1
Tomaas pushed forward through the snow, locked in a sense
of morbid fascination. He and his brother, drawn to trespass enemy clan land by
rumours of unusually large prey, had separated to avoid detection from the
increased patrol. Their rendezvous point held little more than blood and
struggle in his brother's absence, as well as huge bear-sized paw prints
stamped into the snow.
Higher
he followed, progressively deeper into the heart of the mountain. A steady
trail of blood made the work fairly easily going, even as the beast scaled
ledges windborne directly into the stone. Sheathing his blade to free his hands
for climbing it occurred to him that he'd never found his brother's own. He
tried to relive the trail in his mind's eye, but, as a biting wind shrunk him
into a huddled mass against the rock face, surviving the climb pushed its way
to the forefront of his thoughts.
Time
passed without conscious consideration, and when his attention was reined in by
the sound of running water up ahead he looked around and realised the night had
descended on him like a cloak. He hadn't noticed how deathly cold it had become,
his muscles contracting and pulling him into a ball on the floor.
The
water flow struck him as a mockery, that in the biting cold of the night it did
not freeze of a sudden as he seemed fated. It churned up a momentum in him to
investigate, and he progressively shuddered himself into full motion towards
potential salvation, a sudden exchange of strangled howls ringing across the
night pointedly reminding him how the mountain earned its name.
2
He hauled himself over a ledge, noticing a strange violet
glow emanating from a crack in the rock face up ahead. The intensity increased
while he crossed the unusually bare plaza, the sound of running water getting
louder until, with a fleeting glance either side, he ducked into the mouth of
the cavern.
Melt water. It was to him a
thing of wonder. Bathed in its pinkish light, the water, he could see, was
clear. It ran down from an inlet of frozen water that was sunken into a crack
in the rock like a fissure, pooling in the sunken rock floor.
His
brother lay broken at the water's edge.
'Jared?'
He
stirred at the call of his name and Tomaas rushed over to him, heedless of the
skeletal corpses of clansmen littered about the cave's entrance. He raised him
under an arm, refusing to accept Jared's fleeting grip on mortality, his gaze
drawn instead to the source of the pink light.
A network of stalagmite crystal sprouted from
the base of the pool. The rock was black as night, the glow pulsating from
alternating cracks in its surface and splits at the edges as the ore broke into
many irregular facets, as if something inside was searching for a point of
escape.
3
A shadow from the cave's entrance stole Tomaas'
attention. He turned around and his eyes widened in horror as he realised just
how terribly wrong he'd been. That's no
bear. The wolf stood at least as tall as he with its back arced down,
sniffing the ground, the rest of its monstrous body terribly in proportion.
The
drop of his jaw must have been audible. The beast's eyes flicked up, its face
bathed in that horrible glow that pooled in and illuminated a dreadful glare.
It broke into a vicious snarl.
He sagged
under his brother's weight and the wolf reacted, rearing its head high and
unleashing a howl that seemed to shake the very mountain or at least his
foothold in it.
As
he stood there, his body terror frozen, he could see a dark swathe of blood had
run down the creature's chest, and there, caught by the pinkish light, the hilt
of his brother's missing blade protruded at the top of the stain, just shy of
the collarbone.
His
brother squirmed on his arm, and the
howl descended into a low growl.
'...maas!
Run!'
He
couldn't even if he'd wanted to. Jared weakly tried to push him away but the
beast was on them in an instant, Jared taking the brunt of the charge which
toppled all three of them into the pool.
Tomaas
broke the surface with a stunned serenity, quickly replaced by guileless fear,
thrashing uncontrollably as the ice water filled and burned his every orifice
as it fought to claim him indefinitely.
A
haze of murky red clouded his vision when he eventually forced his eyes open,
and he drove himself forward towards the water's edge, desperately resisting the
promise of sweet release in letting go.
He
dragged himself out of the pool, spluttering violently and vaguely aware of the
sound of splashing water before turning his head at the last instant to see a terrifying
silhouette.
A
brief wash of pain, followed by an unnerving period of weightlessness concluded
with him crunching against the rock face where the wolf had flicked him using
its muscular neck, and suddenly pain was all he knew.
A
crumpled, gasping heap, he tried desperately to gain his feet but found his
unresponsive body terribly wanting. The wolf circled round to a point where Tomaas
had fresh air behind him and uncoiled itself for the killing blow.
His
legs useless, Tomaas tried instead to twist his way clear using a turn of his
shoulders, but his reaction was late and far too low to generate the full body
turn he was intending.
The
wolf had leapt high, and Tomaas' cupped hand found an unexpected point of
purchase. The shock forced him to clench his hand into a fist around his
brother's pommel and with a sickening wrench of his shoulder Tomaas passed out
as the night erupted in a thundering deathly wail around him.
