Rikuta

The lights had appeared in the night sky, they glistened upon stone, rock, ice and snow; the tiniest speckled reflection of light beneath a blanket of shimmering colour. The air was more than bitter and whistled its way through the boughs of the forest in which a couple strode through silently. Their steps were slow and cumbersome, upon their feet were thatched frames to ease their footing and spread their weight. They spoke in hushed murmurs as they reached a wide and out-stretched plateau, thick with snow. A frozen lake lay beneath it, freshly covered with the latest of the snowfall.