672 Crack

Two more days passed. 

The short breaks the people took were filled with Reyan explaining all that he knew about the creatures guarding the Seed. His descriptions were vague and blurry, mostly because he spent his time fleeing the creatures rather than studying them. 

The humans were unsure if he was describing one type of creature or many, and the fairy did not seem sure himself. The one fact he could always agree on was that the beings were white. 

Which wasn't much help. Everything here was white. The ice was white. The bears were white. When the sun was in the right spot, even the sky looked white. 

Aurora sighed. She would just have to wait and see what the creatures were when they got there. And they would hopefully be there in the next two days. 

'At least the weather has been good.' Aurora was very thankful for small blessings. 

Isbora had told the Empress of terrible ice storms that sometimes washed across the plain. The frozen water reformed the landscape and clung to everything including the bear's fur. It was the only time the snowbears felt remotely cold. 

The humans would have been turned into ice pops. 

She watched the clear sky overhead as she clung tightly to Isbora's fur. The sun was so bright and blinding that there was barely a trace of blue in the vast expanse. 

Aurora shut her eyes against the blinding brightness. Laying down her head, the Empress felt the soothing warmth of the furry fire against her skin. It was all too inviting. 

Drifting off to sleep, Aurora dreamed of the skies at home. They were usually blue during the day, but in the twilight they could turn all manner of red, orange and purple. Clouds could turn the sky white, but not like the South. The icy world was another level of brilliance. 

The Empress was so lost in her dreams of colors that when she awoke, the world was already growing dim. 

"Did I sleep all day?" she asked Isbora groggily. 

"You've been breathing shallowly for over an hour." The bear used a human measure of time. Aurora wondered if she knew what it actually meant. 

The Empress furrowed her brow. "It shouldn't be growing dark then. We should still have hours of daylight left."

"We do," the she-bear slowed slightly as she spoke. 

Aurora felt the light fade even further. Her heart clenched. Something was wrong. 

Pushing herself up on Isbora's back, the Empress lifted her torso to where she could see above the she-bear's head. 

She did not like what she saw. 

Towering in front of them all the way to the sky was dense fog. It was still far off but growing nearer with each of the bear's strides. 

"What is that?" Aurora pressed her lips together. 

Isbora's shoulders tightened. "A storm." 

"An ice storm like the ones you told me about?" Aurora tried to take in the sheer magnitude of the white wall in front of her. 

"This is not like the ice storms." The bear growled something to those beside her. 

Aurora did not like the bear's answer, but it seemed like Isbora had given all the information on the matter that she was going to give. There was a more important question to be answered anyway. "Can we go around it?"

"I am asking the others." The bears passed around messages for quite some time. The storm loomed ever nearer, yet it was the company's movement that seemed to making the difference. The storm was...stationary?

At last, it seemed Isbora had some news. "Those that live closest to here say this storm always looms. They never have tried to enter it, but it is the only way to reach the seed..." 

'That would have been nice to know sooner,' Aurora thought. 'Why didn't Reyan mention it?' 

As they came within an arrowshot of the storm, the group came to a halt. 

"The bears say this is always here, Reyan. Why didn't you tell us we would have to go through it?" Aurora asked as soon as the fairy came near. 

The curmudgeon tilted up his chin from the back of one of the smaller bears. "It's been many years since I was here, thank you very much. And with the portalling we fairies can do, I've never actually been inside. It is barely a blip in my travel. I didn't give it any notice." 

Sadly, it made sense. Why would the fairy care about a barrier that had never been a barrier to him? 

"Well, do we all go through it?" Nurlan asked. He needed to know the orders to give his men. 

"We will all go through," Devrim decided before Aurora could. "We will need all the manpower we can get if we have to fight whatever is protecting the Seed." 

The Emperor was right. Whatever was on the other side of the storm must be very powerful for the torrent to continue to go even after the magic was dead. 

Unless the storm wasn't magical. But then…why wouldn't it move? There were no storms at all in the Land of Magic. Maybe the weather was special down here from some other force.

Aurora thought of the beings that guarding the Seed. The Empress hoped they were not responsible for the swirling cloud before her. She shivered.

A sudden influx of heat came from below her form Isbora. Aurora patted her friend lightly in gratitude.

"There is only one way to go then," she told the group. "Let us batten down everything on the sled before we go. I think the wind will take anything not tied down."

Using all of the ropes they had with them, the group secured their supplies as best they could. When the storm still had not moved any closer toward them, they also ate a quick meal and drank as much water as they could unfreeze.

There was no way of knowing how big the storm was. If Reyan could portal past it, then it did have a beginning and an end, but the distance he could travel in one blink was significant.

Once prepared, the group did their final checks. Aurora pulled her coat around her, tucking any edges underneath her body. The longer it took the frozen wetness to get to her skin, the better it would be for all of them.

Aurora only wished she had a covering to go over both her and Isbora to protect them both from what was coming.

"I'm ready," the Empress told the white bear.

She was wrong.

When they entered the clouds, the storm fell on them like a boulder. The wind whipped them with the force of a hurricane.

Aurora felt her body lift from its place. She entwined her fingers in the bear's fur and pressed her legs into Isbora's side.

Her injured leg screamed inside its brace, but that was far better than floating away into the white void.

For it was a void. Aurora looked up for a moment. She could barely see Isbora's ears from between her shoulder blades. There was no hope of seeing how the others in her group were doing.

It reminded her of being inside Dew Mountain but far more terrifying. Instead of icy dew, frigid snow pelted her from all sides at once.

'At least it isn't frozen rain,' Aurora tried to find a positive.

The cold pressed down, burning any part of her exposed skin. Not even the bear's warmth could save her from the biting wind.

Isbora struggled to move forward. With each step, she dug into the ice with her claws to find purchase. The movement was slow, but the she-bear continued tirelessly forward.

Nothing could be heard over the howling wind. Nothing could be seen through the blinding white. Nothing could be felt against the numbing cold.

All of Aurora's senses were robbed from her by the overwhelming storm.

Then one sound managed to penetrate the relentless scream of the wind.

A single, loud crack.