246 From Snow To Sand

They were only on the first leg of their journey, there was certainly more trouble to be had on the road ahead of them. Aether had gone into a state of hibernation, coiled around Vy's wrist permanently. 

When Vy was almost fully recovered, it was time for him to go into dormancy so that he could regain his strength. In the hut, Vy and Lycster packed up all of their things and prepared for their journey. 

Before they left, they consulted a map they had to figure out their current coordinates and which direction they needed to go. Once that was out of the way, they got ready to leave. Vy decided to take to her titan wolf form so that they could arrive at their destination a lot quicker. 

Shin was also going to travel with them. He was a little hesitant when Vy offered him to ride on her back behind Lycster. 

"Don't worry about it. Plus this way, we would be able to travel quicker." Vy explained. 

"I… I…" that was not the only thing the frost elf was afraid of. 

He had never been outside the Bleak Lands. Where was he going to go? Even if he followed them out of the Bleak Lands, where would he go from there? When he voiced his concerns, Vy thought for a while. 

"Well… you could go to the Elves Alliance. I am sure you'll be able to figure out something from there," she suggested. 

"Elves Alliance?" Shin asked. 

He had only ever heard of it mentioned once before, years ago in a distant memory. 

"Yeah, it's populated by different types of elves, I am sure you would be able to find where you belong there!" Lycster added. 

Seeing the enthusiasm of the two humans, Shin felt a new source of hope. He had never met any other elves before, apart from his own people. Living all alone in the Bleak Lands did not seem like such a good idea either. 

But a part of him could not let go of the village he grew up in. One of the reasons that he never once tried to run away was because this was his home. Everyone he ever knew lived and died here. 

He had never known anything else. 

"I'll come back here one day," he said, "But for now, exploring new places sounds like a lot of fun."

With that, they gathered the remainder of their possessions and started on their journey towards their next location. After consulting the map one more time just to be certain, Shin pointed out that he knew a quicker way that could get them through to the Rihi Desert, their next location. 

"But it would cost us gemstones," Shin explained. 

"That sounds very helpful. But how do we summon them?" Vy asked. 

"Oh you don't have to summon them, you just need to be at the right place with the offering," Shin replied. 

The frost elf brought the Blackfire siblings to the entrance of the village. Next to the main entrance, was a bench. Next to the bench was what resembled a birdbath, but with no water in it. It was completely covered by piles of soft fresh snow. 

Shin and Vy scooped out the snow, revealing the carved shape of a snowflake at the base of the basin. Shin explained that all they needed to do, was to put a gemstone in the basin and soon enough, the Flakes would answer. 

But he gave a word of uncertainty. 

"We have not called on the Flakes in a long time, so I am not sure if they would still heed our call. But I guess it's still worth a try."

Vy understood. If the method worked, it could help to shorten their travelling time by a good amount. Vy looked through her spatial storage and picked out a glimmering piece of emerald and placed it in the basin. 

Within a matter of seconds, all of them could feel a chilly wind blowing from behind. When they turned to look, a huge sleigh pulled out right before them. When Lycster looked to the front, he noticed that there was no one or any horses pulling it. 

Beautiful carvings adorned the entire sleigh, all in unique snowflake designs. Shin was the first to get on, followed by Vy and Lycster. When Vy turned back to look at the basin, she realised that the emerald was no longer in there. 

Once everyone was seated in the sleigh, Shin whistled. His whistling acted as and the sleigh began to move on its own. With the cold wind blowing in their faces, Vy and Lycster covered their faces with their scarves. 

Shin, on the other hand, enjoyed the cold prickly wind against his skin. He remembered the times he had sat on the sleigh with his family. After a short distance, Shin noticed that a spear of wind blew off the snow that covered the ground coming up in front of them. 

An underground tunnel appeared before them. 

"Hold on tight everyone!" Shin exclaimed as he too clung to the side of the sleigh. 

Vy and Lycster heed his warning and did the same. 

Within a matter of seconds, they disappeared into the dark tunnel. Behind them another gust of wind covered up the entrance of the tunnel, returning it to smooth snow-covered ground. Returning to the status quo. 

As soon as the entrance closed, darkness engulfed them. But a few short moments later, the tunnel lit up in bright blue hues. All of them looked to the sides of the tunnel. The source of light was emitted from the blue crystals that lined both sides.