“Now I want to know what is behind the mountains that’s so dangerous,” I stated moments later. “Is it wolves? Bears? Lions?”

“None of that,” Velariah said, shaking her head. “Those last two don’t even live in snowy areas. No, it’s owls, giant, enormous owls.”

I blinked several times.

“Owls? How big are they then?”

“Legit our size, but if we follow the roads, we should be fine.”

“Oh, so there IS a road.”

“Only from the village to the mountain. It’s too easy to get lost in some parts otherwise, and traveling through the area is difficult enough as it is.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” I admitted.

“Because of the snow, usually,” She continued. “But horses already have much less of an issue, and I don’t think you will have any at all. Much of it depends on how much snow there is, and it’s cleared from time to time, especially when there’s a large outgoing shipment of iron.”

“We had specialized vehicles for that. You’d be jealous at how effective they were.”

“They have those as well, but I’m certain yours did a much better job.”

“Now you made me curious as to what they look like. Thanks.”

I grinned after speaking my words as I could only picture some kind of altered plow, and wondered just how it would be pulled… or pushed for that matter.

“Anyway,” Velariah interrupted my thoughts. “As I said, as long as we follow the road we should be fine, and if we do get attacked, we are easily able to handle them. I have no doubts about that.”

A few minutes of silence followed until the knight came up with another question.

“Hey, El, do you reckon we should get some more of that sulfur if we can find any?”

“I mean, we can do it, sure, but what do you want to do with that much? We don’t need tons of it to create gunpowder, and the only other application that I know of is sulfur soap.”

“Soap?” Nira asked, cocking her head, causing the feathers behind her eyes to twitch.

“Yeah, sulfur soap is a great disinfectant. It can also be used to treat certain skin conditions. I’m confident that there are some people out there that know about this, though. This shouldn’t be a new thing. Vel, where do the miners get their ore from? Do any of them venture into these same mountains where the volcanoes are?”

“Some do, yes, but there are some smaller mountains as well, close to the village, and rich in iron. I believe there’s not much of that to be found here, but there are other minerals.”

“In that case, how much do you want to bet that they figured it out?”

“Seems reasonable to expect people to try things out if they work close to this yellow stuff,” Draco replied. “I hadn’t heard of it until you showed me, but the color alone was interesting.”

“Yep, now I just hope nobody died in that experimentation. Sulfuric acid is one of the reasons why I refuse to experiment further than gunpowder with it.”

“Acid?” Velariah asked.

“Sulfuric acid,” I said again. “One hell of dangerous material. Super useful in my old world, but I ain’t going to burn my hands on it. It’s extremely dangerous and can be straight-up lethal. I also have no idea how it’s made, so I’m sure as hell not going to mess around and find out how.”

“And using the stuff the way we have been doing so far carries no risk of creating that?” She said in all seriousness, understanding full well the gravity of the situation.

“Most definitely not. You don’t easily change materials. You need a chemical process to take place. In the case of gunpowder, the only process that takes place is the moment of firing it. By burning it, you change the properties, and in this case, release energy. Some processes require energy, others create it. We change sulfur, potassium, and charcoal to… Hold on, let me think.”

I wasn’t even certain about it, for I didn’t know what chemical composition charcoal would be. There was carbon for sure, but the rest was a mystery.

“I know carbon dioxide for sure, which is largely the air we exhale, then there’s probably water, evaporated, of course, probably nitrogen, and something else I don’t quite know.”

I saw Seralyn’s eyes fall on one of the crates and could see the gears in her head spinning faster than ever. She wasn’t the only one, though, as Draco and Velariah did the same.

“Was that too fast? Want me to give an easier example?”

Draco nodded while the others were still trying to make their way through the gibberish I’d just said.

“Plants,” I said, starting my explanation with a single word. “They go through a process that is named photosynthesis, a process that requires energy. Well, they get that from sunlight, and what they do is take carbon dioxide and water and turn it into sugar and oxygen. Simple, right?”

“Now that’s a lot easier to understand,” Velariah admitted. “The other thing was just impossible to get. I can’t believe how you do it.”

“Sugar?” Nira asked. “All plants produce that? But not all of them are sweet.”

“There are many types of sugars,” I explained. “A potato for example is almost entirely made of sugar, but it’s not sweet. Though, there are, of course, sweet potatoes.”

“That sounds weird,” Seralyn let out.

“Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever had those. Maybe that’s my missing memories, but I don’t seem to remember. Oh, well…”

“I don’t think we have those,” Velariah commented. “But again, I could be wrong there. Who knows what kinds of food there are outside of our immediate area.”

