Location The Icewall Gates

[Zoe Arunha]

Timestamp: 45th day of summer, 513

Zoe breathed in the chilly air, the frigid cold swirling around. With a gloved hand she patted Grace, her Windrunner horse, "We must be almost there," Zoe said. Grace tossed her white mane, snorting, as if she was saying, I wouldn't count on it . Ahead of them the shiny icestone of the gates of Avanthal peeked over the horizon. Several minutes later, Zoe noticed . Zoe urged Grace on, and the Icewall Gates grew bigger and bigger. Zoe tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear and pulled the heavy cloak tighter. As she approached the large, shining gates, she noticed two strong men standing on either side of the gate, each with huge polar bears standing by their side. The polar bears watched her with intelligent eyes, warm but full of intent. She nodded at each of them, making eye contact. As Grace trotted through the gates, Zoe breathed a sigh of relief.

[Sidian]

90th Day of Summer, 513
Sidian stepped off the ship, snow crunching underneath his feet. He wobbled slightly - it had been months since he was last on solid ground - and pulled his Kaldean robe tighter. The traders he had traveled with had been wise to recommend this particular purchase as the weather was brutally cold and only going to get worse. From the looks of the sky a storm was brewing. He wondered if it was like in the novels he had read, where dark weather heralds dark times to come. "Rather melodramatic don't you think?" he muttered to himself. He was going to have to break that talking-to-himself habit now that he would be back in polite company.

He trudged through the snow in the direction of the Icewall. It was as fantastic as the books had claimed, and words were inadequate to encapsulate its full wonder. It glimmered enticingly, poetically lonely, a bastion of civilization in the barren landscape. He soon found himself at the gates. The guards made no move to stop him; he nodded as he walked past and avoided looking the polar bears in the eye, a challenge within the animal kingdom. He walked through the gates and sighed. He was here. A new life. A simple existence. No more voiding, no more specters from his past. A purely fresh start. Right?

[Azu]

Azu reached the gate and exhaled and a small smoke of air appeared as air. "Man this place is freezing, I don't know how they can live out here." Azu dusts off the snow on his shoulders and jumps up and down to warm up his body. The guards are giving him a weird look and Azu saw them and asked," Care to join?" They chuckled and continued their duties. After warming up and grabbed his sack and preceded through the gates and began walking towards Avanthal.

[Elva Skyglow]

A faint scratching noise could be heard in the stillness of mid-morning. Elva crouched some distance away from the Icewall Gates, balancing her drawing paper on her knees. The fresh powder was cold and wet where it seeped into her clothes but she payed it no mind. Just a bit more here... No, no that's not bright enough, she smudged away a dark mark of charcoal until it was faint. She looked up at the Gates and flashed a frustrated snarl, her eyes flashing blue.

It had been several bells now, she had positioned herself at the Gates at dawn to work on gesture drawings of the hunting parties leaving Avanthal. Elva had intended to return to the Hold afterwards but the muted light had struck the Icewall so stunningly. Unfortunately the complicated texture of the icestone was a bit above her abilities. Elva stood and shook the snow from her coat. She gathered up her supplies and shoved them into her bag, I'm not quitting. My wrist is sore. I'll just come back when it stops bothering me. She trudged back to the Gate and passed through it with her nose held high. She ignored the amused glances of the guards as she made her way back home.

[Einla Frostfawn]

68th day of Fall, 513 AV

The air was full of snow, and Einla could see only four feet in front of her face - a lull in the stormy weather. Blizzards annoyed her; you couldn't see properly, you could barely walk if the storm lasted long enough... They annoyed everyone, she supposed. But life went on, although she'd certainly be happier if it would go on indoors.

Tucking her nose more deeply into her scarf, she stumbled through the snowdrifts and nearly collided with the suddenly looming Gates. Wrong way. Again. She'd be stuck out here forever at this rate. Oh, she knew it would've been wiser to stay inside, but she had things to do! Her life couldn't be put on hold just because of the weather! Growling inarticulately into her scarf, she turned and struggled back to the shadow of the buildings.

[Axio Snowsong]

58th of Fall, 513


Axio trudged through the deep snow, desperately fighting the cold winds in order to reach his destination. Quickly scanning the horizon, he finally sighted his destination: The icy city on Avanthal. Tightly gripping the cloak around his shoulders, he began his sprint toward the ever closer city.

