What Hides Under the Frost (Coren)

[Cheshire]

65th of Autumn, 511 AV Out past the walls of Avanthal there were secrets buried deep beneath the snow. Few knew they were there, if they did, they knew of them as myth. Even less could find these secrets and live to tell the tale. There was one that a man had found a few years prior but he never made it out to tell the tale. No one had noticed that he had left though. No one had cared… On a trip into the wastes Farren Frostfawn had heard mutterings from the animals. They spoke of a place below the snow. There was something in there, or more so, someone. They wanted him to find answers. Answers that the follower of Caiyha did not have. He would return to the city with a promise to the animals. He would find answers. This is what brought the Frostfawn to the library. What was he supposed to do? He did not have an interest in books and anything he ever needed to learn about his trade he learned from his hold. The man could read. He wasn't completely detached from society. He didn't know how the library worked though and for that reason he sought out Coren. "Excuse me… I know this will sound crazy but…" Farren tried to find the correct words. These places under the snow, these ruins were shrouded in mystery and marked with danger. Would the bookkeeper even know about them? "I need information… a book." He looked around nervously. If people found out about his mark, well… he did not want them to. He liked to keep his connection to his Goddess to himself. "Those ruins… The ones we always knew as just myths. I think one has been found." The man's eyes were bright yellow as he spoke. A wild and feral color. He had heard murmurs about Coren as well. He was different from other Skyglows just like he was different from other Frostfawns. No one knew why either of them were exactly different but they were and perhaps that was enough to figure this mystery out together.

[Coren]

Coren looked up from the story book he had took from one of the shelves at the start of his shift as he heard the door of the library open, rising an eyebrow in surprise as he saw Farren frostfawn walk into library looking a bit distraught and twitchy, not to mention that if farren left his safe spot and went towards the library of all places something had to be wrong, was one of his animals sick and he didn't have any inkling how he had to cure it? Coren waved that idea away as soon as he got it, he would have gone to the whitevines or other frostfawn's for that. When farren began rambeling on in vani, desperately trying to find the right words coren's got an even worse feeling. Not to mention when the words ruins and myth fell. “Farren,” Coren said in a calm and gentile voice but there was a clear undertone of seriousness in his voice. “Take a deep breath and calm down, put your sentences together. Are you talking about those ruins from the stories, the ones that nobody has returned from?” Coren clarified, though he couldn't imagine what other ruins he was talking about. “And why do you think one has been found?” Coren stood up from his chair and walked from behind the counter. "As for books on those, we should have a few in the history section of the library. I'll bring you to it and help you look through the shelves if you want." Coren offered, waiting for the ma'ns replies.

[Cheshire]

Farren took a deep breath, his eyes swirling from color to color, emotion from emotion. He tried to calm himself enough to explain what was happening. "Yes, those! I didn't think they even existed but something is happening…" He was nervous. Whatever was under the snow could hurt the animals. He knew they were strong, being dire and the strong survivalists that they were but they could not defend themselves from everything. His mind raced over all of the different scenarios. What if the ground was collapsing? What if some horrible monster was awakening under the snow? What if it was Ivak's escape? He shook his head. The last thought was completely mad. He was in the Wastes more than anyone else. He would have known if the God of fire was awakening. Besides, these lands did not see enough action from people for anything as strong as a God to be awakened. At least he was rational enough to see that. Farren's eyes widened slightly at the boy's words. He couldn't tell him he knew through the animals. "I… um… I heard sounds. Really strange sounds through the snow." This excuse would have to work. "I was like something was prowling under the ground." He explained it like he had understood from the animals. Happy to change the subject, Farren nodded and followed Coren to the books. "Thanks for the help." The pair would look through the books until Farren found an entry that caught his eye. A piece of paper shoved in between pages of a look on Vantha lore. "Coren… listen to this…" "Although it has been regarded as merely myth, I have seen these caverns with my own eyes. I did not last long after which is why I am leaving this writing in my passage, passing it on with a good friend who was strong enough to leave with his life. There are things hidden under the ground. Things that want to be freed. Trinkets of the Gods, if you will. They are not of the deities that Vantha favor. Think more southern. I have heard the roars and hisses of the ruins and it is driving me to insanity…" Farren looked at Coren, his eyes a very light citrine as he tried to sort everything out. "What… what do you think this means? Do you think we are in danger?" He handed the paper to Coren for him to inspect if he so wished. The paper was the size of a page from a medium sized book. It looked worn and seemed to have been crinkled and folded many times. "Do you think we should tell Icewatch?"

