Maline stumbled through the darkness, her breath heavy with fear and exhaustion. Her escape had left her shaken and disoriented, but she couldn't afford to stop. She needed to put as much distance between herself and that place as possible.

To her surprise, she had managed to stay on her feet, her legs carrying her through the cold and unforgiving terrain. She didn't know how she had made it this far, but she wasn't about to question her good fortune.

As she trudged through the snow, she suddenly heard footsteps accompanying her own. Looking to the side, she saw him. The man who had captured her. She was unsure as to what she should be doing.

His presence startled her, but she was too exhausted to resist. The man only walked beside her this time, focused on something else.

The man seemed different, his demeanor less hostile and more curious. Not necessarily of Maline, but of the air behind her. His dark eyes seemed to follow every invisible thread of wind.

Now that she wasn’t being forcefully dragged through the snow, she could see his face more clearly. He had a bulky frame and earthy skin. His jaw was robust, and his eyes were dark with thick eyebrows perpetually furrowed.

He wore a black trench coat with only a white linen shirt underneath, though he was unaffected by the cold.

His pants blended with his trench coat, his brown boots compacting the snow below.

Maline, confused, couldn't help but ask, desperate for answers. "Who are you?" He hadn’t answered any of her questions yet, but she needed to know.

The man remained silent, but his gaze did meet hers for a split second before observing the air once more. He asked in return, ignoring her question, “What did you encounter?”

As they walked, Maline was unsurprised by his horrible attitude, describing her harrowing experience in the icy cave. She purposefully left out the part about the visions she had seen, as even she was not sure what they meant. To her surprise, the man seemed genuinely interested in hearing about her ordeal.

"You met a harmonist?" he muttered under his breath, a hint of surprise in his voice. "And it seems they were at a high stage..." He didn't elaborate on what he meant by "harmonist," leaving Maline puzzled.

She hadn’t noticed earlier, but he had a familiar accent that showed through proudly when he spoke.

The landscape around them was desolate, with snow-covered mountains in the distance. The biting cold was unrelenting, and Maline's body ached with fatigue. She knew she couldn't go on much longer.

Finally, they reached a small shack at the top of the snowy hill. The man didn't bother to knock, seemingly insulted by the doorknob’s presence. Instead, he forcibly twisted the bronze doorknob until it cracked, breaking the lock. Faint indentations were left on the metal as he let go. The door creaked open, revealing a cozy interior with a man cooking mutton at a hearth to the far left of the room.

The man inside had short, black hair, a rosy complexion, and evident laugh lines around his lips. He raised his eyebrows in surprise as he looked at the pair entering without warning.

He wore a strange outfit; a long, colorful sweater draped over his shoulders, covering nearly his entire body. Only his boots remained exposed, resembling soft, colorful mittens more than traditional footwear.

She couldn’t find a hint of a change of clothes around the house in her brief perusal; how could he leave the shack in such attire?

"Is a knock too much to ask for, Lee?" he said calmly, though there was a playful glint in his eyes as he observed Maline.

Lee, the man who had captured Maline, sat down with an irritated expression, clearly annoyed by the man's jesting.

The man in the corner continued to study Maline with a curious intensity. "Who is this young lady?" he asked, his voice beginning to follow a strange cadence.

"You know who she is," Lee replied, his irritation growing.

Ignoring Lee's response, the man gestured for them to take a seat. "Well then, take a seat. You both look a bit rough." His cadence became even more pronounced, almost rhythmic. It seemed to irk Lee further.

As they settled in, the room was filled with the sound of sizzling mutton while the man crossed his legs comfortably.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The shack, though small, felt like a proper home. A table stood in the left-middle of the room, near the hearth, and bedrolls and scattered papers lay on the right side near the wall.

Maline felt out of place in this peculiar setting, especially with the odd cadence of the man's speech.

Lee, on the other hand, couldn't contain his frustration any longer. "Would you cut it out!?" his eyes widened as he flared up, unable to tolerate the man's strange behavior.

The man simply responded with a sly smile, his attention returning to Maline. "Well? What happened?" he asked gently, his voice free from the strange cadence that had characterized it before. As he prepared to listen, he rested his head on his hand.

Maline hesitated for a moment, unsure of how much to reveal. But there was something about the man's demeanor that made her feel safe, at least for the moment. She decided to trust him with the truth.

"I was in an icy cave, and there was this... thing, a formless entity. It attacked me, but I managed to escape. I don't know how I made it this far, but I had to get away from it." She shuddered at the memory.

