I am as God as You: Chapter 2 - Divinity in Fraternity [https://i.imgur.com/t0TCx0E.jpeg]
Elias sat in the cave entrance, by the fire, watching the snow fall, a haze of beauty and remembered danger. He glanced at Zane. His brother avoided eye contact, refusing to meet his eye.
He studied his brother. Zane looked gaunt, the lines that didn't exist before now marked his forehead and corners of his mouth.
Neither brother had spoken since Elias had woken up moments ago.
The cave walls flickered with the small dancing fire illuminating a small rough cavern a few meters deep with a slanted, jagged ceiling. Elias could barely stand in at the tallest side. of the cavern. The entrance narrowed to a waist high opening.
Elias fastened the winter coat Zane gave him button by button, warming himself by the fire. The wind from the snowstorm outside pulled the smoke from the fire out into the open air.
Is it the same storm? How long was I out cold?
The stream of questions erupted in Elias's mind. The time loop had felt like a year, but if that was real, he would be dead. It had to be a couple of hours ago at most, if not minutes. Elias couldn't think of how else he could have survived.
The uncomfortable silence hung in the air, demanding to be filled. Elias didn't know where to begin.
Zane reached into his pack and pulled out a cloth-wrapped bundle and handed it to Elias.
"Eat this, if you can."
Elias opened the bundle, finding some biscuits and dried bread. He forced himself to take his first bite despite not being hungry. The food was hard and unsatisfying. He ate it as quickly as his stomach would allow.
"Elias," Zane began tentatively. "How are you feeling?"
Elias took a moment. "My muscles hurt and I feel stiff, but... I should be dead. How long was I in the snow?"
"Longer than you should have been."
Elias could see the tension in his brother. His knuckles were which gripping the folds in his trousers.
"There is so much to explain, but I need you to trust me. This is neither the time nor the place. We have to leave as soon as you are ready. The Drask hunt nearby." Zane said.
Memories of the cold, lifeless eyes, the unnatural gauntness, sent shivers down Elias's spine. He swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump forming in his throat.
"Three Drask attacked me," Elias paused, his voice came out as a croak. "They chased me into the snow."
Zane nodded. "We guessed they had something to do with it. Everyone thought you were dead."
Zane let the silence hang in the air. He looked uncomfortable.
"I need you to trust me. I know this will seem strange. But I cannot keep this from you. It has been over a year since you disappeared and much has changed. Little for the good."
Elias wanted to deny it. It felt impossible, but he knew it was true. It felt too real, living the same day over and over, to be just a figment of his dying mind. The days did not slip away as a dream would; he remembered all of it. The strange man, Teller, most of all. If anyone had answers, he would.
"It is impossible, but.... I was somewhere," Elias trailed off, searching for the words to make him living the same day over and over seem more than a figment of wild imagination.
"What has happened?" Elias said, abandoning what he was saying.
Zane let out a sigh. A look of pain crossed his brother's face.
"Moorhaven was ambushed by the Drask shortly after you disappeared before the cliffs."
"Is everyone okay?" Elias asked, his heart beating faster.
Zane shrugged. "Our family lives. Father took a wound to his leg and needs a crutch to walk. The girls and Mother weren't physically harmed. We got into Alendria by foot, running from the attack. Many... no, most were not so lucky. The convoy was destroyed. They all live in Alendria now."
"They? You don't?" Elias asked.
"No, I haven't seen them in over a year. Last I heard, the survivors of the Moorhaven massacre were creating a village inside Alendria's borders."
Elias didn't know what to think. At least his family was alive. He didn't have the heart to ask who hadn't made it.
"Don't look at me like that, Elias." Zane said.
Elias hadn't realised he had been staring.
"I couldn't continue that life, not after everything."
Silence hung in the air. Zane did not look at Elias.
"How did you find me?" Elias asked.
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Zane held up his hand towards Elias, motioning for silence. Moments lingered without a sound. Zane's jaw tightened, his brow creased. He drew a small worn hunting knife from his belt as he raised into a crouching position.
Seconds hung in the air. Elias opened his mouth to speak, then he heard it, the soft sound of footsteps running through the snow. Softly at first, getting louder and louder. A howl, hollow and unnatural, pieced through the storm.
"Get back!" Zane shouted, backing away from the entrance.
Elias panicked and scrambled away from the entrance, and a dark shape formed through the storm before bursting through the wall of ice and snow. A sickening hound like beast burst through the small cave entrance, skidding into the fire, sending coal and ash flying. The beast reared up, shrieking in pain with an unnatural howl as it shied away from the hot coal remains of the fire. It sank, lean and menacing, close to the ground at the entrance of the cave, watching, growling from across the scattered remains of the fire.
The fires' flickering flames danced across the tainted hound's face, casting an eerie glow, punctuated by shadows in the depths of its features. Sickly pale blue skin peeked through its shaggy coat of wiry black hair. The smell of rot, as Elias had only smelled on a week old carcass, filled the cave.
