Of Ice, Death & Monsters

Day 1

The first day was spent traversing the cave system under the guidance of Koschei. They spent many hours in the carved cavern, so much so that they began to make small talk.

Jane started it as she traced her hand across the wall, illuminated by a strange glowing moss. Questions started to arise as she spoke out. “So did you guys carve this place out or was it always here?”

“Both can be correct at once. There is a large cave system underneath the land. However, we have taken it upon ourselves to carve parts of it to be more suitable for us.”

“Reminds me of Epithet’s secret tunnel system underground near the sewers.” Samantha muttered loud enough for Charlie to turn in surprise.

“Wait, how do you know that?”

Samantha gave a half-hearted shrug and grin. “We managed to use it once or twice. Well, Franklin used it, right before-“

“He got caught, yeah.” A solemn silence fell over them all before Jane tried to pick up the pieces.

The questions she had from before came back, and now that the shock was done, she had to ask. ”Since we’re headed to the afterlife. What exactly is it like there? Is it fire and brimstone? Clouds in the sky? A field with a lot of reeds?”

“Maybe… A meadow that stretches out endlessly to all ends?” Charlie suggested wistfully as she stared at a wall. That's what she would want after all, or rather, what she saw when she died.

“Heh? Do you want a barn in that meadow where you can watch dogs play in the garden while smelling the flowers?” Jane teased as she leaned on her head with a little grin.

Charlie looked away with a small blush across her face as she muttered a faint “Yes” only Jane could hear, and only Jane could appreciate.

“Geez, you didn’t waste any time, didn’t you, Jay?”

“We’re in this shithole, as you said. I might as well make the most out of it, no? I am freedom’s chosen, the Harbinger's flame!” Jane twirled into the open, grinning ear to ear as she raised her hands up into the air, and pillars of fire came out of her palms like jets.

Koschei smiled and clapped his hands in approval. “Wonderful, absolutely, and in fact, Charlie shall stand as the most correct. It is, in most parts, an outstretched meadow. I believe she and Samantha have encountered it already.”

“Oh". Muttered out Samantha as she nodded along. "That’s where the fox thing came from. Okay, that makes sense, we were all burnt alive, tracks that we just end up in the afterlife of all places after that mess.”

“Sounds peaceful. I was sent to a place that was literally just fire all around me.”

“The Harbingers Realm, ah, how I wish it would grace me one day, but perhaps that is not the life that shall befall me, but I shall still be grateful that I can help those touched by it.”

The group made it to another closed-off entrance, similar to the one that connected to the base of the Descendants. Once more, Koschei drew the strange tree mark upon the boulder, causing it to slide away to reveal a barren tundra similar to that of an abandoned worksite illuminated by faint sunlight.

Charlie was the first to get into high gear, noticing the strange stone and wood ruins preserved by the ice, littered around the ground like those of a battlefield. “This used to be a settlement of some kind.”

Jane scrunched her eyes and looked around, confused. “You can tell?”

“She would be right. A settlement, thousands of years old, lost to the ravages of the wild. Once it was a great village, but now, the only thing that lives within it are the memories of those long forgotten.”

Samantha looked on in awe while Jane began to walk towards the ruins, rubbing her hands across its frozen surface as if she were reminiscing. “You know, if you come with us back to Phorash, you would make a killer narrator.”

Jane grinned at the thought. “You know, she’s right. You would make a killer narrator in a trailer.” She walked over to one of the few plants growing by the faint patch of sunlight. It had bell-like purple flowers and bore berries of the same color.

“Is this it?” She called out to the rest as she poked at it gingerly.

“Ah! Wonderful, yes, we would need the berries and the flowers themselves, not the whole plant, mind you. So this shall take quite a day’s work.”

Charlie crouches down, looking at the plan,t then at the sun. “We should focus on where the sunlight hits, so we don’t go wandering aimlessly. We need to at least stay within a few paces of each other as well.”

“Already on the move with the orders? Damn, you move fast.” Samantha grinned to herself as she started to do just as Charlie said, collecting the berries and flowers found near the ruin site.

“However, what we most need to watch out for are the-“

The branches moved, and the twigs creaked. Leaves began to rustle as a quiet air echoed throughout the land.

“Monsters.” He muttered last as a horde of ghouls began to move in from the north, shambling their way towards the group.

Jane sighed and walked towards the horde, flame readied in her palm as she shot a massive fireball towards them. It exploded with the force of a missile, completely engulfing the ghouls in flames that disintegrated them. “You guys collect, I’ll hold off every monster that comes our way.”

“Are you sure about this?” Charlie unholstered her pistol and was about to take aim, but Jane simply shook her head. “It’s fine, I have it from here. You all don’t worry your pretty little heads. I’ll make sure no harm comes upon a single hair of you all!”

She posed once more in the sunlight as Koschei clapped merrily with a grin upon his face. “How wonderful and valiant. Stride forth, oh Chosen Harbinger!”

Charlie winced a bit as she saw Jane’s hair flash crimson red… And her eyes, her eyes were blazing, like an inferno that was only growing. She could only stop and stare, wondering ever so slightly why she felt so scared.

“Heh? Like what you see?” Samantha poked at Charlie’s cheek, snapping her out of her stupor.

“... Let’s just make sure not to waste what she gave us.”

