"Well fuck…" Selio muttered as he looked at the now night sky. Logan glared at him harshly and indicated the child that stood in between them. Selio merely sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Well, frick." He corrected sarcastically. Selio looked around the snowy clearing and slowly pulled out his sword, to be ready for an attack. Grayson's eyes were wide in fear.
"Hey, you um, you said there were worse things at night, right?" Grayson asked timidly. The kid had false bravado in spades, sure, but that was when dealing with other people, he didn't know how he could handle monsters. Selio looked down at him grimly and nodded truthfully. "Worse than the slimey burny thingies?" Selio nodded once more. Grayson gulped. "Are we going to be okay?" Grayson asked. Truthfully, Selio had no idea. Logan had admitted to having trouble with the zombies his first night, but that was because he was alone, had only a bow and arrows, and had to deal with demon eyes flying at him. Here they had two people capable of fighting, and Selio personally had a sword which meant he didn't have to stay at range. In addition, demon eyes couldn't survive in the cold atmosphere, meaning there wouldn't be anything coming at them from the sky. Not that he knew of, anyways. Selio knew he couldn't apply his realist thinking to a child, though. Children were optimistic by default and liked to be told everything would be fine, even if they knew they were being lied to.
"Yeah, kid. We'll be fine, no worries." Selio told him uncertainly. Grayson nodded and followed along in between the older two as they trekked through the snowy plain. The frigid wind bit at Selio's bare skin, he ignored the numbing chill in favor of keeping a sharp eye on his surroundings. Since zombies were the only thing bound to be out around this time, he'd have to keep an eye out for any humanoid figures. He knew he couldn't attack right off the bat either, considering he'd stumbled across four random people in the passing days and another wasn't completely unlikely.
"We need to find shelter. You won't last the night like that, Selio." Logan voiced from beside him. Selio looked over at him and nodded, taking note of the fact that even the calm snow had already left his thin t-shirt damp. He had little insulation against the elements and hypothermia was bound to come creeping his way soon enough.
"What do you suggest?" Selio asked through chattering teeth. Logan squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to dredge information about the snowy biome up from the vast ocean of information swimming in his head.
"There are systems of underground caves across this biome. I believe the one closest to our location is small and closed off from the others, making it the ideal place to stay until morning rises." Logan informed him. The Guide pointed them in the direction they needed to go and they trudged on. Not too long after they reached their destination, a medium sized hole that sloped down into a larger cave below. A figure stumbled absentmindedly around the hole, barely managing not to fall. Selio briefly caught a glimpse of its gray, rotted face from beneath the hood of its... parka?
"Is... is that zombie wearing a parka?" Selio hissed quietly. Grayson frowned and hid further behind Logan's leg. He knew about zombies. Zombies were scary and gross and ate people's brains, most definitely worse than 'slimey burny thingies'.
"Well, yes. Zombie Eskimo, the variant of zombie found in this biome. Slightly stronger than a regular one, perhaps from built up resistance to below freezing temperatures?" Logan accidentally blurted out. He clasped his hand over his mouth to stop the flow of information. It was too late, the zombie had already caught wind of their presence and began stumbling towards them. Grayson's eyes went wide and he clutched Logan's leg tightly. Selio bared his teeth and readied his sword.
"Well, I suppose we were going to have to get it out of the way anyways." He charged forwards and aimed a slash for the zombie's neck. There was a 'thunk' as the sword embedded itself in the decaying monster's shoulder. Selio cursed. His fingers were numb and his joints stiff, he couldn't fight at full potential like this. He tried to wrench the sword free to no avail. He gave the zombie a hard kick and skittered away. He couldn't very well kill the thing with his bare hands, so he unclipped his axe from his belt and held it in front of him defensively. As the zombie charged him he knocked it away with the belly of the axe and quickly ran around the confused monster to smash the butt into the back of it's head. Selio barely dodged a swipe from the angry's zombies grotesque nails. He brought the haft of the axe up to meet the zombie's jaw, knocking it down into the snow. Seeing his chance, Selio swung the axe down with all his might, effectively severing his foe's head from its shoulders.
Selio leaned on his axe for a few seconds, panting. He ripped his sword free from the zombie's shoulder and placed it and his axe back where they belonged. He pulled a stick and some gel out of the bag to craft a makeshift torch.
"Be careful with this, don't let it burn you," Selio informed Grayson as he handed the child the burning stick. Grayson cautiously grasped the stick and held it out in front of him. Selio looked towards Logan and nodded his head towards the cave entrance, "Get your bow out and make sure the cave is clear while I secure the entrance," He instructed Logan. The Guide nodded, pulling his bow out and knocking an arrow as he and Grayson descended into the cave. Selio observed the area the best he could and confirmed that there was no current incoming danger.
"It's clear!" Logan shouted to him from inside the cave. Selio slid down into the cave himself and stopped approximately five yards away from his companions' location. He pulled the tarp out of his bag and used a couple of stronger sticks to hammer it into the cave walls creating a sort of barricade.
"Will that be very effective?" Logan sled skeptically. Selio observed the tarp wall.
"It's the best we have. If I'd put it at the entrance there was a chance a zombie could just stumble and fall through it. Like this there's less of a chance for them to do that, plus they're not very smart they might just consider it a wall and go away," Selio explained, shrugging as it was the best he could come up with using their current resources. He stuck some more torches in the walls and used gel to turn them into torches while Logan tried to clear away the snow.
