The grip of his fingers on the staff loosened slightly as his breathing slowed down and his eyelids trembled in the white snow light. Far from the pale clouds of the high plains, he imagined his hometown of Ordly lived the approaching winter in days of clear blue skies and sunlight shimmering over the waves. He let his mind return to the smell of the sea breeze in the air, to the crying of the seagulls, to the white lilies in the golden sand by his feet.