[Ice Fields Cemetery] A View From Above

by **Alekxandra Winterflame** on July 1st, 2016, 12:59 am

Day 20, Summer, 516 A.V.

Trees were such a rare exquisite beauty in Avanthal. In all her visits to the cemetery just behind the Temple of Everwinter, she had admired the trees within the cemetery to be special. They were nothing like the Avanthalian pine that scarcely speckled their city in odd places. Perhaps it was the almost eerie beauty of them hanging delicately over the buried.

Her fascination with them had started… well as far back as she could remember really. There were numerous times she had visited the cemetery with her family to see their father’s grave. Of course she knew of the man who–had he been alive when she was found–would have been her father. At least she assumed he might have been. Alek hated to imagine that her family might not have been hers if he had survived.

To avoid those thoughts while visiting the sombre graveyard Alek had turned her attention to the trees. Comfort came in the most unusual ways and for her the trees often brought comfort to her as much as praying to Morwen did.

Today had been a day like any other. A visit to the cemetery to see a grave of a man she did not know. She loved her family and it was never out of her way to visit with them–no matter what her sisters said behind her back. Seeing their father’s grave always brought out the worst in them.

It was one of the few times Alek let their insults roll over her shoulders completely.

It was mainly the reason she had chosen to stay behind in the graveyard when the rest of her family made their way back to the hold. Liam had expressed concern in a simple look Alek was sure he had tailored just for her. A way of asking if she was alright without uttering the words. She had merely waved him off. They needed their time together and she could hardly grieve with them. Not properly at least.

It left her in the graveyard alone, staring up at the beautiful trees. It was a rare day, sun filling the sky and snowflakes falling ever so slowly downward without the usual summer wind to whip them into a frenzy. They were truly radiant in the sun.

”I wonder…” A stray thought crossed her mind as she gazed upward. It was an inappropriate thought at that. If she were to be caught… well she had no idea the repercussions of it. Climbing into the trees of the graveyard wasn’t something one did on a whim. They were sacred in their own way.

But the idea of being amongst the branches in this gentle snow, to see the area from above rather than from the ground sparked a curiosity that tended to get Alek into trouble. But the idea of trouble never caused her to back away from an idea before, and it wasn’t going to start now. Besides one could only get into trouble if one was caught. The gravestones seemed to be her only witnesses right now, and Alek was intent on keeping it that way. She wasn’t looking to destroy or harm anything–she just wanted to see more.

The only problem was she really didn’t know how to climb. Most of the trees stood tall, their bark smooth of branches until they were much to high for her to reach. Twitching her nose, she glanced among the trees to find an easier prize. Off to her left she spotted her lucky tree. It was tall like the rest, but the trunk of the tree twisted low as if something had forced it to grow sideways for a time. Whatever had caused such an affect was clearly no longer around, but it left the tree looking far easier to scale than the others.

Approaching the tree, Alek rested her hands on the trunk. The rough of the bark pressed into her gloves, but she could feel the ridges ever so slightly through them. Carefully she lifted her left foot and laid it against the curve of the tree trunk, using it to lift the rest of her weight upwards onto the tree. Even with the severe curve in the trunk her balance was difficult to maintain. Taking a deep breath, Alek gave herself a tick or two before slowly working her hands ahead of her. As she let her body follow along her hands, she moved to lift her left foot once again–

–and promptly lost her balance. With a squeal she toppled off the trunk and into the snow below it. Luckily she had not even been several feet up the tree before she had slipped and the landing merely knocked the air out of her lungs. Lying in the snow she tried to gasp for air. It felt as though her lungs wouldn’t open. It was a little terrifying and Alek remained where she was partly out of fear. The only indication she might still be breathing was the cool sliver of air leaking into her chest. That alone kept her mind from falling into a full blown panic.

After several chimes of simply laying in the snow, staring up at the tree that seemed to mock her attempt at climbing, her lungs seemed to be fully capable again. Lifting her head slightly, she felt the world spin and she carefully dropped her head back into the snow with a groan and closed her eyes.

