The Crown’s Entrapment

Xenia still couldn’t fathom how the sun had set so easily. And just as swiftly as the warmth had gone, the cold came with a vengeance as snow began falling from the sky.

“Winter…” she murmured out, her eyes widening as she watched the snow continuously fall onto the ground. Her body shuddered at the sudden cold as she waited for the bear to pass by below. Observing the beast, though, it seemed to be running away in haste. Was there some kind of danger out there then?

“That’s something to watch out for then…”

Waiting for a few more moments, she finally got down from the tree after she made sure that it was safe. She then moved forward. The cold would kill her if she stayed out in the open for too long, so she needed to move faster and reach those Northern Lights that Osman was talking about. Well, that was assuming that she didn’t want to find some form of shelter against this snowstorm.

“I can make it,” she reasoned. “If not, then I’ll find or make some shelter for the night.”

Nodding to herself, she decided that it would be faster if she just climbed the nearby mountain and be done with it. Braving the cold, Xenia made her way up the landmark as fast as she could, climbing up the mountain in an effort to make some progress. It wasn’t dark out yet, but if she kept up at her own pace, she was sure that she would soon reach her destination.

“I guess swimming my way across the ocean wasn’t good enough…” she murmured under her breath. “And I bet running around like this also wouldn’t be enough for Osman…”

Xenia chuckled at her own thoughts. She really shouldn’t waste her breath talking to herself like this, but it was a distraction from the biting cold nipping against her skin. Still, she needed to focus on running. Osman said that he ran nonstop inside the Element Forest no matter how steep it was, so she would probably have to do the same.

Making some headway, she paused for a while to catch her breath as she leaned on a nearby tree. What followed, however, made all the hairs on her skin stand up on their ends. Ominous roars echoed out from every direction, and she didn’t know where they all came from.

“That’s not good…” she nervously murmured.

Taking the hint, Xenia immediately moved as fast as she could. Still something felt wrong.

‘Why do I feel like I’m going in circles?’ she inwardly thought as she made another stop. ‘Is there something more here?’

To make sure of her assumptions, Xenia carved a big cross on the most obvious tree that she could find. It wasn’t much, but if she was indeed going around in circles, then the mark would at least tell her that she had been there already.

“Hopefully, this works…”

Letting out a small sigh, she cupped her hands around her mouth as she thawed her shivering fingers. The trek was becoming much steeper now, and she hadn’t seen her mark yet, so she could only assume that she was on the right path.

Silently, Xenia pushed on, her feet digging into the snow as the world around her seemingly blended into one white blizzard. The winds were biting, and the visibility was getting so bad that even she had to concede that progressing further was too dangerous.

‘Shelter…’ she gravely thought. ‘I’m gonna freeze to death at this rate…’

Forgoing her plans of climbing the mountain, her eyes kept themselves peeled as she focused on her own survival. A cave or a hollowed-out tree would work for her needs, but the poor visibility was making it hard for her to even see. At best, she could only see a few meters ahead of her, the blanket of snow turning the forest into a deadly cooler.

‘No wonder that bear was running earlier…’

Hugging herself, Xenia kept to the trees, the massive trunks around her breaking the wind and making her life less miserable than it could be. Still, if the sudden cold snap didn’t stop soon, she was liable to freeze to death through the night. There was no way that she’d survive, and making a fire in these conditions was laughable at best.

“I’m not dying here… Not today…”

Gritting her teeth, she marched on. The last vestiges of sunlight were starting to die out, but it was more than enough to suit her needs as she tried her best to stick to the mountain. Any sort of rock formation could mean a more suitable shelter, preferably a cave where she could take refuge from the cold in.

“Just a bit more…”

Breaking out of the forest, the part of the mountain she was currently in seemed… warmer, for some reason. The lack of snow on the ground also meant that…. Wait…

Was the mountain actually a volcano?

‘This changes everything…’

If there were pockets of heat scattered through the volcano, it could mean that there were natural hot springs safe from the heat that she could take refuge near. If said springs were inside the volcano itself, then it was even more valuable for her to find them.

With newfound knowledge, Xenia followed the heat she was feeling to seek shelter. Eventually, her efforts paid off as a hint of steam bellowed out from some kind of opening into the mountain.

“Found one…”

Through her freezing fingers, she climbed up the rockface that shielded the refuge from the elements. With a bit of grit and desperation, Xenia let out a sigh of relief as a wave of heat washed over her. The steam from the natural spring rejuvenated her chilling bones, her body relaxing as she sat near the hot waters.

“Heh, if only I had some actual food…”

Biting into what few fruits she had, she leaned on the cave walls as she waited for the snowstorm to die down. She didn’t even mind spending the night there too. If anything, she might even come back here and consider the place as her own personal refuge.

“I should mark this place down for future use,” she chuckled.

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August 14, 2022 AN: We’ll have five chapters to be released in random hours within the day since we finally reached 1000 powerstones. A thousand more then we’ll have more chapters. Also, don’t forget to vote more on GOLDEN TICKETS so we can reach another hundred GTs. Keep voting both on GS and PS to fuel up this snail author to write more so we can have more chapters. Thank you so much and keep safe everyone. *kisses and hugs*