Darkness, he was suffocating. Something... was suffocating him.

He moved.

Wrenching his head free, he threw heavy heaps of thick white snow off his body, releasing himself from its hold. Suffocating cold assaulted his slim grey figure as he raised his head high. Breathing heavily.

"I, I'm alive?"

Pink curtains smothered the sky and filled the mountainous region with bright, soft light. It was a welcoming sight, yet the warm, placid view was deceiving. There was not even an inkling of warmth in his surroundings.

"Fuck your kidding." Rowan laughed.

He was freezing. It paled in comparison to the mundane wind and cold of Civlia. He ignored the ebbing chill, sparing himself a moment to think.

'The Mist, it...it let me in. I'm in the world beyond. Then I must be a Defected?'

Rowan's grey uniform, still smothered with dry snow, hid any Defect from him. Powerful stone limbs, impenetrable green skin, all-seeing eyes. Even decorated with a gentle pink radiance, he could see no such Defect. Nor did he feel any different. His pale, pained skin and skinny limbs were all the same.

"I actually survived? Then I have a chance."

The Mist was cruel. It had ransacked the world for over twenty years, a calamity that dwarfed all the others. Yet it was worse than that. It was unfair. It was vindictive. It was almost intelligent, or so the theories say.

Once the Deranged erupted from the Mist, it would take weeks of conflict and securing before humans could even attempt to enter themselves. But Civilia had no Defected to accomplish it. He was on his own now.

'I don't care. I don't-'

"Aghh. The hell."

His fingers, he couldn't feel them. Rowan had closed his hands tight at some point, and they had grown numb. Unfolding them, he saw how brittle and raw pink they were. He climbed to his feet after one last glance at the deceitful pink sky.

"Right now, all I can do is find somewhere warm."

The strangeness of everything did not overwhelm Rowan. Even the intense cold had yet to damper his mood. Strangely, he found himself feeling liberated. Vindictive. Challenged.

The two distant mountains were the lone landmark in this cold expanse. And the only hope of shelter from the cold. The Defected grew stronger after killing Devoured. He just had to fight for that warmth. Fight or die.

##################################

Marching through the snow, he felt the cold sting all over him. But it only served to keep him awake and able. Rowan's thin grey uniform did little to mitigate the environment bar single him out in a field of white.

"Why is it not getting closer?"

Rowan curled his lips. The enormous mountain peaks, beckoning and sharp, were still so far. Was he making any progress at all?

He felt energy seep from him into the snow as droves of white fluff blocked more and more of his path. Kicking through it, Rowan cursed. "I can do it. It will just take time."

It was impossible to assess how close he was based on the size. It was a very delightful clump of stone. But Rowan's eyes keenly picked out the details of the mountain. Details his eyes could not have before.

"I must be getting closer." The jagged cliff face was a mess, but he noticed a pattern. A strange track that ran up the side of one mountain. There were a few on both. He could see them clearly now.

"Could they be stairs? Are there really people here?"

The mountain was everything he needed. As he strutted, his eyes never left the peculiar steps. Until he heard a scream.

"YEEEEUURRRRRGGGHH"

Frozen to the ground, something loud and horrific assaulted Rowan's ears. That brief shriek echoed throughout the mountains and sky. Then it ended. But the pain in his ears was agonizing.

Yet before Rowan could recover, more screeches followed.

"YURRRRRRGGGGG"

"YEEEEUURRRRRGGGHHHH"

"EEEEEURRRGGGGHHHH"

With a cry, he clutched his ears as his voice was drowned out. He flicked his head towards the distant mountains, watching with dread. Seven shrieking tendrils had arisen from the ground and were furled around the distant mountains. Their wriggling bodies were adorned with tiny, pink scales that flapped at random.

'What. What the hell is that?'

As their scales flickered open, the screams grew more and more horrific until Rowan found himself clutching his ears again, driven down to the snowy ground.

"Aggghhh!"

His raw, aching fingers clawed at his ears, hiding from the noise, yet his eyes couldn't look away. The awful sounds dwindled, and the pink appendages gripped the mountain rock fiercely. They grew stiff, still and quiet, leaving imprints around the defenceless rock.

Rowan was finally free to release his ears, but the silence did little to quell his fear. Without turning away from the deranged sight, he backed up. Soon, he was stumbling back. Staggering back with faster steps than his march here.

