Packing up your camp, you begin your descent down into the narrow valley that you observed last night by moonlight. It takes you the morning to reach relatively level ground. The road here is rarely travelled and hence snow covered. For much of the time you find it safer to dismount and lead your horses on foot. At last, after fording a swift-flowing stream, you are able to pick up some speed. To your right flows a small river, frozen where the water is calm. All about you are coniferous forests, and looming above them are the mountains.
Finally, just as you are thinking about stopping for the night, the road forks. One branch - actually just a trail - continues to follow the river along the bottom of the narrow valley, to the northeast. The other fork turns northwest, and begins to climb steeply.
You pause to read the signpost:
South: To Yip Yowee and Yna Sur.Northwest: To Yeti Pass and Long Valley.
Northeast: To Cold Death Lake and the Basta River.
You set up camp near the intersection. Jo-owrn takes some line, finds a portion of the river that is frozen, and goes ice fishing.
"I'm curious. How are these creatures who live in the middle of a frozen waste a threat to anyone? Or are we just having a really bad winter?" asks Illyana.
"You mean the yeti?" says Leslie. "Well, they're a threat to people because they like the taste of human flesh. Speaking for myself, if they didn't try to eat me then I'd leave them alone."
"I would have to agree with Leslie. They are not something you want to come across. Especially if they havn't eaten lately," says Kelar as he starts to set up the tent.
"As for the winters," adds Tabrina in his low voice, "They are all bad. Each one is worse than the last, people say."
"It's the ice age," says Leslie.
Jon goes over and talks to Jo-owrn on the ice. After a bit they both return, the latter with several fish.
The night passes quietly.