Chapter Forty Three: The North Village

  The adventurers woke up and saw the beautiful mountains before them. They were in a very low mood. They had lost almost everyone the night before.

  Only Redran, Ogden, Jason, Freya, Nathaniel, the cat, the Samurai and the Shark man remained. They mounted their horses and started to walk slowly north. They followed the road out of the grassy plains and into another forest. The trees here were tall. Snow began to fall around them. The ground became icy and frost-covered. They started shivering, Their armor got colder and colder.

  They walked a long way up the mountain, eventually the road disappeared beneath a thick layer of snow. They left deep footprints in the soft white powder. The carriage and horses moved slowly uphill. They followed a fence that had been built on the roadside. The fence was half-buried in thick snow.

  They rode their horses for a while. Then the sun went down. They camped on the side of the snowy mountain. They broke some pieces off the carriage to start a fire, they huddled for warmth as a group the whole night. They barely slept. When the sun rose, they started walking. The incline was too steep to ride, so everyone walked beside the horses.

  The snowy winds became fiercer and they walked into a snowstorm. Redran knew there was a village outside the temple, so he kept scanning the mountainside for the stone houses that belonged to the villagers.

  He spotted one through the storm and shouted.

  “There!” Redran said. “That’s the village.”

  They walked further into the village and were frightened to see it was deserted. There were no fires on, and no lights. Redran looked around him, confused. He had been here before. The village was normally bustling with farmlife, wooly cows, tamed chickens. There was normally a huge bonfire burning in the middle of the town. The bonfire instead was cold charcoal. Something was wrong.

  Redran saw a figure ahead of him. In the darkness he could see they were dressed strangely. They didn’t have any warm clothes on. The person was very thin and also hunched over in pain. Redran walked over and touched the figure. It was a very thin woman, her skin was pale and glossy with ice. She turned around and Redran was shocked to see her eyes were ice blue. They glowed gently. The woman looked up at Redran and opened her mouth. Redran saw black rot, and disgusting teeth. She snarled and tried to bite Redran on the arm. He was shocked, he walked back a few steps and then cut her across the shoulder. He sliced into her and almost split her in half.

  “Guys…” Redran said to his party. More shadowy figures appeared out of the snowstorm. They walked slowly, some were limping. They surrounded the group of travellers and started moaning.

  “Cold,” one of the locals wheezed.

  Jason pulled out his sword and it caught fire.

  Freya pulled out her brother’s sword.

  Ogden raised his fist, and his new guard’s sword.

  Nathaniel raised his sword.

  The samurai pulled out both of his katanas.

  The shark man pulled out two swords, and held one in each hand.

  Dominic jumped into the carriage to hide.

  The frozen attackers lumbered slowly forward. They only attacked with their jaws, as if they were animals.

  Freya was attacked by three tall men. She stabbed the first one in the chest, and then kicked out his leg. He fell. She sliced the head off the other two in one motion.

  Jason stabbed a villager with his sword and they caught alight, as if they were made from paper. He used his sword to slash another one across the chest and it died and fell face first into the snow.

  Nathaniel was surprised by a teenager who tried to grab him. He kicked him back and stabbed him in the chest, and then pulled his sword out. The teenager fell to the ground and started crawling.

  None of the villagers made any sounds of pain, they simply exhaled their last breaths in soft moans.

  The Shark man attacked a group of three by rolling into them. He jumped and tackled all three into the snow. He quickly got to his feet and used his blades to slice their necks while they were on the ground. He smelled their meat and decided not to eat it. They smelled rotten.

  Redran killed three more in quick succession. All went down in a single blade stroke each.

  Ogden started blasting the villagers with explosive fire blasts. They quickly fell and most were knocked a long distance away.

  The samurai was able to kill four of them, he beheaded the last one and it’s body fell to the ground next to the head.

  They fought another ten of the cursed villagers, and then everything went quiet. They were all cold. Redran inspected one of the corpses. Inside of the soft, rotted flesh, long red worms started trying to leave the bodies. The worms crawled into the snow, and started looking for anything warm. They felt the flame from Jason’s sword and inched towards the heat slowly. Redran was curious. The corpses all had worms now ejecting themselves from the corpses.

  Freya started freaking out. Jason got goosebumps. He quickly put away his sword and the worms got confused. They started sensing heat elsewhere. Some of them returned to their host bodies to hide from the cold, and some started inching towards the alive party members.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “We need to go.” Lord Redran said. He got onto the carriage and insisted everyone else get on their horses. They left the frozen village behind them.

  They walked further north, seeking the temple. They had planned to stay and rest at the village, but instead they pressed forward. A massive growl gave the adventurers chills.

  Lord Redran looked ahead of them. A fierce, giant polar bear stood in their path. The polar bear had icy blue glowing eyes and was stabbed full of arrows. It had a terrifying face, it was missing half of it’s face. One eye and one ear remained. The red worms could be seen devouring the bear from the inside.

