The cavern was a beautiful sight to behold against the light of the lanterns. The ice was a blue-green color and looked as if it were translucent. The frozen landscape looked pure and clean against the dark colored rock. Strange flora littered the hollow. Some had sprawling leaves of various lengths and others sprouted flowers that appeared to be without color, but most were frozen over with snow and ice. Sharp, thick stalagmite formations burst out of the earth and toward the ceiling. Some were as thick as a man's waist or thigh.
There had to be several different exits and entrances that lead out of the cave, even if on a subterranean level, for a brisk draft seem to be present at all times. It was not pleasant, nor refreshing, for it stung the eyes, cheeks, and lips of the people below.
"You're almost there, Zidane! Don't slip," came the booming voice from down below. A blonde haired man of twenty-seven years old grappled with the slick wall of the cavern as the climbing equipment lightly jingled in his ear.
"That's easy for you to say! You're not the one trying to climb up a vertical wall of ice," he shouted back to his comrades as he dug his right foot into the wall. The metal crampons attached to his boots made climbing the rock and ice a bit easier, but the task was still daunting. Despite the freezing temperatures, sweat still managed to bead up around his forehead and fall into his eyes. The combination of the salty sweat and the dry air made his eyes feel dry and they stung terribly. He wanted nothing more than to do his part for the mission and leave.
Putting all of his weight into his right foot he hiked his left leg higher before digging it back into the barrier. Each time he tried to wrest his foot away from the rock and thrust it back in he was met with resistance. His muscles burned and screamed for reprieve. Zidane was just inches below where the team had discovered Ice Brand, a blade rumored to be blessed by the goddess Shiva. He quietly chuckled to himself as he thought back to the day that he and his crew were contracted to find the blade.
"So, you understand that I am quite serious about this artifact being found, then?" A man that looked to be in his early sixties with bushy grey hair and thick rimmed spectacles leaned over the desk where Baku, the boss and founder of Tantalus Treasure Hunting, was seated.
"It's a strange request, but we'll do our best to locate the weapon. I can't promise you anything, though. Ice Brand is just a story." Baku's expression appeared friendly and hopeful, but to the trained eyes of his crew it spoke more of I-can't-believe-we're-fucking-doing-this.
The old man pleaded his case left and right that the sword was real. He assured the treasure hunters that all they needed to do was follow this map of the Ice Cavern that would lead them to a dead end. After he left, Marcus turned toward Baku and said, "Are we seriously going to look for some sword that is supposedly blessed by Shiva? We're really going to waste our time doing this?"
Baku sat back and grinned. "They pay us to look. Doesn't matter if we find it or not."
Zidane was suddenly brought back to reality as he felt something bounce off of his head. He tilted his head skyward and saw several large, sharp, and pointy stalactite formations hanging treacherously above. These rocky structures were mixed in with several icicles of varying shapes and sizes. Some nearly kissed the ground; they were that massive. A tiny piece of a stalactite had somehow come loose from the ceiling and had fallen, hitting his head on the way down. He began to work faster with more purpose as he muttered under his breath. Wisps of cold air resembling smoke trailing every word, he finally managed to reach the top of the cavern's wall. There appeared to be something behind the ice, but what it was he couldn't be sure.
"Hey, guys! Throw me that flashlight real quick!" Marcus deftly tossed the object up to Zidane. He peered into the ice behind the shine of the flashlight and glimpsed a shape that resembled a weapon of some sort, perhaps a sword. For a moment, he thought he saw a flicker of light emanate from the object. Incredulously, he grabbed his ice pick and swung the sharp end into the ice as hard as he could. The force of the pick hitting the hardened ice made his joints hurt and caused the rope that held him to sway against his body weight. Marcus and Blank, who were holding the rope below, cautioned him against any risky behavior while hanging roughly twenty-five feet above them.
He swung again and again, making sure that he wasn't tearing the anchor away from the ceiling of the cave or the rope from the anchor. Finally, he managed to smash in the barrier of ice and laid his eyes upon the very object they had been hunting. He paused for a few moments before reaching for the blade. The edge was wide and thick and appeared to be made of solid ice. Brilliant blues and deep purples colored the weapon. The tip of the sword came to three points with the middle being the longest of the three. Some kind of metal device was inlaid halfway down on the blade with a sapphire gem in the center. The hilt was pale and had only one sapphire gem at the base. It was both simple and complex.
"You guys are not going to believe this. This shit is real," he shouted to his friends below. The group at the bottom of the cavern looked at one another in disbelief as smiles spread across their faces.
"Okay, come on down now, Zidane. It's fucking freezing in here," Blank shouted. The red-haired man was dressed in more layers than the rest of the crew. He seemed to be far more uncomfortable in the Ice Cavern than the rest of the party. A rapid clicking noise could be heard throughout the small room as his teeth chattered.
"Say please," Zidane teased in a sing-song voice. He didn't have to look to know that Blank was probably rolling his eyes and gesturing rudely toward the blonde.
"You guys better be quiet," Cinna warned in a hushed tone. "I hear this place is full of monsters." His dark beady eyes roved around the room as if there was a devil behind every corner. Laughter from the rest of the group echoed across the chamber.
