Roaring and growling as it sprayed forth from the cliff, the avalanche tumbled onwards, some falling upon the downed Hanians, most of it missing and landing beyond them, wedging them in against the base of the cliff.<\/p>\n
Some of their belongings were not so lucky, with Canere\u2019s pack having been struck by a large chunk of ice that had fallen from the lip above, landing barely away from where he had lain. Crushed as it was, food and blankets and the like were probably retrievable, but some of his more valuable spellcasting item were almost certainly gone.<\/p>\n
By the time they had dug themselves out from the snow, the light was failing, and while almost all of the items buried in the avalanche had been retrieved, a cold wind had picked up, whipping through the long valley of the mountains and scouring the slopes, the temperature plummeting with the fading light of day. It was clear that shelter was a necessity, for otherwise it would be dangerously cold. And one of the items to be broken was the rods that held the tent aloft.<\/p>\n
Scouring the land surrounding the cliff, Ira led the search for a place that could hide them from the cold. Only after the sun had dipped below the horizon, and the cutting wind become into a scything knife, did she find an appropriate abode: a dark mouth buried against the face of rock, low and with an overhanging stone.<\/p>\n
The deep cleft ran back into the mountain, turning as it did, narrow and dim, and the three squeezed into it, grumbling all the while.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo now we don\u2019t have a tent?\u201d Yaden scowled as he peered at the opening of the cavern, almost hidden by the dim night.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, the tent cloth<\/em> is fine. It\u2019s the rods that hold it aloft that are broken. I\u2019m not much of a hand with crafting things, but I\u2019d suspect between us we can make replacement fitments with the daylight.\u201d Much as it would have been helpful, Canere\u2019s magical capabilities did not extend much into the realm of creating or fixing items.<\/p>\n \u201cI can probably manage the matter, although the carven branches will be heavier than the light rods that came before.\u201d Ira was eyeing the dagger that was strapped to her form. Not an ideal knife for whittling, but it would serve.<\/p>\n Yaden snorted. \u201cIn other words, just a delay. Which this blasted valley seems full of. How many days are we going to have to spend trudging back and forth across this? Our food isn\u2019t going to last forever.\u201d<\/p>\n At that, the arcanist\u2019s face fell. \u201cI wasn\u2019t thinking of that, or else I\u2019d have felled the winter beast. We could have frozen its meat and used it as food.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOn second thought, maybe starvation is a better option. You\u2019re suggesting we eat something like that? Uncertain magical beast meat?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere aren\u2019t too many entirely natural creatures that can survive the cold and the lack of food this far north. There\u2019s certainly some, but we\u2019re on the very edge of their territory, I would suspect.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo random magical beast meat will sustain us. That\u2019s lovely. I always wanted to explore new avenues in cuisine that involved possible poisons.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s okay Yaden, I\u2019ll be more than happy to eat your share.\u201d Ira grinned at the roustabout. \u201cToo much meat might add muscles on your frame, anyway. You\u2019d lose your waifish looks.\u201d<\/p>\n A little glowing bee that buzzed around Ira\u2019s head and kept settling on the tip of her nose was the answer she got. Annoyingly, any attempt to swat the creature did little more than send it skittering about again, until Canere and Yaden were both chuckling loudly at her antics.<\/p>\n Although when it dove down her shirt and began trying to tickle her there, the glare that she shoot Yaden was enough to make him end the spell.<\/p>\n Moods restored, the three of them hunkered down for the night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Roaring and growling as it sprayed forth from the cliff, the avalanche tumbled onwards, some falling upon the downed Hanians, most of it missing and landing beyond them, wedging them in against the base of the cliff. Some of their belongings were not so lucky, with Canere\u2019s pack having been struck by a large chunk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[60,4],"tags":[19,62],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-bH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":99,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=99","url_meta":{"origin":725,"position":0},"title":"Standing Alone","date":"April 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's another flash fiction piece, 445 words in length. I appear to be getting a little shorter the more of these I write. I hope you read, enjoy, and comment. I stood alone against the ravening hordes. My companions had fled, and I faced down the screaming, slavering numbers on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":438,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=438","url_meta":{"origin":725,"position":1},"title":"A Thief in the Night","date":"February 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A tile clicked under Thia's foot. She cursed, and held still, her eyes searching. A glint. She dropped, rolling off the edge of the roof. The landing hurt, her ankles howling in pain. Thia ignored them and ran. A left, two rights, straight, then dive through a window. A thud\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":724,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=724","url_meta":{"origin":725,"position":2},"title":"The Journey North – Part 4","date":"June 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The three friends glanced at once another with bemused expressions, ones that changed as the shock of combat wore off from grim focus to delayed surprise, and thence to laughter. \u201cReally, Canere? You fired sparks at its butt?\u201d Ira, by now, was laughing, her whole body shaking, even as she\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arhosa"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":395,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=395","url_meta":{"origin":725,"position":3},"title":"Breaking an Empire#10","date":"December 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The tenth installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. Gwyth was breathing heavily now, his blade stained\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":481,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=481","url_meta":{"origin":725,"position":4},"title":"Almost Made It","date":"May 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Promotion sucked. Sure, the gear was better, but the missions nearly killed Jenny each time he did one. He'd been created as an organ replacement for some fat old rich man, and now he was mostly replaced. From the waist down, he was cybernetic. Medics had saved what they could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":373,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=373","url_meta":{"origin":725,"position":5},"title":"Breaking an Empire #7","date":"November 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The seventh installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. A week south of Falna, and the first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}