Of Ice, Death & Monsters

Katya raised her spear, the winter wind unfurling all around her and the other Keepers as they brought out their own blades in unison.

The shadowy figure began to take a few steps toward the group before… It spoke?

“The taint of the Caretaker… I smell it upon you all, weakened, repulsive.” Its voice was gravelly, and each word was like a snarl as it growled.

He took another step closer and revealed himself: A tall humanoid wolf with one eye in the middle of his forehead. He wore blackened armor and wielded an axe in his right hand and a shield in his left.

“If you know of our blessings, then you know you must stay away from us or incur the wrath of Life itself… Psoglav.” Katya twirled her spear, brandishing it in a way to try and threaten the monster as it laughed.

“Your blessing has weakened. I know that for sure, I can smell its fading presence. Life has no hold over this world any longer. Only death comes for us all…”

At that, the other Keepers looked down, almost visibly unnerved, as if they knew what he was talking about. Carey leaned in to ask Kariya. “Blessing has weakened? What do they mean?”

“We were blessed to protect these lands once… But that time… That time is long gone.” Her voice was shaking as she sighed and raised her sword up.

“But, there’s something else I can smell.” The beast spoke as he lifted his nose in the air. hungrily growling.

“A man cursed by Change itself… If we could take our paws on them. Then, we could be blessed with powers beyond any treasure we can have.” He raised his strange amalgamation of a paw and hand towards Katya.

“Come now. Hand him over to us, and we shall allow safe passage through this mountain pass. Otherwise…” Suddenly, dark shadows grew in the distance as it seemed the party would be surrounded if they continued up north.

“You will fall here, much like the others that have come this far.”

“The others?” Katya looked around, trying to see if there were any openings, small caves, or even another route that wasn’t blocked off.

“A few Keepers came here, and so did some Descendants. They offered no value, so we took their bodies as payment for entrance.” It laughed like a snarling hyena as it groaned ever so lightly.

“We shall take him by force if you don’t comply, but we have the dignity to offer this chance.”

Carey turned to Katya before staring at Peter in her arms. “Maybe, we should give him to them-”

“No. We are not sacrificing him to appease hoarders. He is under our protection; it is our duty to see to his safety.”

“Do we, though?” Leonid muttered as he faced Katya. “He’s a danger to us; we saw what he could do. Are we sure we can survive another day with him?”

“We survived with him for nearly a whole moon cycle. I’m sure we can-”

“Yes, but each day he got more and more unstable.” Kariya spoke out, her voice shaking as she turned to Katya. “You saw how it was. He started talking like Andrei and acting as him… It was creepy, like they were taking over him, and if he has a spirit of a monster inside of him too… and he did to us what he did to Matthias, isn’t it better to at least… Give us a chance?”

She was right. It was better to give Peter up. He tried his best to stay sane, but even she started to see the cracks. Everyone did, we didn’t want to say anything, but it scared them, like he was some kind of ghoul that could speak out.

“We… Need to try and save everyone.” Kariya’s voice spoke out as she stared at Matthias.

“Matthias is in critical condition. He can’t survive any longer out here. Maybe… Maybe this is the world giving us a chance, showing us what needs to be done in order to have the rest of us survive out here.”

She gripped her hands and sighed. “I don’t like it at all, but he’s become far too dangerous, and we need to try our best to find out what we can do next. But, you’re our captain, it’s your choice.”

“I want to keep him with us. He’s been fun…” Rodion spoke with an air of melancholic fondness.

“But, every time he speaks like Andrei, I’d rather not look at his face.”

Katya side-eyed Godwin, the only one who hadn’t been vocal in this matter at all. “You… As another survivor, what do you say to your volunteer? What is it that you wish for us to do to him?”

Her voice was pleading, as if she wanted another answer compared to all the others that were being spoken out.

“I believe I don’t know what to say, Ms. I cannot fathom the weight of such a choice to be made, but if my opinion can be of any worth, and if they can ever bring you to an answer that can help us all… I believe that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

Katya’s heart sank. What was there to do? What could she do? Everyone was telling her to give him up, that this was the way to get them all to safety.

She stared at Peter’s body, waiting as if he were going to answer her own query.

“Never give up… Never… give in.” Peter’s mouth moved as he unmistakably spoke in Andrei’s voice, as if he were talking to her.

Yes, that was right. She was a Keeper, born to defend the land and people against monsters. And up ahead of her, there were monsters trying to get her to give up on her people. To compromise on that would be a complete betrayal of who she was.

“I see.” Katya took a deep breath and stared at the Psoglav. “Here is my answer, as the Captain of the Keepers. I refuse your offer; instead, I shall give you my own.”

“Perish. All of you.”

“So you have chosen... Death.” The Psoglav growled with a grin on its face. He raised his arm up, howling into the air.

Carey sighed and looked away. Kariya bit her lower lip and drew her sword. Leonid said nothing but took a deep breath as he unsheathed his weapon. Rodion twirled his blade, chuckling for bit. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Captain…”

Godwin… Grinned, laughing to himself as he gripped the head of his staff. “It looks like we couldn’t avoid fights forever, give both Matthias and Peter here, Carey and I shall protect them while you all fight them off.”

