https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Midwinter-Requiem-Preview.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n <\/p>\n
Flecks of silver snow drifted over the golden glow of the bonfire built between the three hunting brothers of the Coldwhistle Clan. The night air blew cold through the low valley, surrounded by snow-capped mountains on all sides. \u00a0The smell of ash and pine filled their nostrils as they sat, absently gazing into the flames. \u00a0Baldur, the youngest of the dwarven band, gulped greedily at the leather skin of ale his eldest brother handed him.<\/p>\n
\u201cEasy, lad,\u201d said Einar with a mischievous smirk, barely visible under the black braids of his grey-streaked beard. \u00a0\u201cYer likely to put the fire out if you canna steady those shakin\u2019 hands of yers. \u00a0An\u2019 there\u2019s no tragedy so terrible as wasted ale.\u201d<\/p>\n
The middle brother, Gudbrand, leered reproachfully at Einar through the disheveled raven hair that slightly obscured his vision. \u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s the cold that has him shakin\u2019, brother. \u00a0The lad\u2019s felled his first beast today.\u201d \u00a0His dark green eyes met his youngest brother\u2019s from across the fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat tender heart of yours will harden when the hunger sets in. \u00a0You\u2019ve done well, Baldur, for bein\u2019 such a young whelp.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baldur wiped the ale from his auburn stubble and looked at the motionless face of the small white fox, bound tightly with ropes and pelts atop the pile of dead creatures stacked neatly in their oak sled. \u00a0The elder dwarves laid claim to the mound of stag, boar, and goat carcasses that would feed the clan for at least a fortnight in the Frostveil, while he contributed only one small beast. \u00a0The creature\u2019s black eyes glowed red from the fire light, and Baldur looked away, ashamed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not bothered, ye old codgers,\u201d he said defensively, giving Einar a light punch in the arm. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s\u2026 It\u2019s only the cold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gudbrand looked up from sharpening the stone tips of his arrows and gave Baldur a harsh look. \u00a0\u201cYe don\u2019t know what cold is yet, laddy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Einar gave an incomprehensible grunt of agreement and swept away the light dusting of snow on the ground to reveal a few blades of green grass. \u00a0\u201cThis is as mild weather for hunting beyond the mountain I\u2019ve seen in twenty years or so. \u00a0See? \u00a0The ponies can still feed themselves, and they\u2019ll be nice and strong to pull our bounty back to the Frostveil. \u00a0A fine feast we\u2019ll be havin\u2019 when we bring this lot back. Mmm, I can already smell the mutton!\u201d \u00a0His eyes wrinkled into a happy squint beneath his bushy eyebrows.<\/p>\n
Gudbrand shook a newly sharpened arrow tip at Einar and sighed deeply. \u00a0\u201cYou know, you\u2019re the eldest. \u00a0You should be tellin\u2019 the lad tales of the clan, not fillin\u2019 his head with thoughts of food and the comforts of home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Einar\u2019s eyes grew slightly sad, and he looked up at the soft glow of the moon through the billowing clouds, watching the snow dance lightly against the black night sky. \u00a0\u201cGoddess willing ye both live as many winters as I, and you\u2019ll find your thoughts always find a way back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eager for the distraction and emboldened by the ale, Baldur looked pleadingly at his eldest brother. \u00a0\u201cGo on then; tell me a tale of the clan. One mother might have blessed herself at hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Einar bellowed a hearty laugh. \u00a0\u201cBless her memory, you might not have known the woman long, but she certainly kept you close to her teats while she had ye.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wind howled sharply as the three brothers fell silent, each lost in their own remembrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll right, lad, I\u2019ll tell you the tale\u2026 the tale of our first queen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baldur arched an eyebrow. \u00a0\u201cWe had a queen? \u00a0I thought all the clans are ruled by kings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Einar nodded with an annoyed grunt. \u00a0\u201cAye, they are now, and for a reason. \u00a0But if you don\u2019t shut yer mouth, you\u2019ll never hear the truth of why we\u2019re called the Coldwhistle Clan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It has been a long time coming, but we are starting to get to the point where we are expanding some of our offerings.\u00a0 We’ve got things like sticker clubs and posters and more, and we’re beginning to work on audio accompaniments to the stories we’ve told.\u00a0 Case in point, this post, where you can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[146],"tags":[196,2934,1119,437,2933,222,1039],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Featured-Gaston-Short-Story.png","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1UVey-79R","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27519"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27519"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27609,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27519\/revisions\/27609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}