“All ready to go?” I looked at the others.

“Sure. Just walk ahead. We’ve done this before.” Milly rolled her eyes.

I shot her a glare.

Milly was of mana today, but it would hit Tilly or me on another day.

The suns were hidden behind the clouds as we started to head eastward again. There were plenty of mountains ahead. Hopefully we won’t be delayed that much this year.

Since the path was nowhere to be seen, we kept to the more flat terrain and went up to the ridges if we could. It was still freezing, but when the suns came out, it was not that bad.

The nights were cold, but we huddled together for maximum warmth and used some mana to warm up the stones. The spell gave way more heat now and lasted longer, so we survived the nights without frostbite.

We fought our way through the snow covered mountains for over two weeks. There was no sign of civilization, but the snow thawed away slowly. We saw our share of avalanches, but mostly from afar or above and managed to keep away from the southern flank of the claws.

Then a jolt of pain hit me while I awake and walking and I lost my footing and ended up buried in the snow.

“Lilly!” Milly looked at me with wide eyes.

“It’s. I. The mana regeneration seems to finally have kicked in.” I rubbed the tears from my eyes.

“Owwww!” Tilly smiled widely.

“It means we have to bear with to jolts all day and night.” I frowned at Tilly.

“On the other hand it will be over sooner.” She flinched back.

“I don’t like this.” Milly shook her head.

“It all has two sides. Tilly has a point of course.” I shrugged.

“Let’s head on when you’re ready to go again.” Milly shuddered.

I struggled to my feet.

“Let’s see how often it hits. We should avoid long climbs though.” I stretched.

It took three hours for another jolt. It was taxing. The night was a mess as well. We couldn’t walk as long as we were used to, but waking up every fucking hour was way too much, especially without a relatively calm day. One magician will die a very painful death if would ever get my hands on him.

The weather was mostly decent. The rain was bad these temperatures, but it made short work of the snow.

“This will cut down our daily progress to a crawl.” I frowned

“Take your time to sleep and recover.” Milly gave me a hug.

We ended up in group hug, which was comforting. All in all this was just a pain not in the ass.

“At least we’re not in a village. This would cause quite a ruckus.” Caroline shook her head.

We walked as fast I could. At least the snow was getting more and more sparse.

A few days later Tilly’s mana regeneration kicked in as well. Milly was again very quiet, but really caring as well. She still had shitty nights though.

“At least those marks start to have visible damage!” Tilly tried a smile.

“It don’t think this is over soon, but it will give us more options in the future.” I forced a smile back.

“I only wish this is over soon.” Milly clenched her jaw.

We inched eastward, but after a few more days it started get easier as managed to reach a plateau. We headed more north to get some distance from the empire again and kept to the second line of peaks of The Claws.

“It seems to hit when the mana gets to a certain level.” Tilly sat down beside me while we rested.

“This means we could hold the jolts off using spells?” Milly came over as well.

“At least over the day.” She shrugged.

“We can use that in treacherous terrain and may try more difficult climbs again as long as we are careful.” I grinned at Tilly

“I appreciate any good news these days.” Milly smiled at Tilly.

“I was just playing around a bit, and noticed that it took longer than usual for the pain hit.” She smiled back at us.

“Curiosity for the win!” I chuckled and stuck out my tongue at Milly.

“Don’t you get overconfident!” She gave me mock frown.

At the end of the plateau we followed a ridge to the east again. A few hours before noon we noticed a couple of small buildings surrounded by a wall which was build right between two snow capped peaks. A road leading south descended into the valley north and seemed to wind up the southern mountains.

“We’re going to reach it around noon.” I stopped to take closer view.

“We could ask for a lunch. We’ve some money left to pay them.” Milly looked at me.

“We can control the painful heals by just keeping the mana low.” Tilly shrugged.

“A warm meal from a real kitchen would be nice for a turn.” Loraline looked at me.

“We could try. It’s no significant deviation.” I shrugged.

Meeting some people again after the long winter would be a nice change. We shouldn’t stay long though.

We continued our way along the mountain range, and it was close to noon as we approached the small settlement. Tilly and I had used up some mana playing around with the spells we had.

They all were considerably more powerful or lasted longer than before.

