Long Road, Fragments of the Past I

From Kurk Castle, the capital of Golan-Elson Province, one headed north into the junction where it met Lantorilan and Viero. Since the Year of Revelation, when it had been established for Count Hading, Shallow Water Town had quietly stood on the western shore of Valenden Lake for several centuries.

Here, the coniferous forests stretching north through Golan-Elson took on an entirely different appearance. Vast swaths of cedar spread across the woodland. Though it was nearly late summer, frost still rustled down from the treetops as the mounted party traveled along the forest road.

The closer they came to Shallow Water Town, the more obvious the so-called "late spring" of northern Viero became. The blazing summer of Month of Flowing Fire was nowhere to be found. Instead, the signs of nature's revival were long overdue in this region.

The forest air still carried the biting chill of late winter. The sky was hazy and oppressive, as though Gister, the deity who ruled the skies according to the mountain folk, were stirring a layer of lime above the clouds. Brando looked up from horseback. The woods were bare, and the thin branches between the trunks resembled countless spiderwebs reaching toward the sky. The buds that had emerged in the new year were still covered in a fine layer of down, while several withered leaves left over from the end of the previous year hung quietly beneath them. From a distance, they looked like dry chrysalises swaying faintly in the cold wind.

Yet this was not Month of Revival. This was the scenery of blazing August, the height of summer.

The strange sight left everyone in the party marveling. It was clearly already Month of Flowing Fire, yet the place looked as though it were caught between winter and spring. Firas rode at