Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn led the way down the glaciers toward the Submerged Woods. She was eager to get back down but paced herself. Some of the trails were slippery and she'd already fallen once this trip. When she did reach the bottom she stepped out onto a thick and vast expanse of ice. It was covered in a light layer of snow from the storm before and here and there the tips of pine trees could be seen, poking up through the ice. She gazed out across the frozen gray mountains jutting up like spears into chill blue sky. Over in the west she could see the dark gray clouds from the storm but to the east the sun was almost free of the clouds, stretching to peek over the mountains.

Jynn trotted carefully across the ice, pausing to sweep snow of the ice and peer inside as the sun hit it. A beam of sun struck down into the ice and she could see the base of a few of the palm trees as well as some green that looked like grass. Jynn was amazed at the rich blue of the water where the sun hit. "Hey Kiela! Look at this, these really are submerged woods. I can see trees down here."

Though she was accustomed to traveling in the farthest reaches of the north, and she was used to trekking over barren icy terrain, Kiela had to admit she was glad when the landscape shifted into something more easily traversable. Well - not that the vast expanse of ice disappeared completely here but it flattened out substantially and made travel much easier. Instead of feeling like she was slipping across the ice every few steps she could pace herself more carefully and keep her balance. It allowed herself a moment to observe their surroundings, from the stark mountains in the distance to the ice-capped trees jutting out of the ice itself. It was a strange sight, certainly nothing she'd ever seen before. Slowly she trailed after Jynn, repeating what she'd done by swiping a paw at the ice to reveal a clear surface below. It was hazy but due to the sun's position in the sky it cast a perfect beam down to the ice and below. Though it was hard to see the trees well they were definitely visible, stretching far below the ice. She couldn't help but wonder how such a thing had happened, but she had a feeling it had been longer than she could even begin to imagine. "Wow," Kiela breathed quietly, not having to feign the sense of wonder that overtook her. "I wonder how this happened. Maybe something to do with - how the ice bridge to the north formed," she mused thoughtfully. It didn't really matter though, but it did make her wonder if these extreme winters Boreas had suffered through might eventually get worse - these submerged woods were evidence that they had once before.

Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn listened to Kiela's theory, that whatever caused this was the same phenomenon that caused the ice bridge. She nodded thoughtfully. "Yea, that could be. Like this was a lake or something and froze this past winter, though I wonder how all this water got here." She didn't know trees to just grow up at the bottom of a lake like this so they had to have started on dry ground and then got flooded some how. "I wonder if torrential rains could cause this?" She didn't know what sort of weather the north experienced though she'd heard of hurricanes dumping feet and feet of rain at a time.

Kiela wasn't sure what had caused this. At the end of the day it didn't really matter much, though she liked having some idea of how the weather patterns might be shifting. This sort of knowledge helped her tend to her herd better - helped her know where to find them, and what sort of condition they might be in for the current season. "I wonder too," she mused thoughtfully. "These lands - all very strange. Compared to my home," Kiela added with a faint, thoughtful smile. She'd definitely found no shortage of places to see here in Boreas. According to Jynn there was a continent further south which much more temperate weather, but she doubted she'd find much use going there. Adventuring for the sake of it was one thing, but she couldn't imagining straying a whole world away from the caribou herd she'd grown familiar with. It made her feel unusually small, standing so high above these trees. She wondered what the landscape may have been like long ago, before these trees had been submerged; things had likely looked far different than this. She gazed out across the frozen expanse thoughtfully. "Snow looks to be coming soon," she commented after she explored a bit more of the lake. The skies had been grey and dreary but seemed to be darkening, and she felt something in the air shift, the feeling unmistakable even if she couldn't quite put it into words.

Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn scratched a bit more at the ice, gauging the thickness. It was really quite solid and she was sure the ice would even support the weight of a grizzly bear. She glanced back to Kiela as the other woman explained that these lands were so different from her own. "What was the terrain like back where you were from?" Jynn's was so different from here it wasn't even comparable in any sense. This cold frozen lake was a vast change from her little rain forest.

At the mention of snow Jynn looked skyward and frowned before glancing back to Kiela. "What do you think? Shall we try and shelter here or shall we keep moving?

"Similar to here in a way, but also different," Kiela explained, realizing a moment later just how vague her explanation was. Explaining herself properly had never been her biggest strength though and even though she'd been in Boreas now for nearly two years now she had yet to fully master the language spoken here. She spoke it well enough but its intricacies were often hard to grasp - and harder to use herself. "I mean. Where I am from is cold, with lots of trees and mountains too, but nothing like this," she lifted a paw to gesture across the semi-transparent ice.

Enough of exploring though for now. Being caught out here in a possible snowstorm could quickly prove to be dangerous. She'd learned the weather here was often as unpredictable as she was accustomed to, especially during the winters. "Yes, I think we should find shelter. I think there is a forest... this way," she gestured south of them, where the red forest could be found. "Unless you have another idea?" Kiela cast a final glance down at the trees below that stretched so far down into the ice before redirecting her focus to Jynn and the task that lay before them.