”This is going to be harder than it looks.”

by **Solemn Warborn** on July 6th, 2016, 1:51 am

Solemn stumbled over a head stone. Looking about, he tried to figure out how he had ended up in the cemetery. It was not a short walk from where he had been, and he thought he would’ve noticed walking so far. He shook his head to clear it of thoughts, then took another couple moments to remember what it was he had been thinking about that had him so disctracted. His sister Hiberna. That had to have been what it was. From the moment their bond had been broken, she had always been on his mind. That probably wasn’t quite accurate. She had been on his mind since their bond had first formed, but while they had their bond, the two had been inseparable. She had always been on his mind then too, but that’s because she had always been nearby.

He took in his wider surroundings and realized he was mostly alone. There was one other inhabitant, but she hadn’t noticed his clumsy entrance. Gazing upward, she seemed lost in whatever she saw up there. Perhaps it was the snowflakes, falling gently from the sky, so slow and lazy that they almost seemed suspended in midair. Maybe it was Syna’s cold light. In the Talderan summer, even the sun’s light didn’t warm properly. Maybe there was some bird drifting in the sky, enjoying the lack of the usual blasting winds. Perhaps…

Solemn couldn’t be sure what it was she was watching, but he appreciated curiosity. Watching, he waited to see if the object of her curiosity would reveal itself. He didn’t have to wait long. The young woman wandered up to the trunk of a bent and twisted tree and set her hand against it.

The trees? He had never found them something to be curious about, just something to be conquered. As she set a foot upon the trunk, he made his way toward her, all the while keeping his eyes on her and keeping his footfalls light. He wasn’t trying to sneak; he just didn’t want to interrupt or distract her. His own curiosity wished to see how well she could scale the trees he had summited many times himself. It was difficult to stay completely quiet anyhow. Even with slow, deliberate steps, he couldn’t keep the compressing snow from crunching beneath his feet. It didn’t matter. Her focus was on the tree, and she took no notice of his steady approach.

Her first step on to the low bent trunk was confident and made Solemn certain she was a prolific climber, but what followed proved that notion wrong. As soon as she placed her first foot on the tree and pulled her body up after it, she spent several precarious moments trying to balance. That she managed, but on her very next step, she lost it, squealed, and tumbled to the ground.

The fall wasn’t far, so Solemn wasn’t concerned for her well-being. Still, the young woman spent several chimes on the ground, catching her breath. It had been knocked from her upon her landing. Solemn knew the sensation, maybe not as well as a normal person would, but he knew it.

As Solemn finally made it to her side, she lifted her head, set it back down, and spoke to no one in particular. “This is going to be harder than it looks.”

Solemn flopped on to his back in the snow next to her, watching his breath leave his lungs in a slowly billowing fog. “I doubt it’s that bad. You’ve already learned the first and hardest lesson of climbing: how to fall.”

He hoped she wasn’t angry at him for his uninvited interruption. Staring up past the transient fog his breath kept creating, his eyes danced over the tree, evaluating several paths up to the top of the tree. It was one of his strategies for climbing. Knowing the next step made climbing a whole lot easier. Of course, the next step was nowhere near as important as the one one was currently taking.

Nudging her elbow with his, he pointed up into the tree. “There’s your problem. It looks taller from down here.”

Rolling clumsily away from her, he stood to his feet and offered her a hand up. “Here. Stand up and see how much smaller it looks.” He knew it was a ridiculous notion, but it seemed an appropriate way to break the ice. “I’m Solemn.”

He didn’t recognize her, but he didn’t recognize most people if they weren’t Snowsongs or Frostfawns. If he had met her before in his short life, he didn’t recall.

by **Alekxandra Winterflame** on July 7th, 2016, 6:31 pm

Alekxandra generally prided herself on knowing her surroundings. In most cases it wasn’t easy to sneak up on her given her better than average hearing and sense of smell. But as much as she hated to admit it, her ability to focus on one thing so deeply always tended to leave her wide open on many occasions. Later on she would probably blame her fear over her loss of air, or distraction over her family’s pain as reasons as to why she had not caught the signs of someone approaching her.

Either way, she jolted sharply up onto her elbows as a young man fairly dropped down next to her on the ground. Part of her told her to get up, defend herself. But the man had taken up to lying on the ground next to her and as her mind caught up she realized he was hardly in a position to be dangerous. If nothing else his entire posture spoke opposite.

