Survive (17)

Stretching out his arm, leaping with his leg, bending his back and focusing his eyes. He struck the fox. As his dagger flew through the air the fox suddenly disappeared, now it was resting beside in front of another tree.

The snow had gotten stronger, it had became so much that the snow itself began obstructing their view, making it hard to see objects. And if there ever was something such as gentle snow, maybe the snow under Santa's factory, this would be the opposite. This would be the snow you found in hell.

Aza had to run to keep up with the fight, she simply did not have the speed Alice and Noah had. But she had an odd feeling about what was happening. She couldn't quite figure it out. Her eyes kept trailing them through the snow, and the steam rubbing off on the skin beneath the nose felt fuzzy.

The fox didn't wake up, it was still asleep on the ground. Each time Alice's large black fists would hit it or Noah's sharp dagger it disappeared. Just disappeared, and then reappeared under another tree still.

Aza noticed that the fox wasn't appearing in a random tree, instead it was travelling straight and seemingly teleporting to any tree in that line. Just what was happening? Then, quicker than she could blink Alice dissapeared.

Her eyes acted like they had seen a magician disappear, and then Noah disappeared as well. Again, there wasn't a trail of them, she looked left and right but she couldn't see anything. Not one thing, nothing.

Then she also fell, the snow had swallowed her as if it were quicksilver and she was quickly but not quick enough to injure herself falling down. She couldn't see or feel, or use any of her senses for that matter. There was something all around her blocking out everything making her feel unconscious.

Then she fell out of the snow and landed legs first on a hard stone floor. It was pitch black, and she could feel warmth. The type of warmth you feel sitting in front of a campfire with your entire family behind you.

"Hello are you two there," Noah called out.

Alice, who had reverted into a human, responded, and soon after enjoying her moment in warmth Aza also called out to them. Aza began muttering gibberish in a speed too fast to understand but too slow to consign to oblivion,

A light appeared floating a few meters away from her. It did not give heat, and it did not make a sound. It was simply white light that lit a fair chunk of the cave. They saw each other: even though they had just fallen through snow, they all had none of it on them. Not a single piece of snow.

Noah was the first to sit down, followed by Alice then Ava. They sat silent. They were hungry, again. Chasing a fox through snow and even travelling through such snow was exhausting. It was as if though they waded through a thick relentless stream. Constantly they had gotten pushed and pushed.

Walk, push, walk, even more push, exhaust, walk, eyes covered in snow, eye brows covered in snow, eye lashes screaming "frozen", walk, eyes, look enemies, walk, snow, push, push, walk. A few steps wasn't tough but travelling like this, without a set destination that is, made it not only physically daunting but also mentally daunting.

So they were hungry, and tired, and sitting on the hard floor, and quiet. It was silent, comforting silent. The wind constantly blowing into your ear was disturbing and the silence was refreshing. Almost the type of refreshing you feel when you jump into bed after hard work, but not quite. This was more calling, more adventure was filled into the silence, something drew them to explore it.

Soon they stood up, they could either go up, or down. That was the only routes they had. Both directions were both pitch black, and this time Noah was the one to decide. He felt he didn't want another running in with the fish folk so he decided to travel upwards.

The tunnel slowly expanded into a small circular room which expanded into a larger one, and a sound began emanating. It was as if a human ate, but they used their teeth way too much and way too quickly.

Alice jumped when she saw her first carcass, Noah froze and Aza did so aswell. Noah drew his daggers out again. They continued moving forward, with wider steps making less noise and eyes ever so vigilant.

They heard the sound more clearly the more they walked towards the center of the room. It smelled like rott, it smelled like an abandoned prison, it smelled like a surgery with the intent to mutilate. It was a thick smell, thick enough to almost make the eyes tear.

Aza stopped and so did everyone else in the group. Her ball of light began flying quickly as a bird forward and then stopped. Suddenly, they began to hear their heart pound.

In front of them was a large large figure. It had slimy green skin, with patches all over it. Countless white eyeballs in its head and forehead. The forehead looked really scarred, as if it had been cut there multiple times and regenerated. It had no lips and it's teeth were out in the open, sharp and uneven and disorgnizised and there was multiple lines of that.

It had another mouth in it's stomach, this one had a tongue and fat red lips, the tongue went round an round licking its red lips appetizing for the meal it was about ot have. It's stomach was made out of dry white skin. It's limbs were all really fat, so fat that they looked round and they ended in three finger or toes.

It dropped whatever was in it's mouth and began waddling over to them, each step made a large deep sound.