With a packed bag, and his house ablaze in the background Arteus treks the snow once more.
Every step heavy.
Every step directionless.
There is no calm in his body, Bothered…
Arteus is bothered by the scenes that had just passed.
But not the ones of his mother… not yet.
Arteus’ mind is preoccupied with the beast.
Solemn and inconsolable, the boy wept in his heart as he packed up things around his house.
Trying to reorganize everything best he could before something peculiar caught his eye.
The beast… the once black beast that was menacing and tore his house apart had changed.
It coloured now in its natural white, its eyes returned to their light blue.
What did this mean?
Why had it happened after the beast was felled?
Did it have anything to do with the unorthodox nature in which it acted almost… human?
The bothered boy had no rest from his troubles.
He still hadn’t an idea what could have caused the devastation at Barley.
So, as he trekked the treacherous cold, it struck him as odd that his rational mind would be brought out of its trance by this.
A melt flower.
In the snow… melting the ice around it.
Crouching beside it and picking it up with gloved hands Arteus would realize that these were the flowers he picked.
And as he looked forward his suspicions were proven true.
A trail. That followed this flower in a more or less straight line, littered with steaming holes like potholes in the snow.
Had his bag been cut up from the fall?
“…Heh.”
He scoffed, putting the flower back on the snow.
He had forgotten he was on a job today; he had forgotten that just this morning he had seen his mother’s eyes full of life.
One quick look to the sky later and Arteus realized he couldn’t tell the time.
Hannah probably knew the time, he thought…
Damnit.
Now everything was reminding him of her.
The peculiarity of the trees in this side of Barley… That his mother had always said his father was allergic to.
The unevenness of the sidewalk to his home… That his mother picked him up from countless times when he had fallen.
The scent of lemony lavender that was carried by the wind… One of the key reasons he remembers his mother say she chose their home based on….
Damnit.
“Dammit!!!”
“She’s really gone… MOM!”
The boy, weak in the knees, fell to the ground as the tears began to rush forth.
“Dammit! Dammit! DAMMIT!!!”
He sobbed as his chest tightened more and more with every little shudder of his body.
“WHY!!..”
“..WHY??
“...WHY MOM?!?!...”
He sobbed.
“Heh… what am I supposed to do now…”
The broken boy sobbed…
“Maybe it really is the end of the world.”
He sobbed… When…
“aaaAAAHHH--“
“--AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!”
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His own shout for help was followed by another!
“huh?”
“AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!... AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!... AHH--GET BACK!!! BACK!!! HELP!!! SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!”
The voice shouted with every ounce of strength in their lungs. From the tone it was likely whoever this was, was female.
With only minimal pause, half a second, to process what exactly he was hearing… Art was gone!
In full sprint, he’s body moved before his mind could collect itself!
[North East Barley]
Midway through to Arteus’ home.
In the forestry that separated the North eastern and western roads, a young girl was fighting for her.
Hers and her family’s.
Surrounded by a pack of arctic-wolves, she stood in front of her family.
Acting as a shield for her younger sister and grandmother with nothing more than a little branch.
Waving it side to side like her life depended on it.
It did.
“HEEEELP!!!! SOMEBODY HEEEELPPP!!!!!”
She shouted waving the twig around!
“HEEEEEEELLLLLLPPPP!!!!!”
She shouted.
“Dammit.”
“…*sniffles… Lilly… *sniffles…”
“I know Gracie… I know!!!”
The girl, full of fear but also resolve of steel dismissed her younger sibling’s worries without even turning to her.
Realizing how paramount it was right now that she didn’t turn her attention from the pack as their eyes lodged hungrily on those behind her.
“Why is this happening??”
“You can’t be serious with this shit!”
Her mind raced, ridiculing the situation.
The crisis that felled Barley and was consequently shaping the continent had the same effect on most.
Euphoric nirvana that paralysed them to accept their fates... that is at first at least…
Post the initial bliss of acceptance, once you had witnessed the massacre that followed. The manner in which the beasts tore apart your family and friends. The trance would be essentially broken, and what would follow would be a mix of terror, confusion and a much too late value for one’s life.
Ofcourse for the few that weren’t captivated by the blaring horns, their chances of survival were much higher.
“HEEEELLLLLPPPP!!!!--”
“--TCH!”
“What am I doing there’s no way anyone is still alive.”
Lilly, mid cry for help seemingly gives up hope on finding assistance.
“If the God’s were going to take us today, couldn’t they have found a much softer way to do it?”
The girl complains bitterly
“Well not that those idiots back at Red Square are complaining
*Grr!!!
“AH- BACK!!!!”
*SMACK!