Upon finally arriving at the Icewall Gates, Axio slowed to a walk before stopping and catching his breath, with his hands on his knees. He wanted to rest longer, but felt awkward standing inactively in front of the guards. Panting, and with a quick nod of the head to acknowledge the guards, Axio finally reached his hopefully permanent living area. Avanthal awaited.

[Kenna Frostfawn]

3rd Day of Winter, 513 AV The sound of snow crunching underneath her boots echoed through her ears as she made her way through Avanthal. In the morning it was always more beautiful to stare at the ice structures as the sun danced on the ice itself. It created many beautiful colors and was a purely mesmerizing sight to see. Every morning, Kenna would walk out of Avanthal to explore what lied beyond the ice city.. Her adventurous nature if you will. Upon reaching the Icewall Gates, her bright green eyes were fixated on the guards ahead of her. A small smile crossed over her features as she waved to them, her slender figure moving past them. Since this was such a usual thing for her, no one really had to question whether she was doing something or not. Her adventurous spirit was notorious in Avanthal by most people she knew, it was almost infectious. Slowly making her way past the gates, she carefully maneuvered through the trees and large rocks that appeared. Her one goal being to see the sun rise properly, her favorite part of the morning. Kenna had always enjoyed seeing the many hues of colors that played across the sky on both and early morning and a late evening. Despite the sun's bright light, she couldn't help but almost damage her eye sight by just watching it. In an open clearing, slowly as the sun rose. It's bright rays of light shot out through the trees as a millions of tiny pieces of snow began to fall. A small laugh escaped her lips as she held out her hands and spinned around. One thing was that she never wanted to leave Avanthal, it was her icey wonderland and mainly her haven of possibilities. After all the fun was over, she trudged back up and made her way to the Icewall Gates once again. A small tinge of red appeared over her nose bridge causing her to lower her gaze from the guards. Large amount of snow seemed to coat her body going from her hair to her boots, you could have said she was a human polar bear.. If that were possible. Laughing slightly she began to brush off all the excess and then made her way back to Frostfawn.

[Auriga]

Auriga flipped up the collar of her coat against the cold wind, having paid a quick visit to the Hunter Savant Lodge to talk with some if the inhabitants there. Due to the unpredictable weather in the region, she had been forced to stay there for another two bells, until she deemed the conditions safe enough to leave.

And there were the Icewall Gates, proudly standing before her, majestic and a welcome site in the chilled air. Nodding to the guards, she walked through the gates, acknowledging the Kelvics on duty as she passed them. As she stepped into the far warmer air in Avanthal, Auriga gave a sigh of relief as she adjusted her coat to accomadate to the more hospitable temperature, now headed back to Skyglow Hold.

[Faelith Skyglow]

14th of Winter, 513 AV A gust of biting wind sliced suddenly through the air, and Faelith clutched her cloak tightly around her body. The wind had pushed a clump of her hair into her eyes; she shook her head, knocking it loose, and resumed staring out into the Northern Reaches. She couldn't have told anyone why she was there exactly, but she'd woken up with a need to see the frozen plains and, well, there she was. The frigid wasteland seemed to stretch on endlessly, a blanket of ice and snow, and even in the lighter snowfall than usual, Faelith couldn't make out anything on the horizon but white and silver snow. The Icewatch guard standing behind her laughed. "Looking for something?" Faelith felt blood flood to her cheeks and turned quickly to face the guard, who looked as if she was suppressing more laughter. "Um--" She stumbled eloquently. Behind the guard, and past her Kelvic companion, Faelith could see her city, her home, and wondered why she had felt the need to look out into Taldera how she had."No. No, I'll be going home. Thank you." She waved quickly at the Icewatch and Kelvic standing guard on the opposite side of the gates, ducked her head to avoid the amused gaze of the Vantha directly in front of her, and trekked as briskly as she could through the snow and back into Avanthal.

[Snowdrop Snowsong]

Timestamp: 30th, Winter, 513AV

Snowdrop shuffled through the snow with her little brother on her hip. He had his head tucked into her neck. She limped slowly towards Avanthal's gate. Smiling softly, her pace quickened. One of the Icewatch nodded to her, "he ran out again?" Snowdrop only nodded and moved the child in question to her other hip. "No more cake for him." Hentry decided to run around the city and then out of the gate. Just thinking about it caused a headache for the teenager. The guard only smiled as Snowdrop walked through the gate.