[center]The Shivers, Shivering Sea
78th of Zieliah[/center]

'There is no faster way across the Shivering Sea', they told Sir Alfric.

The Karvaci sailors called it the Shivers: a turbulent current of cold water running from the northern oceans that clashed with the relatively warm seas around Elyden. The current curled westward around the continent, moving southward toward the Royal Coast. For vessels seeking to bypass Elyden's northern reaches in short order, it was the preferred route of travel. For inexperienced seafarers like Alfric or pitiful Percy, the speed came at a high price. The seas roiled and churned around the Karvina-built cog, white-capped waves crashed against the hull. Simply walking about the deck was a struggle. Sir Alfric could scarcely imagine trying to manage the sails. Even so, the Karvaci seemed only mildly disconcerted by the gales and rough seas.

The knight struggled up to the aftcastle of the ship, staggering about with every crashing wave. The captain seemed surprisingly serene, even as he fought against the wheel to keep the rudder in the correct orientation.

"This is good!" Exclaimed the captain, smiling through gritted teeth. "Wonderful weather!"

"Ya mean t'tell me this's better than normal?" Said an incredulous Alfric.

"No! These seas are the worst I've ever seen them!" The captain laughed over the roar of foam washing over the deck. "But we will make it to Krakenheart in record time at this speed. Good in that sense. These waters are nothing the boys and I can't handle."

"Been in rougher seas than these, no?"

"No..." The captain admitted with a chuckle. Alfric was hardly enthused by the honesty of his captain. "But it is nothing we cannot handle. We will be in calmer seas in a day. Fret not, good knight."

"LAND HO!" Rang out over the frothy roar of waves, drawing everyone's attention. The shout came from the crow's nest, in the masts high above the wind-strained sails. Confused glances were exchanged by the deckhands, Alfric looked to the seas around him but saw naught but whitecaps and hazy, overcast horizon as far as the eye could see.

"Impossible." The captain muttered. "We're a hundred leagues from the nearest land. He's wrong!"

"STARBOARD SIDE! NORTHEAST!" The spotter cried again. There, peering just over the whitecaps of the roiling seas, Alfric saw it. A jagged ice-capped peak poking just over the waves.

" Captain? What island is that?"

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFe5HPi6Lkw]"That is no isle..."[/url]

The cog's sailed pulled it over the crest of a wave, affording the crew a glimpse of the white object on the horizon. With the several feet of altitude that the wave's peak provided, they could see the entirety of it. Two jagged peaks rose high above the sea, whose shadows and pits registered a deep blue against the pure white. Beneath the peaks, a giant, cavernous arch could be seen arcing above the waves keeping the mass afloat.

"Thas'... ice?"

The Shivers brought it south from the distant north." The Captain declared ominously. "A harbinger of winter; sailors know the legends of the fragments of the septentrion. They bring with them the chill of the long winter. It is the first of a great many."

"Thas' a bloody hunk of ice? Whence in Kammeth's name does such a block hail?"

"An ill omen indeed." The captain said soberly. "For that, Sir Alfric, came from Everfrost."