Then, he watched as a pink tentacle was severed cleanly before his very eyes. As if cut by an invisible force, that one lone appendage fell away from its brethren and tumbled down the mountainside.

"CRASH"

Rowan watched the tentacle slam into the snowy ground. Tremors rippled all the way to Rowan's frozen figure.

Leaning back on flimsy arms, his heart pounded. Helpless, he watched the distant mountain. Then, it appeared from between the crevice of the two mountain peaks. The culprit.

A triangular yellow thing peaked out, almost pointing at Rowan as it dawned on him. 'That's what was responsible.' Between the mountains, it poked out. A dreadful yellow curved beak.

Startled, Rowan felt an impulse. A rigorous desire to look away and to hide his gaze. But he couldn't do it.

"That's! It's a Devoured. It's as big as a mountain. No, no, there's no way. It can't see me from there. It can't. I'm too small."

A lucid murmur escaped Rowan's mouth as he felt the urge to cry.

As if disinterested, the beak soon turned away from him, and another pink tendril was severed from the mountain rock. It had happened so quickly that he perceived no movement. But he just knew the motionless, daunting beak was responsible.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Rowan mumbled. "I, I should run. While it's distracted."

Returning to his feet, another sound erupted.

"YEEEEUURRRRRGGGHHHH"

"YAAAARRRRRGGGGGGG"

The pink tendrils fluttered to life again, waving. They flapped their scales, uncurling from the mountain as if dancing. The giant beak appeared to be excited by the noise as its head darted eagerly towards each creature.

Finally, yellow claws were followed by a dishevelled grey body that flung itself above the mountain peak. Its colossal torso, littered with ruffled grey feathers, dwarfed the mountain and towered above it. It then leaned forward, hungry and eager, towards the noisy, curled pink limbs wrapped around the mountain.

Enticed, it pecked at the tendrils without seeming to move. Severing two more.

"I need to run. So why, why can't I? If I can't even run, what am I good for?"

Rowan's words had zero effect on the cold world around him. They were drowned out by the tendril's monstrous screams. He couldn't deal with the fear; he was too weak, too vulnerable.

After a while, the creature's beak pointed towards the sky. As if basking, it was accompanied by its victim's joyous cries and screeches. But then something obscured Rowan's vision. He watched as something white was launched from the ground.

It was snow, and there was an unimaginable amount of it. It blocked out the sky and hid him from the entities of the mountain.

Finally, he turned and ran.

He kept running. Even as shadows crept all around and swallowed his surroundings. Snow fell everywhere, and there was nothing he could do but run. Soon, the world's pink rays were hidden entirely as the sky was submerged with snow.

Then it all fell, slamming into the ground around him. He was struck and thrown to the ground. One heap. Then another slammed into Rowan. His small figure was thrown to the ground.

'It's just snow.' Beaten, he shook himself free and crawled to his feet. He kept moving. His escape was squandered again as he was hit by an airborne avalanche.

Eventually, the assault stopped, and no snow was left to fall. He was free to hobble alone across the snowy wasteland. He had escaped being buried alive, escaped being devoured, but what was it worth? What could he do? Where did he belong in such an awful place?

"Why am I here?" Murmuring, he turned back.

The mountain tops were now covered entirely in snow. Something truly massive must have emerged from the ground. There was no sign of the daunting bird or pink tendrils.

The only thing free from the snow were two yellow claws that gripped the mountaintop. Their furry grey legs were still attached. Blood seeped from the both of them, and their grip soon relaxed as they tumbled down the mountainside.

############################################

'My fingers.'

Checking again, he was greeted with the painful sight of his nauseous blue fingertips. On the bright side, they had stopped hurting a while ago. Reluctant, he returned their coldness to his armpits with a wince as he marched through the fog and snow. His body was a quivering mess.

His toes might have already been lost. He didn't really know. They were protected and concealed by his winter shoes. But he didn't have even a moment to stop and check their state.

'No one said it was cold. So cold, inside the Mist.'

As he progressed, his mind wandered to all sorts of things, yet the warmth of that escape never lasted long. There was no shelter, no house, no heating. He was plagued only by a never-ending expanse of snow.

Should he have walked towards the mountains instead? Shivering, he shook his head to forget whatever he had seen. Besides, there was no way to navigate his way back amidst the disorienting grey.

"I should have been dead before. So why make it so long, so painful?"A feeble whine escaped him.

