a walk back to the camp from here." Urake hunkered down and looked the motley group over. Torroth and Inadar were off by themselves to one side sitting on their heels. Niman and Arken were glaring at each other on the other side. Arken was steaming wherever he was wet giving an indication of the passive use of his Gift. Emeck was gazing with a perplexed expression at the cluster of trees that Aleest had disappeared into. Cero was shaping a seat in the snow with his bare hands. Urake watched as he finished the seat and sat down. Oddly, his clothes weren't the least wet nor was his hands red from handling the snow. He didn't look chilled in any way.
Everyone flinched as a deep rumbling growl drifted out of the stand of trees. Urake seized his bow while everyone except for Cero hurriedly jumped to their feet. A moment later and an enormous white bear broke out of the trees at a gallop. Urake notched an arrow and was about to let it fly when he noticed Aleest mounted on the beast's back. A couple of the other members of the party were not so observant and lost their courage when the bear drew closer. They stopped when they heard Aleest's laughter.
"I told you that I could keep up." Urake shook his head at Aleest's comment.
"You did not mention that you planned on taming a snow bear." The rest of the party, except for Cero who kept his place, chose to maintain a safe distance. When he did move, it was towards the bear who shied away. Aleest glanced up with a surprised expression.
"He's afraid of you. I can't explain it. Kosovo says that your shadow is scary."
"My shadow?" The sun had been direct for the first half hour or so after the first light, but now had risen behind the upper level clouds and shed a diffused light that all but obliterated shadows.
"Ya, he says it is brighter than the snow in the sun.” Cero looked the bear over before backing away. Kosovo looked more at ease. When Urake announce the end of the rest period, Aleest took the lead. The big bear was able to effortlessly break a trail wide enough for two men abreast. This made it easier for the rest to follow. It took a bit before half the group was able to follow closer than fifty paces.
“Cero, are you cold yet?” Urake asked as he looked Cero’s furs over and observed that only a little dry snow clung to his clothes.
“No. Why do you ask?”
“For one, you were laying in the snow earlier.”
“It felt good. Are you cold?” Cero looked up at Urake.
“Now that you ask; I don’t feel cold, I should but I don’t.” Urake paused and bent down to inspect his boots and pant legs. There was melted snow, but it had frozen and flaked off when he brushed at it.
“We should be freezing like the rest of them. Except for Arken which is expectable. Aleest looks comfortable on that giant bear. Niman and Torroth look cold, but Inadar looks fine…” Urake mused out loud.
“I never get cold.” Cero commented as he watched their fellow travelers.
“You never get cold, you can block Emeck out without any effort, and ferocious animals are terrified of you. What else can you do?”
“I don’t know. It just happens. Weirder things happen when I get scared.” Urake didn’t press for more details so they walked on with only the sound of the snow crunching under their feet. When they reached one of the rock cliffs that broke up the snow fields, Kosovo turned to the one side and Aleest hollered back something about a way up the mountain further ahead. His prediction turned out to be in the form of a place where the cliffs shortened and dipped under the snow for a short space. The snowfield was steeper here and made climbing more difficult, but it beat lugging everything up a cliff.
After achieving the top of the snow field, they found another ridge cutting across their path. This one was only a minor obstacle because it was more of a broken pile of rock jutting out of the snow. Kosovo, with Aleest riding comfortably, was the first to the top with Cero shortly behind. By now the bear had grown used to Cero’s “shadow”, as Aleest put it, so he didn’t more than watch Cero as he approached.
“Can I touch him?” Cero stood a safe