Submission (#2048) Approved

Quest: Resonance - Act 1
Act Type: Exploration
Word Count: 1088
Adult Elnin Present: n/a
Regional Affinity: Strynhalde
Claiming Regional Affinity for: Cyn [ELN948]
Adventurer Unlock Mini-Requirement: Describe adventuring outfit

The wind fell frigid upon Cyn's tiny body, shaking her bones to their very core. Though she was bundled in a ridiculous amount of layers, she nevertheless felt an inescapable chill seep inwards, and down, and down. How she wished she was born with the natural fluffy talents of some of her kittom peers! She couldn't imagine that anyone would be able to survive here without it. This beautifully barren winterscape was alien to her in every way -- gone was the familiarity of warmth, the relentless fall of sunshine. In its place, just a void of ice, snow, and more ice; indeed she was very, very far away from home. 

And it was all for the sake of sating some sort of wanderlust. A challenge, a dare -- and her mother Sola being who she was, it was inevitable really, that she would find herself here, on the furthest stretch of the continent. She had been so enthusiastic about it at the time, bragging to her friends and littermates alike about her would-be bravery, about how she would conquer every obstacle in her path. But now, faced with the real deal, it was easy to forget such naive promises. Still, what was there to do but to move onwards? Her every step uncertain, yet bold, she fought against the downwind, against the snow in her eyes. 

The path was barely visible from time to time, and often she feared that she would stray. But inevitably a fire alighted within her, guided by a ferocious spirit, and she would catch its tail again, and pounce upon it until she was at last back exactly in its trails. In the distance, the great silhouette of a tree faded into few, its tendrils reaching towards the sky, so high that its boughs disappeared altogether into the company of clouds. No matter how far she walked, the tree remained the same size; how big was this thing again? It seemed to tower over mountains. 

At last there came a time when the snowfall stilled, and the cold fog crept back into the cliffs. The freezing sting softened, and the blanket of white before her became a million points of white light. Just a peek of the sun through the clouds, and the brightness of snow seemed blinding. She pawed at it for a bit, amazed at the little fragments of minute rainbows that danced across her paws. Just like her... just like her! She bounded onwards, overjoyed by the discovery, and began to take the path in strides, four steps at a time. 

She ran and ran for quite some time, and for a short while she existed somewhere in a dream. The wind picked up, and died down, and picked up again, tossing flurries of crystals into the air, and shaking more from the grips of crystal branches. She ran, enchanted, trying to catch them all -- with her paws, her tail, her mouth, even the tips of her ears. The white freckles fell all over, threatening to cover her in a new blanket if she stood still for too long. But she never did quite stay still! Her mind spun, and her heart raced, and the day crept on and on. She fell, and made snow angels here, and there. And as soon as she rose again from the ground, the shapes would be gone, melted into the landscape. 

And she ran, and ran. And she began to forget the cold. And at last, before the slivers of daylight fell beneath the horizon, she spotted a different set of lights. A small village, hewn into the mountain, loud with the sounds of life. She grew excited, and bounded further, grasping at a second wind. Almost there, almost there! Nice things were waiting for her -- nice, warm things: weighted blankets and pillows stuffed with goose feathers, huge cups of hot cocoa, the fiery heat of a never-dying fireplace. She ran so far that she had reached well into the village before she stopped to catch her breath. She found herself in the square, surrounded on all sides by an array of small cottages. Cozy looking structures, that billowed smoke gently from their chimneys. Many windows were lit, inviting her to step inwards. She checked the row of houses for the number she was looking for. And there it was! Knock, knock, knock. She sure hoped this was the right place. 

The door flew open, and she was greeted by a hearty elnin grinning from ear to ear. "Cyn! Welcome!" Roa ushered her in. "I've been waiting for you all day!" 

In the cozy confines of the house, she slipped out of her adventuring outfit, one layer at a time. First came the thick jacket, lined at the hood with a trim of white fur so poofy that it nearly hid her face completely. She unstrapped the two packs tied neatly against her sides, crammed to bursting with equal parts snacks and doodads. Then three sweaters, blue, pink, and orange, all knitted by her worrywart of a mother. Off came the gloves, and the snowshoes, and the actual shoes, and the socks. She unraveled a long scarf decorated with embroidered flowers, and hung it all up on the clothing rack. She pawed through the packs to make sure her important items were still there. Her compass and googles and a long stretch of rope -- still there. Good. She breathed a sigh of relief and fell upon the pillows near the fireplace. She fell asleep there, letting the flames melt away her frigid thoughts. 

The next morning, she witnessed the most beautiful dawn she had ever beheld. The pink rays had woken her up, slipping through the cracks in the curtain to lay upon her face, shining and shining until she could ignore the warmth no longer. Warmth -- that familiar love; she wanted to see it. Slipping into her jacket yet again, she left a note on the counter before scurrying out the door. She climbed the steps of the mountain, up and up to the highest point of the village, where a small stone bench was set before an opening in the cliffs. The pink turned to orange, to gold, to white. The sky became a river of color, flowing outwards, stretching away as if to touch the edges of the world. She saw the tree clearly now, and even from this distance, she could make out the facets upon its crystal surface, its unmistakable shine. She laid upon the rock, and simply watched.