Ocean Of Broken Dreams

The road wasn't easy to follow. Well, strictly speaking there was no road, but only vast icefields extended in every direction interrupted only by some trees. Nameless was surprised to notice that they were entirely made from ice. 'Are they alive or someone made them?' But obviously no one could answer this question. In the distance he also noticed some mountains. Extremely tall they pierced the cloudy sky above their heads.

"This is the Lost Spirit Mountain Range. It's impossible for a mortal to go beyond it." – Said Gherda in low voice. – "But there are always some people who try…and never return."

Noticing her gloomy expression Nameless didn't enquired further.

Nothing special happened during the first day of travel. In the evening they put on a little camp to pass the night. 'These warriors are sure taciturn.' Thought Nameless while being ignored for the tenth time. Even if the children were usually forced to grow up quickly to survive, he managed to always maintain some sort of imm.a.t.u.r.e curiosity and so kept on bothering the group with an infinite number of questions.

The sky was gradually darkening. The whole group was around a small campfire.

"Wolfs are coming." – Suddenly said one of the warriors and like to confirm his words a long and desolate howl sounded from the north.

*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOH*

Some of them immediately stood up and calmly went in the cold darkness. Nameless turned towards Gherda. – "Why are they going towards wolfs? Isn't it dangerous?"

The remaining hunters only chuckled before also heading the direction of the previous howl.

The woman seamed uninterested absolutely in everything that was happening right now and was calmly watching the flame in front of her. – "They want to have some fun. Just leave it be."

'Have some fun?'

"And you? Isn't you also a warrior like them?"

She looked at him. Her face impassive. – "You can say that I'm less…" – She paused for a second. – "…impulsive than them."

In this moment she looked in the darkness behind Nameless. – "Oh, some wolfs are coming this way."

"What?!"

"Well, it's not such a big deal for me…" – a creepy smile appeared on her face. – "…since it will be you fighting them."

Nameless stood still for a second before shaking his head fiercely. – "No way! Why do I have to fight them?!"

"Because if I start fighting them, you will be inevitably caught in my attacks." – Nameless was immediately taken aback. – "And for someone like you to be caught in my attacks signifies certain and painful death."

The boy could only frown and take out his dagger.

"That's better." – Commented Gherda from the side. Nameless concentrated his attention on the surrounding the campfire darkness.

*RAAAAWR*

A huge opened maw appeared from his left pouncing towards his face. He duked and in the same moment stabbed the space right above his head.

A cracking sound could be immediately heard, and some small ice shards fell on his shoulders. – "Good reflexes, Boy. I thought that this puppy will kill you. Fortunately, I was mistaken."

Ignoring Gherda's prize, he carefully observed the beast which attacked him. It was a massive two meters long white wolf. Its fur was frozen and formed a solid protective layer on its body. Suddenly the body shocked slightly, and the beast slowly rose from the ground.

'I can't give it more time to recover.' – Nameless dashed while stabbing forward. The dagger penetrated right in the throat of the creature which fell another time on the ground. This time forever.

"Take its heart." – Advised Gherda. – "It's pretty valuable."

Nameless ducked near the corpse and pierced it with the dagger. Even without knowing the wolfs anatomy, after some struggle he managed to take out something that felt like a rock. To a closer examination Nameless discovered that it was a transparent, slightly blue crystal in the form of a heart.

"What do I use it for?"

"Once you awaken your bloodline It can be a good energy source. Overwise you can just sell it for a huge amount of money." – She passed him a leather bag. – "Place it here."

*RRRRWWWOOR*

Other animal roars appeared near the campsite. Nameless sighed and stood in fighting stance waiting for more wolfs.

[…]

When the rest of the warriors returned, they found eight wolf corpses scattered around the camp. Gherda was still starring at the flame but once they arrived, she directly went to sleep. Nameless was already asleep for some time. He was hugging his dagger and under his head there was a leather bag filled with something. He was using it as a pillow.

One of the warriors examined the corpses and, surprised, glanced at Gherda. She didn't even bother to open her eyes. – "Don't look at me. It was the boy who killed them." – She slightly opened one eye. – "Or did you think that I could do such a crude work?"

A cold breeze touched the man's face and he paled. After a few more second a nearly unnoticeable cut appeared on his cheek. A drop of sweat went down from his forehead. Gherda slowly closed her eye and everything went quiet again. Other men didn't say anything but some of them threw a more respectfull glance towards the sleeping kid. All of them were thinking about the same thing.

'At his age, were I able to kill eight full grown frost wolfs?'

The next days were all the same. During the day they were walking towards the Holy City, in the evening usually some fight against the wild beast broke out, and then after midnight everyone went to sleep.

On the fourth day black city towers appeared in the distance together with a real road. It was made by many small, inscribed with glowing symbols tiles.

"This is a protection formation of the city. Only the frost king can control it. Now it's in automatic mode." - Commented Gherda in low voice.

The city walls were extremely high and imposing. Approaching the front gate their group started meeting more people. Some of them even politely greeted Gherda.

Just before the entrance they even found a small line of people. Everyone had to tell their name to a four-armed humanoid creature.

'That's…' Nameless suddenly thought that he had already seen this creature. 'In the last hallucination of the battlefield I had…I fought some similar things.'

"What is that thing?" – He asked the nearby warrior.

"It's a four-armed battle golem. Only in Holy City still know how to create them." – He proudly answered.

'Well it doesn't solve my doubts, but at least I can be sure that Kleid didn't recently pass through here, or there would be no golem now.'

It slowly arrived their turn.

"Name." – Asked golem with a screeching mechanical voice. – "Gherda Araignèe, and these people are with me."

When she said her name, some murmuring started in the line behind them and even some people who already entered stopped in their track to look back.

"Spider is here."

"One of these damn spiders is here."

"But they weren't interested in the position of the King."

"No! They were banned from the competition."

"Daughter of spiders…"

"Is she participating? Hopefully not."

Gherda completely ignored the whispering behind her and only snapped her fingers once.

*Swish*

On the right cheek of everyone who was talking about her suddenly appeared a small cut. It wasn't lethal o anything, but everyone went quiet. The silence was interrupted by the same robotic voice from before. – "Your Grace and your group may enter the city."

The streets weren't very crowded but still it was a huge change compared to white plains outside the city. There were some shops and small restaurants. The city, even if compared to Lamar-Tir is was practically dead, was living.

They found an inn to stay during their permanence in the city. It had a poetic name "Heavy Boar". The inn keeper was the perfect physical representation of the inn's name.

Their group paid in advanced and went directly into the single rooms. Because all the single rooms were occupied Nameless ended to share his room with Gherda.

Once they entered inside, she closed the door with the key. Then she sat near the window and pulled out her book.

"While we were walking here from the city gate, I overheard some conversations about some extremely powerful outsiders inside the city. They may be your comrades, boy."

Nameless was surprised and delighted.

"Chill out. They may be some other group of outsiders. Wait until tomorrow, when we will go to the arena. Probably they will be also there."

Nameless nodded happily.