He didn't even have the strength to cry out, to beckon for anyone that might have been concealed behind the hazy fog. He could only walk.

Even amidst the fog, the dying light of the pink sky above aided him. And so, he noticed something. The shimmering icy veil had almost hidden it from view, yet he could only see it more clearly as he got closer.

Camouflaged on the pure white snow, a small creature lay skewered. The drops of red blood were the only thing that marked its existence in the white expanse.

'A rabbit?'

No, it was not a rabbit. As he approached, that only became clearer. Its eyes were long blue slits, three on each side of its oval, white face. Yet as he got closer, they expanded as the small thing struggled, tearing up its insides on the impaled branch.

Those wide, gaping, dark blue eyes captured him in its grasp as the thing trembled.

'It's scared of me?'

The idea caused Rowan to smirk as he stumbled and fell. A weak, weary scowl was shared with the ground before he looked back at the fearful thing. Humour was now drained from Rowan's pale face as he crawled towards it.

Recognizing it had been spotted, the thing squealed and struggled. "MYARRRGGH MGRYAAAH" Its little wails did nothing to hamper Rowan's progress as he touched the impaled, frightened thing with morbid blue fingers.

'Fur. Fur and flesh.' Now that he had gotten this far, it was clear what he had to do. The inside of the creature... it was bound to be warm. As he placed both hands on the thing, preparing to yank it, its blue slits flickered wide open.

Then everything went black.

########################################

The moment he tugged the life from it, wrenching the creature free from its misery. Absolute darkness greeted him.

'Where the hell?...'

Rowan opened his mouth to speak. Yet nothing was said.

He brought his hands to his face. But the sight of cruel, bloated blue fingers never came. He had no hands here, no mouth. He had nothing. There was only deep darkness.

But then there was something. And its ghostly radiant light was soon impossible to miss. As Rowan raised his gaze up, its strange luminance reminded him of one thing and one thing only.

'The Mist?'

Standing tall before him was an enormous pale pillar. Its rigid structure was both crude, intimidating and yet familiar. It loomed over him with a mass and might that dwarfed the height of his perspective.

Despite its vain radiance, the huge column was decrepit and smeared with lashes of yellow and black. Its purity a sham.

However, any escape from the cold was a welcome one. That was how he felt until Rowan felt his being shudder.

'What! How can that be... It's so cold. Even this place is cold. I don't even have a body? I'm still...cold? Am, am I dead?'

He had no mouth to voice his concerns from within the dark abyss nor a body to escape the dark with. None of it made any sense. The tall, protruding column remained still and loomed over him, silent and judging.

Squinting his vision, he noticed the slightest glow from the very bottom of that spiral structure. A different, purer sort of glow amid the weak, luminescent light.

Then all of it was gone.

"I, I'm back." He said.

He was frozen stiff once again, bathed in the icy cold fog. His hands were marked with blood as the warm, lifeless figure of the rabbit shimmered and melted into the snow. Beneath the blood coating his hand, his fingers remained blue and decrepit.

Yet he could have sworn the cold had lost a little of its searing touch.

"No. Maybe I'm imagining it? Maybe I'm dying and turning numb."

With no corpse to warm himself, he begrudgingly returned to his feet. He thought he was as good as dead when the Mist had appeared before him. He had really believed he would be buried by snow or torn apart by horrors after that.

'But I'm alive. And most importantly. I have nothing to lose.'

He put a shaky foot forth, and he didn't hesitate before using the other. Soon, he was stumbling once again through the cold. A glance back was too much for now. Only onwards into the hazy snow mist was left for him.

#############################################

The cold remained unforgiving. The part of him that thought it had softened must have been truly mad already. Both his hands were deadly blue, the blood abandoning them, flowing to his vitals.

Yet, as his toil grew more arduous, he noticed a few things. Now that the fog had cleared, he could see it. The vast night sky. It was empty. That thick black void above had swallowed the pink aura of the day.

Rowan had already heard the world beyond the Mist was like this. The reason why was lost to him, but he noticed something his younger counterpart had never thought of.

'There's no stars, nor is there a sun. So then... where does the light come from? How can I see right now?'

It was strange; even in this darkness, he could see a little. Cursing his younger self for never asking, he shook his head. Though his musings helped him escape the cold. There was something more pressing.

'More rabbits. No, not rabbits, I get it now. They're Devoured. Then, they must be the Docile type.'