4
He awoke in agony a few moments later, his head swimming
as though back underwater, terrified above all else of suffocating under the
huge hairy limb that covered his face. Tomaas fought with his one good arm to
clear the thing from blocking his mouth, until eventually he broke free,
spitting out wads of fur and blood between bouts of his own screaming.
The
beast, at least, was dead. A pile of offal slowly spilled out of the gash he'd
torn it from neck to navel, pooling slickly around his head and shoulders.
His
brother's blade lay close by. He took it in hand and cast a mournful glance
towards the pool. No bubbles rose to the surface, and he placed a tender kiss
on the pommel of the blade before engaging in silent prayer.
A
fierce and piercing wind funnelled through the mouth of the cave to cut through
the remaining parts of his body he could
feel like a knife, a sickening reminder that despite it all, lady chill hadn't
given up her quarry so easily. The blood pouring from the wolf was warm, at
least until exposed to her whispers, and his desperate mind formed a plan.
His
strength depleting, Tomaas hauled himself in front of the wolf's chest. Working
quickly with haggard breath and wild eyes, by violet light he set to his
gruesome task; ripping and tearing out great handfuls of the beast's insides,
bathing in the warm blood that spattered him.
His
head swimming in delirium, he sidled alongside the beast, and with a big sigh
of breath lifted one of his useless legs and forced it into the opening, using
the lack of feeling to push it anywhere it'd fit in a horribly twisted and
contorted bundle.
The
second leg proved harder. Something was blocking his path and he screamed out
in desperate futility until something dislodged and he slipped in further, the
displaced matter spurting out and filling his open mouth until he choked it out
with some added inside matter of his own.
He
had to contort forwards to slip beneath the beast's great ribcage but finally
set to rest with head laying roughly where the host's heart had been. He'd
grabbed the blade to use as a prop to keep the flap partly open, but exhaustion
claimed him before he could fully set it, and the world went black.
5
Something was touching his face. Gripped tightly in his
heightened fever dreams he swatted it away. It came on stronger, and he opened
his eyes to find he'd pulled his nightmares through with him.
He
recoiled in horror, backing up onto his haunches and kicking out at his
grinning brother whom reached out for him hungrily. Hideously bloated from a
generous amount of time spent underwater, Jared's corpse dragged itself across
the floor in mock horror of his own plight, and suddenly Tomaas realised he was
standing.
He
scanned the cave but the beast was gone, a dark red stain the only indication
it had ever existed. A groan from the restless cadaver interrupted his
thoughts, demanding his attention.
Tomaas
recovered Jared's blade, raising it over his head, but hesitated as he searched
the creature's eyes. Dull, and with the white now stained a familiar shade of
pink, he sunk the blade deep through the brain and left it there, ending the
struggle. His brother, like the wolf, had gone.
Birdsong
whistled through the cavern's entrance, and he was amazed to pick up the
fleeting scent of an animal on the wind that carried it. The once becalming
splash of the waterfall now drummed a coarser rhythm, and he wandered over to
answer its call, pondering on the pinkish tint that besmirched the eyes of his
reflection, caught between the ripples.
Whatever
strange things were happening here, he knew had something to do with that
unusual crystal, but for now hunger was becoming his main concern. Garbing
himself from a mix of the other corpses, he stepped out of the cave into winter
sun in search of food.
6
A voice.
The
sound interrupted his search and a grim determination stole over him as he
pushed his way back into the undergrowth in pursuit of the sound, snow
buffeting his face as he passed between thickets and patches of open ground.
More and more voices became distinguishable as men called to each other to
avoid losing each other as the snow fell in thicker clumps, but instead of
thinking to avoid the wandering patrol, obvious by the intermittent sound of
wood lightly tapping thin sheets of metal armour, Tomaas found himself speeding
up, breaking into an anticipatory canter for his encounter with the home clan.
Sprinting,
Tomaas leaped free of a thicket of bush towards the man at the back of the
pack, as he burst into beast, the ripping and stretching sensation that wracked
his entire body causing his midair scream to transform as he did, landing on
him as something else entirely.
He
loomed over the broken man with a huge clawed paw caving the man's chest as he
adjusted to his new weight, fascinated by the gurgling man's face, as a
panicked cry sounded from the man in front. More shrill cries of 'wolf' and 'maneater'
sounded as half the company tried to form up as the other tried to flee.
Curiously
encouraged, he bit down deep into the throat of the man and was pleasantly
surprised by the tangy taste as he tore the chunk free and swallowed it down.
As half a mind bound free and set to painting the snow red with the rest of the
company, the other thought wistfully on his brother's rumours.
Prey
hadn't become larger, it had changed.
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