Adrianna watched Ziu getting buried deep down in layers of snow. She stood there still, watching the rhythmic percussion of the snow that scattered everywhere. Her eyes were fixed on the place where Ziu was pulled down. Her face was glowing with the new dawn of light that fell on her white, porcelain skin. Her lips twitched into the semblance of a smile mimicking her inner feelings of satisfaction. The fire that was burning in her heart, cooled down a little.

Ziu - the wizard who was a nightmare ever since she had worn the Crown, a parasite and a traitor to the Wizard Kingdom was put several feet under the ground. All the fear that inhabited her chest until now and was waiting to engulf her settled. Now her kingdom didn't have any danger. The fear had escalated into flames that were fueled by her anxiety. But now she didn't need all that.

​​

Adrianna stepped down the slope. But even as a feeling a calm washed over her, there was a speck of doubt in her mind. She thought she saw something black vanishing below the ground. However, she swatted the doubt from her mind. perhaps it was just a mirage.

The weather was fine. The sun bloomed in its full, spreading its golden petals in the clear blue sky. A large flock of Lapland Longspurs flew past – their distinct red necks and yellow eye stripes looked magnificent against the wintry mountains. A group of Longspurs broke away from the flock and came flying towards Adrianna. They circled over her head a few feet away, merrily for a while. "Goodbye Mun," they chirped and then flew back to join their flock. Adrianna saw them with tears of wonder and joy. She held her wand close to her chest as though hugging her two beautiful pets whose debt she would never be able to pay. She moved forward.

The day had never been brighter. She longed to go back home, to go back to Dmitri, to just take care of the baby in her womb. But she wanted to ensure if everything was okay or not. She battled whether she should go and check the place where Ziu laid. She wanted to make sure that he never ever saw the light of the day. So even if there was one percent chance that he was alive down there, she wanted to ensepulcher him in these lands forever.

The place where he lay was several hundred meters away. At first, she sauntered down at a slow pace keeping her wand in front but going downhill so far would have been a waste of time, so she thought of creating a vortex. However, instead of creating a vortex, her wand automatically created a portal for her. And to her utter surprise, the portal wasn't that of gold. When she thrust her wand forward, she noticed that a flurry of tiny ice crystals rose from the ground and softly and slowly they started to form a portal. Tiny yellow sparkling beams of sunrays mixed with them and circled around with the pristine crystals. She was taken aback. Her confusion was multifold. She was stunned that she had created a vortex and instead a portal was being formed. Then her portal was always made of pure solid gold, so how come it was snow and sunbeams that appeared. While she was looking at it completely mesmerized, another thing happened. The corner of her eye caught something sparkle brilliantly, something very tiny. She moved her gaze to catch what had sparkled and she was even more stunned when she saw that a thin layer of gold dust entered the components and it flowed inside as if it was its blood.

Adrianna was awe-struck.

"Enter it," came a soft voice from behind.

Adrianna jumped back to see who spoke those words. "Haldir!" she exclaimed. "How did you enter these lands?" She was shocked.

---

When Adrianna was fighting with Ziu on the war ground outside the Wizard Kingdom, Haldir was watching her. He asked everyone about her and was feeling forced to go inside the ring of hurricane. However, no one could answer his question. When Adrianna disappeared along with Ziu, he jumped inside the ring without thinking about the consequences. He just had to follow and protect the child.

Upon entering the Northern Mountains, Haldir didn't know what his location was. For the entire night he traveled up and down the slopes to find Adrianna. His magic was working perfect there. He could create portals and cast spells as before. There was no change. And his only desire was to help Adrianna, be with her, and protect her. But however hard he tried he could not find her or Ziu. The Northern Mountains was a vast territory.

He was almost exasperated and too tired and thought of returning when suddenly he heard a loud rumble in the place he was standing. Shocked, he looked whether the mountain was about to burst into a volcano? The scene that he witnessed was surreal. Just a few meters below him, snow rose slowly as though waking up from a deep sleep and molded into a beast. Another one rose beside it as soon as the first one took its first leap in the air. Soon an army of snow-beasts rose. They all raced down the slope with a huge roar. Haldir's shock was beyond words. He had never witnessed such a beautiful occurrence in his entire seven hundred years.

"Adrianna," he muttered. His excitement was like that of a horse winning a race. He watched the entire event unfold in front of his eyes. There was something going on. He rushed away from the avalanche immediately and when everything went quiet, he sucked into a vortex and appeared some meters away. It was at this time when he saw Adrianna standing near the portal she had created. He pursed his lips feeling so happy and satisfied. He let out a soft chuckle and walked up to her. He was surprised to see the portal because he had heard from others that she was asked not to create one since they were made of pure gold.

"Enter it," he said from behind encouraging her for whatever purpose it was there.