Winters night

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by Sapphirewing

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In a mountain range at the roof of the world, a gnoll was dragging his friend through a blizzard. His friend had fallen and was injured on the way home from a long trip and he couldn’t do much for him since he was no healer. The gnoll called out for help through out the trek for hours upon hours but no one had heard. The winds were too loud and most of the beings who could help were buried in the snow, away from the blizzard. The gnoll had almost given up hope, he was getting exhausted and the snow was getting deeper. That is until he saw a light coming towards him, it belonged to a torch in the claws of a female ice titan. The gnoll expected this to be the end, with the scavenger eating the both of them, until the ice titan spoke, “By the northern stars, look at you both. Fortunately for you, I am a healer. Follow me, I can help your friend in my cave.” The gnoll had no reason to trust this ice titan but he followed the female to her cave. Just before they got inside, he collapsed in the snow after having to carry his injured friend for miles on end. The next morning, the gnoll hadn’t expected to wake up but he did. He was in the ice titan’s cave, surrounded by various herbs that did everything from pain relief to prevent infections, and his friend was safe and sound with his injuries bandaged. The titan had kept her word when she had no reason to. There was a note by his bed that said, “You and your friend will be able to finish your journey. You may borrow my sled. Don’t worry, the snow striders that pull it know their way home.” The gnoll helped his now awake friend outside to find the sled with the large, furry, horned and hooved beasts already hitched up. Fortunately, their village was a several hour journey from where they were and the storm was gone. They took the sled but before they got too far they saw the ice titan stripping bark from Fernpines. The gnolls stopped the sled and shouted to the titan. “You had no reason to help us and yet you did. We owe you more than we can ever repay. We’ll never forget your kindness, we’ll pay it back in full.” They rode off and the ice titan never saw them again. When her snow striders returned, there were about a dozen satchels in the sled. They were gifts from the gnolls and each of the satchels were filled with credits, one contained a note. “Consider this our payment.” The ice titan used this money to start a hospital and on the anniversary of that day she helped those gnolls she gives presents to everyone in the hospital. This tradition began to spread through out the system and now every year on that day, families gather together and give each other presents and show each other some form of selflessness.

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