“On it!”

Day 2

After heading back to the cave, getting some rest, and even hanging out with the other survivors and playing a few games with them as some actually had a deck of playing cards and dice on their persons, they went to rest for the next day.

It started out the same, with Jane striding ahead with Koschei, a much more enthusiastic beat to each of her steps as she swayed her head side to side.

“Is it just me…” Charlie began as she got closer to Jane. “Or, is your hair a lot redder than usual?” She studied Jane closely, and to her and Samantha’s surprise, the tips of her hair had taken on a much more reddish-orange hue.

“Aww, thanks for noticing.” Jane pulled in Charlie to her side. “Your hair is…Normal as always- is there like, any shampoo or soap here actually? We’ve been here for a few days, we probably stink a lot if you think about it.”

Samantha leaned in to sniff herself. “Huh, I don’t really smell any different. Maybe because it’s so cold that it freezes our sweat.”

“Well, if you all wish to bathe, we are headed towards a river, but I suggest you steer clear of the deep ends. I’m sure you all know of the terrors that lie within.”

Jane sneered at that. “Ugh, those weird demon deer guys? Yeah, but they’ll be easy work for us.”

“Well, then there’s also the Rusalka, who are more human-looking and also drown you. Then there are the Vodnik, sages of the rivers who test those that come near it, and if they fail, drown them, then-”

Samantha raised her hand up in disbelief. “Okay, how many monsters do you have here that just drown people. Because it sounds like there’s a lot.”

Koschei then began to silently count it out on his fingers before Samantha lowered his hands. “I-I t-that was rhetorical…”

“It sounds like you need someone to really clean your water system, luckily for me. I know how to be a plumber.” Jane then grabbed sunglasses from her pocket and put them on her face, grinning ear to ear as Charlie facepalmed.

“But, let’s be serious here, why are there so many monsters that drown you? What’s up with that?” Jane carefully removed the sunglasses after her moment.

“Water gives life, yet it also takes it away. When you die, your soul falls into Nawia like drops in the rain, adding first to the river of souls that surround it before you can ever pass into the meadow. Being drowned, it’s not simply an action of death, it is the transfer into the next world.”

Koschei smiled, and even Jane was a little unnerved by how enthusiastic he sounded as he opened up the boulder that revealed itself to be an entrance way within yet another cave that acted as a river mouth where water flowed from the outside.

“Now is the time to be careful, although other monsters usually never engage with those who hide beneath the waves, lest they be drowned too, and sent to the other side.” He walked ahead, as he and the other noted the many movements in the water and, unfortunately, the bodies that floated upwards, bloated and waterlogged.

Charlie looked away immediately as Samantha tried her best to stare only at the path Koschei walked and not at the corpses rising from their own gases.

But Jane was different. All she could do was watch as she gritted her teeth in fury. Her eyes flashed crimson red as her hair started to shimmer. Charlie reached out to her, holding Jane’s hand. “Are you okay?”

“No… I’m not. I want to make sure that these bastards pay. I want to make sure that they don’t hurt anyone anymore.” Jane’s palm shimmered with fire, but it crackled like lightning.

“You’re talking about the monsters… Right?”

“Yeah, I am. But it goes the same for every monster out there. No matter who or what. You guys know the drill, I’ll handle the monsters, you go and deal with the flowers.” She patted Charlie on the head as she gave her a warm smile.

“Alright then… Stay safe.”

“Hah, I’ll be beside you, relax~” She hummed to herself before walking towards the riverbanks, eyes blazing red as she began her onslaught, diving into the waters below, flames bursting from her palms akin to a jet engine as she raced towards the nearest shadowy figure she could see.

The first she found was the large group of those same demonic-looking monsters that were already swimming towards the others. But they would never make it to them in time as Jane grabbed one of them by the back of their necks, instantly setting them alight in water while crushing their throats.

She then raised her hands up, blasting the rest of them with roaring flames that blew them out of the waters and into the land, already charred and cooked like burnt meat. But this wasn't enough. There were so many of them, swimming towards her and her friends. How many have they drowned? How many have they killed? The thought sickened her as she imagined those she failed to protect. She imagined Mikey and countless others; she was too powerless to stop.

Well, no more.

Jane raised her hand and, without a second to lose, unleashed a massive beam of flames that scorched the river, evaporating the water, the corpses, and the monsters upon impact for several hundred feet.

Samantha whistled as she collected more chrysanthemums into a basket. “Woah. It looks like she’s getting stronger each day.”

Koschei laughed as he began to mold the flowers into laurel crowns. “Wonderful, is it not? Truly a blessing upon us all! Ah, how wonderful it all must be!”

“Yeah…” Charlie mumbled to herself. “How… Wonderful.”

She was happy for Jane, truly. For the longest time, she had never seen her smile so much. It was like joy permeated every step in her wake. Yet, she could feel something was wrong, something changing. There was nothing she could tell for sure… But, it was something off.

Koschei was a suspect in this for sure, but Charlie couldn’t really tell. Her mind was all over the place, but the one thing she knew for certain was that she wanted to keep Jane safe at all costs. But… She was the one being protected here.

Charlie clutched her dog tags, rubbing on their engravings as if they were for good luck. Then, she went on her way to collect more flowers, keeping an eye on Jane’s fury that drew closer to them.