Experimental prologue fragment

  The wind hurried though the snow covered valley and across Aevar's face, nearly frostbitten at this point and smudged with filth.  The hostility of the land manifested itself through his expression as a distraught and desperate visage, mouth open, exhausting great breaths that were instantly carried off by the freezing gales.  Thick clumped strands of hair which were quickly collecting snow obscured his view periodically, and he would effectively control them with a simple flick of his head.  He remained poised, however weakly by this point, on one knee.  His upper body nearly rested on it were it not for the arm keeping him somewhat upright.
      The valley was flanked by great mountains of incredible slope.  Jagged spires reached toward the sky retaining their rocky surface because little snow could maintain it's grasp.  They were hardly visible, though, through the inclimate weather.  Indeed there was little of anything to see, but still he gazed forward intent on something across the waving drifts of snow.
      Rising off his knee, he struggled forward through the varying depths.  One foot would find solid ground and the next might sink deeply, staggering his forward motion.  Attempting to run, he stumbled pitifully forward onto all fours, catching a mound of snow in the face.  Aevar shook his head wildly twice to recover his senses and shouted in frustration.  Behind him, a quickly disappearing trail of shuffled footprints and blood, the red contrasting unmistakably. 
      Driven by desperation, he grunted and rose again to his feet.  A sudden wind nearly toppled him, and his body reacted instictively to maintain balance, but a patch of ice brought him back down.  Crying out sharply, his teeth clenched and his face showed defeat.  As he lay, he began to feel a certain rumble in his chest, not from within but something external.  The wind became more violent and shifted directions wildly, pushed by some other force than nature.  His woes fell instantly by the wayside and he looked toward the sky.  There was something there, most certainly, but there was no bewilderment of who approached. 
      A powerful and rhythmic roaring followed.  What could only be created by man grew nearly deafening.  Drifts of snow around him disintegrated rapidly into the currents.  Aevar was helplessly staggered on all fours by the force drawing very near.  He waited.

What could you possibly be doing here, he thought.