North hold lookout tower

North hold lookout tower - " It's a beautiful night. Tomi mused as they began on the narrow walkway connecting the castle town to the lookout tower. Once he left the protective confines of the city alleyways the coldness of the open space hit him. The first time each winter always caught him a little off guard, just like the first winter swim in the rivers. Snow and old leaves crunched beneath his feet, the flame of his torch waving and quivering in the wind. The orange glow from the window of the tower promised comfort, so he didn't think much of the discomfort, it was always easier to bear if there was a promise to the end of it. Sometimes he might even enjoy the discomfort in a strange way, it just made the indoors and a proper fireplace feel all the better.

Pushing the heavy door inwards he met the gaze of Kale who was apparently in the process of frying sausages on the small potbelly stove, the air smelled pleasantly of grease, and aromatic herbs "How was the poet?" "Oh, the usual, wouldn't want to leave, especially on a night like this, but I told him he can come here from time to time if he so desires." Tomi nodded at the answer as he extinguished his torch into a bucket. The tower wasn't used much in the summer season, since the floodplains below became a raging river in the summer, over a mile across and impossible for anyone to cross. So the tower acted as a residence for poets, artists, cloud calculators, astronomers and the like.

In the winter however, as the snowmelt began to cease and the river began to shrink, you could walk across the plains all the way to Glacialisia. Or rather, the danger was somethings could walk from Glacialisia to here. Glacialisia is a giant glacier just beyond the mountains that rises even higher than the mountains themselves. It shifts and moves, difficult to traverse and easy to get lost. Worse yet, dangerous and foul things live there. Tomi squinted out the window at the distant treeline. Probably they wouldn't see any such things today, they tended to begin wandering southwards later in winter. But that was their primary duty here in the tower, to raise the alarm if they saw any moving across the plain. The memory of last spring and what one of them could do if they slipped past was still fresh. 20 people mauled and killed, he shuddered to think even worse beasts might lie farther in those glaciers.

South from their home was the Spire town, a port city that handled many of the goods coming from the far north, pelts, meat, wood, the like. From there you could take a ship to Tuffbay and from there all the way south, beyond the dragon's teeth range. Indeed it is the Spire town that keeps the castle running, for they pay them for the job of keeping the things in the north away from the south. Tomi retreated from the window and took a seat next to the stove and rubbed his hands "I hope you got more of those sausages, you got me hungry. I hope the poet left some of that mulled wine for us."

from DeviantArt: Popular https://ift.tt/MPwVcFe