Beast Tale: The Cursed Beast and the Ice Witch

The village of Liria used to be green. Now it is white. All of it — the fields, the rooftops, the faces of the dead. An unnatural winter descended without warning and never left. The beasts turned feral. The harvests rotted beneath endless frost. The survivors learned to count their meals. At the mountain's peak, a castle of ice stands against the grey sky. The witch who built it is responsible for all of it. Into Liria walk two strangers. Maumau is a rat-eared pugilist who laughs too easily — until the fighting starts, and something far colder takes over. Nimbam is a goat mage who speaks in measured words and carries the weight of a past he rarely mentions. They arrived separately. They have their own reasons for climbing that mountain. But the Ice Witch is waiting. And the white keeps spreading.