The man's eyes softened with concern as he listened intently. He seemed genuinely worried for her well-being.

She took a deep breath and continued. "I... I don't know how to explain it. I was lost, and then I encountered someone... something I can't even put into words. It was like a nightmare."

The man's eyes widened slightly as he absorbed her story. "A formless entity, you say? That's..." His tone became thoughtful, and he muttered something under his breath that Maline couldn't quite make out.

“You mean, like those at your feet?”

Unsurprised by her confused expression, the man continued, “Have you noticed that you don’t seem as fatigued as you should be?” His words had a hypnotic effect, taking Maline back into her memories.

Yes, she remembered that she felt lighter on her trek here.

The man acknowledged this, saying, “It seems like the harmonist favored you. You can attribute the fact that you weren’t dragged here to them.”

Maline was surprised but grew awkward at the man’s comment. “I was dragged here… Partially.” She stole a glance at the man, who she now knew as Lee, a hint of frustration in her gaze.

He, meanwhile, had been fuming silently, his anger simmering just beneath the surface. He seemed to despise the man and his strange mannerisms.

Struggling to conceal a laugh from breaking out, the strange man stared at Lee in disappointment.

Maline, feeling a bit more at ease, finally mustered the courage to ask a question that had been nagging at her. "Who are you two? And where are we?"

The man leaned back in his chair, his eyes twinkling with a hint of mischief. "Ah, where are my manners? I am Beda. This grumpy fellow here is, as you know by now, Lee."

Lee scowled at Beda's introduction but said nothing.

Maline was unenthused as the pair purposefully evaded her second question.

A gust of wind blew in from the partially open door, causing Maline to shiver.

“Look what you’ve done!” The man hurriedly got up, placing a boot in front of the door to keep it closed.

Casting a ridiculing gaze at Lee, he sat back down. A lengthy silence ensued as Maline grew oddly calm.

Looking at Beda, she motioned her head towards Lee, asking, “Is he Stomen?”

As she said this word, a nagging memory seemed to press against her subconscious, but she focused on her current situation.

Beda looked at Lee for a moment, who was staring off into a wall, ignoring the two.

Turning back to Maline, he put his index finger over his mouth, a smirk growing on his lips as he turned back to Lee.

“Oh yes, he is.” he began, composing himself for something as he looked upwards slightly, his eyebrows lifting.

“Stomen blood, in which you brew, your nose upturned, you'll miss the view,

Don't forget, beneath that crown, there's more to life than looking down.”

He began on a rhyme, filling the silence of the room with a contrasting air.

Immediately, he got a reaction.

Lee, incensed once again, pounded on the table, sending dust floating through the air in a hazy layer.

“Knave! You think you can mock me willy-nilly!?”

He stood up from his chair, staring into Beda’s eyes with fervor.

Beda did not relent, his eyes unwavering as his expression began to sour.

Maline sat there, petrified between the two’s altercation; if anything were to happen, she was powerless to resist.

Before anything broke out, a smile quickly graced Beda’s face as he leaned back into his chair, his arms crossed. “Oh, I was only probing… Settle down.” He stole a glance at Maline, as if to ask if she’d enjoyed the show.

Still a bit frightened, she gave him a smile as Lee eventually sat back down.

Maintaining her silence and waiting until they both settled down, she asked the biggest question she’d been wanting to ask.

“What do you two want with me?”

She observed as Lee showcased his ever-above demeanor, ignoring her.

Beda, on the other hand, looked at her with an intensifying expression, saying with gravity,

“You’re our prisoner.”

He held his gaze for a long time, his smile gradually fading, instilling a creeping sense of dread in Maline. She felt a tinge of loss inside of her, as if something were being pulled out.

After a while, she felt as if his gaze were being held for a bit too long. Comically long, at that.

At that moment, she saw Beda’s face take on another smile, his eyelids wrinkling into crow’s feet because of it as he burst out into laughter, his feet kicking underneath the table.

“You should have seen the look on your face!” He shouted as he pointed at her.

Unenthused, Lee stood up from his chair and walked over to a bedroll, leaning onto the wall and sitting down.

Recovering from his laughter, Beda addressed Maline with a hint of genuinity, “Well, it wasn’t a complete lie…”

He continued, “Ask your questions in the morning–I’m starving.”

He then got up, walking over to the nearly burnt slab of mutton. He hurriedly flipped it over with an immensely worried expression, leaving Maline with a face marked with bewilderment.

For once, she shared Lee’s sentiment.