Enar woke up in a large, empty tunnel. It stretched out as far as the eye could see, each side ending in what looked like total darkness. The light yellow walls went diagonally upwards, meeting at the top at a vertex, making the tunnel a triangle shape. It was a large tunnel, the corner roof appearing to be as tall as 10 masts from a frigate, and small torches lit up along the tunnel, still leaving large areas of darkness.
Enar stood up and looked down each path.
"Hello? Is anybody there?" He yelled down the dimly lit corridor. It echoed multiple times with no response.
Knowing that standing there wouldn't help him make any progress, he began walking down the tunnel, his spear in his hand in case anything were to ambush him.
After walking for what seemed like an eternity, he heard a small whisper. It was impossible to make any sense of what it said, who it came from, or even what gender they might be.
"Komotume..."
Enar thought that's what it said. He didn't know what language it could be or if it was even a language at all, but it was all he made out of it.
As he continued to hear it, it grew more and more distinguishable
"Komotume... Komotume... Komotume..."
It continued.
"Komo Tume... Komo Tume...
He began to recognize it more
"Kom homtume... Kom homtume"
Then it clicked
"Come home to me... Come home to me..."
The voice became crystal clear, a woman's voice. She was sad, possibly crying. She pleaded to Enar, repeating the same thing as he felt tears sting his eyes as well. He didn't know who this was, who was speaking, but the familiarity was so great, so pleasing. And then, as if he had no control over himself, he spoke
"I'm coming, I'm coming home to you..."
His vision began to get blurry as his legs started to give out. He felt tired, very tired. He fell down, and the ground felt cold, but soft. Rather than stone, it felt like he was lying on a cold blanket, crunching beneath him as he drifted off into a deep sleep...
He gasped as he woke up, back in the cold area the seperated the lowlands from the highlands. The wolf, who had been sleeping, lying his head on Enar's lap, woke up too. Despite his panicked state, he felt at ease with the canines presence, though he should have been scared. He brushed his fingers through the fur on the wolf's hair, scratching his head. The wolf yawned and closed it's eyes as his head was massaged.
Enar then remembered what happened and quickly got up, running over to Eske. His brother still lay in the snow, the only thing moving was the fur on his clothing, which moved with the patterns of the wind.
Enar knew that he learned to accept losses in the Iron Claw, but it still seemed so painful to lose his little brother. The wolf walked up next to Enar and stared down at Eske.
"I should have been able to save him... But I failed. How can I continue this journey, knowing I couldn't even protect my own brother. We were supposed to complete this together..."
The wolf looked up at Enar momentarily, before leaning over towards Eske and licking the boy's face.
Enar was a bit confused. And then he realized that this wolf had came to protect him for a reason. He was suddenly questioning everything that recently happened.
And as if all that wasn't enough to confuse him, Eske groaned in the snow as his eyes squinted and looked up at Enar.
"What... what happened?..."
Enar instantly bent over and picked up his brother, hugging him tightly as he held back tears.
"Eske! The wolf must have woken you up!"
The wolf panted with his tongue out, and Enar pulled him into the hug too. Behind Eske, the tree he hit was slightly splintered. This must explain the cracking noise.
"Please let go... this hurts..." Eske said in pain.
Enar let everyone go and Eske laid back against the tree.
"Can we keep him?" The boy said.
Enar looked back over at the wolf, which looked back at him, still panting.
"...I think that's a good idea. But he needs a name."
"Look, he already has one."
Enar looked at Ekse, then looked back at the wolf. On his chest, under the fur, something gleamed. He removed the fur, and underneath there was a cold metal tag bound to it's chest. He ran his fingers across the engraving on the metal and read it aloud
"Kilda"
The wolf barked as he spoke the name. It seemed they had made a new ally. The wolf would surely prove useful in future battles given it's size.
"Also, you can shoot ice arrows?" Enar asked
"What do you mean? I can't do that. You must have been dazed from being rapdily beaten in the face." Eske said quickly, lying.
Enar laughed, "Yea, you're probably right... So, are we getting on the move soon?" He said smiling.
Eske looked up at him with remorseful eyes.
"I don't think I can walk..." the tired boy said.
Enar looked scared and confused. He didn't know what to say or do.
The wolf walked up and laid down next to Eske, resting while Enar thought. Then it popped into his head.
"Kilda can carry you! Once we reach our destination, we'll get someone to heal you!"
Eske's face lit up with hope at this proposition. That broke Enar's heart, knowing that his brother could have possibly been crippled for life.
************************************
************************************
Gunther watched the blizzard drift by, seemingly drifting from nowhere and over the land. He was lucky that they had slowed down, knowing that if he would have went any faster, he would have been trapped in a blast of ice, snow, and hail. Sidra and Valya simultaneously climed onto the peak themselves, looking past Gunther and seeing the sight for themselves.
"Goodness, what could have caused such a sudden disturbance?" Sidra inquired.
Gunther's face grew even more serious as he stroked his small beard. He knew what had caused a storm of this size, for he had seen similar occurences multiple times. Only now, it appeared to be getting more dangerous as the days go by
YOU ARE READING
Blizzard
خيال (فانتازيا)Enar is a boy eager to impress. Since a young age he had hoped to become greater than his father, the chief of his small village. He will soon learn however, that he may not just outdo his father, but maybe even the Aesir.