“Anyway,” I continued. “Back to the sulphuric acid. I know that it can exist near volcanoes. Hell, there can even be pools of it, and because of those, the air itself can be filled with it, and thus, be deadly. If I see any of those pools, I know I’m running in the opposite direction real quick.”

“Heh,” The white-haired elf said, chuckling. “That sounds like the reasonable thing to do if you understand the danger, but I don’t think those are a thing here. I would have certainly heard of dangerous pools if they were.”

“And I’m thankful for that.”

The day progressed smoothly with me explaining a few more science facts whenever someone asked how things worked. It was mainly Draco and Nira who were the curious ones, but the knight had some questions as well every now and then.

Eventually, we closed in on the mountains, and the grass made way for dirt and salts. Not too much later, we decided to call it a day, even though there was still plenty of daylight left.

Pelts were pulled out of crates to make sitting down on the rocky surface more reasonable, and a campfire was set up to prepare for the night. It wasn’t for the temperature as the nights were warm out here, but rather to keep pests away.

Though, there wasn’t much around here. I guessed the light still helped us to see if anything did approach.

Things remained calm, and eventually, evening arrived. Seralyn and Nira had already gone to sleep earlier since there was not much to do. We figured we may as well have people get as much as possible.

Either way, it left me awake with Velariah and Draco, and I was eager to hear more about our destination such as how far it was beyond the mountain and what the village’s inhabitants' diets looked like. After all, if there was snow all around, there wouldn’t be much in terms of agriculture.

“It’s really not that far,” She started. “An hour or two at most, and regarding their food, I have the feeling you can already guess.”

“Hunting and import?”

“Smart girl.”

“But what do they hunt? Is it frozen all year round?”

“It is, but some animals have adapted well to the cold.”

“Like snow foxes, rabbits, deer, and wolves?”

“How did you know?” She asked with genuine curiosity before she came to the conclusion herself. “Of course, you have those too. I should have known.”

“We have all kinds of animals,” I said with a smile. “That beaked thing in the new dungeon? We have those in our world too, we call them platypuses.”

“You gotta be kidding me. That is a thing?”

“Yup, and there are plenty of other strange animals. Too many to explain or even remember. We don’t have two-headed horses, though.”

Velariah chuckled.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“But yeah, among the shipments sent to them are those specialized in transporting food. They use smaller carts for those to speed things up, and use cold stones in crates to preserve perishables better.”

“Come to think of it,” I chimed in. “What are we transporting anyway?”

“Not sure,” The knight replied. “And I’m not going to open the crates to take a peek. Hold on.”

An idea seemed to strike her as she reached for her pack and pulled out the contract.

“I reckon it’s in here, and since Kantasia said it is a shipment from Duskleaf, I do have a bit of an idea.”

“And what may that be?” Draco asked politely.

“Duskleaf produces good alcoholic beverages. Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to see some of that on this contract.”

The elf unfurled the contract and started reading it out loud.

“See? I knew it. There are two crates filled entirely with wine. Then there are another two crates filled with tools, another with lumber, one with spices, two with clothes, and the last one is filled with miscellaneous items, which the contract doesn’t elaborate on. All in all, we’re to receive ten gold coins for the entire shipment. Damn, must be some expensive booze.”

“That bad, eh? Hold on, if we get ten gold for the shipment, how much do we get for transporting it?”

“Ten percent,” Velariah said with a small smile.

“So one gold coin. Good thing we’re not doing this for the money.”

“Nope, but keep in account that once you deliver this, the recipient town is likely to have some kind of return shipment, in this case, that is a given, and it consists of iron, either crude or as ingots, so there is a bit of extra cash there.”

“That’s going to be a lot of iron then, if we need to buy our own to turn into dragon-blessed iron as well.”

“Yup, and that’s where our profits are made, well, theoretically. Honestly, the number of things merchants need to take into account and the amount of planning they need to do sometimes go beyond me. I prefer things to be simple.”

“Good thing Seralyn isn’t awake. There has to be a way to turn that into an insult,” I said and grinned afterward, prompting smiles from the elf and lizardman.

“Quite likely.”

We waited several hours and darkness eventually fell. A few hours into it, we decided to wake Nira and Seralyn and call it a day ourselves.

Morning came, and we woke up naturally, having had more than enough rest, and during breakfast we noticed some activity as several riders approached from Dawnleaf’s direction.

A group of six men, among them three soldiers, arrived and dismounted about fifty meters away. I wasn’t sure what they were here for, but it seemed to have nothing to do with us. Their presence was strange in itself, and they didn’t appear to be traders for they carried no goods. Their clothing wasn’t something I’d expect of traders either. They were messy and simple. If anything, they looked like laborers.

