God of Discovery [high fantasy, slow build, mlm]

Northern lands, part 3

A few days later, a snow-white fox came up to the group as they walked, unaware of the danger they posed. It sniffed, circled, and jumped around as if it was playing a game. Haur ordered for nobody to kill it, not wanting to scare the rest of the animals away with the scent of its blood. On their final night before reaching the forest, more of the foxes arrived and huge rabbits hid in their tents.

The following morning, D'Argen marched right up to Haur. "I'd like to run the coast today," he said. He then turned to face Nocipel, the other still half-asleep in the tent the two shared. Nocipel, however, was more likely to agree with his suggestion than Haur and he had an influence on their party leader. "Just to get an idea of the land and where the oceans are."

"How will you tell if it is land or ice?" Haur questioned immediately. He was finally reverting back to how he was before, taking charge and looking at Thar less and less for direction and confirmation. He had also decided that D'Argen could not, apparently, run on his own without getting swept away or killed by the cold. It was overprotective and annoying.

"I don't think it'll matter if the coast is land or ice," D'Argen quickly. "The purpose would be for ships. It won't break if I don't stop my run and we can do a more detailed outline once we have a larger party here. I mean, we'll have to map out the anyway, may as well do it now to avoid future walks on the ice."

"What about taking Thar with you? He can help you with splitting land from ice," Nocipel offered, untying the single braid by his ear and then pulling it back with the rest of his hair into a low ponytail at the back of his neck.

"We need him here, with us," Haur rejected before D'Argen could say anything.

"For the cold or for his advice?" Nocipel sneered out.

D'Argen felt his feet itching. Something about Nocipel's tone and the way Haur glared at him revealed that this was not an old argument. And it was probably a nasty one. He wanted to leave the tent before it got worse and he got dragged into it.

"I don't need him this time. We don't know how far the land and ice spread, let me reach water first."

"You have not done that yet," Haur pointed out, though he kept glaring at his companion.

"I've always returned for the night camp. This may take longer."

"How long?"

"A few days, most likely. You can probably reach the ice sheet with the new animals by then or if you go longer toward the mountain, I can—"

"No. We will stay here for a few days," Haur interrupted. "Do you need Abbot and Yaling to map it out?"

D'Argen hesitated. "Abbot on my return, both on my second run," he confirmed after a moment of thought.

"Do just the one run. Take them with you."

"It will take longer."

"Not as long as doing your run twice."

D'Argen tried not to let his irritation show on his face.

"You do not want to take Lilian with you as well?" Nociepl asked and it sounded innocent enough, even if the man's face was still contorted in that annoyed expression from earlier.

"Not this time," D'Argen answered.

"Why? Lilian can take over Abbot's spells if he needs to sketch out something specific."

"I want Lilian here. With you."

"Is this about the pillar? Or how they have been acting strange in general recently?"

D'Argen did not want to answer because he did not know the truth for himself. Nocipel shook his head and dropped the subject.

Haur was glaring down at his lap. After a moment, he said, "Five days. No longer. I want you back as soon as possible." Haur was being extremely over-protective and he was obviously annoyed at Nocipel. Why he decided to take it out on D'Argen was a mystery. Instead of arguing for more freedom though, D'Argen bared his neck in compliance. Haur responded in kind. Nocipel waved him off with a flick of the wrist.