The two were an odd pair, to say the least. We ‘hung out’ by just sitting next to the fire. It turned out some shops on the little plaza were providing the wood from their stores and sold meat and vegetables on sticks to passersby for grilling. Many of them greeted us and a few of the younger ones tried to feed or pet Foxy. He was miffed but I was grateful they were approaching him instead of me. With many of the dwarflings also giving him a snack, he refrained from complaining. It could not have been too bad.

Brilda held a stick in her paws but only warmed it up to chew on the crispy wood. There was a small pile next to her. She asked me if I wanted one but wood was not my preferred meal. We talked a little about the small things in life and how much it improved after joining society. The largest hurdle was communication but thanks to [Telepathy] that could be overcome. The duo freaked out a bit when I showed them my supersensory matrix.

“That stuff is dangerous. You’d better learn the Skill for it.”

“Right. How would I go about that? Do I need a certain aspect or something?”

The wolf regarded me as if I was stupid.

“Just try to replicate the feeling. Minor enrichment is necessary but that’s about it. I managed to do it without a teacher but it took me almost two years in which I could only try to talk. My mouth really isn’t made for that, let me tell you!”

“Took me not even a month with his help”, Brilda nodded.

I hummed non-committally.

“Well, if you’re leaving tomorrow, that’s still too long, huh?”

“I won’t be gone too long. And I’m staying in the wilderness until I find how the forest comes back so there’s no need for [Telepathy].”

With that, the topic was settled and we returned to small talk until the sun started to set. I decided to follow the two to their home. Once I returned, I could pay them a visit as well. They lived in a small house with a few small modifications to make things easier for the animals. While only a little smaller than me, their limbs were not suited for dwarven architecture. They had smaller steps on their stairs and lower handles on the doors. The inside held a mostly even mix of dwarven furniture and something more suited for them. Furs and pillows to sit on, a lowered countertop in the kitchen and a shower that sprayed water in an upwards arc to hit more of their long bodies at the same time. It was very cosy.

I still decided to say goodbye after a bowl of tea and returned to the merchant’s inn. Everyone was in merry spirits as preparations for tomorrow’s departure had been finished already. A lot of ale went around along with meat, bread, cheese and fruits. I was just making myself a cup of tea as Droy came into the shared kitchen.

“There you’re, Fio.”

He slurred a little. With a big grin on his face, he started to approach. It was easy to dodge his simple attempt at hugging me.

“Ah, com’on! Just wanna hick hug!”

“You’re drunk. And you smell.”

“I do. I smell juicy, tasty… mmmeat!”

He slumped to the ground leaning next to the stove I was making my tea on.

“Ahhh. That’s better. Say, you really wanna go north? ‘s cold and lonely there…”

“I do. I can come back anytime I want.”

He snorted.

“Right, wings.”

The half-hearted flapping motion he made was quickly cancelled as some of his ale dropped onto his clothes.

“Nooo! Not the alcohol!”

I watched him empty his mug in a single large gulp.

“Now’s safe!”

I nodded and pet his head with a shadow tendril as two others finished pouring the hot water on my tea leaves.

“Hey! Hick Not fai- feels good…”

The dwarf slowly sunk into a state of bliss and his eyelids started to droop. I was just wondering if I should bring him to his bedroom as his sisters came in.

“Hah! Look, told you he’s dead out drunk!”

Sylvie was way too loud for my sensitive ears. Luckily, I had an easy solution. I put some shadows over them and strengthened the sound dampening for myself.

“Damn, this useless boy. Hey Fio.”

I nodded at them as I took a sip from my tea.

“Let’s get him fresh!”

That turned out to be a slightly messy affair of dropping a few handfuls of snow down the back of his shirt. The dwarf jumped up with the cold water spraying everywhere. I shook off the few drops that landed on my feathers and soon we were sitting in the common room with everyone else.

Servin looked to be the least drunk of them all and was right next to me. He turned and eyed me for a good minute before finally starting to talk.

“You know… you’re a good dwarf. Owl. Whatever. I think, we’re really lucky t’ve met you. I mean… You’re just way smart. I got no clue why. Like, weren’t ya just in town for a month? And never b’fore that? You’re just… great…”

He kept rambling for quite some time and I only half-listened. It was nice being complimented but he almost sounded like he was courting me. And there was a lot of repetition. I was honestly just looking for a way to get out. The party was draining my social batteries fast. It took until Servin finally got to his point that I found a way to leave politely.

“You see, here.”

