Secrets of the Frozen North: Part 3

'''Jarrick opened his eyes slightly as he rolled over onto his back. The moon was high in the night sky as he glanced over at the dormant fireplace. The burning wood was no longer burning and the calm whisps of smoke that rose just hours ago had all vanished. Outside of his window was pure silence. The icy landscape that surrounded the room in which he slept shimmered eerily in the moonlight. Even in the blackness of night the land looked frozen.'''

'''He sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes and pulling his sheets up around his waist. The room was much colder than it was earlier, with strange shadows stretching out across the floor and walls. It was an uninviting sight for the human to wake up in the middle of. Jarrick slid back towards the head of the bed, resting his back against it. He brushed some stra hair away from his forehead and let out a deep yet silent breath, watching as it rose before him in a misty puff. A chilling breeze swept through the room, sending a icy shiver down his spine. He looked about the room once more. As he did so, a strange shadow caught his eye. As his eyes focused against the darkness, the shadow quickly moved towards the human, lunging through the darkness at an alarming rate.'''

'''Jarrick immediately pushed himself over the edge of the bed and rolled as a massive morningstar crashed down upon the bed, splintering it into rubble. Jarrick stumbled to his feet as the figure swung once more, crashing through a beam that supported the ceiling of the room, ripping it apart. The human stumbled for a weapon of some sort, his own weapon lost somewhere in the room when the bed was splintered. As the figure raised the massive weapon once more, Jarrick quickly grabbed the small table next to him and threw it up into the air at the shadowy figure. The morningstar crushed the table with ease, continuing on and ripping a whole through the wall of the room. Jarrick dove for the nearest object he could find as a weapon, and as he did, the morningstar crashed down right next to him. As he began to reach for the object, the floor gave way and he crashed through into the common room of the Inn, with the shadowy figure following.'''

'''Jarrick landed harshly on the wooden floor below his quarters. After he had regained composure, he half expected to see a room full of screaming patrons. However, the sight that greeted him was no such thing. To his surprise, the common room of the Inn was completely empty, along as cold and uninviting just as his bedroom was. There was no fire in the fire place, nor any candles, braziers, or torches lit. It was empty.'''

'''Jarrick twisted his body out of the rubble from the fall and gathered himself to his knees, coughing as dust flew every which-way. He remembered the figure which had crashed through the floor with him and he began to turn, and no sooner than he began did a punishing fist strike him across the face, throwing him through the railing of the Inn and sliding across the wooden floor towards the window. With a crash, the wall stopped his body from sliding further. Jarrick rolled onto his stomach with a groan and began to push himself off the ground as the shadowy figure stepped forward. The moonlight reflected off of the heavily spiked morningstar that rose up high in the air, hinting to the human that is was time to move or get crushed. As the morningstar began to spin, Jarrick braced himself for the oncoming blow. The morningstar flew through the air and Jarrick rolled towards the figure, the morningstar crashing down where he had just laid. He kicked at the figures legs, trying to take it out from below, with no avail. The figure whipped the chained morningstar back towards itself and prepared for another attack.'''

'''Jarrick sprung to his feet just as another punishing backhand came from behind him. He was thrown through the air and against the wall of the Inn, breaking through the side and out into the freezing camp. The warrior opened his eyes and groaned again as his body had already taken quite the beating. As blood trickled from above his brow, he squinted his eyes and glanced around the camp. Empty. He turned his gaze to the hole that opened the Inn up and watched as the shadowy figure stepped out. It seemed as though the figure was crouching, for when he stepped outside of the Inn, the moonlight lit up his figure. It looked as though it were human, yet it stood approximately three times taller than Jarrick did. Clad in pure muscle, it looked as though this human - or whatever it was - was a war machine, raised only to bring death any place it traveled. A bellowing laugh escaped the throat of the creature as it stepped forth to the hurt human laying on the ground. It's muscular build grasped the morningstar tightly as it grinned a somewhat toothless grin.'''

'''Jarrick began to blindly grab around him for anything that could be used for a weapon. His hands brushed across cold, frozen ground, but no weapons were available to him. The creature grunted something that sounded like a laugh and raised its morningstar into a spinning motion, ready to crush the human at its feet. As it did so, a warm light lit up the surrounding area and the gaze of the creature turned from Jarrick and up towards the black horizon.'''

'''No sooner than it had, a fiery ball struck it in the chest. A grunt was released from deep within the throat of the creature and it stumbled back a couple feet. Then another struck. And another. Then once again. The creature grunted continuously as it was struck by fireballs. Finally, the creature dropped the morningstar with a heavy thud and clank, dropping to its knees and collapsing on the ground.'''

'''Jarrick twisted his body again to look in the direction of the fireballs, still unsure exactly of what had happened. His eyes were still adjusting to the darkness as he turned, and a very few feet away from him stood a figure in flowing robes, shimmering in the moonlight.'''

"Do you need help up, too?" A feminine voice asked through the darkness.