Cassel's ragged breathing and swift strides were the only sounds echoing through the mountain. His desperate steps were muffled by the thick layer of snow blanketing the ground. As he ran at full speed, dodging the sturdy black pines typical of the northern Yagul mountains, the icy wind stung his ears and dried his distinctive gray eyes. His lungs worked overtime, burning with effort. He felt out of breath, a sharp pain stabbing beneath his ribs from the lack of air. He was beginning to regret ignoring Uncle Dann's constant advice to exercise every morning.
He couldn't keep up this pace. He had been sprinting across the treacherous terrain for a couple of minutes already. That terrifying creature, which had caught him off guard while he searched for his companion, was chasing him—and he knew with certainty that it was faster than him.
"I knew splitting up with Jean was a bad idea. Damn it!" Cassel cursed in his mind.
Growing more exhausted, his calves numb and sweat soaking his pale features, the young man made a decision. He couldn't keep going like this—he had to do something! A determined expression crossed his face. He filled his lungs, tensed every muscle in his body, and slammed his right foot into the snow, grinding to an abrupt halt. Quickly, he spun around, casting a bold glance at whatever might be there. He was going to face that dreadful creature!
Nothing. At first glance, all the young man saw was an endless, undulating sea of white snow and the sturdy black pines.
"Where the hell did that damned thing go?" he thought, relieved. "Did it lose interest?"
Cassel's gaze scanned the area carefully. His chest heaved heavily. With a trembling hand, he brushed the sweaty brown hair plastered to his forehead.
"Great, now I have to find Jean. We need to get back! Damn it! I don't recall Uncle Tian mentioning anything about that horrible thing living out here."
Cassel adjusted his leather boots, pulled up the hood of his heavy bearskin cloak, and waited a few seconds for his breathing to steady before setting off southward, down the mountain, far more alert than before.
Only a few hours of daylight remained. The young man knew he had to hurry; a snowstorm was likely brewing, given how the sky was filling with thick, dark clouds. He still had about thirty minutes of walking to reach the base of the mountain, where he had parted ways with his cousin Jean. He desperately hoped Jean had found something, at least a clue; otherwise, this adventure through the perilous northern territories of Mith would have been for nothing.
Cassel pressed on. He was starving. His leg muscles twitched, begging for rest. Frightening red veins streaked the whites of his eyes. He didn't dare close them; he was afraid. Thank the gods, his small leather canteen hadn't come loose from his belt during the earlier sprint—otherwise, things would have been even worse. His mouth was bone-dry, his body screaming for water, so he decided to stop and drink in the shelter of a massive black pine, one that would take at least seven people to encircle with their arms. The creature hadn't appeared in over an hour; it made no sense for it to still be stalking him, Cassel thought.
He reached the trunk, scanned his surroundings once more for reassurance, and, to his relief, there were no apparent threats. He bent his knees and crouched slowly to rest his legs while fumbling with numb hands to uncork his canteen. There was little left—less than half. He brought the spout to his lips and began to drink.
A fierce gust of wind startled him, ruffling his clothes and hair just as he finished quenching his thirst. With the wind came an intense scent that hit his nose. It was the distinctive smell of black pines: incredibly fresh, slightly sharp to the nostrils. A single inhale seemed to purify his nose, throat, and lungs, revitalizing him in an extraordinary way. It was an utterly blissful sensation.
Cassel, tucking the canteen back into his belt and preparing to resume his journey, felt renewed by the fragrance. But a memory of something his dear Uncle Dann had once said stopped him in his tracks. He recalled the day his uncle returned home and showed him an expensive wooden necklace from an auction.
"Cassel, lad, look at this—smell it. It's a black pine necklace. This marvelous scent comes from the oldest trees on the mountain, found only at its peak. They're rare and costly. It's dangerous to climb up there. This old man managed to snag it at the annual Cunin House auction! Ha, ha, ha! I snatched it right out of that stinking old man's hands!" Uncle Dann had said with a proud grin that day.
The memory left Cassel frowning.
"What the hell is going on here? I'm only thirty minutes from the mountain's base! This scent should only be found at the peak," he thought, confused, pausing to reflect. He was certain he'd smelled this fragrance before, and recently.
"I'm sure I felt this sensation and smell just a few hours ago…" Suddenly, the hairs on Cassel's neck stood on end. His muscles tensed, a tingling sensation shooting down his spine. His heart began to race, and a look of terror crept across his face. He remembered now! That scent! It had filled his nostrils moments before he encountered that horrific monster higher up the mountain.
"This makes no sense! It could've caught me if it was behind me this whole time! What the hell does that thing want?" the young man thought, frantically scanning every direction for the beast.
"I've got to get out of this damned place!"
Cassel, summoning all his strength, bolted southward. Unfortunately, panic and desperation betrayed him. After a few long strides, the several inches of snow beneath his boots caused him to trip and crash face-first into the mountainside. There, dazed and in pain, with the strong pine scent growing ever more intense, he lifted his gaze from the ground. Just inches from a massive pine, Cassel saw a sight that would change his life forever.
It was utterly surreal. The young man had heard tales from his elders and peers about creatures and people capable of things beyond common sense, but this surpassed any childhood fantasy he could've imagined. Beside the pine, from the snow on the ground and the sparse flakes falling from the sky due to the brewing storm, particles of frozen water began to gather, as if drawn to one another, slowly forming a shape.
