Fiction | Fantasy

In the Mountain Snow

A fantasy short story

“Storm’s passed,” growled Elrough, looking out from the mouth of the cave. The half-orc was dressed in half-plate despite their days-long wait in the snowstorm.

“Time for a move, chief?” Finn, a slender man from the city, stepped over to look out at the blanket of snow in the dawn light. The sky was clear, but everything was deeply covered — rocks, trees, paths. He scratched his pockmarked cheek thoughtfully.

“As long as the Duke’s message gets through,” said Elrough, turning to Finn. “Perhaps by yourself, or with the halfling…?”

Finn looked towards their third companion, a halfling healer named Nimblefoot who was sitting at the back of the cave with a book on her lap. “She might be able to walk on this surface,” he said, “but it will be a struggle for me. We need to wait till it melts more.”

Elrough pinched Finn’s arm. “Then you need to find food.” The armored half-orc sat down by the campfire with a clank. “Something with meat on its bones.”

“I’m no hunter.”

Elrough pointed at the dagger at the young man’s hip. “You can improvise. Or work with the halfling. She’s quiet enough.”

Finn looked around again. “Hey Nimblefoot,” he called out.

The halfling’s big dark eyes met his.

“Wanna take a walk?”

She held his gaze for a moment, and then returned to the book.

Finn sighed. “Come on, Nimblefoot. We’re down to our last three potatoes.”

The healer now gazed outside thoughtfully for a moment, and then, to Finn’s surprise, marked her page and slid the tome into her leather satchel. She buckled it, and stood up with a nod, slinging the bag over her shoulder.

“Alright, then,” said Finn, smiling.

The pair walked in silence, feet crunching on snow which had partially melted and refrozen. A hawk circled high above.

Ahead, the pass led to their destination, where they would deliver an appeal from the embattled Duke Frage to his dwarven allies. The valley had high cliffs on both sides. The only way was forward, or back the way they had come — the city of Katresburg, at the foot of the mountains.

After around ten minutes, Nimblefoot stopped dead, frowning. Listening? Then, to Finn’s surprise, she turned and began to sprint towards a stand of birch trees to their right.

“Hold up!” Finn peered ahead, trying to see what had piqued the healer’s interest. But he couldn’t make anything out, bird, animal, or otherwise. Grumbling, he followed, and was soon pushing his way through light branches, sending fragments of snow in all directions.

He didn’t have far to go. Ahead, Nimblefoot had stopped by a fallen pine. As he approached, Finn saw a tiny creature at the healer’s feet. Shaped like a dragon, its face had large blue eyes, and it sent out a flaming spark towards Finn. A warning? The spark landed on the snow, and fizzled.

“What the heck…” murmured Finn, turning his knife. “There’s not much meat on that.”

Nimblefoot shot him a glare, and crouched to stroke the feathery scales on the tiny dragon’s back.

“It’s practically a walking snowball,” added Finn.

“As it happens, my master named me ‘Snowball’,” replied the tiny dragon.

“Oh… you speak!”

“Indeed. I am intelligent and powerful.”

Finn raised one eyebrow. “If you say so…”

The creature shot another spark towards Finn, and then took flight. It flapped hard, rising above the birch trees, and then banked towards the cliffs at the far side.

Nimblefoot hurried after.

Grumbling, Finn followed once again. The snow was deeper this way, and his legs soon felt numb. But after only a couple of minutes, the little dragon landed by a mound in the snow. Another fallen tree? No! As he hurried on, Finn made out a human figure, half-covered in snow but with a melted area around his chest.

“Awesome,” he called out, panting. “A dead traveller for us to loot!”

Nimblefoot was leaning over the small figure; it was a boy of no more than twelve.

And the face…

Going from curious to overly excited, Finn rubbed his hands. “He looks exactly like Duke Frage! It must be Lewis, the Duke’s only son. We can get a reward for the body. I know a gal at the graveyard who can arrange that kind of deal.”

He looked at Nimblefoot, who scowled back.

“Well,” Finn added, a little ashamed. “Nobody’s going to shed tears over a dead nobleman, are they?”

Snowball had curled up on the boy’s chest, emitting puffs of warm smoke, blue eyes fixed on Nimblefoot. The halfling leaned forward, raising one eyelid of the icy figure.

Finn, meanwhile, was rifling through the boy’s backpack. “Building blocks,” he murmured, pulling out a red-dyed cube and turning it in one hand. “That’ll do for the fire. Ah, this is more…” He raised a valuable-looking silver goblet.

There came a cough from the boy. Finn looked around sharply. The healer had one hand on each of Lewis’ temples. The kid coughed again, then turned over. “Stop the letter,” he murmured.

“He’s alive!” said Finn.

“Thank you, healer,” said Snowball. “Now to get my master to the city.”

Finn looked from Snowball to Nimblefoot, then back again. “What about the Duke’s message?”

“The Duke is a usurper,” said Snowball, “and has brought his house into disrepute for long enough. My master followed you here, hoping to meet with Nimblefoot.”

“You’re working together?” exclaimed Finn.

At this, Nimblefoot pulled the nobleman’s letter from her satchel and placed it down on the snow. A fiery blast from Snowball saw it catch fire and burn to ashes. Both nodded contentedly.

“But what about Elrough?” asked Finn. “He hired us for this contract.”

“That half-orc warrior is an enforcer for Duke Frage, and a brutal murderer,” explained Snowball. “We need to get out of here before he sees us.”

Finn looked back to the cave as he helped the young nobleman to his feet.

“Well. At least he’ll have potatoes to eat.”

Thanks for reading! This was a response to Bradan Writes Stories’s ‘Monday mashup challenge’ which you can see here.

Main prompt 2pts; Nimblefoot is mute (1 pt), potatoes (1 pt), building blocks in the backpack (1pt), celeb lookalike — the kid looks like the Duke (1pt), someone is overly excited, Finn when he realises who he found (1pt), “I know a guy/gal” — Finn says this (1pt), 8/8 I think…?

Check out another response to the same prompts below, written by Sweet Chaos!

This story also connects to my Shadow Kingdoms world.

You can find more of my fiction here, as well as all of my advice and guidance on creative writing right here. And avoid missing my new releases by getting all my posts direct to your inbox. Do that here! 🧠 Thank you! 🌟