Frost
Cleaning the haul on my side takes no more than half an hour, as bite by bite the mana in their blood and muscles entered my body, strengthening it, attuning me closer and closer to the cold mana that filled every inch of snow.
Slowly the stars seemed to shine a bit brighter, the air felt a bit nicer and I felt present, closing my eyes I made a decision, shifting a part of the mana that empowered me towards the mark.
Our connection, strengthened in response, his direction now clear to my heart, though he himself was hidden out of sight.
With my paws softly pacing through the snow I reached his side of the hunt, noticing he was able to get them too.
“Jake get goblin… Good!” I praised him through our link.
But as seconds passed, no words came back.
Finding this strange I followed the marks guidance only to find him seated on the ground, his back resting on the tree, his dead eyes resting on the ground and his hand closed tightly into a fist.
I sit at his side.
“Jake mad… Why?” I ask, feeling a mix of emotions boil within him with each passing moment.
His eyes turn to me, fury, resentment and fear spewing out of them.
Then he takes a deep breath, his eyes going back to the ground, dead once more.
“Get away from me Frost, I’m serious.” He says in a cold lifeless tone, but through the mark I can feel him boiling hotter and hotter, the target of such emotions… myself.
“Hunt went well… Why Jake mad at Frost?” I question confused.
Rage comes to his gaze, but he doesn’t look at me.
“I’m not…” He sighs.
“You know what, I hate you Frost. I hate that you took away my arm on my first day here. I hate that you took my life and now is running with it from one fight to another, gambling our lives cause your too impatient or reckless to think before you act!”
Jake yelled at me while his fist hit the snow.
Now I was getting mad too.
“Lose arm cause Jake weak… Yell at Frost cause Jake afraid… Jake grew strong… Hunt going good… why Jake afraid? Cause Jake a coward… Not want fight?... Just don’t hunt.” I declared back into his mind, growling.
His eyes silently turn towards me, resentment ever growing.
“Don’t you DARE act dumb with me Frost.” He growled back between gritted teeth, before starting to yell again.
“Just don’t hunt?! And do what? Sit here praying to god that today is not the day you successfully kill yourself? Oh yeah, ourselves! Cause you seem to have forgotten pretty fast what happens when one of us dies!”
He yells louder, pointing his finger at me.
“Frost don’t forget!... Frost not afraid!... Frost strong!” I growled back, baring my teeth in rage, a warning for him to stop.
His head shook from side to side but his resentful eyes never left mine.
“That’s the thing Frost. You’re wrong! You are just as weak as me, the only difference is that you don’t understand your fucking place! You don’t understand that the only thing separating us from those bodies right there is luck!” He yelled again, ignoring my warning.
I jump on Jake pinning him to the ground, baring my teeth at this rat.
“YOU!... DON’T KNOW YOUR PLACE!” I barked at his face.
Suddenly my legs started to shake and my body felt heavy.
From the side his hand moves, grabbing the scruff of my neck.
I try to fight back, but my body only trembles.
Slowly and firmly he pulls me to the ground.
Staring at me silently, he sits in my chest, his hand holding my throat loosely.
“In the three or so days we met, this is already the third time you acted out thinking you couldn’t lose and yet ended up laying weak on the snow…”
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“Jake a cow…” I try to yell back, but his hand tightens around my throat and he yells both in and out of our connection, stopping me in my tracks.
“Shut up and listen to me!”
He takes a deep breath, his hand loosens once more as his eyes burn holes on mine.
“We got lucky you had the mark thing as your skill, we’d both be dead otherwise…” He pauses, closing his eyes before.
A deep breath.
A sigh.
“So don’t waste the chance we got.”Saying this he gets up and walks away.
Leaving me lying weakly on the snow, under the dark night sky.
***
Jake
“I shouldn’t have done that.” I say to myself sitting on the snow a few dozen meters away from Frost and the corpses.
Blowing up on Frost was wrong, I knew it, I knew acting like she was the sole reason I was mad was stupid, I knew inciting and trampling on her to prove a point was petty.
Yet knowing all that didn’t make things any better.
Sigh.
“It’s fine.” I mumbled to myself.
Looking at the notifications I had been ignoring for a while.
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Power rank up threshold reached!
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Fourth threshold reached Class - Wanderer III —-> Wanderer IV
Class skill related to Power ready for claim!
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Mind rank up Threshold reached!
Mind stats boost per point increased!
System upgrade ready for claim!
Note: only one System upgrade is claimable, either from Body or Mind, with this choice highly influencing future skills and upgrade options.
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The SOULMATES MARK has been fed, your bond grows stronger.
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My eyes scan through the popups.
My hand lifted slightly to click on the claims till I read the last one.
I sigh.
‘Yeah, I’m not in the right mind to deal with anything right now.’ I think as I put my hand down.
Standing up I start to walk down the path the goblins made in the snow, hoping a short walk might make fixing things easier.
As I look at the snow covered white trees that had been the background to these last three hectic days my mind starts to wander away.
At this point I doubted there was a way home, hell I was pretty sure I wasn’t even on earth anymore, and honestly I hadn’t lost much, as an only son with both deceased parents and most of the people I talked to being work acquaintances, what I missed the most was the comfort, entertainment and safety of modern life.
‘But I guess I still got it good, huh’
I thought back to the scar eye, the corpse that set me off in this whole rant session.
From his old scar I could guess, things didn’t look good to him even before the system brought us here, and now just a few days later the poor guy is dead, his body dragged through the snow by goblins and his final end Frost’s belly.
Sigh.
“Rest in peace brother, I’ll remember you.” I said to the wind, since I would let her eat his corpse this was the least I should do.
Then in one of the white trunks something caught my eye, in one of the trees just a ew meters away I saw deep claw marks carved in its surface, their length the size of my right arm.
Looking around I found those marks present in almost a pattern, every few hundreds of meters up and down the goblins path..
‘Are the goblins making these things?’ I questioned myself, looking at the deep markings.
No matter how I looked though, they didn’t seem like fake claw marks.
‘But then again, I’m no nature expert’
Sigh
‘I have to stop procrastinating, if I don’t do it now things will just get harder later on’ I knew that, after all I didn’t have friends for a reason.
But maybe right here, maybe right now…
I started my walk back.
Each of my steps marking my way on this new world.
***
Frost
Silence filled the air as I sat in the snow.
Our fight looping over and over in my ears.
I didn’t want to see it.
I didn’t want to hear it.
I didn’t want to be it.
But I was…
Weak…
Afraid…
Hated.
Our fight loops once more.
I howl at the dark sky.
Steps sound in the snow.
Knowing who it is, I don't look.
He sits by my side.
“I bottled up my emotions and it blew up on you. I’m sorry Frost that wasn’t fair to you and I won't let that happen again.” He said in a clear tone, a mix of sadness and determination flowing through the mark.
“You meant it?” I asked, hoping I could be blind once more.
“I did.” He crushes my hope.
“I hate you…” I declare, though I can’t bring myself to end the phrase.
“I guess we’re even then.” His voice echoes once more.
“I guess so.” I declare at last.
I look up at the dark night sky dotted with flickering stars.
As silence fills the air and we pass the night sitting down on the snow.