Cillian awoke. It wasn’t cold anymore. He sat up and looked around. A tiny fire was crackling to the right of him, and its light revealed the cave he was in. He was laying on his bed roll, and he could see that his pack was packed neatly next to him.
Where am I?
Cillian attempted to get up, but the sharp soreness around his arms, thighs, and back forced him to yield.
What happened yesterday?
He closed his eyes and tried to remember.
Eliana. Big cube. Rocks.
The memories of the past day came flooding back, but there was still a substantial gap: the memory of how he got here.
Cillian tried to move again. This time the pain in his neck muscles held him down.
Maybe moving bags full of rocks all night wasn't the best choice.
Cillian had no choice, however. Wasting even a single day would mean that he wouldn’t make the three-day deadline he needed, and Ravel said that was three days moving quickly. Then, he has to make the trip down the mountain in time. Though his three days up and three days down plan would have left one day to spare, Cillian didn’t want to take any chances.
Not when it came to this. Not when it came to getting her back.
With one deliberate motion, Cillian fought himself up into a sitting position, and then mustered the courage to stand.
“Where did you come from?” Cillian said aloud to the small fire that crackled next to him. If one thing stuck out in his memory of the night before, it was his absolute failure in starting a fire. So this little flame was quite perplexing.
Why would I wait till I got into this cave to make this fire? It would have saved me almost freezing my toes off.
He shook his head. Cillian walked towards the other light source in the tiny cave: the entrance. As he stumbled out, he saw a landscape that he didn’t immediately recognize. He was still on the mountain, but it was rockier and steeper than the other parts he climbed. While he looked around, Cillian saw the cube that had blocked his path. The cave he was in was far above it, and in the freshly snowed-over landscape, the cube barely stood out.
How did I get up here?
Cillian remembered there was something else strange about the night before. He headed back into the cave and retrieved his identification crystal. It took him a few minutes to find it because everything was in a different place than he would have usually packed them in. Once Cillian got the crystal, he repeated the mantra in his head.
Me. Me. Me.
Name: Cillian Drake Norwood Level: 0 HP: 14/15 Age: 19 Body: 5 Spirit: 8 Mind: 4
“So I wasn’t hallucinating,” Cillian said.
The two-point increase in spirit still confused him. His parents had given him the identification crystal before they had left. Over the years as he used it, he watched his numbers slowly grow to where they are now. But never had he seen a jump this big happen so fast. It had only been a few days since he had last checked it in front of Amalea.
“Let’s see if we still have everything,” Cillian closed his eyes and placed his free hand on his pack.
Pack. Pack. Pack. He spoke in his head while focusing on his equipment pack. When he opened his eyes, Cillian saw that the screen had changed. It didn’t show his stats anymore.
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Name: Equipment Pack: Grappling Hook: x1 Rope: (16.5 meters) x1 Knife: x1 Rations: x10 Water Flask: x1 Flint Block: x1 Steel Striking Rod: x1 Durability: 97/100 Total Weight: 10.2 kilograms
Cillian scanned the screen. To his relief, everything was there. A loud growling came from his stomach which reminded Cillian that it had been a complete day since he had last had a meal.
After devouring two whole rations, Cillian packed up all of his things, extinguished the fire, and exited the cave.
I’m lucky I didn’t die last night. I can’t waste this chance.
Feeling rejuvenated, even against the soreness that permeated his entire body, Cillian moved with swiftness up the mountain. The higher Cillian climbed, the steeper the ground felt. The rock formations were also larger, more frequent, and more convoluted. There were a few uncomfortably narrow rock passages that Cillian had weaved through.
He stopped to look down the mountain. From his vantage point, he could barely make out the valley where he left Eliana. He wondered if she was okay.
Cillian progressed at this steady rate until he reached a wall. A literal stone wall blocked his path. There was no way for Cillian to ascend the wall due to its smooth nature, and Cillian was hesitant to climb after his last attempt the day before. The stone beneath him extended out to form a ledge that, from Cillian’s position, seemed to wrap around the mountain. With nowhere else to go, Cillian started to walk along the ledge. To his left was immovable rock, and to his right the ledge dropped off, leaving only a seemingly endless fall.
The ledge was wide enough to support Cillian walking without any adjustments. Occasionally, the ledge would get thin and force Cillian to walk with his back pressed against the wall. A few times he would have to duck down and move to avoid rock outgrowths in his way. They stuck out, like the needles of a porcupine, and threatened to shove Cillian off the side of the mountain if he wasn't careful.
He would do his best to not look over the ledge. After a point, fog had clouded the cliffs till it obstructed any vision of what lay beyond the edge. Cillian didn’t know if losing the ability to see how far down he could fall made him feel better or worse.
After what felt like an eternity of trodding carefully, Cillian reached a massive break in the ledge. A gap slightly larger than Cillian's height disrupted the continuity of the ledge. It was not a complete break. There was still a slight bit of ledge that was attached to the wall. To further complicate matters, the rocky outcroppings were more numerous now making it hard for Cillian to even stand upright.
Cillian contemplated jumping across, but he quickly discarded that idea as he wasn’t too confident he could avoid the plummet that waited below him. He stepped forward till he could see through the gap. He watched as the fog cleared for a moment, revealing a straight drop that would surely kill him. Anxiety flooded his body and his heart raced.
It was definitely worse to see the fall.
“Okay, okay,” Cillian said with a slight shake in his voice. “Just don’t look down Cillian. That’s all you have to do is just not look down.”
There was only one way of crossing Cillian felt comfortable with. He took off his pack and wore it so that the contents sat on his stomach. Then, he pressed his back against the stone wall and carefully started to tread on the thin bit of the ledge that remained. The weight of his pack was pulling him to the gap. If for a moment he relaxed his body, Cillian would tumble off the side of the mountain.
Each tiny movement he made was only centimeters long and felt like it could be his last. He edged his way across and by the time he reached the other side, he was dripping in sweat. Cillian took a moment to rest, then continued his journey.
After winding around the mountain on the ledge, Cillian reached a dense forest. Though it was the middle of the day, when he entered the woods darkness immediately enveloped him. It was much colder here. He shivered as he climbed up through the dense arrangement of pine trees. The snow formed mounds that made traversing difficult.
Nearly an hour went by before Cillian stepped on a mound that was larger than the rest. When he did, the ground started to shake. The snow he was on felt firmer than elsewhere. Cillian fell back as the mound lifted in front of him. It rose up into a form that towered over him. The mound transformed into a giant bipedal creature. It shook the snow off and let out a deafening roar.
Cillian clamped his hands over his ears to protect himself from the pain. When Cillian looked up, he saw a beast with a contorted snarl, red eyes, rippling muscles, grotesque claws, and covered in white fur.
It looked down at Cillian and swiped at him. He raised his arms at the last moment to cover his face. Cillian felt the sting as flesh tore on his arms. The power of the beast's swing knocked him on his back and sent him rolling down through the dark forest.
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The Beast