Free The Elder's Path by J.D. Caldwell

their feet under them and gain their bearings. Yet, despite Alir's reluctance, they did get some work done by the time that Lyn was ready to move on, so she felt better about their standing. She had procured more water, food, and had even been able to wash her things before setting out. They smelled of smoke from the fire, but they were cleaner than they had been.
    As she packed up the last of their equipment and slung it over her shoulder, Alir let out a cry and landed on her. She winced as his talons gripped tighter for balance, but luckily her leather armor protected her from his sharp grasp. E ager to continue with their adventure, the two stepped out from the cave back in to the world. A sudden bout of nerves struck the young Druid, but Lyn steeled herself before taking a last look around their makeshift encampment, and the two companions continued on.
    Thom had set her in a general direction, and she had always been good with directions. She thought so at least, but she began to doubt this after a few hours of trekking and not seeing very much of anything. She asked Alir to scout ahead, and he obliged. Taking advantage of the opportunity she had been denied their days previous, she closed her eyes and reached out to Alir with the very core of her being, and felt herself becoming lighter. When she opened her eyes again, she was looking down at the mountain through her companion's eyes, and she felt both their hearts flush warm with joy and freedom. It took her a few moments to bring herself back to the reason she had melded with Alir, and after a few thrilling dips and dives she began to actually pay attention to what she was seeing.
    Unfortunately she still did not see much of anything, as it appeared a heavy fog was impinging upon even Alir's visual acuity. Returning to her own body once again, she sighed and decided to risk it. There was no imme diate shelter as far as she had seen, so their best bets were either to go back the direction they had come from or press forward. So press forward they did.
    The wall of fog reached them soon enough, and it inhibited their vision drastically. Keeping fait hful to Thom's warning, Lyn's progress was especially slow as she prodded the ground before her. Darkness came earlier than usual due to the additional blanket of fog, but the weather seemed to be holding as well as could be expected. Lyn found a small group of trees whose branches gave more shelter than open ground did, so for the night that was their stop. Daybreak brought with it a clearer sky, in so far as the fog went at least. Lyn stared up at the grey ceiling and found herself dearly missing blue sky. Even at home, sunlight filtered in through the boughs of the trees and trickled down to the soft earth. Here, no beams of sunlight cut through the curtain to meet her.
    "Great," she breathed, "another dreary day."
    Two days later, Lyn was sorely missing the comparatively calm weather of before. Thom had not been exaggerating; the higher they climbed the worse the storms became. The wind now was constant and snow blew all over. Lyn made even slower progress than she would have normally, having to be extra careful about watching for hidden cracks in the ground beneath the snow. There was no more "calm before the storm" up here...it was storming always. Just became a matter of how hard.
    This day, however, Lyn found was a particularly stormy day. She had learne d quickly that speaking up here with the wind was a useless endeavor; it was impossible to hear anything but the howl. She had bundled herself up as much as she could, but frost still found its way to her and she was more miserable than she had thought possible. She dearly missed the small cave that she and Alir had camped in, and wished they could have just stayed there. But she was resolved to see her mission through now that she understood the consequences of her failure, the slow death of her culture, and how important it was that she not be stopped. But she could