Lilly smacks the fore of her twig on her ground, pushing back one of the oncoming wolves.
“TCH! C’mon you dumb mutts, I’ll be damned if I let you passed this point!!!”
*Grrr… GRRRR!!!
A growl from the wolves and Lilly has to take a step back… now being pushed ever so slowly to the tree behind her, where grandma and little sister stay.
“LILLY!!!”
“I KNOW GRACIE!!!!”
She shouts once more in response to her little sister’s call!
“At the rate things are going, Granny won’t make it.”
“So much for a rescue mission, my dumb mouth is about all of us killed!!”
A salty Lilly reflects on the circumstances that led her here as the wolves continue to push her back.
“Still if this is where it all ends for me then Granny and Gracie should be my top priority.”
“Might as well go out while fulfilling my mission…”
Cold sweat down the side of her face, Lilly smirks dryly at the stalking wolves.
“…”
A quick look back to the tree and Lilly catches by the side of her eye, her grandmother… slumped by the tree and breathing heavily.
“Li--“
“GRACIE!! When I give the word, you take Granny and you make for Red Square, Got it!”
“Huh? Bu-But Lilly--“
“--Dammit Gracie this isn’t the time for some sibling infighting!”
Lilly snaps at her little at her little sister.
“…”
“*sniffles…TCH… Right!”
“Now that’s a good girl.”
A short exchange, and a glance worth a thousand words from their grandmother for Lilly to stands ahead of them both, taking a single step with a curious grin.
“When I said I wanted to get eaten out, this is not what I had in mind.”
“But still...”
“I’m glad I got to see them before I inevitably croaked.”
*Sighs...
“RIGHT! IT’S GO TIME!”
The girl jokes to herself in an effort to calm herself before setting her plan in motion, as her composure changes immediately from shaky and fearful, to dutiful and convicted!
Lilly’s plan as she watched the beasts, was to divert their attention away from her family.
Using herself as bait by provoking the alpha who stood big, front and centre before running in an opposite direction to Red Square, where Gracie would be taking their grandmother.
It was suicide.
And she knew this.
But the plan would work. An animal’s attention would be drawn to the figure that provoked it naturally, more so in a case involving a pack of wolves and following their Alpha. So, for what it’s worth, Lilly could have saved her family.
That is if these were the normal beasts that inhabited the area…
However, that wasn’t the case, much like the Titan yeti, this pack of Arctic-wolves had blacked out fur and pitch-black eyes. Like shadow creatures.
With the characteristics that were displayed by the yeti, its clear to imagine these wolves’ goal isn’t to have a lovely evening meal. No.
Its to kill as many humans as possible.
“Okay. Let’s do this.”
And so, it happened.
“Gracie… NOW!”
Throwing the branch at the Alpha of the wolves.
Lilly dove to the left and Gracie, her grandmother on her back, the right.
Both breaking in a full sprint.
And just as the satisfaction was seeping in for Lilly. The peace that comes with knowing you made the best choice given the circumstances she realized something was wrong.
With time slowed, she turned.
And looking behind her heart sank with what she saw.
The whole pack. Twelve fully grown arctic-wolves all ignored her and chased after a frightened Gracie.
Who’s face turned white when she realized the wolves had changed targets.
Their goal was never Lilly. The goal was all three of them at once.
So, the moment Lilly had separated from the group it immediately changed to the next largest group.
“…no…”
There was no logic to their movements.
“…oh, gods no…”
Neither should they have been.
“…gracie…”
These weren’t ordinary wolves.
“…granny…”
And this wasn’t an ordinary hunt.
“NOOOOO!!!!!!!”
*fwoosh!!
A flash of grey to her side.
Something had passed Lilly at a tremendous speed.
And before she could even recognize what…
!!!!BOOOM!!!!
A cloud of snow is thrown up into the sky!!!
“AH--“
“EH…”
Shielding her eyes from the smoky cloud of snow, the blowback of wind is enough to push Lilly to the ground.
“AH…”
*Cloud begins to clear
“…Gracie?…”
The girl panicked as she watched the centre of the eruption with keen, worried eyes when a silhouette began to become form.
The silhouette a young man, dressed for the cold in a thick charcoal grey furry coat and black boots and gloves. His grey hair glistening in the snow.
“Huh?”
The confusion wore on her face.
*Cloud clears
“!!!”
Much more so when the cloud cleared and she realized laid at the man’s feet was the crushed skull of the Alpha!!!
“…I’ll take it from here…”
His words rang cold, empty of emotion or heroic intent. They were what they were. Just words.
Moments before another tragic disaster…
Arteus had arrived to the scene.
And just on time!
“…”
“…”
-To be Continued-