We approached the settlement over a few hundred meters of the road. I planned to leave the same direction, to conceal our true destination.

“Greetings, travelers. What leads you to our humble abode?” An older man in simple white robes smiled at us as we reached the open gate.

“Would it be possible to get a meal and a place to rest?” Milly stepped forward.

“Sure. We expect new supplies soon and wouldn’t mind to share a meal.” He nodded at Milly.

“What could do you want in return for your offer?” Milly looked at me.

I shrugged.

“We don’t have anything fancy, so a small donation for the abbey would suffice. Follow me please.” The man bowed slightly and turned back to the yard.

A larger stone building stood at far end of the yard. There were half a dozen other men with similar clothes on the premise.

We crossed the yard and approached the largest building on the premises.

“How was the winter?” Milly looked at the old man.

“We were well prepared. In winter we don’t see anyone from the outside at all. We get new supplies once a month in the snow free time at least.” He shrugged.

“This building looks old.” Milly looked at the building ahead.

“It was build millennia ago. We fix it once in a while though. The weather is rough here on the mountain.” He opened the door an went inside.

“That’s quite impressive.” Milly followed him closely.

“There are many buildings of similar age. They have to be repaired when damaged once in a while.” He lead us through a hallway to another door.

“It’s in a good condition.” Milly smiled at him.

“This is the refectory.” He opened the door.

The room was quite large and filled with tables and benches.

“How many people live here?” Milly inspected the room.

“About a dozen brothers. This place was once more populated, but at the moment it quite secluded. Sit down, I inform the kitchen about some extra mouths to feed.” He left through another door.

“Let’s sit down then.” Milly put her backpack at the wall next to a table.

“Normal benches and tables!” Loraline smiled at me.

I put my backpack and my weapon at the wall behind me and sat down as well.

The people seemed to be friendly, but it couldn’t hurt to have everything in reach. We had find new armor soon. Fortunately we didn’t come across anything hostile since we left the outpost.

“Today there is stew for lunch, it should be ready soon. Lunch is in a quarter of an hour.” He smiled.

“Stew is fine.” Milly smiled happily.

“I leave you alone for now since I’ve tasks to attend to before lunch.” He waved with a smile and left the refectory.

“It’s nice to be among people for a change.” Milly smiled at me.

“Enjoy it as long as it lasts. We’ll be on our way in an hour or two.” I smiled back.

“This has to end eventually.” Milly furrowed her brows.

“It will take time, but let’s not talk about it here and now.” I winked at her.

“No one is listening.” She frowned a bit.

“You’ll never know in a building like this.” I furrowed my brows.

“Then we talk about later.” She looked me into the eyes.

“Sure.” I nodded.

“It’s a nice place.” Loraline propped her arms on the table.

“We’re still trying to reach..” Tilly looked at Loraline.

“We will not reach our destionation at all, if everybody knows about it. Tilly.” I looked into her eye.

“Well. Er. Sure.” She looked back with wide eyes.

“Lilly. Can you please relax a bit?” Milly shook her head.

“I’m totally relaxed.” I shot her a wry smile.

“It’s good to stay alert.” Caroline nodded at me.

“Then how many pimples you’re going to have on your feet tonight.” I grinned at Milly.

“Is this supposed to be a change of topic?” She shook her head.

“What else could it be?” Tilly grinned at me.

“It seems that lunch is served soon.” Caroline nodded at a counter at the side of the room.

Two men in white robes had started to pile up bowls and beakers and some utensils.

“Hello, just head over and get yourself a bowel and queue up at the line for the cauldron.” The old man smiled as he stopped by our table.

“Thanks.” Milly nodded at him smiling back.

“Don’t hesitate to get yourself more than one serving. You’ve probably been on your feet all day.” He nodded at Milly.

Lunch was a quiet affair. People whispered most of the time so we kept quiet as well. The stew was delicious.

Then Loraline laid her head on the crook of her arm.

“I could sleep the rest of the day.” Milly yawned and propped her head on her hands looking at her.

Then Caroline slumped, her chin dropped down on her chest.

“I want to have a nap as well.” Tilly looked at me with small eyes.

“This is a trap!” I realized I was really tired as well.

I tried to get to my feet, but after feeling dizzy for a few moments all went black.