Part 11; Evergreen and Silver; The Long Trek

More about Part 11; Evergreen and Silver; The Long Trek

As Arani, Shaiya and Kahle, along with the horse, Silver, delved deeper into the Winter Wood, the very elements seemed determined to make their course as difficult as possible. The wind began to pick up after an hour or so of walking, and with the wind came a biting blizzard of snow. They could not tell east from west or north from south. At one point Kahle insisted on the girls climb onto Silver and he began to tow them along. Strangely enough, even through the near invisibleness of the blizzard, the push of the wind and the added weight of two riders, the horse pushed on, faithfully and unwaveringly, seeming to know where they were going better than the children.
Once, as they were trekking at a painstakingly slow pace, Kahle in the lead, suddenly disappeared with a cry, over the lip of a little knoll they were going over. The girls be gan screaming and jumped off the horse to see what had hapoened to the boy. As it turned out, Kahle had fallen into a hole in the side of the knoll, and was unhurt. When they found that the snow did not find its way into the opening, though it was fairly large the girls climbed in after tying Silver to a tree. It was not a cave or tunnel, but appeared to have been dug out by some creature.
"Well, isn't this a handy little niche!" exclaimed Arani, delighted at the unexpected refuge from the elements.
"Yes, its lucky I fell into it," remarked Kahle.
"Oh, but the poor beast. I suppose we can't very well bring him in here," said Shaiya, remorsefully.
"No, Silver would never fit," reasoned Kahle. "But something tells me that horse will be just fine. He barely seemed to feel the bite of the snow and wind. If we're looking for a magical arrow, we might as well believe we have a magical horse!"
Arani shivered and rubbed her arms, looking about her.
"I do wonder what made this hole," she said.
"Well, whatever it was, let's hope it does not decide to join us," Kahle said.
And after that there was silence for what felt to be a very long time, the only sound being the raging of the snowstorm without.