Dark Crow Rising

"Finally, a moment to walk... How many more days of this?" I let out as I stumble away from the haulier. Thank the gods I am finally down from that thing. My nerves are all frayed and shaken up, I feel like am about to fall if my arms so much as decide to go numb. All that mechanical rumbling. I need a moment.

I collapse to the ground, knee first, and roll about to land on my back.

"If you do find yourself able to move again, stay near the hauliers. Better yet, just stay there." Iishar tells me before she goes off to talk to those travellers she is apparently meeting. Surely there are better places to meet than all the way out here? But, well, they probably have their reasons...

"Yeah..." I answer as my body struggles to realise that the ground is flat and that it's not moving. These damn frayed nerves... Focusing on the sky, as there isn't much else to do, I watch the thunderstorm. Golden bolts flash and I am left disappointed by their departure. I really wish they'd just linger. They always feel like they never existed at all with how short-lived they are.

Thunder cracks and a strange force shakes the gravel. Sitting up quickly, I look about just to make sure that it was not me who did that. But, no, looking about, I can see the gravel dancing up and down to some strong force. I'm pretty sure I can figure out which way the force is coming from as well.

I turn around and wait. If the force comes again, then I can properly confirm that it isn't just my nerves. Lightning strikes again and I feel it, smiling all the while as my hands shake. There's definitely something out there, in the distance, just out of sight.

This orchestra of storm-light surges in a particular direction as well, like a heartbeat. The sky lights up and the rumbles and cracks precede further tremors. This has to be what Iishar was alluding to when we left Tobaballe. Lightning is in the sky near-always and right now, a festival to the God of Thunder is going on.

This can't be a mere coincidence...

"A quick peek can't hurt..." I tell myself as I peek back. My crunch-marked stagger accents the rush across the gravel. There's a large, sizeable, decently flat rock that I can climb up onto up ahead. I don't think I have gone very far, but all these tremors are getting stronger. My body shivers excitedly and I desperately crawl up onto the rock.

Looking back at the convoy first to gauge the distance, I turn around... My jaw drops.

"No... No way...!" I breathe as what seems to be a fog spreads apart.

To the backdrop of sudden and often perpetual lightning strikes is a lone mountain. With its peak shaped like an anvil, it stands out all the more compares to all the other mountains I have seen. Around the base of the grey behemoth is a bubbling sea of molten gold that selfishly hordes the storm's wrath. The heat of it all is immense, but so is the brightness.

I am covered with strange, reflective patterns!

"That... That's the Anvil-Peak! Thurnmourer's mountain!" I laugh out like a child as my body bobbles with excitement. The god I have served for so long, this is one of his holy wonders, it is -the- holy wonder! Three times did he strike thunder here a time long ago.

On the third strike, he saved the world...

This peak saw his hammer, Mesofunderod, first take shape. His golden armour was hammered together on this same peak. The temples and shrines gave me an idea of what it all looks like with their stained glass and their murals. But, seeing the mountain in person, I also want to see lightning be driven into the made-obedient stone!

This has to be it. This must be what Iishar was on about. There's no way it could not have been. This is the Anvil-Peak! How can the thing she teased me about again and again not be this mountain!? Oh, how am I going to tell her about this...?

"Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho!" I let out as I rub my hands together. Gravel crunches behind me, but that just makes things easier. Iishar is right there and I can just barrage her anger into submission with my excitement. I have so many questions right now that I just need to ask. It doesn't matter if she can't answer them!

"Yau best turn aaand paaay aaa little mare aaattentian." a strangely accented, but distinctly feminine, voice says to me. A new noise fills my ears and I suspect I know what it is. Turning around, I shoot back erratically, my hands leaping out to stabilise my body. This short girl or woman has a gun, and it's pointed right at me...

I look past her and towards the convoy, but it's too far away. They would never hear me over the distance. Let alone with all this lightning, thunder, and Iishar's ongoing conversation. Maybe there is a way out of this. Maybe this girl is just hungry?

There's not much to hunt, much less gather out here in these wastes...

"Very gaad, naw, came dawn." she orders as she pulls down her hood, revealing her inhuman looks. What even is she?

I see no skin, only pale to brownish fur that darkens exceptionally as it comes to a stop around her snout-like nose. On her head, rather than hair, she has a coat of sharp, black and whitish spikes running down from her scalp. Little black beads for eyes as well. A finger on the trigger...

She's quite short, so I can only assume that she's a child, whatever she is. This just makes the problem a whole lot worse, though. There's no way a child will show any kind of restraint with a firearm. Not in the slightest.

And as I have nowhere to hide, I raise my hands slowly and clearly...