𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐒 ✯ 𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑎 𝑥 ℎ𝑜𝑔𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠 ✓

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

❉━━━━━━❈✾❈━━━━━━❉

𝐀 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐆𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐃 through the opening as Caspian, Edmund and Peter pushed the massive rock away. The layer of snow reached almost till their heads but it collapsed without the support and the snow tumbled into the How like a small yet fierce avalanche.

Edmund jumped aside to avoid the freezing wave, abandoning his spot by the rock and nearly colliding with Peter as he did so.

The High King smiled in amusement but still grabbed his brother's wrist to pull him further into safety as the snow skimmed with only a few inches distance rapidly past his heels.

The others fled to the sides of the cave as well and when the snow slid to a halt, Darkan walked a few steps through it and stared up the slanted path leading outside.

The sun had disappeared below the horizon and in the deep purple sky, hundreds of tiny stars twinkled as the moon lit up the snow in a silver glow. At the other edge of the meadow, the branches of the trees moved gently in the wind and though it all looked peaceful, it was going to be quite the challenge to get the horses out of the How.

'Are we sure we want to do this right now?' Noelle asked Caspian when they had both made their way over to Darkan and had followed his gaze up the path.

'Maybe it would be best to wait till tomorrow morning?' she continued, but Caspian shook his head.

'I don't want to lose any more time,' he said. 'We could reach Cair Paravel by morning, and who knows what the weather will do in a few hours.'

Darkan felt the exhaustion of not getting enough sleep last night tugging at the edge of his mind, but he still grinned excitedly and sprinted towards his horse Sunfire. The dappled grey stallion whinnied softly and Darkan stroked his velvety muzzle before leading him by the reins to the opening.

'I'll go first,' Darkan volunteered, shaking some dark hairs out of his face before making his way towards the top of the path.

The snow reached till over his knees and engulfed around the horse's legs. Soothing words left his lips as Darkan encouraged Sunfire to follow him and occasionally he had to use his body weight to push the stallion by his flank further up the path.

After a few struggling minutes, they had reached the snow-covered meadow and the chests of both man and animal heaved after the effort.

'Not a problem,' Darkan said with a loud voice after he had caught his breath. The sound of his voice carried far through the still air and he tried to push his nerves away as he felt too exposed here without the shelter of the walls.

Caolán and his horse were next to come out of the How and Darkan helped with the last few meters when the horse threatened to slip all the way back.