It was Kalt who spotted the two new arrivals to the ruin of Blue Mountain as they picked their way down the treacherous slope, rubble rolling out from underfoot and bouncing down to the valley floor at every step. They could not have been expected, but Aurek's ever-unflappable aura certainly gave that impression as he rose to greet them.

After wary introductions, the five elves (plus the wolf, who was eyeing the stag pen with too much interest for the Go-Backs' liking) made their way down into Aurek's lodge to take seats around the hearth. It was a strangely familiar sort of coziness for the newly-arrived Sun Villagers, this homey space with all of its stone jars and shelves, but there was little enough time for comfort before Firn spoke.

"If you're both from the Sun Village, do you have word on what happened with the Go-Backs? Did they make it across the desert?"

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Travel in the early weeks of snowmelt was always a risky proposition. What little new growth there was to find in the Frozen Mountains was still half-hidden in snow or aggressively competed for by every hungry mouth just out of hibernation. Game was still lean and stringy from winter. Worst of all, the weather was about as reliable as a troll's good word - all bright sun and slush one day, then the next, bone-chilling wind off the mountain that billowed the walls of Kalt and Firn's little tent all through the night and forced them to break the trail for their deer the next day, lest the newly re-frozen, brittle snow crust slice their mounts' legs to ribbons.

The only bright spot as the harsh days dragged on was that the weather did noticeably gentle as they left the mountains behind. By the time they'd traveled for two-eights of days, the deer were able to truly graze on new green grass instead of digging for frozen winter leavings, and their riders were able to remember what it was to be, if not warm, at least better than half frozen.

But getting clear of the mountains had been only the first step - the next was deciding a place to go, and what to do when they got there. That was a question that had left Firn stirring her brains until her head felt like a pot of cold mash. Did they just dig a lodge out of the first likely hillside they found and set up what passed for a tribe there? Did they try to find an overland route to other elves? Maybe, but what other elves were there? Rayek had long since taken Cutter's Wolfriders away to another land, if Kahvi's tales were true. The Sun Village was at the end of a long troll tunnel, and High Ones only knew if Zey had left any of them alive on his double-cursed quest.

But then again, there was Kahvi, who'd returned so briefly with her monstrous lovemate, Tyldak. He'd stirred half-remembered tales from Firn's childhood, of a mountain full of magic-strong elves who rode on great birds. They were all supposed to be dead too...but still. There might be something left there worth investigating, even if only an empty place to hole up and stock supplies until they had a better plan on where to strike out for.

Those stories hadn't come with marching directions, of course; there wasn't much to do for that except keep heading south and hope that a bear-poking mountain wasn't too small a landmark to miss.

And, as it turned out, it wasn't.

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