Year 763 of the New Age

Winter

Ridgeback Range, Blackwood side

Featuring: Giblit
mentioning: Bass and Terra

Winter, it was the season of cold, the season of snow and ice, the season where the days were shorter and the nights were longer. But most of it all, the season that food was even more scarce than it usually was, and where some people were forced to live off of tree bark.

Giblit was plowing through the thick layer of snow that covered the floor, kicking up the snow in his frustration as he went.

He was sick of it, sick of being forced to eat tree bark, just to keep him going. He didn’t mind if he had to from time to time, but during winter, most of his diet was tree bark. One could perhaps say that the bitterness of the bark was rubbing off on him, as he became quite bitter and easily agitated himself during this season.

He wasn’t much bothered by the cold, Blackwood was naturally quite chilly all year round, but the fact that this much snow would always fall during winter made it near impossible to find food, and digging through the snow to perhaps find some half frozen plant usually cost more energy than it would give. Even the crows that followed Giblit around didn’t like the shortage of food, as bugs would crawl into the deepest, darkest pits they could find to escape the cold, and wait out the winter, and catching small wildlife to feed off of wasn’t a particularly small task either, especially to feed a whole murder of the black feathered birds.

Thus, Giblit had made a simple decision, he would go to Glenmore, and wait out the winter!

Perhaps he could visit Terra and Bass again, those were nice people, but he wasn’t sure. The top priority was to go somewhere he could get some food, both for himself, and his crows!

Filled with determination, Giblit had started his climb on the Ridgeback mountain range, but it he wasn’t following an unknown path, as he had followed it twice before. Despite of how easily Giblit was distracted by things, there was one thing he was particularly good at, and that was remembering things.

After several hour of climbing up the mountain, the sun was starting to set, giving the clouds on the horizon a bright, golden lining, vivid orange bodies, and a dark red tails. Giblit paused, and turned to look back at the path that he had traveled, then he turned to look at the bright colored sky.

For minutes, Giblit simply stood in place and admired the view. It was a view one could only get from high up on the mountains, or when flying a bird through possession, and even though Giblit had the pleasure of being able to see this fairly often, it would still amaze him how beautiful the sunset could be. The vivid colors of the clouds, the yellow-ish hue it painted over the ocean of snow covered pine trees below, that slowly swayed in the wind. The shimmering, bright golden reflection of the streams that would flow down the mountains surrounding Blackwood, and the long shadows that they drew in this light.

Giblit sighed, for a moment he felt like turning back, that he didn’t need to go, that he could stay here, in this beautiful land. But then he remembered his reasons, and turned back to the road, and he continued his climb. A little further ahead was a small overhang that offered good shelter against the wind, there he would rest for the night. No matter how determined he was, traveling at night was far more dangerous on a mountain than on the ground, so he would wait it out, and continue in the morning.