CHAPTER 27

Russel and Lola spent the next two days traveling in a northwestern route across Oclan. The one thing that Lola noticed was the surprising lack of villages, towns, or even cities. The lands seemed to only be barren, rocky hills, snow, skeletal-looking trees, or iced over lakes, rivers, and ponds. The only animal life she spotted was some large birds circling overhead on several occasions. If she didn’t have Russel with her, she would have been terrified to travel across such a foreboding place. Even the skies overhead were sullen, gray, and filled with clouds most of the time. The sunniest part of Oclan appeared to be near the border with Alcroft. When she asked Russel about why everything looked so dreary, he just shrugged his shoulders and said that’s how it’s always been. “Since we’re much further north than the human kingdom or even Sarchi or Harvenk, we get a lot of snow. It doesn’t make for a whole lot of pleasant days. My father said our clan moved here because of those reason