Of Ice, Death & Monsters

We all went deep into the cave to rest, away from the light of the moon. The deeper the better, since it was away from any monsters lurking in the forest. For some reason, they didn’t venture that deep into caves, even to rest.

Katya, Kariya, Leonid, and Rodion all stayed closer to the opening while Carey, Matthias, Godwin, and I all were deeper inside. We all knew what needed to be done, but it was a hard pill to swallow that we’d have to stay in a cave.

Luckily, the Keepers had prepared woven blankets in the cave for themselves and any survivors, but I didn’t really need them that much; for some reason, the shadows stitched onto my body were keeping me quite warm.

I looked around, sighing internally as Godwin seemed to be already fast asleep, Carey was in the corner of the cave, alone, and Matthias, who seemed the most ragged, curled up at the far side of the cave wall, closing his eyes, yet I could tell, he didn't seem to be sleeping properly.

It was our time to rest, to get some shut-eye so that we could move on to the next day. But I couldn't sleep well because of the dreams that came to me. Or perhaps, it's best to call them nightmares.

I woke up in the same field of grass I did when I first died. However, this time, I was sitting by a round tea table. In front of me was fried chicken and a glass of tea. It had been quite a while since I had anything like that at all, but there were just a few problems.

The chicken in question was literally still on fire, burning right in front of me. I could tell that it was a regular fried chicken by the silhouette, but a small crimson-red feather fell from the flames and onto my lap, making me doubt what was in front of me.

Meanwhile, the iced tea was frozen solid. When I reached out to it, I felt a surge of cold energy that nearly broke off my hand, and I yelled in frustration.

I stood up and blew on my hand, groaning in pain, before I stared down the frozen iced tea, and I made my hand into a claw shape, summoning that strange fox from before to pick up and throw away the tea.

“Hey~ that’s not very nice~ someone went through all the trouble of making that for you.” The fox spun around the table, laughing as my head began to ring in pain.

“Tch, T-they didn’t prepare it that well then! And who are you?! What are you? You’re the one who brought me back, right? It was you!” I pointed at the fox, who gave a small head tilt.

“I told you before, it wasn’t really me. I gave you the choice, however, and you chose to come back here. How was it? Are you enjoying your trip so far? Do you have any regrets?” It smiled like it wanted me to say yes.

“I-I… I don’t know, it’s too early to tell-“

Everything went dark, and now I was sitting at the table again, but for some reason, to the right of my original seat.

I felt drained and tired, my mouth sore, and my throat… oh, my throat. I clutched it, noticing how bruised it was as if I had just been strangled. “…I hope I made the right decision. I hope… I hope I can help him.”

There was a pain in my voice, not just from my injuries, but as if I was trying to make amends for something, or judging from what I was saying: someone.

The fox stared at me, and I felt as if it was grinning ear to ear. “You are. You’re helping him in more ways than you can imagine. Just continue what you were doing and all will go well.”

I gave a pained smile to the fox before I looked at my original seat. I tried to say something, but the words got caught in my damaged throat before suddenly… everything went black.

Once more, I awaken, and once more, I find myself one seat to the right of where I was before. I clutched at my abdomen, groaning in pain a little, it was in pain as if I were being gored through by some kind of rigid blade. “I… I don’t know if I made the right call. I’m not dumb enough to think there’s a redo button, but I just hope we can find a way out of this place… and that I can see my family again.”

The fox walked up to me, patting me on the head as if to console me. “That depends on how much you are able to accomplish. How far can you go and build? Your family is waiting for you. Make sure you can see them again, alright?”

I gave a faint smile before nearly vomiting up blood, and once more, everything turned black, and once again, I awoke in the next seat, somewhat used to whatever strange debacle was going on. I opened my mouth to speak, but I found my lips charred and my face aching in carbonized flesh.

There was yet another stabbing pain in my gut, but it was less pronounced this time. “Ugh, I guess, I just wish that the rest of them make it out. If there’s any chance of escape, I would want them to have it. I want them to be happy after all.”

I stared at my hand, blood leaked from my pores instead of sweat, as I took a deep breath and stared at the fox who was lying down this time in front of me. “Now that would depend on how well you can help the other Keepers and how far they’ll go in trusting you. You’ll need to be very convincing for the likes of them.”

