The Firelands

46 - An Age of Ice

4thday of the fifth Month, Worth's Moon

3:00 pm

The Great Winter Road

"We will have to stop before we enter the Winter Realm if we intend to continue on horseback," Zedkiel said nearly two weeks after the Wicker Woods. "They will need the proper covering."

"Uh huh," Incendio said, having not listened. A huge whale was lazily drifting above them through the clouds. "Kalen, what's that?"

Kalen looked up. "A whale, obviously, haven't you ever seen pictures of them?"

"Yes, in the sea, not the sky."

Kalen shrugged, glancing up. "It's just a whale."

Zedkiel looked up, since the others weren't listening. "They're probably migrating back to the Giants Realm now that we're into the spring months. It's beyond the Winter Realm."

"They? There's only one," Incendio said.

Zedkiel looked up again, then pointed. "They," he said as the rest of the herd appeared from behind the clouds, lazily gliding through the air. Other creatures that were recognisable as sea creatures were dotted between them; a shark followed behind along with several huge rays. Cloud-maids and -men were also up there, though spotting them was much harder as they ducked in and out of the clouds and they were tiny in comparison to the sea creatures. They looked just like mermaids and mermen, only the clouds were their seas.

Incendio gazed up at the creatures above, fascinated and entranced.

Zedkiel looked over to Kalen. "You still have not told us what happened, you know?" he said.

Kalen looked at him.

"We know you took the jewel from Dixon. We know that you listened for Incendio's shout to get back to us. But we don't know what Dixon said to you in that forest to make you look so torn."

"I don't look torn."

"You do, like you have two options and you do not know which road to take." Zedkiel raised an eyebrow at him. "So what are your two options?"

Kalen looked at him, then back up to the skies, watching a cloud maid catch a ride on the back of a ray. "It was about Zerron," he said quietly.

"Your friend who was killed the night we left?"

"Dixon said he didn't die."

Zedkiel raised his eyebrows. "Well can you be sure he spoke the truth?"

"Dixon doesn't lie, that's something he's always held upon his honour, he does not lie."

"And why would he tell you this?"

Kalen bit his lip. "Because he wanted me to go home."

Zedkiel pulled his horse to a stop, so suddenly Theth's horse almost walked into him. The others stopped and looked at him.

"Go home?" he copied.

"He said to give the jewel to you, let you handle it, let you continue onwards and I go home. My mother and sister are unharmed, my father has returned and Zerron... Zerron is in a coma but alive. They don't need all four Knights anyway, just the Child and the Child is already on his way. I could just go home, or go to the Vampire Realm. Or even find Dixon again, he said he knows who my real family are, and I had wanted to find them, I could just-"

"Kalen," Zedkiel said, catching his arm and giving him one sharp shake, jolting him from his trance. Kalen blinked and looked at him. Zedkiel looked back for a moment. "If you could do all this, then why did you come back to us?"