Of Ice, Death & Monsters

I ran as fast as I could. For some reason, I didn’t feel as winded as usual, and I also ran faster than usual. My mind was in shambles, and the only thing I could think of was to survive as much as possible with the others.

‘We need to leave now…’

‘We have to make sure the others are safe…’

‘Where’s food and shelter…’

‘We need to get the other Keepers and have a status report…’

It was good that at some point, my whole body was wrapped up in vines, causing me to stop in my tracks before I accidentally ran deeper into the woods. I was too disorganized to think or act properly, so I was grateful when Katya grabbed me from the vines and lifted me onto her shoulder as she walked back into the cave with the others.

She sat me down beside her, staring right into my eyes, studying them closely as if she were trying to find a fault in them. “Peter… that was your Name, right? I didn’t quite catch it before we were interrupted.”

I nodded along. “Yeah, t-that’s me, Peter… Peter… Sai. That’s me.” It felt wrong to say that for some reason as if even I wasn’t convinced of who I was. But why? Why did it feel so weird? What was going on? What was happening to me?

Kariya peeked outside of the cave entrance, breathing a sigh of relief when she found nobody there. “Where’s Andrei?”

“He’s… He’s gone. The Descendants got to him.” Katya muttered silently as the rest of the Keepers looked down at the ground, solemnly grieving their friend.

“W-What? No, guys, I’m right here.” I stood up as shadowy tendrils began to wrap my clothes, or rather, they became my clothes, morphing all around my body as I felt an intense burning in my head, vivid memories came crashing down into me, and my abdomen seared in pain as if I was being stabbed.

Everyone else jumped in surprise. Katya raised her spear up to my throat as the rest cautiously stood side by side. What was wrong? Did I do something wrong? I… I didn’t know. It felt right to say, and even more right to do.

“No, that’s… What are you speaking? What spirit are you? Who do you owe your allegiance to?” Her voice was cold, yet there was a tone of curiosity, and perhaps, of hope as well, hidden within it.

I clutched my head as more and more flashes of light seemed to pound at my memories as if they were being interrogated by the police. “I-It’s to Epithet! N-No, it’s to me… it’s… It’s to the Keepers- my family?” A swirl of voices answered Katya as I stared back at her, pleading for anything to help.

“Help… Me…” I managed to croak out before I fell down to the cavern floor, staring up at the ceiling, paralyzed by the pure chaos within my mind that never seemed to stop.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything abominable about him. And he doesn’t seem to be hostile.” Leonid knelt down to inspect me, narrowing his eyes as he studied the shadows that came off my body.

“He has a Keeper’s shadow. But, that’s impossible; he needs to have a Name for it, but… none of us can give him a Name; he would have needed Yaga’s ritual for that.”

Immediately, Matthias’s ears perked up as if someone offered a cat a treat. “What? Yaga? Like Baba Yaga? You know where she is?”

Oh? Baba Yaga? Even I knew of her, the famous witch of Galfania who would mysteriously appear and disappear whenever she wanted, offering blessings or hexes to anyone across her path depending on her mood. Even with my failing mind, my memories could come rather quickly.

Kariya pulled out a dagger and pointed it towards Matthias’s neck. A sneer was painted on her face as she spoke. “We know of her, yes, she has aided us for a price each time. But how do you know of her? And you have to explain more of your relations with the Descendants as well, especially since it’s one that gave out a Name.”

Katya also drew her spear at the last statement, carefully pointing it at Matthias as she narrowed her eyes. “What’s going on here? Any one of you, explain yourselves, this is much bigger than any usual adventuring parties in over their heads. There are way too many of you, and it seems as if it was made under the orders of someone greater, that and now whatever that man is going through… You have to answer!”

Godwin tried to get between Matthias and the two ladies accosting him, but Rodion and Leonid raised their hands up, stopping him from standing up as they gave a look not to interfere.

Matthias gave a heavy sigh and looked down, twiddling with his fingers as his tail wagged. “I… am from Galfania, or, at least, I was born here. My earliest memories were wandering through the night through the Thorn Forests of Dungrad accompanied by the witch you spoke of, Baba Yaga. But? Somehow, I managed to be free, I managed to go beyond the veils of Galfania… for what purpose? I don’t know how, but I had this desire to come back, to find my purpose, my reason for being sent out.”

“So… you’re a Monsterkin. I see, Tch.” Katya groaned and rubbed her head as she lowered her spear by just a bit. There was a certain venom in her voice that was noticeable, even for someone like me.

Kariya however, did not lower her weapon. “Escaping Galfania... It sounds like a foolish ambition, but you are definitely from this place, seeing how that Descendant and you know each other. If you were one of them, you’d probably have handed us over.”

“Do you know what’s happening to him then?” Rodion pointed to me as I watched the ceiling above as if it were the stars in the night sky. I was trying my best to focus.

“I don’t really know. I’ve never seen anything like it before, well, aside from some multiple personality disorders, but this seems so much more… extreme.”

Matthias knelt beside me, staring into my eyes, holding my hand as he sighed in relief. “Peter… I can’t believe you made it. Where’s John?”

I stayed quiet for a bit, opening my mouth to confess my sin, but… it weighed on me. It weighed on me so much, I couldn’t get the words out. Even if I thought he’d deserve it, I couldn’t say it aloud.

