I didn’t think there was anything ever in this entire green earth that was even shittier than sand. And holy crap I was wrong.

Have I ever been cold before? Well, maybe once before during Frostfall when the season turned and there was…well…frost and maybe some snow dumped all over the hills and fields and meadows and whatnot. And maybe I bitched about it then, too, but then it had only been a passing irritant, clinging to the outside fibers of my thick winter coat, barely rising to the challenge of touching my insulated heat. Cold sucked, sure; but I tolerated it. It was livable. It wasn’t actually hell

But now?

Pa told me his “home” was up north, or his “domain”, or something like that. Obviously it was going to be in the place where I had never investigated before, never having any other reason to go passed the mountains. And, of course, it was going to be the absolute worst place you could possibly plan a herdland. Because it was balls freezing.

Like.

My fetlocks were soaked and done because of all the snow, because snow was a thing up here apparently, even in the dawn of spring-time. And there was pretty much nothing green, nothing to eat or piss on or anything, and since there weren’t any trees the wind could cut right through you as it damn-well pleased. And the ice. It was everywhere; sleeked over the stems and branches of tasteless shrubs, sheeted over water in thin panes, making the dust and the dirt sparkle with tiny little ice crystals. Hanging from ledges like pointy cleavers ready to whack your ass in two; huge cavernous spaces made of nothing but ice, with icy walls, icy ceilings, icy floors in some cases. It was fortunate that I was by myself, so no one could see me very-nearly bust my ass all out once or twice—not that it made this place any less shitty.

Jeez.

“This is awful,” I gritted to myself—shocked when my voice echoed far louder than I had intended, bouncing off the blue walls, ringing against the ice. It provoked my impishness, the combativeness festering in my chest that had been growing ever since I stepped over the invisible border of “reason” into a frozen wasteland of suck. I drew in my breath, and indulged myself: “THIS IS AWFUUUUUUUUUUUUL!” I screamed loud and raw-throated, oddly satisfied by the way it clamored and clanged all the way down the tunnel, almost tangible, certainly causing headaches somewhere in outer space.

Okay, playtime was over. I kept walking. Looking for I-didn’t-know-what.



@[Ulrik] and anyone else!




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