The wind was bitterly cold, not just bitter in fact but biting, carving its way through clothes and skin and dancing on razor sharp feet along the bones and nerves until even the most hardened delver shivered.

Erika was wrapped in three layers and inside her wagon and she still felt her teeth chattering, and they weren’t even in the Fimbulwinter yet! She finally saw why it was once a sign of Ragnarök, a hungry storm that leached away heat worse than any winter.

The droogs were the only ones unaffected, happily pulling along the wagons and rooting in the frosted mulch for… whatever droogs ate, Erika wasn't sure now she thought about it.

“Probably mushrooms.” She muttered as she swung herself out of the backdoor and up onto the rooftop, gritting her teeth as the gale’s fangs closed around her, Erika stumbled along the swaying rooftop and landed in the seat next to Helga who was wrapped in so much wool, fur and leather she seemed like some sort of strange many handed droog.

Apart from a slight nod Helga barely reacted as Erika squinted against the gloom, the tree shadow above coupled with the frost in the air seemed to suck at torches, greedily draining their glow. Less than a day in and the expedition was already tired, slowed down and trudging through the icy mulch they couldn’t even afford to stop and start a cooking fire, tough jerky and pushing was all they had to look forward to.

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Erika didn’t even have that; she was supposed to stay on lookout after all. A few of the toughest delvers were still jumping from cart to cart, pulling themselves along the joining ropes and chains, carrying messages. Helga had just passed one down for her, which was why she was shivering now.

“How long ago?” Erika asked the man sat next to Helga on the front of her caravan, he was wrapped up tightly enough to obscure most details but Erika recognised him from Bjorn’s scouts nevertheless.

“Less than a Boughs pass ladyship.” He said, apparently one of the ones who was still nervous around a vitki, good. “They were edgewards some, but we don’t really know…”

“Fine, I’ll keep a look out look.” Erika said with a sigh. Scouts going missing was always a bad sign, in the Wold however… eh it could be very very bad or it could just be the expected casualties. Luckily, she wasn't expected to go looking, but to prepare.

“This place sucks.” Erika muttered to herself, as the wind howled and hungry things stalked ever closer.