But, of course, I wouldn’t lie. Those flames must have gotten to him, too. Maybe he just chose to become like a rabbit, or maybe he’s out there, somewhere, hunting me down.

“I… I don’t know. Maybe he chose to reincarnate or something.”

“Oh? Reincarnate? He can do that?” Matthias looked around, confused, as Godwin lit up and asked. “Were you killed by the fire here?”

Matthias shook his head. “The fae caught and flew me to the shore.”

“Ah, that explains it. You see, the rest of us all succumbed to the flames and thus were reintroduced into Galfania. We were given the choice to either continue living or reincarnate. It makes sense that not everyone chooses to live, especially after what just happened.”

Carey nodded, hugging her knees as she looked straight up at Matthias, and she shook ever so slightly. “I thought we wouldn’t escape, but if you did, then there’s a chance, right? Can we be free? W-we can get back home?”

There was hope in her voice and a pleading look in her eyes. I saw how Matthias froze up like a deer in headlights, trying to think of a way to answer that.

“I-I- well, it’s possible? I think, I don’t know as I said before, but if it could happen once, then maybe it could happen again…” Matthias turned to Carey with a hopeful smile. This was the best he could do after all, he brought them all here into this cold Abyss, might as well give them any ounce of hope possible.

Leonid looked at me this time, waving his hand at my face. “What I want to know now is what’s this guy’s deal? He called himself Andrei earlier, and he has our shadows… but if Andrei’s dead, then… maybe it’s his spirit? Like it went into him?”

Carey perked up as she recalled something from earlier. “That thing, he uh did the Name that Robert had against the Bes. Yeah! I saw him. Did you have that Name before?”

I shook my head. “N-no… I didn’t even know why I did that, it just felt so… natural.”

Godwin helped me back onto my feet with a growing grin on his face. “Oh, Peter, you wonderful specimen. Can you show us what you did again?” His eyes had this insatiable curiosity that unnerved me a little bit, but well, anything to help, I guessed.

I took a deep breath, channeling the feeling when I was with that Bes, that fear, that anguish, that pain. All at once, I felt as if I was being gored and impaled by a spear while my sides were eaten. It was then that I stomped the ground and raised my hand upwards, instantly creating an earthen wall with the same strange spirits on the ground as Robert.

Carey pointed at them and the spirits, panting in excitement. “See! That’s like Robert’s! Maybe… maybe somehow you can channel their powers?”

I shrugged, not knowing any answer at all to give. “I-I don’t even understand what’s happening, it’s all becoming a blur to me. I’ve never read anything like this before at all, no theory, no practical application…”

I stared at everyone as if I was trying to see if any of them had an answer, but they were all as clueless as I was.

“…Do you at least remember how you died?” Katya asked as she narrowed her eyes at me.

“Well, of course, we all burned-“

She shook her head. “No. Not that you died earlier. That Bes, it ate your sides. No ordinary person would have lived, and I watched as your eyes turned dull and the life left your body. Do you remember that?”

Flashes of pain seared into my body as I doubled over once more. “Y-yes… I… I remember that. I… but I’m alive here, I’m alive somehow. I-I don’t know, okay. I don’t know how I’m doing this, or how I’m doing this. I just…”

I sat down and buried my hands in my face. “I just want to find out the same as the rest of you…”

Godwin slid into the conversation, putting the focus on him instead. “And thus, we need to get to the bottom of these mysteries as soon as possible. Do any of you have a more permanent base?”

Rodion shook his head as Kariya snorted as if she were laughing. “No. We lost ours to the Descendants a while back. Blew it up into flames, so now we’re using temporary hideouts we set up and travel every so often.”

“Ah… I see…” An awkward silence filled the air. We had nowhere to go, no place to truly start our investigation or even our path to freedom. Nowhere to begin aside from…

“Baba Yaga… we can head to Baba Yaga.” Matthias stood up as he spoke aloud, setting all eyes on him, even my own.

"If she could help me... She can help all of us."

“You don’t find Baba Yaga, she finds you. There’s no way we could contact her; we only ever got to her by pure chance and luck.” Katya waved her hand at such an idea, but Matthias shook his head in defiance.

“No way that any of you could find her. But I think I could. I know where she usually sets her house. I knew her personally, too, better than any of you. If someone could go lead us all to her… It’s me.”

The Keepers stared at him, and the distrust was obvious, and I could understand it. There was a small part of him that distrusted him, too. Someone affiliated with the Descendants was a bad sign, but was that the spirit of Andrei thinking that, or was that my own thoughts?

I shook my head. We had no other options; it was this or die out in the wilderness of Galfania, and I would rather have even the smallest semblance of hope to get out of here.

Carey stood up shakily. “I trust Matthias, I think… I think we can really make it, as long as we work together. Maybe she can bless us, too. I heard some stories of her giving out gifts. If we appease her, maybe she will do the same to us, too!”

She looked around with a plastered smile as Godwin did the same, nodding along while the Keepers simply sighed.

Katya looked outside the cave, taking a deep breath. It was then that I felt something strange. It was a mix of fear, worry, and most of all, hope. It took hold of my heart as I wondered if we were going to make it out of here alive.

“Let’s get started then.”

“Let’s get started then.”