Her head cocked off to the right as she stared down at the man next to her. Her eyes scanned the length of him before landing back on his face, eyebrows furrowing slightly as she watched him. He wasn’t familiar to her in the least, but he didn’t appear to be Vantha. As he spoke however about falling be the hardest part she huffed out a deep breath and let herself fall–carefully–onto her back once again. He seemed at ease despite not knowing her.

”Honestly falling felt like the easiest part.” Alek grumbled as her own eyes fell back to the trees. Balance was easy when one's’ legs were firmly planted on the ground. The curve of the trunk made things nearly impossible to grasp however and Alek began to wonder what possessed her to try climbing in the first place. She was a creature that belonged firmly planted with legs on the ground. Turning her head, she watched the man next to her stare up at the tree. She caught the flicker of his eyes moving, watching the tree that had just dumped her unceremoniously to the ground.

As if the tree had a mind of it's own.

As he nudged her and pointed up to the tree though, she glanced back upwards with a frown. She supposed it was taller from lying on the ground, but then again she figured you could say that of anything from their current position. Alek didn’t have long to ponder however as the man stood up and offered his hand and name. Blinking, she took the offered hand and let him help her up from the ground. Brushing off the snow that stuck to her from her fall, she shot him a small smile.

”Alekxandra, though most just call me Alek.” Tilting her head back, she eyed the tree once again. While it of course did seem smaller, it also seemed far less imposing once again. The urge to try and climb it once again set in, the curiosity of what the world might look like from it’s branches still burned. Reaching out she rested her hands on the trunk of the tree again, looking back over her shoulder at Solemn.

”So I don’t suppose you might have any advice for climbing this beauty would you? I obviously have no idea what I’m doing… unless it’s falling of course.” She joked, grinning widely as she pulled her hands from the tree and turned to face him.

by **Solemn Warborn** on July 17th, 2016, 9:15 pm

Solemn was glad she had accepted his help up and returned her smile. What pleased him even more was her willingness to begin again. As she set her hands on the tree, her eyes danced with a curiosity and an energy, not the way the Vantha’s did but in a way Solemn found refreshing. When she asked for his advice, Solemn swelled with a little flare of pride. If there was one thing Solemn was capable of teaching others, it was climbing.

She stepped back from the tree giving him room to step up and inspect it. The bark was textured, not smooth. That was good. It would give them some purchase when trying to climb the tree. Sliding his mittens off, he let them dangle from his wrists by the loops that had been sewed into the wrists of the mittens. He still had a thin pair of gloves on to stave off the cold. Solemn was usually always at least double-layered, if not triple. The cold wasn’t kind to him the way it was to the Morwen marked. Once his hand was free, he set it on the tree trunk. The textured bark snagged the fabric of his gloves and tugged on them lightly before letting go. The crevices in the bark were deep and wide or, at least, enough so that Solemn would be able to hook his fingers in.

Shifting his attention up the tree, he evaluated the paths he had chosen once again. One thing was easy to see. Once they made it to the branches, it didn’t really matter what route they took. All of them would get the two to the top. The difficult part would be getting up that high. He saw two ways to go about that.

His gaze came back to Alek, and when he found her staring at him, he realized he hadn’t answered her question, much less spoken to her for a chime or more.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “I’m not much good at this. Teaching, that is. The only time I ever taught someone to climb was when I taught my sister, but Hiberna learned mostly by watching and doing. I guess I’ll just have to go over the basics.”

The only problem was he had been doing this so long that everything felt like the basics. He racked his brain, trying to think of what he should tell her. He began with what he saw as the most important aspect of climbing. “Before you start, you want to know where you’re going and how you want to get there.” It would have been a good rule to live by, but Solemn only ever applied it to climbing. “I see two ways to go about getting up to the branches. One way was the way you were going about it. The other way is the opposite. I always thought the world looked better upside down.”

Walking around the tree to the underside of the curve, he reached up his hands to catch the crevices in the back on the top side to show her what he meant. Pulling his legs up slowly, he wrapped them around the trunk, hanging sloth style.

