Land of Mirriam

30 years ago.

Kern Village was the inaugural name of the small village located outside of the northern wall. It was the time when the northerners were at their peak. It was created ten years after a great battle held on the Desolated Lands, in exchange of a great sacrifice, the northerners destroyed 2 colonies of Spikes.

This was the first Village outside of the wall. The Kern Village was also named following the Valley next to it. Whenever the winter ends, this valley actually becomes lively, full of life. The blessing of the earth overflowed totally different from the Desolated Lands.

Andy and his family were one of the pioneers. It was a great honor and their names were carved on a large monumental statue in the middle of the village.

The village was just consisted of 9 families and they continuously had a chain of supply from the northern wall. Although every day was hard the materials of hunts and natural resources they brought back into the northern wall would create immediate trade trends in the whole continent.

…

That day.

It was just another day in the northern frontier, Andy was doing his daily chores. The children of the village would help their households to prepare food. Sometimes their mothers would send them to get some herbs near the valley, just a few hour's walk from the outpost.

The fall was ending so the village was really busy gathering and preparing. Andy's father was away, he was one of the warriors who did the delivery job from the wall to the village.

They would be arriving the next day. He could tell that her mother was excited…

That night after the And and his mother finished their jobs, his mother started knitting while Andy started practicing with his sword. “Andy, try to sleep early!!” his mother warned him.

“Yes… I just can't fall asleep at night… there are these tremors on the ground… it keeps me awake” Andy said. His mother knew that Andy was really sensitive as a child. He had been speaking of these tremors for days.

This was the night before the village was destroyed in a 4-day battle of survival. Only the monumental stone and some ruined buildings remained. Spike… they wreck them, taking the lives of every living thing.

His father arrived but the northern man had to buy time with their lives and it was still not enough. He was the only survivor at that time. Saved by the hero of the era: The sword of light.

If they only had a few more years then they could have pushed everything to the limit and created a deterrent and it wouldn’t be like this. The Spikes that have been pestering the walls for a long time now stopped for a couple of decades and the northerners prospered.

If it wasn’t a trap or just circumstances they would never know but it was too late now.

…

And after 30 years he was still looking at it again reliving that night.

<--->

Present time in the northern frontier. The same spot of the village ruins of Kern.

The wall crushers were slowly moving… they had already sent the spike scouts as the frontline to test the fields forward. These Spike Scouts had no regard for their lives and were willing to die for their brethren.

The northern harsh weather was blowing frigid, and the wall crushers that pushed through tirelessly pushed the snow so that the armada of Spikes would retain their strength. Doing everything for their species was a true testament to their selflessness and their unity. It was for the Queen.

…

Ruins of the Kern Village.

Although it was utterly destroyed there were still some stone ruins on the site and it was a good place to meet, there were around 24 scouts in the northern frontier at all times and 3 of those teams were already on their way back to the walls.

There were still 18 of them that were taking shelter in the ruins where there was a makeshift shelter. They used that spot as a gathering place.

“We will need just 6… if we activate the trap then we can delay the siege for more days” Andy was automatically the leader since he was the most elite of the scouts present.

Bibs was cursing in a low voice but he knew what was going to happen and already had accepted it.

“I’m behind you brother,” Bibs said. From Bibs’s words all of the scouts actually raised their hands.

“You guys are making it hard for me to pick…” Andy said.

“The message will be arriving in a few hours,” one of the scouts said… the problem is that their window before the wall crushers get out of the range of the valley. The boys back in the wall have to decide on what to do while the scout on the valley will be on their own, they won’t wait, they have to do it.

During this time of the year, the snow that accumulated in the hills of the valley would lean on one side, the scouts of the northerners devised a plan, they would make an explosion on each side to create an avalanche to block the path in the valley or better bury them under.

The bombs were made up of pyre ore and were always maintained by the scouts as part of their checklist every 3 months. They only needed 3 pairs of explosions to cover the whole length of the valley.

This is the only chance they could do it since the lay of the land after the valley was just an upward slope into the walls and there were not many hills that were large enough or tall enough to block the large marching army since the spike would just probably crush down the bushes Ice Trees.

The army behind is only as fast as the wall crushers that were clearing the snow… They were slow, a week maybe, and a few more days because of the slope when they were out of the valley. That was the estimated time limit that the scouts came up with.

But after staying back on his vacation on the northern wall… the new visitors were capable, and he knew that the time they would be buying would be spent properly. It's not like it was a suicide mission, the bombs are already set and the scout has just checked it a few days ago. They just had to go light it up.

The problem would be the aftermath, the bomb would create a change on the field… spikes buried in snow. As much as Andy prayed that the Spikes would die and freeze under the snow, the Spikes had already learned how to stay warm. And Spike buried under the snow… that was the dangerous part.

“We will start immediately, the others just retreat back to the wall… please bring back as much information as you can” Andy gave the orders. The village was constructed on one of the higher ground, east side of the valley.

The scouts nodded and went on their way.

The party that was left started their preparation and their planned route double checked, as usual, Andy and Bibs would take the farthest bombs.

