Chapter 48

Hidden in the shadows of the hallway that connected the great hall with one of the meeting rooms in its back Gerdi moved as silent as possible and, due to her inborn talent for being silent like a ghost if she wished to be, managed to do so just fine.

After she had advanced leaps and bounds under her mentor's tutelage Gerdi, the only one of the students, had received a special mission and she had sworn to herself not to fail at any costs! After all, it was only thanks to her master's graciousness, that she was even able to experience this exhilaration she was feeling right now while sneaking past members of the mist guard that stood guard like stone statues, tense and ready to respond to the slightest movement in their vision.

But Gerdi knew they would not see her as she had become increasingly good at hiding herself and her intentions after living amongst former friends and family without those noticing even the slightest bit of her changes!

With a small grin, while shoving those distracting thoughts to the back of her mind, Gerdi rounded the last corner and could already here a few voices talk. A few seconds later she was, clothed completely in black with charcoal smeared around her eyes to hide the small flashes of skin, crouching in the deep black shadows of the wall as the torchlight provided in the room only illuminated small areas and thus hid her perfectly.

After making sure she would not be discovered Gerdi concentrated on the conversation and, just like she had learned, opened her mind and began to note down the whole conversation in her mind as if in a trance, all the while growing more and more disbelieving at what she was hearing.

"The preparations have been made. All we have to do now is barricade ourselves and wait for spring to arrive before our people can leave Jormag's territory for good!" A middle aged woman spoke as she was brushing a strain of her greying hair out of her face while all the other people in attendance either nodded or scribbled down something or the other on a piece of paper.

"How goes the preparation of our forces? Are our warriors ready? It is near certain that Jormag will send his troops once he discovers our plans to evacuate the Shiverpeak mountains and seek shelter in the south." Another person asked into the dimly lit room, someone Gerdi couldn't make out but judging by the person's voice must be a male, old probably.

"Pff, 'near certain' my ass! There is no way in hell Jormag is going to let us leave his grasp voluntarily! Here, in his territory and directly under his nose, the fucking wyrm is able to control us however he sees fit and could probably end our race if he so wished. Only the gods know why he hasn't done so anyway…" Another man, a warrior, Gerdi guessed by the outfit the man was wearing, replied back. Something about the man's voice seemed eerily familiar but Gerdi shoved that thought to the back of her mind, discarding it as unimportant information.

"Isn't that obvious Sjorn? Without us Jormag will lose all supplies when it comes to possible servants! Us leaving will blow a hole into the dragon's plans for sure. So? You haven't answered Erik's question. How are the warriors coming along?" The middle aged woman from before asked into the grumbles that were exchanged in between those that were present and sitting around the big round table.

"Calm your tits woman. If you had let me finish I would have told you by now…" The man Gerdi now identified as Sjorn replied back, which caused her and a few others in the room to chuckle slightly at the man's words, even though Gerdi tried to stay as silent as she could.

"How dare you…!" The middle aged woman grit out through her clenched teeth while Sjorn didn't seem bothered by her angry posturing even the slightest bit.

Instead he just continued to talk in his rough voice. "My troops are coming along nicely but they still have a long way to go until they are ready to face the ice creatures under Jormag's command. Well, our veterans probably could but we don't have many of those as most died in the long night 12 years ago. So you see, the sooner we leave these mountains the better!" The warrior answered and hit the desk before him to accentuate his point which in turn earned him cheers and applause from his fellow colleagues.

Meanwhile all Gerdi could do was sneer in contempt at the pathetic group of Norn before her. Her people truly had sunken far if they decided to run away from their destiny to join and serve under her master. But then again she could understand them a little bit as they stood against an ancient dragon and hadn't really had a chance to begin with…

Focusing back on the meeting Gerdi listened a little bit longer to the ongoing meeting with mostly logistics being discussed until she deemed the information she had found satisfying and began to sneak back out of the meeting room. She had a report to make after all…

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Veli was strangely feeling restless tonight. Yes, he had been restless rather often the last few months ever since Jormag decided to pay them a visit that one night, but usually those periods of restlessness subsided after he made himself a warm milk with honey. Tonight though that was not working even the slightest bit. Thus, in order get rid of the energy in his body, and with it hopefully tiring himself out Veli snuck out of his house and entered into the cool air of the night.

After throwing his fur mantle over his shoulders, and after letting the shudder the cold air gave him run its course down his back, Veli began to jog with his boots causing crunching sounds in the snow out into the night, all the while letting his mind wander as his feet carried Veli to wherever they felt would be good to go tonight.

On his nightly run Veli passed by houses with smoking chimneys, the smoke being the only signal that the long wooden houses were inhabited in the first place as no light was visible in the dark windows.

Soon Veli's feet carried the lad past the house of his girlfriend Brunhilde, the girl that had occupied his dreams most nights and caused quite a few messes under his bedsheets when he woke up in the morning. Shortly Veli played with the thought to break into her room through her bedroom window but not soon after that thought had sprung up in his mind shook his head at his own idiocy and increased his tempo to get out of this part of Hoelbrak before he decided to do something even more foolish.

Running past his training grounds Veli soon reached the market place and with swift strides had soon left the cozy little town square behind until he entered the part of the city where Alvar lived.

Veli didn't know how often he had run over to Alvar's house in the past, be it to meet his friend or just to have another safe haven if at home broke out another quarrel between his parents that had become more and more frequent over the years, and was always welcome with open arms.

Shortly letting his thoughts linger on his parents and their slowly cracking relationship, Veli realised that he probably only became who he was today due to his parents and his upbringing. That realisation set a few more thoughts into motion until he shoved all those uncomfortable musings to the back of his mind and returned to the warm and fluffy feeling Alvar's home had always caused inside of him.

Sadly, as Veli realised, even his safe haven wasn't without problems as Alvar and his family had been struck again and again by misfortune, one as horrible as the next. Strangely though that had never diminished the warm welcome he had experienced whenever he came to their house but he was glad for it none the less.

With a small smile Veli left his safe haven behind himself and ran down the small road that lead him into the direction of the great hall until he heard the faint sound of something hard impacting another hard entity. Now curious Veli decided to follow that sound until he came upon the sight of his friend Alvar practising once again on the wooden dummy.

"Truly, no rest for the wicked, is there?" Veli murmured to himself with a slight grin on his face and swiftly jogged over to his exercising friend. At least he wasn't the only one that was restless tonight…