The Darkest Flame [ON HOLD]

Chapter 3

Once dawn came and the sun peeked over the horizon, Luka no longer needed to depend on his compass to keep him headed in the right direction, as the location of the sun told him where he was going. Of course, he also had to stop to give his horse a rest, as well as himself. Because of his dream, he hadn't gotten very much sleep, and so had been riding all night. Not only were both of them tired, but neither was used to going for so long.

They didn't stop for long, however. Ever since his dream had ended, Luka felt an urgent need to get to wherever he was going as quickly as possible. Still unable to sleep, he rested for an hour, figuring that would be enough time for the horse. 

Not long after started  traveling again, it began to snow lightly. The temperature had dropped steadily throughout the night, and it showed no sign now of going up again. The snow didn't bother them right now--there was less than an inch now, and back in Cathair Rithe, it snowed regularly during the winter. Luka knew, however, that the father north they rode, the colder the temperature would get and the deeper the snow would be. He hoped the horse would be able to hold up, as he was completely uninterested in travelling on foot. 

It kept on snowing, and by mid-afternoon, Luka was thoroughly sick of it. He asked himself why on earth he had decided to go this direction, instead of south, where it would be warm and hopefully have weather more conducive to travelling. Then he remembered, with sudden clarity, his dream of the night before--the darkness, the voice calling his name, the woman, and her words. 

Go north.

He found himself wondering who she was, why she was able to appear to him in a dream, and how she knew his name. The only explanation he could think of was magic, but that didn't even make sense. Everyone knew magic was just a myth, nothing more. 

Still, it wasn't a common occurrence for people to appear in dreams and know people's names the way the mysterious woman had...

Luka eventually gave up trying to figure it out. He was getting nowhere, and succeeding only in frustrating himself. In any case, the woman's words had implied that he would see her again. If there was time, he would just ask her how she was able to do what she did.

His inability to find a feasible explanation was not his only source of frustration. As they traveled further north, the snow fell harder and got deeper, making it increasingly difficult to make good progress. Luka didn't even know exactly where he was going, so he wasn't sure why he was in such a hurry.

But in spite of his uncertainty, he knew somehow that he did need to get there as soon as he could. 

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By the time it started to get dark that day, Luka was exhausted. His lack of sleep had caught up to him, and there were several times that he nearly fell asleep as he rode. Fortunately, it had stopped snowing near the end of the afternoon, so it didn't seem quite as cold as it had earlier. 

Shortly after darkness fell, Luka decided it would probably be a good idea to stop for the night before too long. He didn't really know where he was, and so wasn't sure if there was any place more ideal than where he was now. He kept riding, hoping to find somewhere with less wind than he was getting. 

He came to the top of a small hill and stopped to look around. The sun had disappeared, but the moonlight and the snow made it possible to see quite a bit. Luka glanced to his left, and almost turned back, but... There was a large dark shape in the distance, and he wasn't quite sure what it was. He rode closer so that he could see it more clearly. As he closed the distance between them, the shape resolved into that of a house.