Really, he should have known something was terribly wrong even before he got on the boat. It was sheer idiocy to write it off to the boatman been unnerved by him personally.
Tatsuya's worst feelings were solidified when he sighted the frozen archipelago that had once been a thriving tropical parad...well, a tropical community, at any rate. Furthermore, there was something other in this cold, something oppressive and wrong. He could almost hear wailing on the wind that was not the wind itself.
"The air tastes bad here, and I do not just mean the bad cold," Louise told him. "You shouldn't go there."
"I have to..." he stared at the islands, then shook his head. He could manage for a few hours, at least. "I'll keep you under my void cloak. That should protect us for a bit, anyway. Hey," he added, calling out to the boatman, "can you tell me what happened here?"
It might have even been old news. A horrible idea, that the twins and Hoshikata might have been here when this terrible thing happened, occurred to him. He pushed it aside for now.
The boatman--tall, muscle-bound, somewhere in his forties if Tatsuya was any judge, which meant he'd Seen Things for sure on these waters--just shook his head, glancing nervously off to one side. He had refused to go nearer than the farthest place the ice reached. "No. No one...no one knows. One day it just got colder and didn't stop." He looked directly at Tatsuya then, gaze searching. "People say they were cursed. People say...many things."
Tatsuya frowned. That wasn't a good thing to hear. "I'll only be there a few hours at the most, to look for something. If I am not back by nightfall, you can go."
The boatman exhaled and nodded shakily, then went about mooring alongside the ice as best he could.
"It is a bad cold," Louise repeated when the man was out of earshot. "It tastes foul on the wind. Find what you are looking for fast and then we can go somewhere that doesn't taste so bad."
He didn't expect any signs of life, but he had to at least set foot on Mist...well, snow, since there was no visible soil. He doubted he could sense what had happened just by that, but at least he could have that.
Not how I expected to see the place. This is a hell of a shock to come back to the world to...
[Country Entered]
Tatsuya's worst feelings were solidified when he sighted the frozen archipelago that had once been a thriving tropical parad...well, a tropical community, at any rate. Furthermore, there was something other in this cold, something oppressive and wrong. He could almost hear wailing on the wind that was not the wind itself.
"The air tastes bad here, and I do not just mean the bad cold," Louise told him. "You shouldn't go there."
"I have to..." he stared at the islands, then shook his head. He could manage for a few hours, at least. "I'll keep you under my void cloak. That should protect us for a bit, anyway. Hey," he added, calling out to the boatman, "can you tell me what happened here?"
It might have even been old news. A horrible idea, that the twins and Hoshikata might have been here when this terrible thing happened, occurred to him. He pushed it aside for now.
The boatman--tall, muscle-bound, somewhere in his forties if Tatsuya was any judge, which meant he'd Seen Things for sure on these waters--just shook his head, glancing nervously off to one side. He had refused to go nearer than the farthest place the ice reached. "No. No one...no one knows. One day it just got colder and didn't stop." He looked directly at Tatsuya then, gaze searching. "People say they were cursed. People say...many things."
Tatsuya frowned. That wasn't a good thing to hear. "I'll only be there a few hours at the most, to look for something. If I am not back by nightfall, you can go."
The boatman exhaled and nodded shakily, then went about mooring alongside the ice as best he could.
"It is a bad cold," Louise repeated when the man was out of earshot. "It tastes foul on the wind. Find what you are looking for fast and then we can go somewhere that doesn't taste so bad."
He didn't expect any signs of life, but he had to at least set foot on Mist...well, snow, since there was no visible soil. He doubted he could sense what had happened just by that, but at least he could have that.
Not how I expected to see the place. This is a hell of a shock to come back to the world to...
[Country Entered]