Winterfall

Three days after Theoden had claimed the kingdom as his territory, things were, well, unusual. The temperatures had gone from eighties back down around sixty. Theoden did inform me that it should be for the temperature drop but that didn’t stop citizens from complaining.

On my morning walk, I tuned into a conversation. Between a female human who was about fifty in age and the other a halfling, who looked like she was twenty.

“Have you ever encountered such a thing, Lady Fiona?” The shorter woman asked.

The one I presumed was Lady Fiona shook her head, “Not since I have been alive Eve. Even my granddad seems lost as to why the temperature dropped so much.”

“Do you think it will impact the crops this year?”

“It might.” Lady Fiona glanced over at me and whispered, “I hear the princess isn’t even concerned about it.”

“Really? Maybe the royal family is in on it.”

As I walked past them their conversation grew distant, to a point I could no longer hear. Huh. I guess rumors circulate fast around here.

Only because it is fresh. Theoden told me. Remember when there was a rumor about when I was assigned your guard? People believed then you and I were together.

They were not wrong. I reminded him.

The point being that rumor has died down. And so will this one.

The bond went silent as I enjoyed the cool summer breeze. I’ll admit, it was odd knowing that it was Summer but felt like Spring.

Looking up at the sky, the sun’s brillante ray of light is still shown just as bright. Promising immense heat, however, when you walked outside you were greeted with the crisp air of spring.

As I looked down from the sky and into the city streets, people just seemed lost and confused. Animals were mixed. Some seemed like they knew what happened and seemed to relax. While others hid in the shadows as they were afraid.

It didn’t surprise me that the creation of a dragon’s lair created this intense reaction from nature and from my people. I just hoped that the kingdom would be able to adapt to its new way of life just fine.

There shouldn’t be a problem with adapting. Crops will grow just the same, if not better. As they won’t have to deal with the Summer humidity. Theoden told me through the bond in hopes to ease my anxiety over the situation. People may have thought that I didn’t care but that was far from the truth.

You have a point there. What about everything else? Everything else will just fall into order. The Earth will adapt. Nature will adapt. Humans will adapt.

Alrighty.

I believed him. Even if part of me wanted to think of the worst, I believed him.

My only concern at this point now was when winter truly hit. How brutally cold was it going to get and if we had enough resources to push us through the kingdom without issue.

As it sits now, the winter months can get as cold as ten degrees. If the temperature drops fifteen-twenty degrees all year, what does that mean for our winter this year? I began to think of different preparations that we may need to take to make sure we as a kingdom made it through the winter.

That’s what I will do first. Make a plan for survival of a colder winter. I thought to myself.

As I started to head back towards the castle, could you stop by Pari? The hell creature tracker I asked about is ready for pick up.

Of course. Anything else?

That is it. Pari is still working on the other item.

I turned around and started to head in the direction of Pari’s shop. The tracker he had created had me curious and also afraid. I couldn’t help but wonder how many fiends, demons, devils, and other creatures that resided in hell it would show. I’d hope for none, but I’d feared there would be hundreds.