He was pointing at a primitive map he had scratched into the surface of the table with a knife.

“That’s the route we’re taking. If you’re ever close by, come check on us. I’ll treat you to some’ing tasty. Aight?”

I nodded. The route went through five cities and then Borsdown and Trade Town. The merchants usually took six months for one pass but had been delayed this time. That was why they had decided to stay in Serrington until the festival. This way they could make their next round to the city just before Stormbringer was passing by again.

“I will. Thank you”, I sent.

“I believe it’s time to get some rest, now.”

The dwarf eyed me for a few moments until the information had caught up to his brain.

“Right. G’night. See you t’morrow.”

With that, I found my quiet in the girls' bedroom and tucked in for the night.

The next morning came quicker than anticipated and soon the merchants were packing their last belongings on the wagons. I watched from the roof protecting the vehicles from the weather. It had snowed some more but there was only a small cover of a few centimetres on the road. With the high coachwork and sturdy wheels, they would have no problems moving through the winter. They had also made sure to leave enough space in the wagons to not have to spend the nights outside.

Soon, everyone was ready and the wagons started to roll out one after the other. The siblings waved to me from theirs and I gave a hoot in answer. As they disappeared down the street, I followed them through the air until they reached the City Wall. With another hoot, I took off into the crispy winter air.

My flight took me high and then north, towards the trail of destruction Stormbringer had left behind. From up here, I saw everything was covered in snow. Only the streets in Serrington had a few dwarves clean up after the festivities and shovelling the white from the main walkways and streets. Outside, and even on the fields, everything was pristine. The silence was near-absolute with not even a small wind rushing past. I took a deep breath, in and out. It was time to explore.

The trail of the dragon was much less noticeable than in summer. Still easy to spot, but much less destroyed. The trees still stood, mostly, and there were very few corpses still around. It was mostly just bones with a few spots of red here and there. The wyverns had already made their way through.

I dropped lower and sharpened my senses. Mana was in the air though less heavy than I would have expected. There was a hint of ice and weather mana all around. The closer I got to the ground, the less prominent it was. Instead, I found a weird combination of order and life mana slowly getting stronger.

I circled a few times, trying to find the cause. The trees were frozen deeply and very little energy came off them. Instead, it was seeping out of cracks in the ground. All over the place, the dirt had been packed tight from the winds and snow. Then the water freezing inside had broken it apart like expensive chinaware. I landed on a tree and had to catch myself when the branch just pulverized into tiny shards beneath my talons. The icy mana bursting from it chased me back into the air. There was a lot of energy here.

Landing on the ground turned out to be safe, at least. I strained my ears, listening for anything moving around. Maybe something was still alive. After almost half an hour, I gave up. The only noise I heard was a branch breaking under the weight of snow pressing it down. I decided to walk along while observing the energy flowing through the cracks. It was indiscernible where it came from but the order and life mana slowly chipped away at the ice energy contained in everything. I even saw it flow into the blades of grass and other small plants covered by the snow. This required further investigation.

I carefully freed a small patch of grass from the white crystals. It was very close to one of the cracks in the ground and on the edge, one of the still-frozen plants was regaining a little colour. I carefully observed for a few minutes but only saw the life spread slowly into the plant.

Next was a basic experiment. I formed a few tendrils of shadow and held one to the still frozen grass. Nothing happened. Until I pulled on the plant with my magic which drew a little bit of the ice mana out of the grass. Quickly, a surge of life mana rushed into it. I checked on my flux. The ice mana had completely turned into the negative energy. I might be able to restore a few square metres of life like this before passing out. The amount of mana was too little to reach my Core so I would not even get anything from it.

I decided to try a different approach. A tendril went into the crack and I carefully pulled on the mana coming off it. I could easily absorb it but once again it quickly turned into flux. Less of it, but still too much. So I connected the same tendril to both grass and crack and pulled the life mana into the plant. To my surprise, it somewhat worked. The life mana filled up the plant and started to restore its energy while pushing the ice mana to its edges. Then, a fine outer layer of frozen grass popped off in a small explosion. The plant was still alive underneath but I could watch it freeze to death from the cold weather within a few minutes. This was not quite what I expected but still interesting. My best hypothesis was the life mana restoring any destruction Stormbringer brought. Though even if that was the case, which required some long term observation, I still had no idea what the order mana did or where any of them came from. If they were underground, maybe there was a node there. Though it would have to be incredibly powerful to have this kind of large-scale effect on the surface. I could not wait to uncover the truth.