//------------------------------//
// Bestiæ aquilonis 
// Story: The Blue-Eyed Beast 
// by Mr Anomalous 
//------------------------------//

"Sjîk don helvetæ," Phelora muttered to herself.
She was surprised.
She had not heard herself speak Levitikan in months.  It was an old tongue of little use; no liturgical value.  It was even the language of the enemy, stricly speaking.  
Though that war had ended long before she was born, not out of agreement or peace treaty, but out of lack of living humans to fight it.
The Levi tongue, however, remained common in many of the villages she had once known.  Such was the influence of that dark empire.
Despite the four-legged creatures hunting for her all night, Phelora had managed to easily mask her prescence with blood.
She, however, had been running out.
Khâldeeran bloodhounds needed much to be thrown off scent.
She spat.
Khâldeera.  The source for all her woes.
But also an unlikely indirect ally.
It was the Khâldeeran Creatures of Snow that slaughtered the vast majority of Tiberius's men.
"But none of that matters", she reminded herself.
She appeared to be in a different world entirely.
"Much further north than I had intended."
Phelora crept out of her cave and surveyed the whiteness around.  The watchtower was visible in the early morning haze, its torches casting a glow.
Referring to the map she had stolen, Phelora concluded that she needed more to make it.  More . . . everything.  More food, yes, but that could be found.  She needed materials.  
Dust and opals, gold and silver, and plum ink, chief among them.
Phelora closed the map and slunk out into the tundra.