Chapter 38: The Ice Field
In the vast ice field, it was a snow-white world. Pen | fun | pavilion www. biquge。 info
A massive blizzard swept across the ice sheet, brutally staining everything as far as the eye could see white. White mountains, white earth, white trees, white lakes, and boundless white wind and snow that obscured the entire sky and made it impossible to open people's eyes.
In this snow-white world, a group of people are trudging hard.
They were wrapped in thick animal skins, and their faces were serious and resolute, looking straight ahead. Most of them were muscular, looked very athletic, and did not have a hard time walking in waist-deep snow, and some even wore their shirts open, revealing their solid chests, as if they did not care about the bone-chilling cold.
At the back of their ranks, there were a few people who were cowering, trembling, and obviously much thinner, and they wrapped the animal skins tightly around their bodies, and under the urging and coercion of the people in front of them, they followed the team and moved forward with difficulty.
At the back of the procession, there was a long line of giant wolves, panting and spitting clouds of white mist, following the path carved out by the people in front of them, stepping on the hard frozen soil, and trekking through the wind and snow.
From a distance, they looked like a black line, dragging their long tails and drawing a long trajectory on the white paper.
And there are many tracks like this on the entire ice field, one by one, towards the depths of the ice field, converging.
Redhart felt like he couldn't hold on.
Along the way, from the south of the continent to the north of the continent, the encirclement and suppression of the army he expected did not come, nor did the masters of the Holy See that he hoped for. Every day, in addition to work, they are in a hurry. Endless hurried all the way to the Danish sea.
During this long migration, only 11 veterinarians were left in their group, and the rest either escaped and were executed, or ended their lives in desperation. Of the 11 people they had left, six were separated and sent to another tribe. Luckily or unfortunately, Redhart was among the six.
After a rare two-week break in the harbor by the sea, all the tribes began their journey again. The difference is that this time it is a trip to sea.
There are two kinds of ships that go to sea, one is a merchant ship that is snatched from the port, or a captive merchant ship, a fishing boat, large and small. The other is much more regular, but the appearance of the ships is very simple and crude, the huge logs are firmly lined up, fixed together, and some simple fences are made, and they are a ship. With no keel, no masts, no sails, it is more like a raft, suitable for carrying wood and stone in the calm waters of the river, and not like it can fight the wind and waves in the sea.
But the wolf herders didn't care and decided to go to sea in such a boat. Redhart was born in a city where shipping was very popular, and such an act seemed to him to be almost tantamount to death. But the fleet set off in a majestic way, but fortunately, he was not on the rafts, but was assigned to a large merchant ship to take care of the wolves.
There were not many people on the merchant ships, except for the trembling seamen who had been captured, and a few master wolf shepherds guarding them. The ship was full of wolves, and Redhart and his companions tended to them. Most of the wolf herders got on small fishing boats or rafts.
Then the small boats were fastened to each other with ropes, and then fixed behind the big ships, and the boats of several tribes gathered together, and the huge fleet set off.
The bumps of the waves were nothing to Redhart, but tending to wolves, land animals that were good at running and chasing in the forest, had left him almost paralyzed. But when I got on the boat, in addition to being calm at the beginning, the back was completely messed up, from running crazy and screaming and biting, to foaming at the mouth and dying, it was only a day.
Redhart and his companions tried their best, but from morning till night, there was no improvement, and every day the wolves could not survive, died of weakness, and were thrown into the sea.
Compared with the wolf in the big boat, the wolf herder in the back in the small boat and raft is even worse. At the beginning, the sea was calm, and although everyone vomited and fell and languished, they could at least withstand it with their strong physical fitness. But the calm didn't last forever, and the fleet still had a storm.
The rain on the sea was far more violent than on land, with dark clouds overheading, the heavenly rivers pouring in, lightning and thunder, and stormy waves. Redhart and the others barely tied up the wolves one by one, and the storm began. Clutching the pillar of the cabin, Redhart felt like a leaf, undulating and fluttering in the wind, and he could do nothing but cling to the pillar and pray.
I don't know how long it took, but the waves subsided, and shouting voices could be heard outside the cabin.
Redhart had no time to care about the wolves, and couldn't help but step out of the cabin and onto the deck.
Outside, the sea was calm and clear, and the sun was shining on the dense shards of wood on the sea, and most of the rafts were damaged, and the logs were scattered and the planks were flying. And one by one, the werewolf masters are constantly treading the waves on the sea, rescuing their own people.
As time went on, logs were collected, clansmen were rescued, and wounded were brought up to the deck of the ship. Then the ropes were dropped on the big ship, and the logs were again formed into rafts, only with much fewer than before, and there were many fewer wolf shepherds sitting on them. Each of the wolf herders had a heavy sadness on their faces, and I don't know who got up, and the desolate and mournful songs of the wolf herders resounded on the surface of the sea, and they became louder and louder.
Redhart didn't know why the werewolves were going to sea, and even if they paid such a big price, they still wouldn't give up, all he could do was endure their whipping and roar, and throw the giant wolves who died in the storm into the sea.
Fortunately, such a storm only happened once, and a few days later, they saw the distant horizon and came to their destination.
It was an ice field, except for a few ground and rocks, it was all snow-white, huge glaciers, vast snow, white giant bears made up this world of ice and snow.
After a short two-day break, the team set off, even in the face of a snowstorm that covered the sky.
It wasn't an easy walk, and Redhart could clearly feel his legs turn from sore and swollen to cold and numb, and even with the fur clothes given by the wolfherders, the endless cold burrowed into his body, taking away his heat and making him weaker and weaker, and this long and difficult journey made him lose two more companions: they fell to the ground and never woke up.
Infinite exhaustion and weakness surrounded Redhardt, and he wanted to lie down on the ground and rest for the umpteenth time, but he gritted his teeth and held on, he knew that once he fell, he would never wake up, and he would never see his beloved wife and beloved daughter.
Finally, the team stopped, and a black and white forest appeared in front of them, and the big black trees were covered with snow. The ranks of the werewolves also erupted in shouts and cheers of joy.
After a long cheer, the team moved forward again, submerging into the forest.
Redhart looked at the trees around him, they were dark and towering, but they had no leaves, only branches pointing straight into the sky, and they looked indescribably strange.
After a little more progress, Redhart saw some bricks and stones stuck in the dirt, and some broken rubble, indicating that the place was once inhabited.
The broken ruins passed, and a stone-paved road appeared on the ground, stretching all the way to which it leads.
The procession continued along this road. Suddenly, Redhart spotted a large black shadow, long, piercing straight from the ground into the depths of the forest.
It was only when he got closer that Redhart really saw that the black shadow was actually a pitch-black chain, it was so huge and so thick that people stood under it as if they were standing in front of a building. The massive chain sank into the ground at one end, and the other extended far into the forest.
Redhart couldn't imagine what a terrifying being had created such a huge chain, and what a sight it was like at the end of the chain. But he had no choice but to follow the team and walk towards the depths of the Black Forest.
(To be continued.) )