[Coren]

Coren watched as farren took a deep breath to try and calm himself down, his eyes flickering through a series of colors plainly signaling the emotional turmoil the man was going through right at the moment. When farren nervously affirmed his idea that it could be about the ruins from the old horror stories the snowsong always told during dark and stormy nights to scare the shyke out of the young and old alike he was about to disregard the idea, his mind not wanting to believe the idea. Somebody ahd to be playing a prank on him. But as much as he wanted to do that and go back to the fine day to day grind of his normal life, he couldn't bring himself to do that. He doubted that farren of all people would do something like this he didn't know anybody that would go to these length's just to play a prank on somebody. Coren's eyes slowly changed towards a slight dark red, following the bad feeling she was getting about this. Especially when farren continued to talk about how he had found out about the ruins.. something moving around underneath the snow and ground. “Lets just hope it isn't anything to dangerous, farren.” Coren said, he himself already not believing as he began to lead farren towards the bookshelf he knew the history books. “your welcome farren.” coren replied in a genuine tone as farren thanked him. and he began to help him look through the shelf for something usefull. After quite a while of looking through the books and not finding anything new farren suddenly called for him. Showing him a crumpled piece of paper he had pulled out from in between the pages of some other vantha lorebook. And slowly and clearly began to read it aloud. “Well that, didn't sound good at all.” Coren hesitantly offered after farren finished reading it, taking the piece of paper out of farren's hands and giving it a read himself. His eyes alway's ignoring the slight warnings of danger and kept coming back to the same sentence. Trinkets of the gods. That meant wherever those ruins where and no matter how dangerous they where, there was at least something of massive value in there. Old relics with magic. A sea green color slowly began to bleed into his eyes as his worry was overtaken by his exitement a small eager smile creeping on his masked face as his greed took over. “What I think this means farren.” Coren said, carefully keeping his eagerness out of his voice. “Is that there could be dangerr. But we don't have a clue if this piece of paper is the truth and even if it truthfull, we don't know if this is talking about the same thing as you where. Its talking about caverns for one. Not to mention that I never heard anything about southern gods having anything to do with taldera.” He took a deep breath. “But this might just be a great help to find out what is going on in the forests right now.” He looked back to the paper in his hand before looking at the volume farren took the paper out off. “Farren, where did you find the book exactly and what book is it?” Coren said as he flipped the paper, checking the backside for more information more out of habit then thinking farren missed something written on the back. “Whoever put this in that book might have had a reason to pick that book." He paused for a few moments in his thinking and trying to find out how exactly find out more about this thing when farren asked if they had to notify the icewatch. “I don't think we should tell icewatch just yet.” Coren carefully said, concidering the next words he was going to say. “We only have a slip of paper from an old book and a few strange sounds that only you heard on our side as proof. I don't think they want to send out people for a long shot like this. When we only have that little proof. So lets find out more first before we go towards the icewatch.” Coren waited for farren's reply to all that for a few moments before piping up again. “In the mean time, lets just try to find out which expedition the person who wrote this was part of and who the person, or persons, who came back alive where and if they are still alive or not. Do you got any ideas about how to do that farren?” coren questioned. Sure he could go and check the ledgers for when the book was last loaned out, but the man most likely would have slipped it in between the pages when he was in the library itself, he didn't have to have loaned the book.

