This was a stretch of rolling hills. Days of heavy snow had draped them in a pale mantle of silver.
Now, they possessed a different kind of charm.
But Angel remembered that when he had first arrived at Watchtower Fortress, he had looked out over this place from a tower. Back then, it had been pitch-black, barren, and bleak.
This was Shadow Hill.
Following the lead Bobota had given him, Angel had come here.
A river ran through Shadow Hill, and if one was lucky, one could occasionally find Mituan Silver Rings here. Moreover, Shadow Hill lay near the fortress and could be seen with the naked eye, making it a safe zone. Thus, apprentices would often come here in their spare time to seek opportunities.
Just yesterday afternoon, Bobota and his two friends had been wandering around Shadow Hill.
Then, they had seen Toby here.
"At first, I saw it using its beak to chip through the ice and catch fish on the river. Later, it seemed not to have caught anything, so it flew away. As for where it went, I didn't notice. The snow was too heavy and the sky was dark. Once it blended into the sky, I couldn't see anything at all."
That was Bobota's account.
Though the others had not seen clearly, Daski had indeed seen Toby fly into the air. Thus, it could roughly be determined that Toby had still appeared at Shadow Hill yesterday afternoon.
Angel had immediately come looking.
After arriving at Shadow Hill, he found nothing but undulating expanses of snow. Snow continued to drift from the sky, and finding Toby's trail here would not be easy.
The first place he went was the river where Bobota had said Toby had been fishing.
In a low valley between snowy hills,