  The polar bear stood on two legs and smacked one of the horses driving the carriage. The horse bucked and started to stomp the polar bear. Lord Redran transformed into a wolf and jumped on the massive polar bear. They fell lower down the mountain. The polar bear howled and chased Redran into the snow, down the side of the mountain. They disappeared into the snowstorm. Redran made it to a cliff and stopped. The polar bear behind him snarled. The other adventures approached. Lord Redran made a choice. He jumped at the bear and tried to push it off the cliff. The bear took a big bite of Redran’s leg and the pair of them tumbled off the cliff.

  The adventurers standing at the top could not see the ground due to the snowstorm. They watched as Lord Redran fell out of sight. They heard a wild whimper as the beasts struck the ground. Jason closed his eyes and knelt to the ground. He said a prayer and they slowly returned to the road. They walked slowly up the mountain. The snowstorm was fierce and everything was cold. They shivered.

  They found a cave and stepped inside. The cave was part of the road. It was very tall, but did not have a lot of room. They barely fit the carriage inside. The cave was attached to a giant stone bridge built into the side of the mountain. There was another cave on the other side of the bridge.

  The bridge, unfortunately, was destroyed. They could see the rubble and ruins buried under snow hundreds of metres down. They needed a new idea.

  They decided to stop and rest. They ate a small meal of bread and chocolate and started a fire, again, using wood from the carriage. They sat in the cave and rested. They were safe from the snowstorm here. Jason decided to sleep.

  When Jason woke up, there was a commotion. Nathaniel and the Shark were plotting ways to get across. The shark man was getting ready to throw a rock and a rope across the gap.They’d found an oddly shaped boulder. Jason decided to watch, as he didn’t have any better ideas. The rock missed and the entire rope sailed down off the cliff after the boulder.

  Nathaniel laughed for a brief moment.

  “I give up.” He said. “Does anyone else have a plan?”

  Jason looked at the carriage. Maybe.

  A few hours later Jason, with help, had carefully deconstructed the carriage. Jason used his hammer to nail the boards together. After a short while they had created a very rickety wooden bridge. It was only three boards wide, but it would carry one person at a time across. They gently lowered the bridge across with a rope they’d made from caravan supplies. The bridge worked.

  Nathaniel looked at Dominic.

  “Do you mind going first, and testing it?” Nathaniel asked Dominic.

  “You want me to test the death trap?” Dominic groaned. “I knew you were going to ask me to do this. Okay, fine.” The brown tabby cat looked down at the drop below. He gulped and started to walk across. He barely moved the bridge with his tiny weight. He made it across and started to boast.

  “Ohh yeah, baby. I’m the best,” the feline said.

  “I’ll go next.” Jason said. He started walking out over the bridge and it creaked and groaned with every step.

  Next, Freya walked across. Her footsteps were lighter and much quicker than Jason’s

  Ogden came next, he was thin and wiry. Nathaniel walked across after, and then the Samurai. The Shark-Minotaur was stuck. He was definitely too heavy to make it across. Instead, he simply took a very large run-up and he jumped. He almost made it to the other side but fell short. He gripped the rocky wall a few metres below the rest of the adventurers. The Samurai offered to lower his body and the shark, panicking, grabbed the samurai’s legs, and then bit his thigh out of fear, locking his jaw around the man.

  The asian man cried out in pain, but Jason, Ogden, Freya and Nathaniel pulled them both up off the cliff. The Samurai winced in pain and Freya began to heal him with a spell. It was able to be healed effectively, but it still hurt. The Samurai was quite angry, so Sharky apologised and hugged the Samurai.

  They had made it across the cavern.

  They walked through the cave and found it was much larger. They wandered through a narrow corridor and then emerged into a big cavern. A small cave high on the wall opened up to the outdoors and let in some light. The adventurers saw a giant stone door in the wall of the cave. The snow temple.

  They had made it.

  The temple door was closed, and skeletons lay dead around the door. Nathaniel walked closer and the door opened.

  Four frost mages walked out carrying large steel axes. They were all silver haired men. They wore silver armour with wool underneath. They saw the travellers and noticed they were not threatening.

  “Why do you come here?” One of the frost mages asked.

  “We come on behalf of the Castle of Flowers, and the King who rules over those lands.” Jason said. “Our lands have been ravaged by a dragon, it destroyed my hometown. The king has tasked us with bringing you South.”

  “We need you to freeze the dragon’s brain.” Nathaniel spoke.

  “A necromancer. Ahh, how curious.” The frost mage spoke,

  “The king is willing to trade your services for lordships and land.” Jason said.

  “We could definitely use a change of scenery.” The Frost mage said. “How is the village? It is not far from here? We destroyed the bridge years ago. They had begun attacking us at the temple. We found vile, disgusting worms in their bodies. The villagers were unable to die, but they were no longer living.”

  “We… Took care of them.” Jason said.

  “Good.” The Ice Mage said, with a look of sadness on his face. “Come inside, we have much to discuss.”

  The adventurers went inside the frost temple, the giant stone door closed behind them.