He looked at Alek who seemed to be suspended upside down from the ground. “See? Either way you have to trust gravity to do its work. The one force trying to make you fall is one that you can always rely on to be consistent. It can help you if you let it. Anytime you feel like you’re going to fall, lean into the trunk and let gravity hold you there.”

He pulled himself slowly farther up the trunk. “Come on up. Give it another try. Use my feet and arms as hand holds if you need.”

by **Alekxandra Winterflame** on August 6th, 2016, 3:25 am

The span of silence as Solemn stared up at the tree almost made Alek nervous. While it seemed he had no intention of getting her into trouble for climbing the sacred trees within the graveyard, the longer they remained meant the easier it would probably become to be noticed. Without honestly thinking of the consequences of getting caught in the first place, Alek realized that she had dragged an innocent man into the possibility of getting caught as well.

Her eyes darted the graveyard around them. It was almost eerily silent, just the two of them breathing and the gentlest wind blowing around them. There was no signs of anyone else on the premises, but that could change as easily as the wind did. Her eyes fell on Solemn just as he seemed to come out of his trance. Before she could open her mouth to voice her concerns however, he apologized. His statement about teaching overran her mind and she closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head, her worry over being caught shifting to the back of her mind once again.

”No worries. Teaching isn’t something that I’m very good at myself. Basics are good.” She smiled once again, giving him an encouraging nod as her nerves shifting to excitement. As he explained that it was best to find a path first before even trying to climb Alek could see the logic in his explanation. It didn’t do one any good to get several feet up off the ground only to run into a dead end with nowhere to go.

At his mention that the world looked better upside down, Alek could feel her left eyebrow raise up in silent question. From the ground seemed difficult enough, but hanging upside down seemed even more complicated. As Solemn gripped the tree with his hands and slowly lifted his legs, she couldn’t help but laugh. Not directly at him, but at the idea of her being able to cling to the tree in a similar fashion.

”Right… gravity. Well even with the help of gravity I’m not entirely sure I have enough strength in my arms and legs to… well pull off a similar fashion of climbing,” Alek tilted her head slightly with smile as she stared at Solemn in fascination. ”Or the balance for that matter.”

Taking a few steps back, she observed Solemn for a moment before glancing back at the path she had taken before. Both of them still seemed fairly intimidating. With a deep breath, she reached out to her side to the hair pin twisted into her belt. Pulling it free she quickly twisted her hair up to her scalp and slide the pin into her hair in a haphazard twist.

”I think I’ll try my previous path… maybe this time I’ll use some of your wisdom and plan ahead a little.” Giving Solemn a wink she added. ”Race you to the top?”

She had little doubt she’d actually lose her innocent challenge, but it seemed like a fun idea anyway. Walking back around to the low curve of the tree, she locked her eyes on the trunk in front of her. This time instead of climbing onto it to see if she could even hold on, she let her eyes wander up the bark first. She tried to take note of places that looked sturdy enough for a hand hold, or where the nearest lowest branch was in relation to the rest of the branches.

It was harder than she thought actually, considering she couldn’t truly plan a path up a tree without knowing if she could reach those spots in the first place. Letting out a breath Alek nibbled on her lower lip for a moment before stepping forward towards the trunk again. Like before she carefully rested her hands on the bark, trying to find a decent hold with her gloved hands before trying to balance her weight onto her hands to lift a foot next.

Alek never considered herself an extremely graceful creature. In wolf form it was easier on four legs with a tail to keep her long body on balance. In her human form she was all long appendages with very little weight or muscle to them. Instead of trying to take long strides against the tree this time she kept her body low, attempting to use gravity to her advantage like Solemn suggested. It was harder than it looked as well.

She managed to slid herself along the trunk of the tree to the section she had fallen from before. Just out of reach was a low branch that seemed to taunt her and Alek narrowed her eyes on the prize. But while her eyes were firmly tracking the branch she called out to Solemn, unaware of where he might actually be on the tree… if he took her challenge at all.

”How do you manage to cling to the tree like that anyway? Is it practice or is it strength?” Even without a visual on Solemn Alek had little doubt her hearing–even in human form–could pick up his voice.

by **Solemn Warborn** on August 7th, 2016, 3:28 am

“Race you to the top?”

