[center][color=007fff][b][u]Azura[/u][/b][/color]
Level 2
Day 3
Location: The Land of Skyrim
[b]Experience: [color=orange]||||||||[/color][color=black]||||||||||||[/color] (8/20)[/b] 
Word Count: 685[/center]

If the typical day in Skyrim was cold, then nighttime could most leniently and non-explicitly be described as 'glacial'.  Barely had a few minutes passed before the biting winds, howling down from the mountain heights, started to penetrate through the luxuriant winter robes that kept Azura so cozy before.  Her teeth chattered as trudged through the snow.  A climb like this in the day would have been hazardous enough, but at night the task turned impossible if not for the whispers on the wind, telling her which paths to take on her frigid ascent.  As time wore on and the air grew thinner, her muscles grew weary, and her mind urged her to lay down in the soft snow to rest.  The songstress knew better than to listen to that temptation; from her books she knew that, coat or no, if she fell asleep in such a cold bed she would never awaken.  Instead, she forced her mind to wander, trying to shut out the incredible chill.  She hummed snatches of her song, its subtle magic providing just enough of a boost to keep her body moving along with her thoughts.  This ordeal would be her trial, she concluded, to see if she had what it took to be a hero.  When she opened the strange letter not so long ago, she had accepted that mantle without too much thought, telling herself that even if she felt that she'd done nothing to deserve it that she had at least been chosen for a reason.  This climb, this mountain, this mission...here was where she would prove she was no pretty wallflower, no useless tag-along, even if to nobody but herself.

Eventually Azura did need to pause to catch her breath and try to get her blood pumping again.  When the crunching of snow under her feet stopped, however, she could hear carried on the breeze another sort of crunching.  This one, however, did not involve snow, and it sent new shivers down her spine.  Taking pains to be quiet, she advanced a few more meters along with wall until she could see the path ahead.  A dark shape, far too large and burly to be human, crouched over a mangy black mess she could not identify as anything other than a large, dead animal.  The beast itself appeared to be eating, making ghastly noises as it messily devoured its meal.  Worse still, the gristly scene lay square in the middle of Azura's way forward, and the ascent itself appeared too narrow to skirt around the monster at all, let alone at a safe distance.  A novice climber would have no chance of making her own way around in the dark, either, but trying to drive the beast away would be even more suicidal.  Worse still, she could hear no hints from her ephemeral guide, though that did make it occur to her that this, too, was a test.

A few moments passed, the woman standing stock-still in the icy night, before something popped into her mind.  A risky gamble, she knew, but short of waiting for the morning's light there remained no alternatives.  Closing her eyes, Azura took a deep breath, then held up her Blessed Lance.  Her yellow eyes flashed open, and she began to sing.

[i]”Sing with me a song, of birthrights and love.  The light scatters to, the sky above...”[/i]

Not far away, the frost troll perked its head up.  It could hear the intruder's high, clear voice even through the tempestuous piping of the wind, but it did not yet know what to make of it.

[i]”Dawn breaks through the gloom, white as a bone.  Lost in thoughts, all alone...”[/i]

A deep sound, like some primal titan moving, undercut the howling of the air.  The frost troll turned its small eyes upward to see a vast, formless mass rushing toward it.  

Azura winced.  “I am sorry, creature.”

A split second later a wall of icy water crashed upon the beast, on target to wash it and its kill right off the path and down the mountainside with its sheer bulk and force.