Permafrost

16: Wind

⭐️Chapter 16: Wind

The group of four continued down the path. They had no other place to go, and yet they also needed to find their friends. Nobody had taken Talon's map as promised, since it was her only one. The only thing leading them was the path, which was still eerily quiet. The group would've been talking with one another, but not only might it attract unwanted attention, but it could also lead to more arguing amongst the group if words were not carefully chosen.

It was strange, seeing the forest around them covered in snow. They had never been out this far, but they had seen forests like this before. However, those times were in the summer and usually never in the winter. It was ALSO odd because the leaves on the trees were still green and intact, even in the deciduous ones. The snow magic or whatever it was didn't change the season with it, so the combo of white and green made it look very strange and yet unique.

They saw no wildlife as they trekked on, only trees, snow, and those other plants. They would occasionally stop if they thought they saw something though. Having gone through a different part of these woods before, they knew that many unevolved species still lived here, and even though it was cold now, they still had to be prepared for any force that came at them. Any noise they heard that sounded like something moving made them stand on edge. So far, nothing has come at them, making the repeated cycle of them being startled over and over again rather uncomfortable.

Ryn begun to drift into her own thoughts, since the path was mostly a straight line. She remembered all those towns in between Talon's place and the Frost Kingdom, but now that she didn't have the map, she had no way of knowing where they were. She knew her team was dependent on her, and even if they weren't, she knew she would have to build a better trust with them if she wanted to get their help. After her cheerfulness from yesterday hadn't helped, she been wondering what else she could do. She knew her teammates wanted her to be herself, but...sometimes that wasn't what she wanted to be.

"Ryn, watch the tree-"

Ryn initially didn't hear it, but upon piecing together "tree" and the fact she was staring off into space, she snapped out of her thoughts and stopped right where she was. Looking up, she saw that she was indeed, about to run into a tree, and was only inches away from it. She sighed a breath of relief, glad she hadn't hit it.

"Thanks, Jack" she said.

She backed up with the rest of the group, who had stopped. Ahead were two paths. There weren't any suspicious looking things down either of them, in fact, nobody could see down them. There were only trees and snow. Ryn looked at her teammates, expecting one of them to say something, but none of them did.

"Any opinion on which path to take?" she asked, turning around.

Cosmo shrugged.

"Should we split up and go down each path in groups of two?" Silvia asked.

"While I would say yes, no because we literally JUST got back together. We can't risk splitting up again, even if I really want to find out which one of these paths would be better" Ryn replied.

Jack glanced at both of the paths.

"So...are you picking a side, or...?"

"Well no, I was hoping you guys might have an opinion?" Ryn said.

Jack shrugged.

"To be honest? I don't really know what side to go down."

"Me either" Cosmo added.

"Aww come on! I was hoping you all would have an idea, at least!" Ryn exclaimed, half whining.

"Ah, w-well, If you really would like us to choose, we will" Silvia said, now worried about her friend.

Ryn sighed, a little frustrated.

"No, no...if you guys really can't, that's okay. I'll do it..."

So with that, Ryn focused on the paths ahead. Left or right, this was up to her. She would decide their fate. She wasn't sure if she was up to the task, but she had insisted. She listened carefully to each path, in case there was something down each one. One sounded like water, and the other only sounded like trees gently swaying in the wind.

Of course, the natural instinct in her told her that she needed to avoid water, yet the other, more daring side of her told her to pick that side. She continued thinking, weighing out each option. If they went towards the water, they could risk hurting themselves, but it would be nice to see what was going on over there. But what if Thrash showed up and threatened to dunk them in? Hmm. What about the other side? What did that have to offer?

Well, all Ryn had heard was trees, so that could mean anything. For all she knew, it was a bigger risk due to not knowing what else was there. Then again, what did they have to lose at this point? They could certainly try this path. She told the group that they were going to go down the one that sounded like there were trees down it. Nobody objected, so down they went.

The path consisted of trees as expected, but it also consisted of some stones covered in snow. It seemed like a continuation of their original path, but now the sky was more open, and the group could see the beautiful sky above. The trek continued without a word again, as it had been, and the only noise that came from them was the crunch of snow from their shoes on the ground.

It had started out pretty nice. There were occasional bird chirps or wind whistles. It was hard to believe that this was the peaceful stuff that came from the Frost Army appearing. Although, nobody had a clue as to why it spread all the way out here. Sure, this forest was basically part of their town, but was all of it...fire connected? They remembered Talon had said something about a Fire Kingdom and how the Ice Kingdom was fighting it, and that was why they came to the places the Fire Kingdom owned and destroyed them.

They had no way of guessing, but it was a fun thought that occupied them as they walked. And walked. And walked...on and on. Without any conversation amongst eachother. Simply because they had nothing on their minds they wanted to discuss.

All of them slowly got bored...It had been at least two hours now, and everyone was tiring. They had stopped to rest a few times, sure, but now they were starting to tire from the whole walk. Besides, they needed a place to stay soon. They were climbing up a snowy hill, hoping to find something on the other end of it. If there wasn't anything, they'd probably stop here for today and try and find a makeshift place to stay.

"I don't know...how long...I can keep walking for..." Jack groaned.

Silvia turned to him.

"Don't worry, I'm sure there will be something up he-"

"Hey guys! Is that a house?"

The group looked up to see that Cosmo had gotten ahead of Ryn somehow and was now on the top of the hill, pointing outwards.

They turned to look at where Cosmo was pointing, and sure enough, at the bottom of the hill...

Was a wooden log house.