Fang Island
Fang island is quite far from the barrier. It's so far out there, it could not be seen at all.
As the winter is approaching, the sea is full of fog.
Sasha set off to search for Fang island amidst the fog.
She has a feeling that she might get lost, but she had a premonition Rudy might be alive.
Like everyone else in their family, the day of his trial is also approaching, and if she doesn't go, Rudy might not make it out alive.
So, even if she could not tell east from west, even if she could not even see Moon snow's head sitting on his back, she must go.
Thus, she did and gave directions to Moonsnow following a compass in her hands.
It's a curio obtained from Espana, and is said to be used by only warships of Espana.
However, within the Smoking Winter sea, the compass behaves very weirdly, so it's not used for this leg of the journey.
Sasha decided to use it for as long as she could.
After all, no matter which way she goes, she is setting out blindly.
Within an hour, the most dangerous part of the journey arrived.
The smoking sea of western ocean.
Smoking in the sea is not a new phenomenon in Eldaria.
A series of nine volcanoes connect Thousand kingdoms to eastern empire at the eastern sea's narrowest point.
These volcanoes are called walls of smoke, and are inline with red rivers meeting the sea. It is where the border between summerland and winterland is drawn.
After that, Valhalla, the land drowned in dragons and lava, exists amid another smoking sea, far vaster than the smoking sea in western ocean.
Despite being the smallest smoking sea, it's considered most dangerous.
For one, the creatures that live in western ocean are bigger, and more fierce.
Secondly, compasses still work, and the major landmarks themselves do not change within the eastern smoking sea.
The same is not the case with western ocean.
Sometimes, icebergs as big as cities float out on the sea. Few of the bird species live in nests among these icebergs all their lives, without the iceberg melting into the sea.
Thus, the landscape is ever changing.
If you want to breathe, one must fly inside the fog. If you want to find the general direction, then it's needed to fly above the clouds.
Sasha was just about to lose her mind when she broke through the clouds into a super cold air current in a clear sky.
Underneath her, the entire ocean is full of icebergs.
They ranged from the size of a horse to the size of a castle.
Sasha is just thankful the blasted fog is not in the way any more.
The icebergs all travelled towards a single direction.
It's as if an extremely slow whirlpool is gathering ice at the center.
At this height, Sasha knew her bird's eye view covered an area bigger than winterland.
The whirlpool occupied most of the deep blue oval, while the ice bergs all moved to the center, no matter which direction they were from.
It seems the words of mages are not wrong.
Skagos is indeed a land made of icebergs stuck together.
It melted out, and then the icebergs replenished it as they moved towards it and joined the main body of the iceberg.
As the process continued, skagos grew and shrunk, according to the season.
Sasha remembered the stories her Nanny used to tell them.
Long night arrives on the day Skagos grew and touched the winterland.
The cold winds from Frontier hit skagos straight, however, they do not travel as far as Winterland due to the smoking sea in between.
Sasha lowered her flight altitude to see things clearer.
As she traveled along the coast of the biggest iceberg in the middle, Sasha noticed the red haired lad on a wolf, running for the coast.
That.. that is Rudy.
She did not expect to meet him this early.
She was thinking about landing in front of him and talking before she remembered the reaction of Dan upon seeing her.
Dan at least remembers her because he was more than an adult when he left.
But Rudy was barely above a toddler when she left. Now, he looks to have become a youngman.
A youngman, who seemed to be in perfect control of a black wolf the size of a pony.
Sasha refrained from landing immediately.
She will watch the situation first.
It proved to be the best decision she ever made.
There was a legion of extremely ugly looking men chasing Rudy.
He seems to be holding something in his hands.
It took Sasha some time to understand the bone necklaces they are wearing are made of human fingers.
They .. they are cannibals !!!
Damn it ! She did not expect the cannibal rumor to be true, and that too, at this scale ..!!!
There are really far too many people who were wearing cannibal necklaces.
Sasha wanted to burn them all out, but she stopped herself at the last minute.
The entire land she is seeing is made of translucent ice.
Rudy is running uphill, and he has not reached the summit yet.
If she acts too soon, the heat will cause a flood around the edges of the basin like the plains they have here.
Moreover, she's not entirely sure that the entire basin has a land base. It's quite possible the entire basin is made only of ice.
In that case, she would be more of a hindrance than help.
As Sasha was pondering how to help Rudy, he made it over the summit, and rushed to a flat bottom boat on the sea, along with the wolf.
An old boat woman was holding the bow of the ship, which almost bounced on the water as Rudy jumped in along with the wolf.
The boat woman on the shore noticed the cannibals, for Rudy shouted something at her.
The next moment, she raised her hands. With her hands, the seawater rose around the boat.
The seawater rushed towards the summit, while the elderly boat woman shouted something at the boat.
A young woman inside the boat snapped to attention, and the boat began to move away.
Rudy rushed to the bow, almost ready to jump over.
The blackwolf growled along with the boy, flailing to jump over but the rest of the women in the boat subdued both of them.
The boy, Sasha could understand, but to subdue the wolf !
The women must be very powerful.
It is a pity for such women to die here without an escape, no matter the circumstances.
It seems the elderly boat woman has decided to give up her life to buy a chance for the rest of her clan.
Sasha could not see such a woman die for no reason while she could act.
She held the Winter star, and froze sea water behind the woman. As the tide rose and rushed for the cannibals, it split to two streams.
Sasha even froze the overflow of the tide that would have drowned the elderly boat woman.
She saw the boat woman raise her eyes in shock towards the dragon before her view was covered up by ice.
All the practice she had with freezing and unfreezing came to good use.
The water that entered the basin caused the air current to respond. Rather than flow straight towards the center, the water rushed to the side along the edges of the basin.
However, the tide carried away the entire legion of the cannibals.
Sasha froze icicle spikes inside the tide uncaringly, for all their purpose is to kill people.
In a few moments, the entire basin has grown ice blue spikes pointed inwards.
The cannibals who were in the tide were skewered one after another upon the pointy icicles, their blood seeping into the center to form a blood red puddle.. Or lake.
The size of the basin was rather big, and there was an extremely blue lake in the center. As the blood seeped towards it, the entire lake was stained red.
The boat which was about to rush away atop the water stopped in its tracks at the sight of the dragon, as its occupants stared with their mouths agape at the dragon and it's rider.
The boy calmed down, and with him, the wolf did the same.
In but a moment, utter silence reigned in the valley.
The dragon glided in the air silently.
The old woman who called the tide stared at the dragon in shock, after she walked out from the tear drop shaped roof formed above herself.
She hobbled over to the edge of the basin, and peered in, checking the condition of the army that was chasing them.
The entire army is skewered on icicle spikes of the icicles.
From above, the basin looked like a blooming blue rose, with a red center.
" The blue rose of the red lake ! " The woman muttered in shock.
Meanwhile, the boat which was driving away drove back to the coast, it's occupants staring warily at the dragon.