wasn't a bright day. I heard a sound caught somewhere between a snort and a grunt and locked eyes with the source.

I normally like animals. But I didn't feel bad about hunting. Here's the thing: boars are fucking mean.

As if to prove my point, this particular beast turned, scraped its hooves against the snow, and charged---tusks lowered for maximum impact.

I planted my feet and raised my hand above my head. I called on the dark energy that swirled in eddies around my feet, and it climbed up my legs, to my waist, to my arms...

I hurled a black fireball at the boar's face. Bullseye.

The boar halted, squealing. It shook itself. Bits of purple flame glowed in its singed hair.

Then it charged again.

"Damn stubborn animal," I seethed. I lobbed another bolt.

The flame smacked it in the face again. The boar stopped once more and seemed to be pondering its next move.

I worried it would run away. The beast had irritated me enough that, at this point, it was dinner.

I took a deep breath and focused. Black energy coiled up my body like a serpent prepared to strike. Little help, I asked of the spot in the back of my head.

An obliging surge of energy poured into my hands. I let loose.

A veritable meteor of energy came crashing down on the brute. It flopped to the ground and lay still.

"Finally," I breathed.

~Bit overkill, was it not?~

I glanced out of the corner of my eye at nothing. I was annoyed.

I heard laughter.

I paced to the boar and examined the body. It was blackening as I watched. I quickly heaped snow onto it to put out any invisible flame. Salvageable. A bow and arrow would have been more efficient in terms of meat preservation.

I half-dragged and half-carried the boar toward my hideout within the nearby mountainside. It was a modest cave, the back of which was tucked just enough into the stone that I could shrink away from most weathers.

~We should go exploring.~

I frowned at the strangeness of the suggestion. We are exploring. We're exploring survival situations.

The voice giggled. ~Nooo, silly! Up north, in the human kingdoms.~

There are no kingdoms up north. Do you even know where we are? One hand dragging the boar, I swept the other to the black trees and frozen ground around us.

~White mountain land?~

The Frosts, I corrected.

~Then what is north?~

I assume Telthaion, unless we're still under Solmire. For sure we're not still near Midahn.

~Let's go there.~