Scream

The temperature of their surroundings was constantly dropping. Yvann could feel his teeth chattering. The shirt and jeans he was wearing were not enough to make up for the biting cold.

It was like they were walking inside a freezer with the highest temperature available. And it keeps going higher and higher by every passing minute.

Szeina wasn't faring any better. Her hands were shivering, and Yvann thought about helping her out by pulling her hand to him. At least half of their body was receiving heat compared to the rest.

It was better that way than no warmth at all.

Amethyst suddenly came to a halt. Her other two companions followed suit. 

"What's going on?" Szeina whispered, breaking the silence that hang around their little group.

Amethyst turned sharply towards Szeina, a finger on her lips to keep her from asking another question.

Yvann saw the fire in her eyes, igniting her oceanic blues. However, instead of doing anything to show her rebellion, Szeina only squinted her eyes and didn't say a word.

"Reeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"

One twin gasped, rushing towards Szeina and Yvann. 

"Reeeeeeeeeeee!!!" The shrill shriek sounded closer, angrier, and had the group covering their ears. Even the trees found the creature's cry ear-shattering, their leaves swaying in the opposite direction where the sound was coming from.

"Is this some sort of a dragon? With wings and all that mythical thing?" Szeina whispered.

"At this point, I think anything is possible. It could be a fire-breathing dragon, or any huge scaly beast with wings." Yvann replied.

If he didn't witness what he had witnessed so far, he would think that what he had just said was ridiculous, impossible, and out of this world unless he was in the middle of a weird dream.

But he wasn't dreaming. He was, in fact, wide awake.

"Right." Yvann squeezed Szeina's hand once more. She squeezed it back, her stiff fingers from earlier slowly regaining the heat cycle in them.

"Reeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"

"Duck!" Amethyst shouted. 

Yvann had to close his eyes. The tremendous impact of the wind caused by large beating wings had him staggering a few steps backwards before he pulled Szeina with him to the ground.

Fighting off the urge to scratch his skin with the sudden contact of the blades from the grass, Yvann looked up, his eyes opening wide at what he was seeing.

The creature that screeched from earlier had huge wings large enough to fit five people like a blanket. Shaped like a bat, it flew above them, its beak opening, letting out another ear-deafening shriek.

Oddly enough, Amethyst and her companions weren't as fazed as the four of them were. They formed a circle around them, each facing outward. The three of them held hands, chanting some foreign words which Yvann had a hard time processing.

The wind only blew harder. Its whistling had Yvann reluctantly letting go of Szeina's hand and covering his ears.

He could almost imagine his eardrums bleeding with all the noise he was perceiving.

"Reeeeeeeeee!!!" the creature bellowed.

"Amethyst!" Feeliz's familiar voice rang loud and clear amidst the raging chaos. Yvann had to squint to make out the tribal woman's silhouette standing from afar.

Her expression remained. It was as if the creature was nothing and their lives were not in danger.

That was the message that Yvann saw upon catching sight of Feeliz.

How could she even keep her calm?

"Now!" Feeliz commanded. The assault of the strong winds came to a stop. A loud screeching noise echoed from the sky, the creature beating its wings as it flew away from their group.

From Yvann's vantage point, a good number of arrows were sticking out from its back. He could imagine the pain it might be feeling.

However, with its scales even from afar, Yvann assumed that it probably didn't even feel anything.

"Get up! Move!" Feeliz shouted, the urgency in her voice unmistakable.

"What was that?" Szeina voiced out, her curiosity leveling with Yvann.

"That was a Tronik. Now get your feet moving. They don't come alone. Expect a horde of it coming this way if that makes it alive back to their lair."

"Are there any more large and terrifying creatures you might want to educate us about?" Once again, the sarcasm was not absent in Szeina's voice.

The near-death experiences coming at them in rapid succession emptied her strength for restraint.

"The Tronik are ancient creatures and they are the only gigantic beast you want to be wary of. Everyone else is two legged. Does that satisfy you now?" Feeliz immediately snapped back.

"Thank you," Szeina managed to say, trudging behind Amethyst who didn't even look like she had broken a sweat trying to keep the bird creature at bay.

How they were doing it, Yvann's curiosity was piqued, but he hesitated asking about it. Seeing that Feeliz's response mimicked that of Szeina's, he knew that right now wasn't a good time.

He might end up fueling the spark and cause a fire to ensue between Szeina and Feeliz.

That would be a tragic phenomenon, and Yvann had no plans to stand as a referee between a catfight.

Without saying anything, Yvann followed Szeina. The twins did the same, sticking a little closer to them now.

"Are you still hanging in there?" Yvann asked, upon joining Szeina. He didn't even dare take her hand in his, afraid that it would infuriate her further.

"If you mean to ask if my sanity is still intact, yes. It's there. It's hanging by a very thin thread."

"At least we're alive." He answered, maintaining the whispered conversation with Szeina.

"Alive and dumb." Szeina scoffed. "Who does she think she is? It's like she's blaming us for not knowing who we are or what we are until we did. Under different circumstances, this would have been easier, right?" Szeina made a face. 

"Learning about what you are bothered you to the point that you couldn't even sleep."

Yvann could understand where she was coming from. He did lose sleep when he realized what had become of him.

"Well, we could either complain and still nothing changes or accept and live with the fact that mortality wasn't for us. At least in my case, there's no turning back."