Malice burned bright behind the eyes of the beast, piercing Elias's soul. It shifted its gaze back and forth between Zane and Elias, choosing its prey. A moment hung in the air before chaos erupted.
With sudden, terrifying speed, the taint hound launched itself directly at Elias through the remains of the fire, its teeth aimed with deadly intent at his throat. Elias froze as if the world around him moved at double the speed.
Zane smashed into the side of the tainted hound, driving his knife into the side of its neck moments before the hound's fangs would have sunk into his neck.
The hound let out a hollow cry, and it landed on the ground, Zane on top of it. It snapped at Zane, trying to hold it down. He reaches for his knife still lodged in the hound's neck. Blood pooled out of the wound, flowing across the cave floor.
"Elias!" Zane shouted. "Help!"
Elias snapped out of his stupor, looking around.
"They fear the fire!"
Elias, panicking, ran to the edge of the small cave, tripping half way before finding his feet. He grabbed a branch from the remnants of fire and ran towards the tangled mess of his brother and hound, fighting for dominance on the ground.
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Zane cried out as the hound bit into his arm, ripping its head back and forth.
"Elias!"
Elias stood over the struggle, jabbing the hot coals into the hound, where he could find an opening. The hound did not release its grip, thrashing around. Elias struck wildly, hitting only half the time. He jabbed with all his strength, catching the hound if the eye. It immediately released Zane's arm and thrashed, forcing Zane off of it before running for the cave entrance. It looked back, ignoring Zane staring directly at Elias, half its face and one eye burnt, Zane's knife still in its neck. Zane held the branch, the end still on fire between him and the hound. The hound turned and fled into the storm.
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Zane pulled back as Elias tightened the bandage around his brother's forearm, his knuckles white forcing his hands into balls.
"Galdor's Rain! That stings." Zane said through clenched teeth, naming the oldest god.
The punctures and tears in his arm had stopped bleeding quickly after Elias had washed the wound with melted snow, leaving a red, swollen mess that stung to the touch.
"We can stitch it later," Zane said. "That was a Hound of Lupenval. It will return with its master. We don't want to be here for that."
"His master?" Elias asked, helping his brother to his feet.
"The Drask. The Hounds can smell blood even in this storm."
Elias paused, looking at his brother. Something was very different about him than when he last saw him. The Zane he knew would never leave his family. He would never name a god in anger.
"How do you know this stuff? I doubt even Master Venn would have seen one of those hounds before."
"It has been a long and strange year, Elias. Come, let's go."
Zane led the way out of the small cave into the storm. A fear overcame Elias immediately. He trembled with each step towards the exit.
Stop it, we have no choice.
Elias ducked under the cave entrance, out into the snow. The wind immediately stung his face. Biting into his skin, the jacket his brother had given him helped protect him from the cold and wind.
Zane stood waiting for him a few steps out into the storm.
"We should head west, along the cliffs to the pass through to Alendira!" Zane shouted over the wind.
Zane set a relentless pace through the storm, hugging the cliff face tightly, sheltering against the worst of the storm. Step after step, Elias followed his older brother into the wind and snow. Elias jogged on smashed rock fallen from the cliff face, covered by a thick layer of snow. The cliff face was frozen to the touch riddled with large vertical cracks large enough for a man to walk into before disappearing into darkness
"How much further is it?" Elais shouted at his brother. He couldn't be sure how long had passed. Time moved differently in the snow.
"Half a day in good weather? A full day in this?"
A howl cut into the storm from behind them. Zane snapped around to look.
"We have to hurry,"
Another howl, this time from ahead of them.
"They are searching for us. We have to hide," Zane called.
He ducked into one of the larger cracks in the cliff face, looking for something before coming out and running to the next, Elias struggled to keep up with his older brother, barely getting to the crack Zane had ducked into before he ran to the next.
After 5 minutes of frantic running, Elias could feel his heart in his ears. His breath was heavy and his head light. Zane disappeared into the endless snow, running faster than Elias could match. He trusted his brother.
He wouldn't abandon me. He found me when no one else did. Elias thought.
Zane pulled him into a crack as he ran past.
"Your arm!" Elias said, noticing the blood seeping through his brother's bandage.
"Forget it! The hounds are going to find us at any moment. They can smell the blood even amid this tempest. Where they go, their Drask masters won't be far behind."
Zane pulled Elias further into the crack in the cliff, walking deeper and deeper into the darkness, out of the wind and snow. The crack narrowed as they ran down it. The ground became uneven, making running impossible. It took moments for Elias's eyes to adjust to the growing dark.
"We need to climb to where the Hounds cannot follow."
The sides of the rock face were less than an arm's span apart. Zane wedged himself between the two rock faces and used them to climb off the ground.
Elias followed his brother, his arms and legs not as long, nor as powerful, as he struggled to climb as easily as his brother. He logged his back against one side of the rock face and pressed his legs and arms against the other of the rock, allowing him to shimmy up the crack in the rock, trusting his brother that they were heading somewhere.
