"My name is Astrid. The elders have tasked me with guiding you through the Valley of Ancient winters. I will lead you to the lair of the dark ones, and then you will help me in wiping the abominations from the face of the peaks.<br/><br/>The huntress cool and calm expression did not change as she spoke, but a note of bitter hatred had crept into her voice. Astrid had been the one to bring word back of the vile creatures that had begun to infest the valley. Her entire hunting party had been ambushed and killed when they accidently stumbled across the lair of the hideous things, while taking shelter from a storm. It had been a point of personal pride for her to be selected for this mission by the Elder of Warriors. She was the survivor of her sister hunters, and thus she carried the duty of vengeance, to repay those responsible a hundred-fold. Like most Vrykul she did not have much regard for the smallings. While a few showed prowess worthy of praise, most of them were weak, feeble and cowardly, and she did not expect these to be any different. It was a wonder the elders had chosen them for this task, rather than send seasoned Hyldnir warriors. In a way it was better that way, they would die quickly and not get in the way as she exacted her vengeance.<br/><br/>The huntress wasted little time with iddle talk or presentations, quickly outfitting the party with the gear they would need to cross the harsh wilderness of the valley. They were given thick cloaks of yeti hide, lined with soft and warm fur to keep the biting cold at bay. They were outfitted with thick boots with broad feet, that would keep them from sinking deep into new snow, and they were given rations of salted meat and wind-dried fish, food that could last many days without going bad. Satisfied with their equipment, Astrid led them out of the village and into the Valley of Ancient winters.<br/><br/>The huntress set a brisk pace as they marched through the snow, loose powder piled on layers of snow packed hard as ice by the weight of even more snow on top of it. It was impossible to tell exactly where the accumulated layers of frozen downpour stopped and the rock of the mountain itself started. Their guide seemed eager to make good headway, and the pace was gruelling for her smaller companions, though the hyldnir at least did not reprove her travelling companions when they began falling behind, merely scowling and waiting silently for the rest of the party to catch up. For four days they travelled through the valley, falling into a monotonous cycle of activity each day. In the daytime they would walk, hour after hour with little rest, and when darkness began to fall, their guide would lead them to secluded and hidden areas in the valley, places where the Hyldnir had long ago established hidden caches of firewood, frozen meat and other suplies. Crags in the mountain wall where snow had been piled in front to hide the entrance, or circles of tall boulders camouflaged with snow-covered branches. Each cache was the camping spot for a group of hunters in the village, also serving as waypoints for travellers going deeper into the valley. Come the next hunting season the hunting parties would replenish the cache's stores, before returning to the village, thus leaving a trail of safe campsites for their older bretheresen who ventured deeper into the valley in search of prey.<br/><br/>As they travelled on the landscape of the valley itself began to change. The first stretches near the village itself had seemed barren and lifeless, little more than a snow-covered wasteland. As they made their way deeper into the valley, huge pine trees became more and more dominant along the mountainside, growing in number and density untill soon their path had to wind its way through the massive old trees. Although they encountered little wild-life, it was clear that the valley was far from desolate. From time to time a rustle in the tree-tops would be accompanied by the sharp screech of a  bird of prey, setting small lumps of snow falling to the forest floor beneath. At one time during their travel Astrid suddenly rushed them into cover in the snow, as something massively huge raced across the treetops with a deep, rumbling roar. Though the frequent snowfall obliterated most tracks from one day to the next, they caught signs of bigger predators now and then. Once, Kaya would spot a snow-wolf the size of a proto-drake amongst the trees. The beast held the crushed carcass of a grown reindeer in its jaws and stared at the young woman with the cold, implacable gaze of an Apex predator, as if to say "Welcome to the food chain. Stumble and you're next."<br/><br/>On the afternoon of the fourth day they reached a jagged hole in the mountainside. At first glance the fissure seemed no different to the other crags and minor side-junctions to the valley, but at a second look a person would begin to get an indistinct feeling that something was not right. The hole was oval and jagged, like a mouth full of misshaped and broken teeth, but rather than running into and upwards of the mountainside, the hole scaled downwards. A few yards in all light was swallowed up the by sloping wall, yet somehow the shadow seemed even deeper and more impenetrable than it should. More so, there were signs of recent activity outside the sinister entrance, which had not been obscured by the snowfall. Of any animals or strange creatures there were no sign, and yet those amongst the party who looked into the cave would get a strange, crawling sensation at the back of their skulls that *something* was looking back at them.<br/>If their hyldnir guide felt any misgivings about the situation she did not show it, instead making camp just outside and to the right of the entrance, setting up a campfire in full view as if to dare something horrible to emerge from the cave and challenge them.  During their travels the huntress had said little and had generally exuded an air of cold, uncaring profesionalism, simply performing the mission with which she had been entrusted. As they huddled around the campfire that night however, the guide's mood seemed even more distant and dysmal, the Hyldnir poking abscentmindedly at the logs on the campfire while staring into the flames, to some point beyond in the past.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>