Solemn didn’t need a second invitation. This was the one race he could win. This was his world. The up and down one. Reaching one arm up, he kept a firm grip on the tree with his other hand and both legs. As soon as his hand found purchase and his grip locked, he shifted one leg farther up the trunk and then the other. It was slow progress, especially since he had to pull his full weight up with every shift of a limb, and only part way up the branchless portion of the trunk, his muscles began to tire. He thanked the Goddess that he had been born with a grip as unbreakable as his was. While he waited for his muscles to regain enough energy to pull himself up, his fingers stayed hooked into the handholds he had found.

Even though he had to take a short break, he beat Alek to the branches. Once he found a sturdy grip, he looked down to check on her progress. Winning had never been a large concern of Solemn’s. His competitive nature was almost nonexistent. He was, however, interested in her skills and in how well his advice helped her. She was on the other side of the trunk, striving to reach a branch that was just beyond her reach.

She called out to him as she tried to figure out her way up. “How do you manage to cling to the tree like that anyway? Is it practice or is it strength?”

Solemn thought about it a moment, then responded as he peeked around the trunk. “Neither, really. It’s instinct, I suppose.” He tried to think of a way to explain it. “It’s the same way you understand things about someone you’re bonded to.” He kicked himself for that one. “Sorry, that was a poor analogy. You’d have to be Kelvic to understand what that’s like. We’ll just leave it at it’s instinctual. It’s part of my Kelvic nature. My hands just lock up, and the challenge of climbing is not so much the holding on as it is the letting go.”

He watched her progress for a few moments more and started back up the tree, hoping she didn’t need help getting up to the branches. If she did, he could always backtrack. With his thoughts only on ascension, Solemn stretched his arm up and hooked his hand around a sturdy branch. Bracing his feet against the tree trunk, he walked his way up until he was hanging upside down again. Wrapping his legs around the branch, he let go with his arms.

This felt better. It took a weight of his shoulders and off his chest, literally. The world seemed right this way. A sky of endless white, dotted with gray headstones lettered with some cryptic writing he couldn’t read as it was upside down. Trees descending from the snowy skies, more like spreading roots than splitting branches. And beneath him, the infinite blue abyss. It felt like he could let go and fall upward forever.

Solemn looked down- or up (he wasn’t really sure which way it was now)- at Alek, curiosity tumbling about in his head. “What made you want to climb?”

by **Alekxandra Winterflame** on September 9th, 2016, 4:49 pm

Alek knew it wasn’t a good sign when she wasn’t even half way up the tree and her muscles were screaming at her to stop. She was by no way unfit, but her body certainly wasn’t used to this kind of exertion either. It didn’t help that she had stopped her upward climb and was currently clinging to the side of the tree. It almost seemed impossible to get started once again, feeling as if she was to loosen her grip even slightly she’d fall before she could get another hold on the tree.

It was Solemn and his voice that offered distraction. He claimed that is was more instinct than practice or strength. Alek let out a small breathy laugh and shook her head a little. Instinct was what was currently screaming at her to inch back down the tree because wolves did not belong in a tree. As he brought up the bond and having to be a Kelvic to understand she leaned her face against the bark of the tree and closed her eyes for a tick.

If she had more strength she might have tried to properly reply. She should have figured he might be Kelvic–she had never seen any human climb a tree with such ease. Then again with such few trees in Avanthal climbing wasn’t something of a past time for most.

Slowly Alek pulled the cold air into her chest, holding it in deep for several moments. Opening her eyes she refocused herself on the branch taunting her above. She knew she’d have to let go to move upward and she drew every bit of strength she had as she prepared to do so. Bunching her legs as best she could beneath her Alek moved her limbs in unison, pulling up with her arms and doing her best to push off upwards with her legs. It really didn’t give her much height given she wasn’t used to such an movement, but it did give her just enough boost for her hands to scramble above her and snag the branch.

If her arms weren’t sore before, they certainly protested now. She could feel the burn as she dangled from the branch but she refused to let go. Twisting her body she released one hand just long enough so that she could shift her body to face the trunk of the tree once again and have one hand on each side of the tree branch. Pressing her legs against the trunk she did her best to ‘walk’ up it until she could use her body weight to try and swing herself up onto the branch.

