Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 330

Chapter 330: Walking in sunshine
Mia squinted. The sunshine ahead was blinding after the shaded confines of the canopied forest.

What was there? She hesitated at the edge of the tree line. An unencumbered wind made her shiver. She’d underestimated the advantages of the sheltered and temperate woods.

The snowy mountains would be next, according to her vision.

“What… what is that?”

Ford’s eyes must have adjusted more quickly than Mia’s to the very bright day. Not only was the sun unhindered by cloud cover, it was being reflected back at them from a shockingly white set of cliffs that rose like shelves from the plain ahead.

Mia blinked. She’d seen drawings of mountains in books, but nothing like this. Was that snow? While noticeably more chilly than the woods, it didn’t seem cold enough for ice… and yet, that’s exactly what it looked like ahead.

Cliffs of white ice like frozen waterfalls tumbling towards the earth.

“It’s beautiful,” She decided after a moment. Daunting, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of it.

Nudging Harper forward, Mia felt warmer the moment the sunlight fully hit her. It was as if her skin had been craving the light and now reveled in its touch.

“Is that snow?” Daniel called loudly, earning a soft shushing sound from his mother. That was wise. Just as when they left the grassland to enter the forest, things were unknown here.

Mia considered the possibility that the wights, by virtue of wanting more of Ford’s carvings, had been protecting them while keeping the party in the woods.

Now, perhaps, that they were likely leaving the realm of those wood-loving creatures, it was entirely possible that some level of protection would be removed from them. It made her a little wary, but she did not stray from her search for the best path to Uncle Trace.

The horses moved at her direction, towards the looming and curious looking shelves. Ford’s horse was surprisingly compliant with staying so close to Harper, and vice versa. The steady hold of his hand around hers was soothing to her troubled heart.

The humans were a mix of on edge and wildly curious, taken in by the beauty. No one spoke much as they were entrenched in their own thoughts and musings about the curious landscape.

It really did look like a massive waterfall, frozen and white, as wide as the eye could see and taller than several palaces stacked on top of one another. A wild feat of nature or magic, with warm enough weather that Mia hoped it wouldn’t begin to melt, crashing across the short plain at its base and wiping out the little traveling party.

Such morbid thoughts had no place in her outlook, and she looked up at the cascading silhouette of the terrain ahead.

Mia would have been worried about scaling the shelves of the cliff face except that her gift drew them forward.

Since she was searching for a traversable path, there must be one. Right?

Trying to recall whatever images she could from the vision she’d had in the cave, she almost missed Ford’s words.

“You said there were mountains covered in snow… is this what you meant?”

“Yes… maybe?” Mia raised her eyes to look at the area.

“I didn’t picture mountains this way. I thought they were like… large, pointy hills.”

“This appears to be more of a high plateau than a mountain,” Daniel chimed in loudly from behind them. “Although it may very well have mountains behind the highest edge, beyond our sight.”

“Sweetheart,” Anaisa told her son. “It’s not the most polite thing to insert yourself into a conversation you were not invited to.”

“But I was being helpful!”

“Mia is also capable of relaying that information,” She reminded him. “You can be patient enough to let her, and then fill in anything afterward if questions or curiosity remain..”

“Are there no mountains in Foundrel?” Mia asked, lowering her voice so that her aunt could continue to correct Daniel’s social faux pas without distraction.

“None that I’ve been to,” Ford shrugged. “But I never went more than a mile from the mine before coming to your house. No mountains between my home and yours.”

He frowned for a moment, and she considered his face.

“Is the mine still ‘home’?”

“No.” He sighed. “I just was thinking how I don’t have one. My bed in the bunkhouse was probably given away before I was gone for a full day.”

The conversation lapsed as Mia looked away. The words hurt her heart, and she wanted to offer him a home, a place amongst her own family. He’d already found a good stride with Grandpa.

It wasn’t her decision to make, nor her place to offer it to him. She squeezed his hand lightly, and then grimaced as she remembered his blisters.

“Why don’t you drink a bit of healing water for those?” She glanced pointedly down.

“I didn’t want to waste it. They’ll heal,” He shrugged.

“Maybe you’re right. They didn’t seem to bother you just now.” Mia observed. A slight change in Ford’s expression alerted her that something was at play. “Are you… using your power to hide the pain?”

“That’s not important,” He shrugged. “Preserving your magic is.”

“But if you’re draining yours…” She frowned.

“Not really. I could hide mild pain fairly indefinitely if I wanted to,” He assured her, but somehow that made her feel worse, not better.

“Do you hide pain indefinitely?” She wondered to herself, too softly for him to quite hear.

The conversation had distracted her enough so that they’d come close to the edge of the cascading white landscape marking the next phase of their journey.

Mia tugged on Harper’s reins and released Ford’s hand to dismount.

“Something wrong?” Grandpa called from the rear as the formation came to a stop. He brought his horse up even with theirs, curiously looking ahead at the base of the cliffs.

“Before we walk on this, I want to figure out what it is,” Mia explained. “I don’t think it’s ice at all.”