From time to time, their tiny white figures would appear around him. Their snow-like fur blended in so well that they were impossible to notice. That was unless you saw their eyes.

When Rowan disturbed them, they finally appeared. Their fearful bright blue slits would tear open and reveal themselves to him.

He wanted to catch them. Defected who killed the devoured were rewarded with power. Everyone knew that. The reverse could be true, too. The strength one could gain from killing a mere Docile and Devoured was probably not that high, but still worth it.

The problem was that he could not see them; even if their eyes widened in surprise, they'd quickly close them again. If he got even closer, they would simply dash away. He had neither the energy nor the time to chase them.

There was no promise he would be rewarded either. After all he could spot no Defect on his body or feel no surge in his strength after killing the last one.

Besides, he would be dead within the hour. He was now sure of that much. 'If I'm gonna die anyway, there's no point in taking them with me.'

The truth was he didn't care to even try.

"What?"

Limping, he stumbled towards it. He had almost missed them, yet here they were, below him. Still and silent. They were the corpses of two rabbit, Devoured. Like the others, they were skewered and bloody on the snow ground.

'Again... how is that possible?' Frowning, he crumpled to his left knee.

"Shit!"

It was hard to say if he would return to his feet again. At this point, he was certain he'd lost his fingers and toes to the cold. When his limbs failed him, then that really would be it. He would freeze.

Indifferent, he scanned the corpses of the creatures. That was when he noticed one twitch. 'Huh?'. It was alive, eerily impaled on a shorter branch like the others. It probably wasn't even conscious, just the last vague twitches of a desperate being.

'It's as good as dead anyway. So.'

Rowan didn't miss his chance. With malformed blue hands, he reached out to grab the tiny creature. He pushed, skewering it further on the branch. The creature gave one last kick of its hind legs before it grew completely still. Rowan flinched, almost falling to the ground, as he hoped and awaited for the dark place he had visited.

"Come on. Where is it?"

But it never came. Disappointed, Rowan cursed, closing his eyes and resisting the urge to slam his fragile blue hands into the ground. But again... "No. No, I was wrong. I can feel it. I'm really not imagining it!"

Opening his eyes wide, he yelled amidst the silent, snowy wasteland. His meagre murmurs were gone. He couldn't recall a time he had bellowed like this. It could have been years. The cold, as cruel and awful as it was. Its effect on him really was weakening.

"Haha." Clutching his fists feebly, Rowan mustered his strength. But his legs failed him, and his hands barely caught him. They fell on the other rabbit he had not touched.

This one was still very much dead. Whilst the one he had killed shimmered and melted into snow, the other remained. Its corpse showed no sign of disappearing, but that wasn't all.

"Huh. It, it's warm?" A pleasant smile escaped him.

The stubborn creature was refusing to fade like its brethren. Not only that, its corpse was still brimming with heat. Useless as it might be, he couldn't resist plunging his cold, lifeless hands into the creature's open stomach.

He couldn't feel the warmth with his hands—they were simply too numb. But maybe it was helping.

'It doesn't matter anyway. Now I know if I can just kill these rabbits, no, Devoured. Then I can resist the cold.'

Rowan perked up, though weak and still unable to stand. His eyes scanned the surroundings greedily. Then, he spotted exactly what he desired, and it was only a short distance away. Another rabbit lay skewered.

"If I'm lucky, it will still be..."

He froze; every part of his body suddenly shivered. Just briefly, Rowan forgot the cold as his hair stood on end.

"..."

A glance down at the corpse, which his hands remained safely within, helped him realize, "The inside. The inside of this rabbit... it's empty?"

Rowan knew very little about the Mist. Civilia's education when it came to the Mist was vague at best. His academy had also seen better days than when he had attended.

Come to think of it, the Assistant Head had mentioned how little they all knew. But even they knew the basics, the important stuff. The insatiable Devoured were living creatures. Paranormal in some ways and not in others.

If their innards were truly hollow... surely he'd have heard such a thing by now? The truth was clear. A quick reminder resurfaced as he thought about the monstrous wailing tendrils and the peering beaked bird.

"I'm being... lured by something."

This chill he felt now was different. Rather than forcing him to the floor, this chill lifted him straight to his feet. Raising one shaky foot before the other, he stumbled away from the corpse, unable to send even a glance back and steering clear of any impaled rabbits.

All around him, the fog appeared, wrapping around his nervous figure. Hiding him as he stumbled further into the cold night.