fantasy
Feyr
696
The snow whispered beneath his boots as he moved through the forest, each step placed with care, the sound swallowed by the cold. Shafts of light broke through the pines in trembling beams, painting the ground in gold and white. Frost clung to the branches like glass, bending them low until the faintest motion sent a shower of ice through the air. The silence was absoluteโno birdsong, no breezeโonly the faint creak of trees shifting under the cold.
He had been walking since dawn, following faint signsโa broken twig here, a half-print thereโeach clue half-swallowed by the nightโs snowfall. The faint warmth of the rising sun did little to ease the chill that bit through his gloves. His cloak brushed lightly over snowdrifts as he passed, and the air smelled of pine sap and frozen earth, sharp enough to sting the lungs. He paused once at a clearing where the light was brightest, eyes scanning the ground, watching how the frost caught the light like dust suspended midair. For a moment, the stillness felt fragile, as though the forest itself were holding its breath.
Then, a soundโsmall, sharpโcracked through the trees. A branch snapping. His head turned immediately, instincts coiled tight. He waited, breath held, but the woods had gone still again. He started forward, each step deliberate, the crunch of snow beneath his boots dampened by care. The stillness pressed in around him, heavy and listening.
The ground began to slope downward. Between the trees, he caught flashes of a frozen stream glinting like a blade in the sun, its edges feathered with white. He followed it a few paces, crouched low to study the faint drag marks that crossed its bank. Another sound reached himโa muffled whimper, distant but real. The hair along the back of his neck rose. Somewhere ahead, the light shifted faintly, as if something had just moved between him and the sun, leaving the air colder than before.
hunter