"Alright, alright. I'm coming down, guys." As Zidane began to descend from his place at the top of the hollow a noise that sounded like foot prints began to reverberate against the walls and ceiling of the cave. Everyone paused as the sound grew louder, but they did not stall for long as chunks of ice and rock began to pull away from the ancient grotto. Zidane suddenly remembered a nature special he had caught on television one night several months back. The Ice Cavern was supposed to be several million years old and as such was not the most stable structure.
"Oh shit," Marcus shouted as a large yeti rammed into the small space. Its fur was thick and brown in color and its size immense. It had to be at least ten feet tall and weigh half a ton, but the most terrifying feature had to be the two curved tusks that skimmed the ground beneath. A flicker of memory sparked in Zidane's mind as he again recalled the nature special on the Ice Cavern.
"The yeti, a prehistoric and terrible creature, is rumored to call the Ice Cavern home. They haven't been seen in hundreds of years, but evidence of the brutes still lingers within the cave. They are thought to be strong enough to bulldoze most large commercial trucks and their tusks sharp enough to carve into areas of the ice walled cavern that are several feet thick. Some believe that the creature guards an ancient secret with in the cave…"
Panic set in as he began to violently sway back and forth on the line. "Guys, secure the rope," he shouted, but it was no use. Blank and Marcus made an attempt to grab at the extra feed, but the anchor was knocked loose from above. One after one, each anchor along the wall was yanked from its location in the frozen barrier.
Meanwhile, the yeti began to charge at the Tantalus members on the ground. Blank jumped away from the charging behemoth as Marcus began to throw anything he could find at the beast with the hope that it might scare it away. The yeti's cry blasted the group's eardrums and sent stalactites and icicles wildly falling to the earth. Cinna screamed a blood-curdling scream, which seemed to catch the yeti's attention. The beast swung around and lumbered toward the small man, but Cinna had nowhere to go. Behind him lay a crevice in the rock and snow that seemed to have no end. There was nothing except darkness below. Covering his eyes, he waited in pure horror as the beast charged him.
Instead, he was knocked aside by Blank as a swinging Zidane collided with the beast, knocking it into the crevice with a shrill roar following its descent. The wind was knocked from his chest upon hitting the frozen wall and he momentarily felt relief at his newfound stillness. Zidane's respite was short lived, though. The sound of the last anchor began to make a crackling sound as it started to loosen from its grip. Shifting his eyes upward, he could see that he was barely hanging by a thread.
Marcus was the first to reach Zidane. His mind raced as he tried to take in the situation at hand. His fear was that the anchor would break if Zidane made even the slightest movement. However, he wasn't so sure if he, Blank, and Cinna would be able to grip the rope against all of Zidane's weight if he were to fall. The crevice was at least six feet wide and his friend just happened to be at the farthest end away from the group.
"Zidane… Zidane, I think you're gonna have to swing toward us," he explained breathlessly.
"Are you insane," Zidane called back. He looked at his companion through a sideways glance, too afraid to turn his head. He couldn't stop picturing himself falling and being swallowed up by the darkness below.
"Trust me. Blank, Cinna, and I are gonna hold on to the rest of the rope. If you can manage to swing toward us, you might be able to grab on to something. You're too far away for us to grab onto you safely. Please, Zidane, just trust me," Marcus pleaded. His words caught in his throat and he suddenly felt as dry as a desert.
Without a word, Zidane nodded his head ever so slightly. Gingerly lifting and placing one foot against the wall of the cavern, he pushed off as hard as he could. As if on cue, the anchor in the wall ripped out and Zidane felt his heart and stomach leave him behind as he free fell several feet before roughly coming to a halt.
He could hear his friends above grunt and growl against the strain of the rope. They began to pull as Zidane utilized his crampons to climb up.
"That wasn't so bad," he breathed as he lay on the frozen ground. He winced and smiled as he felt Blank's fist connect with his shoulder.
Outside of the cavern, the crew began loading up their supplies into the small airship. Zidane slicked off his heavy jacket and removed the crampons from his boots. Birds chirped as the sun warmed the earth and gave life to the plants around him. Long grasses hid most of his legs below the knees and wild flowers of all colors sprouted up around him.
A vibration in his pocket alerted him to a call. He sauntered off a few yards from the group as they finished loading the last of the supplies.
The name Baku flashed across the screen of his phone. Sliding his finger across the screen, he answered, "Yes?"
"Is that any kind of way to greet your boss? Your employer? The one who feeds you and clothes you?"
Zidane pushed the volume button down a few notches. Baku's voice had a booming characteristic that seemed to amplify on electronics.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, we found what we were looking for." A smile crept across his face as he could only imagine how surprised Baku must be at the news. His smile faded when he heard what Baku had to say next.
"Forget the damn sword. Get your asses back to the shop now. I got a whole new job for us and it is one hell of a doozy."
A/N: The last time I wrote or published anything was in 2013! This is also my first attempt at an actual story. I usually just write one-shots. I'm hoping that with planning and the help of StrifeVsTribal I will have the confidence to really go for this.
I'm planning on doing a new spin on the original story. This will be more AU and set in modern times, but I plan on keeping the fantasy/sci-fi feel. I hope that you enjoy this first chapter!