Andy looked at the old monument that was one of the few structures left in the village. He was born here, he was the first child of the first generation from the pioneers of the village. His mother was right about him. He was hyper-sensitive. His hypersensitivity to the tremors coming from the ground helped him in his career as a scout.

He swore at that moment when he watched her mother and the villagers of the satellite town die on their feet. He would use all of his powers to save lives. That's why he became a scout in the first place.

<--->

The birds of the northern people are only of one breed. Messenger Birds they called Elm Bird. It could fly so fast that they could go back and forth from the northern wall to the northern frontier 8 times a day.

By that count, the message was 3 hours old and it only took a few minutes before it reached the northern wall mayor. The northern wall mayor immediately summoned everyone who should be involved.

There are actually 2 spots where an emergency summon was mustered, the first one was in the town hall and the 2nd one when the situation was bad was inside the walls itself, the underground training room.

“3 hours and 13 minutes…” it was Gallo the one who was reading the contents, the mayor immediately gave him the original copy while he started reading a copy for the people in the room.

For the few weeks that Gallo had stayed there, he proved to be of great intellectual value as he shared some of his knowledge in governing. The mayor and even the warriors respected him even though he was younger.

The letter was as follows: “Siege is coming a week from now at the earliest, we will deploy delaying methods”

“I don’t understand… if they have a plan why would they send us a letter like this?” Gallo asked. Although he was a smart kid, he didn’t know everything.

“It's for us to decide if we are going to aid them or not” it was the mayor who answered.

“The delaying strategy is devised by a survivor from the outpost, they would blow out left and right hills on the Kern’s Valley using a charge of pyre ores, effectively blocking the pathways in the downhills” followed by Percival answering.

The information was enough to set Gallo into thinking.

“... We will use the boards to travel fast… not as fast as the birds but we will arrive immediately this day… but the field will be an unknown variable… I see, spike under the snow is bad shit,” Gallo immediately started thinking, the Mayor had an idea of how Gallo thinks, and how he processed things, it was a bit shameful but small things like the snowball fight and his everyday actions earned their trust.

Gallo was a mentalist. It took him a few minutes to get to a decision. The time was 6 in the morning.

<--->

Hours after the rescue party launched.

Just after a few tweaks, the board was working seamlessly, even the magic consumption was lessened. It was already almost 7 and a half hours when they left the northern wall. The snowboard riders grew accustomed with it, one foot forward and one foot on the control board, they would change their feet sometimes.

From the horizon a flash flickered. It sent shockwaves and mists that the riders endured with their hands or cloak. After a few delays the thundering sound followed. It actually cleared the weather breaking the snowstorm.

“BOOM!!!!” there was a loud sound… “BOOM!!!”, “BOOM!!!”, “BOOM!!!”, “BOOM!!!”, “BOOM!!!” followed by other sounds.

“There! That’s the explosion!!!” the hero screamed, he was briefed down by the warriors of the northern wall of the areas outside the wall since he was chosen to be the leader of the squad that would do the rescue, it was his party’s first time of going outside the wall.

They were supposed to have a tour outside the walls and they were scheduled at a later date and this incident happened.

“Scouts waving at us!!” Simon screamed, the explosion and shock wave were numbing the sound so they had to scream.

4 of the adventurers changed their direction bee lining to the scouts that were escaping.

“Godspeed!” the warrior screamed, they would be in charge of the escaping scouts, they were carrying a snow cart that would be pulled by the snowboard, another one of Gallo’s bright ideas.

It was create supposedly to help the transportation of the cannons.

<--->

A few more hours passed and the snow and mist subsided, the valley was closing in front of them. The pyre ore detonation is remotely controlled, with a range of half a click so they were sure that the ones that detonated it were safe.

“Let’s go as planned!” Paramour commanded... Simon was going to be together with the Black Hood while an adventurer together with a warrior. Going west and the other into the east respectively. (Simon and Black Hood to the west, Adventurer and Warrior to the east)

The others would be on stand-by and would act depending on the situation.

<--->

Western Mountain of the Kern Valley.

Andy safely tied himself on an ice tree, the problem was that he passed out when a few rocks hit his head. He was awake now, luckily the cold numbed the pain in his head, and still, there was blood on him.

The worst part is that it was already dark, lighting up a fire would invite bad things. He reached out for a knife and noticed that the moon was really good that night, the brightest he had ever seen.

He cut the rope he used to tie himself. He was on higher grounds so he could see the outcome of what they had done, he was on the farthest side of the span of the valley and he could see how far the swarm of spikes was.

The wall crushers are now effectively under the snow. They would take time to gain the momentum again, the wall crushers have to dig themselves out of the snow. Though he wished they would freeze and die under the snow. The problem now was how to get back. He hadn’t seen a single scout of spike before he detonated the pyre ore but he was not sure how much time had passed since he passed out.

He started walking. The elf boots were made not to sink in the snow. It was really effective in this situation… but he started feeling the vibrations… stronger. There must be some spikes near him. He started running enduring the cold on his head.

“Shit… no… shit!!” he was right it was a few clicks behind him. The spikes that were supposed to scout the valley were running. It seemed that they took the way on the high grounds.