He climbed with sounds of the hounds running below. Barks echoed up the rock face and three hounds of Lupenval jumped, snapping at him.
"Zane!" Elias cried.
"Keep climbing, there is an opening above!" Zane shouted several meters above Elias.
Elias's body shook, the cold on the stone absorbed by his body as he shimmied up the crack in the cliff.
The climb felt like an eternity, each meter harder than the last. Elias was 10 meters up above the ground where he started when he reached the opening and Zane pulled him in.
The opening was barely high enough to fit in. Elias had to crawl on his stomach to move.
He and Zane stared out of the opening in the rock face as humanoid figures ran through the darkness towards them. They didn't wait to see anymore and turned and crawled into the darkness of the cramped, narrow passage.
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Elias crawled and crawled as fast as he could behind his brother. Zane held a small lantern, lighting their way forward into the darkness. The ceiling lowered in places, preventing them from getting through, forcing them to backtrack and find a different path into depths of the mountain, desperate to find a place where the Drask could not follow. Already they could hear snarls and the sounds of rocks tumbling, crashing on the ground.
The cave seemed to go on forever. With each moment that passed, the air tasted more and more stale. Adrenaline fuelled Elias's crawl forward, ignoring the cuts and bruises collecting on his arms.
"Careful!" Zane whispered back to him. "There is a cavern below!"
The light and Zane disappeared with a thud, leaving Elias alone in the dark. He rushed forward as fast as he could, pulling himself forward, finding the ledge. Zane stood below, holding the light in a large open chamber.
"Quickly!" Zane urged.
With no space to turn, Elias spilled out of the opening, head first, out of the chest high opening in the cave wall. Zane helped him no fall to the floor.
The lantern's light revealed minor cuts covered Zane and Elias from crawling through the tight passageway. Blood soaked through the bandage around Zane's forearm from the Hound of Lupenval. Drops of blood collected on his own arms.
The sounds of the Drask followed them out of the passageway. They were bigger than Elias or Zane and sounded like they were having trouble in the narrow passage.
"Why are they still following us? We cannot be worth the effort?" Elias asked.
"I don't know. We just need to get deeper into the caves and wait a day if needed. Maybe find another path out? They won't chase forever. I have enough food and water for a few days." Zane said, patting his pack.
Zane walked swiftly through the cave, heading deeper and deeper into the earth. There was no path to follow. They climbed over rocks twice Elias's height, crawled under others as narrow as the passage that lead them here. Taking whatever route was open to them. At every turn, Zane marked the passageway out. Elias doubted he could find his way out without them.
The sound of the Drask quickly faded behind them the further they got from the passageway.
Elias ignored the stitch developing in his side. Moving through the cave took all the effort Elias could muster, Zane set a gruelling pace. Elias dared not ask him to slow down.
A screech echoed through the cave.
"Run!" Zane said.
Elias moved as quick as he could, collecting cuts on his arms and legs with each fall. The sounds of running behind them getting closer and closer.
Shouts filled the cave in an alien tongue.
They jumped over a boulder and landed on cut stone.
"What?"
Elias looked at the stone in confusion.
"Run!" Zane whispered.
Glowing balls of light turned on, illuminating the surroundings. They were in a tunnel; the roof made of intricate brickwork, the floor a road of carved stone matched over by the roads Elias had seen in Rivenhall, the capital of Alendria, as a child.
The walls stopped, and they ran surrounded by darkness along the road, the glowing balls of light activating as they approached, illuminating the path ahead.
Zane skidded to a stop ahead, scrambling to find his feet ahead of Elias, and held out his arm, holding Elias back.
Elias stared at the broken roadway ahead, creating a fall into darkness.
"Is this a bridge?" Zane asked, confused.
The cold chink of metal on metal rang behind them, getting closer and closer, slowing down to a walk, understanding its prey was no longer running.
Elias watched as three figures walked slowly down the badge towards them. He and Zane backed up to the edge of the bridge, looking around for somewhere to go. The lantern did not cast enough light to see beyond the darkness.
"No where to run..."
The broken voice attacked Elias's ears, sending a wave of fear through his body as the Drask approached.
The Drask leader wore broken metal armour studded with gold. It looked like it might have once been a helm from the story books of a long-dead king. It had several dents in it and was covered in rust. A blade dragged behind the towering Drask, long and curved, the edge catching in the light, chipped and jagged.
Two smaller Drask flanked him on either side, wearing equally destroyed chain mail with holes gaped.
"We mean you no harm." Zane said. "We just want passage back to the human lands."
The Drask leader smiled, revealing his rotting teeth.
"He warned us there may be someone coming to this ancient place. He told us to make sure none survived." The Drask leader raised his jagged blade and advanced on Zane and Elias, giving no other warning.
Elias watched death approach. The Drask leader towered over them. The malice and evil radiating from the Drask leader held his feet in place.
Zane spun, grabbed Elias by the waist and pulled him off the end of the broken bridge, falling into darkness.