The God's Game

River goes to West

"A- Are w- we g- " River gulped. "W-wesssssssso-own"

"Clatter or chatter,River honey ,pick a battle " Wolfram laughed and draped another heavy fur coat around him.

They had traveled westward from Linchet and crossed the boarder with no hiccups. Wolfram had produced a set of documentation to indicate that they were silk traders returning to West at the checkpoint. The soldiers let them pass with no further interrogation.

The security in West Linchet was the weakest in the whole Eastern kingdom ,even though it was the closest region to East-West boarder.

For starters the area was desolated. The houses in the area was few and far in between and large part of the land was occupied by thick forests.
This situation could only be explained by the existence of the infamous mass grave ; The Valley of Fallen Heroes.

Although thousand years have passed since the catastrophe people still deemed lands like West Linchet and Whiolf unsuitable for human habitation. The regions could not be used for farming or livestock raising and they were far from capitals like Malia and Wesown.

"There's only one very dyfunctional check point here" Wolfram had said pointing at the vastness of barren fields beyond the window of their carriage. "Gaurds there would let us go even if we carried Raek's head with us "

He had then tapped his fan to his head in distress "That would change soon ,though"

"My lord think Solina would declare war?"

"I have a feeling " he had said "South and West might have to form an alliance if it comes down to that. We dont know North's stance yet. Gods will be consulted"

He snapped open his fan "How very bothersome. Imagine having to explain battle strategy to Alistair "

River had laughed dryly at the mention of his name,the needle of betrayal sinking bitterly in to his heart.

They had travelled past boarder in to West kingdom and Whiolf was a far worse nightmare than Linchet.

Two days in to reaching Whiolf, they were now pulling through seven inches of snow on a sleigh powered by four reindeers. The air was crisp, biting with a cold that seeps into every layer. All around them was the blanket of pristine white .The silence was only broken by the soft muffled noise of reindeer hooves sinking in to powdery snow.

This was River's first time seeing snow and likewise his first time experiencing such absurdly cold weather. Wolfram had wrapped him in multiple layers of furcoats to ward off the chill, but he still miserably shivered.

He resembled that one chair in every household which was used to dump laudary on with his haphazardly draped layers. Only his eyes were visible to the world, which had collected a thin coat of snow on their thick lashes.

"Well aint this a crisis of epic propotions " he laughed at River's layer situation "Id like to see you surviving Whiolf winters"

River widened his eyes at him .

This is not winter?

Wolfram giggled and fanned himself in the face. "Today is one of warmest days of the year"

The man was only wearing his usual dark blue, single layered fur coat. Other than the slight pink dusting his cheeks and nose he seemed completely unbothered by the cold .

Good sir, is your blood blue?

Wolfram picked up a handful of clean snow on the wooden sleigh and started balling it "I wander what made Solina lose her marbles "