The process mesmerized Cassel to the depths of his soul, rendering him utterly motionless. And so, before his eyes, the creature emerged from nothing. First, the outline of a skeleton. Then, as if sculpting a human figure from ice, legs and arms took shape. From the rounded hips and the mountain-like peaks forming at its chest, Cassel deduced it was a woman. Then came her face—icy, devoid of any living emotion, yet exquisitely delicate. Her beauty made Cassel forget to breathe for a moment. But just as he expected the transformation to end with a stunning ice maiden, he realized his mistake. From the lower back of the figure, a menacing tail studded with sharp protrusions formed, and terrifying claws sprouted from her fingertips, replacing her nails.
In that moment, Cassel realized he wasn't looking at an innocent mountain ice fairy. What stood before him was the terrifying beast that had chased him hours earlier up the mountain.
They locked eyes for several long seconds. The exquisite gray eyes of the ice woman completely captivated Cassel. It was strange—they stood there, amid the storm beginning to fall from the sky, like two old acquaintances who hadn't seen each other in years, neither knowing how to start a conversation.
A small snowflake landed gently on one of Cassel's open eyes, snapping him out of his trance.
"Wait a minute! She's not the same as the thing that chased me!" he thought. "Before, the creature let out a bloodcurdling screech that nearly shattered my ears the moment it saw me and charged with a terrifying expression. And its eyes! They were a different color—deep black pupils. And what's strangest, why is she just standing there staring at me?"
The young man had no idea what to do.
"Should I run? She doesn't seem to have any ill intent toward me."
Cassel's breathing began to calm; he was no longer as tense as before. After a moment of hesitation that felt like an eternity, the young man, still nervous, mustered what courage he had left from venturing into these dangerous lands and shouted:
"You! What are you?" he said. But he immediately seemed to realize his mistake, quickly cleared his throat, and, with a more confident tone, corrected himself:
"My name is Cassel. I'm from the city of Mith, about thirty kilometers south of these mountains. What's your name?" he declared with a smile that barely masked his nervousness.
No one answered. Cassel stood there in silence; the only sound was the rustling of pine branches whipped by the strengthening winds. Just as the awkwardness and tension reached their peak, the young man couldn't help but try again.
"Sorry… do you speak Akurian?" he asked. But once again, the girl responded with silence.
"Alright, I need to head down. My cousin must be frantic looking for me. Ha, ha! I hope we meet again someday," he said, disappointed, letting out a nervous laugh as he prepared to leave.
But this encounter was not destined to be a mere exchange of glances. As Cassel, feigning disinterest in the girl, took a few steps southeast to circle around her and continue down the mountain, the creature finally responded. Slowly, she placed one foot in front of the other. The simple movement froze Cassel in place. For some reason, he felt a piercing cold from the depths of his bones, rising from his toes to his chest, paralyzing him. Her first step led to a second, then a third, as she approached him. With each meter she closed, Cassel felt the temperature plummet sharply.
At a snail's pace, he watched the ice woman draw nearer, her gaze fixed on him. She stopped only when she was an arm's length away.
Gradually, Cassel felt a layer of frost forming on his skin. The cold pricked his limbs like thousands of icy needles. Standing so close, he could observe her more closely. Her long gray hair, reaching halfway down her waist, seemed untouched by the wind. Her crystalline skin, which appeared flawless from a distance, now revealed a detail that caught his attention. For some reason, it made his heart race wildly: he felt his blood vessels expand, his blood surging frantically.
"That on her stomach! Blood! She's wounded!" he realized.
As Cassel focused on the blood dripping from the woman's body, she seemed to make a decision. The menacing claw on her index finger vanished, replaced by a delicate, harmless finger. With it, she collected a drop of the red blood falling from her body and slowly brought it toward Cassel's chest.
The air around the bloodied finger froze completely; Cassel's clothes turned to nothing more than icy animal hide. Yet, strangely, he no longer felt cold. On the contrary, as the drop of blood neared his chest, he felt as if his body might implode. His pores opened desperately, his skin turning an alarming red.
When the woman's finger was about to touch his clothes, the fabric over his chest disintegrated entirely. A perfect hole appeared, as if the cloth dared not obstruct the path of that blood drop. Finally, the bloodied finger made contact with Cassel's body.
Cassel felt his head might explode at any moment. The burning sensation coursing through his body made him want to die instantly. It was as if thousands of drops of boiling oil struck him every fraction of a second. In his chest, something seemed to come alive. He felt strange movements within him; on the surface of his torso, something was emerging. His vision grew blurrier—he was on the verge of fainting. Thank the gods, he thought. But suddenly, a terrifying screech in the distance jolted him back to awareness.
"Damn it! That thing's here again! I have to run!" Cassel cursed inwardly.
But the reality was different: the torturous sensation still gripped his body. He was dizzy, nauseated, and couldn't move a single finger.
When he thought he'd be torn apart by the creature in the mountains, a glimmer of emotion finally appeared on the ice woman's face. A look of determination mixed with anger flashed across her features. She withdrew her finger from Cassel's chest, swiftly turned her back to him, and wrapped her powerful tail firmly around his body. She lifted him gently onto her back, as if he weighed no more than a feather.
There, on the creature's back, Cassel, slipping into unconsciousness, caught a glimpse of the thing that had chased him hours earlier charging toward them at breakneck speed. Its body was similar to the woman carrying him now, but its face was different—deformed, with grotesque black protrusions sprouting from its form.
"This woman seems to want to save me," Cassel thought with his last shred of consciousness. "I don't know what's happening to my body… I can't move… I'm so tired… Jean, help!"
And so, Cassel's world plunged into complete darkness as he rested on the back of the beautiful ice woman.