“Wait, we are?” Carey asked, looking at Godwin, who gave her a smile. “Do you want to fight them off?”

“N-No…” She said solemnly as Godwin patted her head. “And that’s why I suggested it.”

Katya carefully placed Peter on the ground before Kariya placed Matthias on top of him, as if he were some kind of padding.

Both Keepers stared at each other. Katya looked away as quickly as she could, focusing on the approaching battle ahead, as if that were much easier to control compared to the judgment of her kin.

The Psoglav rushed down the mountain, three of them on foot, brandishing crooked, makeshift scimitars as the other three held back and began to rain down arrows towards the group.

Quickly, Godwin helped drag Peter and Matthias towards a large boulder with Carey following in tow to avoid being pinned down by the arrows.

Katya led the defensive charge, keeping them scattered to avoid getting picked off by arrows as the Keepers all stayed close to the walls and boulders for better protection.

She grabbed the shadow stitches from her body and threw it at the ground in front of the Psoglavs. It exploded like an angry porcupine, but the strange wolf men somersaulted over the sharpened tendrils that came forth from it.

Instead of scattering to pick off their targets, all three of them dashed towards Katya, scimitars at hand as they surrounded and slashed at her legs.

However, Katya was prepared. She spun around in the snow, throwing some into the eyes of her attackers just in time to blind them before thrusting her spear through one of their chests, piercing through it like a hot knife through butter.

The Psoglav groaned in pain, blood dripping from their chest as Katya rolled beside him and grabbed the spear through his back before twirling and slashing another one’s ankle, disabling their leg.

Meanwhile, Rodion, Leonid, and Kariya all began to try and make their way to the archers, rolling every so often and even waving their hands to try and distract them. However, they were no fools, realizing the ploy, the archers aimed instead at Katya.

Seeing this, Kariya threw a wooden dagger into the hand of one of the Psoglav’s, disarming them of their bow as they yelled in pain and frustration before pulling it out like a thorn. However, the other two managed to make their shot, one missing by miles as it hit and embedded itself deep into a stone wall, but the other managed to fly through the air and pierce Katya’s cheek, leaving a nick on her face.

Rodion and Leonid lunged forward at the two archers, stabbing at the joints in their armor, carving them up with such force that Rodion even managed to cut one of their arms off.

The one for Leonid, however, didn’t go down so easily as the Psoglav grabbed his thigh, sinking his claws into his flesh, trying to tear it apart before the Keeper gritted his teeth and grabbed a dagger with his off hand and slammed its blade into the claw of the monster, pinning it to the ground.

“Mu-dak!” Cursed the Psoglav, not pinned down by either of the Keepers, as he took a shaky step back, nocking an arrow in his bow to try and aim at either one of them.

However, that was to be his downfall as Kariya threw another wooden dagger, this time, straight through his eye, gouging it out before she drew her blade and severed his head in one fell swoop.

Down below, Katya was fighting off the last able-bodied Psoglav. He thrusted and she parried. He slashed and she ducked, weaving under his arms to stab him through his neck. However, even while dying, they wouldn't give up.

With one last thrust, he stabbed Katya’s thigh, cutting through her leather armor as she grimaced before punching him in the face and pulling back her spear.

She turned to the other two, who were trying to stand up from their previous injuries, but before they could do so, Katya swept her spear across their throats, bleeding them dry as fountains of blood gushed out of their necks before falling onto the viscera-covered snow.

However, the battle can never be won so easily. As behind cover, Godwin and Carey both stayed still, making sure not to attract any attention to themselves, but that went wrong quickly.

Zipping through the air, three arrows fly. One embedded itself into the stone wall, another one nearly grazed Godwin’s neck, but the final one managed to find its mark on Carey’s arm, impaling her to the wall as she screamed out in pain.

Godwin acted fast. He grabbed the arrow that almost pierced him and swirled his hand counter clockwise. Immediately, the arrow flung back towards the attackers with Godwin hanging onto it.

There, he spotted three other Psoglav’s nocking another set of arrows as they looked in surprise to see the Professor rushing towards them.

“The Spirits Bring The Hope I Require!”

All around Godwin’s body came forth golden sprites that flew to the arrow he was holding in his hand, guiding its tail end directly into the eye of the Psoglav that fired it, causing him to scream in immense pain.

Without a second to waste, Godwin shoved the arrow deeper into the monster’s skull before taking out his cane, unsheathing a blade hidden within. With one hand, he holds it, and with the other, he swirled his wrist clockwise, becoming a blur to both Psoglav’s vision.

With swift dexterity, he sliced off the head of one of the wolfen beasts before turning around and throwing his blade into the head of the other, impaling the sword through its skull.

He took a knee, taking a deep breath before grabbing his cane and running back to the group as Katya and the other Keepers did the same as well.

“We have to keep going… They were just the first… More will come now.” She carefully took out the arrow from Carey’s arm, wrapping it with a long piece of cloth as she helped her back up on her feet.

Kariya picked up Matthias, and Godwin this time took the burden of Peter.

They stared up at the mountain pass, and the only thing they could truly find was more shadows moving in.