The sheer pain of the cold jolted my eyes open. All around me was snow that went up to my knees, making it incredibly difficult to walk in my current attire. I went to take a step forward and somehow managed to jam my foot against something and trip.
"Ow!" A voice called out beneath me.
I raised myself up and saw Akari beneath me, "glad to see a face I recognize."
The two of us stood up and looked out at what seemed to be an endless snowscape. I did, however, manage to catch a glimpse of tall structures in the distance. Although it was only for a brief second, I could still manage to tell that they weren't buildings. Regardless, being there might be more beneficial than standing out here in the middle of the open.
"The island didn't look like this in the distance." Akari's comment broke me out of my concentration.
Akari wasn't wrong. Considering how the last thing I remembered was being dragged away in violent waves, we very well could have ended up on a different side of the island. Or maybe even a smaller island that was closeby. This wasn't a location I recognized on any map so it still must've been a part of the forgotten island.
Do you think the others are safe?" Akari asked, rubbing her hands together.
"Up northward I saw some structures. It might not be a bad idea to go and check them out." I said, pointing at where I managed to see the structures.
Akari nodded, "it probably beats standing out here in the open. I hate the cold." Akari said that last part quietly before turning towards where I said the structures were.
"I specialize in ice magic but I can at the very least use a simple fire spell to keep us warm until we reach our destination." I said, flicking my finger to create a small ball of fire which would float around us.
The orb's heat was enough to tolerate the sheer cold of the area but not enough to say I was comfortable. Wearing this sorceress robe wasn't doing me any favors. Same issue could probably be said for Akari since she was just wearing a gi.
As we moved northward, I could finally see the structures again and this time was fully able to analyze them. I was correct in my assumption that these weren't buildings, instead they were these giant glaziers which reached higher than any building I had ever seen.
Akari suddenly pointed further ahead of us towards a small orange light glowing in the distance, "there might be someone over there. It would be smart to go check it out, yeah?"
I nodded, "yeah. Let's stay on guard though just in case they aren't friendly.
The two of us pressed on through the snow, leaving a trail which would only take a few seconds before new snow would fill in. Hopefully that light in the distance was a fire with a friendly person by it.
As the light in the distance grew larger, I could finally tell that it genuinely was a fire we were seeing but I could also see something else. There was a person beside the fire who was looking directly at us. It looked like they were also aiming something at us.
"Not one more step!" The person in front of us shouted.
The voice was that of a woman, not that it really mattered though. On closer inspection, I saw that what she was aiming at us was a crossbow that was pointed right at my head. To hit me from there would be insanely hard but I wasn't about to test my luck.
"Did we do something wrong?" I shouted at the woman, keeping my hands in the air as to try and show I wasn't going to try anything.
"More like this entire situation is setting off alarms. No normal person should be this far away from the village and I know the monsters can take all different forms!"
"Monsters?" I looked over at Akari.
"Why are you looking at me as if I know?"
That was a fair point.
"I can assure you we're not monsters! We both came on a ship and crashed here!" I said.
"Did you say a ship?" The woman asked.
"Yeah! We come from floor one of the tree if that helps."
"Alice, these people here have been separated from the rest of civilization for generations. I'm sure they've forgotten that they're within the World Tree." Akari noted.
"Oh right."
Despite what Akari had just mentioned, the lady in the distance lowered her weapon.
"I remember tales that my grandfather told me about how we were actually within a tree. No one else in the village believed him though so I'll choose to believe you."
Akari and I let out a loud sigh of relief before moving towards where the woman was. She was still remaining cautious but at least she wasn't aiming anything at my head anymore. When we finally got to her, I could observe who she was far better now that the thick snow wasn't clouding my vision.
"Well I'll be damned… you really are humans. And you said you came from a ship?" The woman looked at us up and down, finally putting away her crossbow.
"Mhm. We got separated from the rest of our crew" I stated.
"They may have landed on either the main island or the southernmost island where the thick forests are." The woman explained.
"Wait, so there's multiple islands?" Akari asked.
That would certainly explain why the island we saw before crashing looks nothing like the one we saw on the ship.
"It's not safe for you to be out here in outfits like that so I'll end my hunt and bring you back to the village." The woman said.
"Your hunt?" I asked.
"I'm the monster hunter for my village. You can call me Nizhoni."