Our curiosity got the better of us and we watched them unload some equipment from their horses. They carried several shovels and poles, of which one was soon hammered into the ground and donned with a white flag.

One of them started digging, and another one of the lightly armored men took a handful of the soil and took a very close look at it.

“I have many questions,” Velariah stated. “And I’m just gonna ask them.”

She didn't even wait for an answer and walked straight up to one of the soldiers who seemed to be overseeing the operation.

A brief conversation followed and when it was over, she walked back to us with a smile.

“Seems my father has been busy,” She said. “Or rather, he’s mobilized the entire damn village to advance his plans. It’s not only at the dungeon where he’s building. He’s already sent out people to survey the land for that canal.”

“Holy crap,” Seralyn let out. “He doesn’t sit idle at all, does he?”

“Nope.”

“Dawnleaf is starting to grow,” I said with a smile. “I’m looking forward to seeing this built.”

“For sure. Anyway, are we all ready?”

Draco stamped out the last of the embers of the campfire and nodded before making his way onto the cart which we once again attached to my rear. The furs were laid inside as well, and the last ones were pulled out of our inventory, ready to be put to use when temperatures dropped.

Traveling up the mountain proved to be harder than the first part of our journey. Not only were there the giant scorpions that had to be dealt with on occasion, but part of the roads were fairly steep, forcing the others to dismount and travel by foot.

The path was clear, though. A well-traveled trail stretched out before us, leading us through the mountains. At some point, we’d seemed to reach the highest point, and from there the road led back down.

I had hoped to see the other side clearly from above. I was curious about what the area beyond the mountains looked like, but I didn’t seem to have that kind of luck. The path before us was partly hewn out, and the walls obscured our vision until we reached lower ground.

At that point, we were already too low to get the best kind of view, but it was breathtaking nonetheless.

A frozen forest with a clear road through it stretched as far as the eye could see, and everything was covered with a layer of snow, completing the fairly-tale-like appearance of the region.

“Wow,” Was all I could say.

At the same time, gears started grinding in my head. Most of it had to do with the appearance of the trees. They were deciduous and without leaves. That wasn’t so odd, but the fact that they existed here in the first place, with snow all year round, was. How could they live if the ground was frozen all the time?

“I have heard stories,” Velariah said calmly. “But I didn’t expect this. It is as was described, but it’s… different at the same time.”

“It sure is beautiful,” Draco added.

“It looks cold,” Seralyn complained. “Let’s get going. I’d love to see a proper fire after going through that.”

“Speaking of,” I let out. “It’s not cold up here at all. That’s strange. This entire place feels strange.”

“Oh, we’ll find the cold soon enough when we get down. Don’t worry,” Velariah concluded with a grin as she walked ahead of us, beckoning us to follow with a gesture. “Let’s go.”

She was right. It didn’t take more than a few minutes for the temperature to drop. Significantly. Where the mountains and the path through it had still been as warm as the rest of Dawnleaf’s surroundings, as soon as we reached its foot, it was already below zero. The ground was frozen, and Seralyn’s complaining intensified.

She was the first to grab a pelt to cover herself, while I was surprised at my ability to deal with the cold. My spider abdomen didn’t seem to care in the slightest about this massive drop in temperature. It was only my human half that was left with slight discomfort.

My armor, and the layer of clothes underneath it did well in staving off the cold, but I ultimately requested a pelt as well, as I could see just how comfortable it was to have extra warmth.

“You seem to be doing fine,” Velariah called from inside the cart. She and the others had seated themselves inside again after the road had leveled out. “No issues with the cold?”

“None at all. Trust me, I’m surprised as well.”

“Happy it’s going that well. We do seem to be quite lucky as the road recently got cleared of snow.”

I nodded as I looked at the way ahead. There was snow on the road, yes, but it was a thin layer, not exceeding two inches. It didn’t slow us down in the slightest. One interesting thing to note was that I could tell the road was made of bricks. I’d learned exactly what walking on bricks felt like, and when I cleared a bit of snow, I could see I was right.

It was useful, as now there was no way for us to get lost. I would simply feel it if we were going in the wrong direction.

I kept my eyes wide open to see if I could spot any of the wildlife that Velariah had talked about, but it seemed any animals kept themselves hidden.

“There’s really nothing that grows out here,” I said as I didn’t notice anything that resembled plant life. Everything was white without even the slightest trace of green. “What do the animals here eat? What do they drink?”

There was no reply.

“Vel?”

“I’m thinking. There was something about that, but I forgot. We can ask in the village if you want.”

“Oh, I definitely want to know.”