She tried to ignore the fact that it took her several tries to successfully pull herself up onto the branch.

However once she managed–barely–to get the whole of her body up onto the branch she let a leg dangle over each side and let herself bodily lay against the branch as she heaved for breath. Climbing really was harder than it looked. Her muscles quivered from the exertion and she could feel sweat beneath her cloak despite the cold outside.

After several chimes of just clinging to the branch and trying to catch her breath, Alek spied Solemn just above her. He was hanging from the branch with such ease she couldn’t help but feel a tad jealous… even if he was made for climbing compared to her. Slowly she pushed herself up with her arms until she was sitting across the branch and her back pressed against the trunk. She tilted her head at his question.

”Honestly? I love doing things I’ve never done before. Avanthal is such a beautiful place to call home… I was kind of wondering what it might look like off the ground.” She grinned sheepishly before giving a small one shoulder shrug and looked down at the ground below them. For the moment the coast was still clear. It appeared they were still the only two in the graveyard.

”And I might understand better than you think. About the bond that is.” Alek blinked before scrunching her nose up slightly before she added, ”Not that I’ve bonded yet. But I can understand that… drive for one at least.”

Carefully Alek rotated herself on the branch so her front faced the trunk. Putting her hands against the trunk for balance she carefully worked her legs under her and stood up. Her muscles still felt weak, they wobbled a bit under her weight, but they held her up regardless. Grinning brightly she looked up at Solemn.

”So you’ve got a bond? What’s that like? I’ve heard a few of the bears around here describe it, but it’s mostly in passing.”

by **Solemn Warborn** on September 26th, 2016, 10:08 pm

Having been climbing from a young age, Solemn couldn’t imagine not knowing what their city looked like from above. It seemed the only view that made sense. With a view from above, everything seemed organized in a way one couldn’t understand from the ground. Even death had a structure when viewed from here. Each headstone was meticulously in line with those around it, and there seemed to be a calm reason to it all.

Solemn said so. “It’s the only point of view that I feel makes sense. There’s a sort of detachment from up here, but sometimes, that’s needed. Sometimes, it gives you better understanding and helps you become closer to those you watch over.” Solemn smiled and pulled himself right side up. “And sometimes, it’s just fun to climb.”

Frigid as northern winds always were, a breeze whipped through, and Solemn pulled himself up against the trunk, as if the wood would save him from the cold. Alek began to speak about bonds as she turned toward the trunk and stood.

“What’s that like?” she asked.

Solemn was pleased to be in the presence of another Kelvic, one who wasn’t a polar bear. That was one thing he could say with confidence, because all the dire polar bears had the same brutish size, though there were some that could move those large bodies with extraordinary grace. Still, the polar bears were easy to spot, and Alek definitely wasn’t one. Having been bonded at a young age, it seemed off to him to not know what it was like. Still, he was proud to be able to describe it to a younger Kelvic.

“It’s the most amazing thing you will ever know. It’s as if every sensation and emotion between you is magnified beyond anything you thought possible. You feel like you know everything about the other, all their secrets, all their thoughts, all their feelings, everything. That’s not true, of course, but it feels that way. You and your bond mate change each other, always for the better it seems. You will never know anyone better or love anyone more.”

He sighed. “And if that bond ever breaks, you will never know pain like that. But it can be a blessing as well. While you feel a terrible pain, the love you feel overshadows it. Sorrow and loss are good at telling you how much you loved something. Or someone. You will never know love the way you know it when it blossoms from sorrow. And best of all, love is not idle. It builds hope.”

Solemn peered past the branch he was standing on to where Alek stood beneath him and gave her a smile. “I wish you only the best when you find your bond mate. Keep them close and never lose them.”

He reached up and grabbed the next branch above him, glancing ahead to figure out his route to the top. Pulling himself up, he called over his shoulder. “By the way, are we still racing, because you’re slower than a sloth? Besides, the view is always the best from the very top.”

by **Shaqira** on July 4th, 2017, 3:09 pm

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