“Huh? Why would I need to be-” And before I knew it, everything went black again, but this time, I awoke at the first seat I was in when I came here. I looked to my right and I saw three other shadowy figures had taken their place. I couldn’t make out who they were, nor what they were, but it felt like while I stared at them, they stared back at me.

“What is going on here? What was that? I didn’t even know what I was saying- what I was doing. Did you do something to me? Please- I-I need answers!” I looked at my hands, then at my stomach. I grabbed my mouth- my throat. There were no injuries to me, but every time I touched them, there was that same pain that I felt before.

Every time I tried to think, my mind ached, as if dozens of voices were speaking out all at once. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what I could do. I couldn’t even think straight, and whenever I could, it would be like it was another mind thinking for me. And whenever I could speak, it was like another mouth was speaking for me.

The fox, however, simply watched, its eyes narrowing as it tilted its head. “I didn’t do anything to you. This was all your doing.” It walked up to me, gently placing its paw on my cheek.

“Take a deep breath and focus, one thought at a time. You always were an overthinker, Peter. It’s one of your strong suits, but it’s also what’s bringing you closer to madness. You wanted to be special, didn’t you? You wanted the world to acknowledge you, and now it has been granted to you.”

I looked up at the fox, my eyes pleading with pain and fear. “I-I didn’t want it like this… I don’t even know what you’re talking about, but I just wanted to be happy, I just wanted the life that was promised to me… that I worked hard for… that I deserved.”

I clenched my fists and took a deep breath. I focused on that thought alone. I focused on the life I deserved, that I wanted, that was taken away. I focused on what was promised to me and what I was due.

Then, for a moment, everything went nearly silent. The voices were pushed back into my head as I could finally think straight once more.

“They’re… They’re all overlaying. The voices. They’re from those that died around me… but why, what exactly was going on?” I thought aloud and stared at the fox, who simply rolled across the table like it was playing around.

“The Magick of Galfania is at play, so that has something to do with it. But, it’s also something special with me… You said it was my fault I’m like this, right?”

The fox nodded to my question. “Correct, this is the path your decisions have paved you towards.”

“I see… if I had to guess, judging by all of the times I had to use Magick, that it’s via spirits. Each time we activate a Name, we control a spirit to do our bidding, like moving rocks or summoning walls and vines, right?”

“Right on the box~ good boy, do you want a reward for that?”

“…Is…is there an actual reward for that?” I asked as earnestly as I possibly could.

“Kufufu~ did you actually believe me? Aww, that’s so cute, no, but I guess you can call me confirming your answers as a reward, and me even being here a reward.”

I thought to myself, why would that be a reward? Was her presence something special? Clearly, at least to her, it was. What did I do to incur this specialty? The only thing I have over the others right now is whatever this strange connection I had to the dead.

And of course, the fact that I came back to life, they were obviously connected, but how…

I stared at the fox, poking its cheek as it made a cute noise, yet gave no answer. In frustration, I pushed it onto its back, causing it to yelp before I rubbed its belly. I never had a dog before, or a cat, or any pet for that matter, but I saw enough videos online to know how absolutely cute it was to do this to a fox.

And even though it was probably some ancient forest spirit of unknown origin and power, it was still enjoying itself while I was rubbing its belly, laughing as if I had told it a bad joke. “Come on, tell me more. I need to know what I’m getting into.”

It gave me a toothy grin before gently biting my hand. “You have to figure it out by yourself, but so far, you’ve shown you’re quite capable of that already. I’m sure in no time you’ll figure it out.” The fox then let go of my hand.

“That’s not an answer, you little-“

“It’s time to wake up. We have to go now.”

Instantly, I opened my eyes and found Katya staring straight at me while she stood up, already ready to go, looking like she hadn’t slept at all, yet still, she had that fierce and piercing look in her eyes. I looked around and found the rest of the gang also starting to awaken from their nightly rests, Matthias looking the worst out of us all, even more so with me, with his messed-up hair and shivering ears and tail.

“We move at the sun’s peek; every one of you, prepare yourselves.”