[Cheshire]

Farren was still shaken but he found some solace in the fact Coren seemed to be so calm. He was younger, but he had also seen less. He was either incredibly brave or stupidly naive. The man looked back at the cover of the book. "It is called 'Songs of the Six Regions'. It seems to be a book on, well… music, clearly." He flipped back open to the page the paper was found in. "I suppose this could explain a bit about the southern Gods bit…" Farren held the book out while he read out loud. "The Myrians use music for many reasons. To celebrate hunts or festivals, even their many Gods. Myri, of course is the major focus. She is their Goddess-Queen, their mother if you will. They love her just as she loves them. Myri is not the only deity that graces their music though. These warriors sing their praises to Makutsi, the rain bringer, Syna, our glorious sun, Leth, our shifting moon, Caiyha, the wild mother, Navre, the creator of the Myrian Tigers, Dira, the Queen of the dead, and finally, Kihala, the bringer of life. All are worthy in the eyes of the Myrians. Kihala might have drums pounded for the birth of a child, while bells and rattles might be sounded at a warriors earning of their tiger, a praise to Navre." "The paper was placed over this paragraph, the words facing down upon the books words." Farren could not imagine which of these divine beings would have buried their "trinkets" in the Talderian snow. "Myrians… whatever this is, it must be far from home. I've never even seen a Myrian. Have you?" Farren thought on what Coren said next. "I suppose you're right. We don't need people thinking this is some crazy theory." He bit his lip as he thought. "I suppose you can start by looking in the records. Maybe we'll get lucky and find another clue there. I'll look and see if there are any other notes." Both ideas seemed to be hopeless, but at least it was a start. When the pair split up, Farren dropped the book on the table, the page about the Myrians still facing up. He pulled the next one off the shelf. A book called "The Art of Artifacts". "Coren, I'm sorry if I make a…" He stopped mid-sentence when something caught his eye. It seemed like writing on the back of the self. He started to pull the books off of the shelf, dropping them to the floor. With each book removed, his eyes seemed to drop into a deeper color of green. Finally, the entire shelf of books had been cleared. Farren could not turn from it but instead called out to Coren, his voice shaking in fear. "Um… Coren… I think you should see this…"

[Coren]

Coren shook his head at Farren's question. “I never saw a myrian either Farren, only heard about them in some stories my grandpa told me and as far as I'm concerned meeting them isn't something that is high on my to do list. The stories had them portrayed as bloodthirsty savages who devoured their enemies and prisoners alive and I don't really want to find out if those stories are exaggerated.” Coren paused for a few moments at the idea of a myrian ruin all the way over here in taldera, how in morwen's name did it get here when the myrians didn't even live in this region? Deciding it couldn't hurt to get that question out in the open coren voiced it. “But it is strange that a ruin in taldara would have something to do with myrians though, I wonder how and why the myrians got here and why they build something here.” It was an interesting question in his mind and who knows, he might get it answered if he investigated the ruin. As Farren offered to look through the books for more clues if he went through the ledger coren nodded. “Sounds like a plan, I'll call you if I found something useful in the ledger.” Coren said as he made his way towards the desk, to see if he could find anything usefull in the mass of ledgers left behind in the room behind it. Coren had been looking through the ledgers without finding anythign for only a few moments, though he was strongly suspecting he wasn't going to find anything of use in them, before Farren yelled for him that he should come and look at something he found. Haphazardly shoving the ledger where it used to be he quickly walked back to their. “What did you fin..” Coren trailed of as he saw the message that was sloppily carved into the back of the shelf. A shiver running over the back of his spine, the message bringing up unbidden ideas of things with bright eyes and sharp claws running in the dark dept's of the ruins. “Well, that sounds ominous.” Coren said his own quacking voice betraying his growing fear. “But now we really have to find out what the heck this is all about, I mean we just can't let this lie around now.” Coren took a deep breath to try and calm his shaking voice. “Look lets take all these books and see if we can find any more clues in them, I mean, there has to be something of worth in one of those books otherwise why would whoever had carved that carved it on this shelf, or carved something behind it at all?” Coren began to pick up the books Farren had dropped on the ground. Pausing a bit as he grabbed the book “The art of artifacts” The note spoke about trinkets of the gods, and what else would be called a trinket of the god aside from an artifact?” After he was awkwardly balancing the pile of books he trotted of towards the reading room. “Farren, can you take the rest of those books and help me look through them? Two people looking through this pile will find something a lot faster. Not to mention its harder to overlook some things then when you are alone.”