"How did you make that fire?" Grayson asked. Selio and Logan stopped their activities, nonplussed. They hadn't considered the fact that just applying gel to a stick to create fire did not inherently make much sense.
"I suppose the laws of thermodynamics might be different here? Or perhaps there's a certain chemical or magical quality to the gel of a Slime that causes it? If the first is true it would make me wonder if we are even in the same realm as that which we hail from." Logan babbled absentmindedly. It would seem that his rambling didn't completely come from the abundance of Terrarian information he pertained, and that he was also, in fact, a nerd. After everything was settled, they all sat down to take a breather. Selio and Logan decided to take turns as watch after what they felt was like two hours, since they did not have any appropriate methods to discern the time.
Grayson sat against the cold stone wall of the cave, wrapped in Selio's slightly damp coat. Everything that had been happening was too much for him. He'd awoken on the beach days ago, and too afraid to venture off anywhere else he'd stayed put. A good thing too, now knowing what was out there. He used his fishing skills to feed himself and dug a burrow into the sand when he needed to sleep. It was still scary, being all by himself on a strange beach with minimal memories and no other people. Then Selio and Logan had found him asleep in the sand, though asleep he hadn't exactly been. He had collapsed from the heat earlier in the day and had they not found him he wasn't sure what would have happened to him. The real reason he'd wanted Selio to catch the fish for him is because he was hungry and he wasn't sure he was well enough to do it himself.
"And look where it got us..." Grayson muttered to himself. On the other side of the cave Selio earnestly tried to make full use of his limbs. He could barely move his frigid fingers and his knees and elbows were fairly stiff as well.
"Is it safe to warm up my limbs, or will they like, melt, or something?" Selio asked the Guide.
"I'm not sure. Not about the melting part, your limbs will not melt," Selio breathed a sigh of relief, "But I know that you're not supposed to rewarm limbs suspected of frostbite if you're just going back out into the cold but we won't be back out there for a while." Logan explained. Selio absorbed the information and nodded.
"I'm warming them up, this sucks." Selio said, tempted to just stick his hands into a fire. Logan shrugged.
"If you really want. If there are any extra damage to your tissue just know I warned you." Logan said. Grayson bit his lip.
"It's my fault..." Grayson said quietly from his side of the cave. Selio turned towards him, having not heard what the young Angler had said.
"What was that, kiddo?" He asked while making sure he didn't actually stick his fingers in the fire he'd started. Grayson picked his head up and looked the teenager in the eyes with tears in his.
"It's all my fault!" He exclaimed, still trying to keep his voice down as to not draw attention to the monsters. Selio was taken aback, his eyes wide in shock from the exclamation. Children weren't usually the type to take accountability. He wondered just exactly what Grayson had been thinking about and what he'd been through since he'd ended up here.
Grayson shut his eyes tight, tears still riveting down his cheeks. He heard Selio's footsteps echo through the small cave as he walked towards him. He didn't know what to expect. A kick to the ribs and a "Damn right it is!"? For him to snag his coat back with a scowl? To be thrown out to the cold and monsters? What he expected certainly wasn't a playful hair tussle and a well-intentioned laugh. He opened his eyes and stared at Selio in confusion.
"If it's anyone's fault it's ours, little man," Selio said smiling down at him, "Honestly we should have realized how long I'd taken fishing. If we had we would've stayed at the beach instead of venturing out into the cold. Honestly, I blame that one on Logan here." Selio joked, jabbing a thumb in his friend's direction.
"Oh, I'm so sorry that you can't keep track of time while you sat there holding a stick." Logan scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"Hey man, fishing is serious business! Isn't that right, Grayson?" Selio and Logan both laughed.
"B-but I'm the one who tricked you into it anyways! I lied about the boat! Your arms are all frozen 'cause I have your coat!" Grayson yelled. Selio gave him a serious look.
"Kid, listen. People don't just sleep in the middle of the beach under the sweltering sun because they're tired, and the coat? If it was me that had worn it all the way out here you might already be dead. I'll be fine. You wanted that fish because you were hungry and didn't think you'd be able to get it yourself, right?" Selio asked. Grayson was amazed that Selio had known all along and slowly nodded. "Speaking of that, give it here and will fry it up, along with my fingers." Selio grinned, unsuccessfully wriggling his frigid fingers. Grayson fumbled in his pockets for the fish and handed it to Selio. The silver haired teen guided him over to the fire and handed the fish to Logan, who skewered it with a stick and held it over the fire. Logan saw Grayson's still confused face, his tearstained cheeks shining in the light of the fire.
"We don't blame you, Grayson." He said simply. Grayson identified the sincerity in his tone and slowly smiled.
As morning came and light peeked through their tarp-wall, the three cave-dwelling travelers packed up their little belongings and set out, making it back to their 'home' in short time. As soon as they were in sight Lucania came storming at them with fire in her eyes.
"What. The. FUCK?!" She screeched at them, "You weren't supposed to be gone for an entire day, I thought you were fucking dead! I thought you were smarter than this, Logan! And what happened to you Mister 'I'll Be Fine I Have a Coat'! I see your stiff movements, you got frostbitten, didn't you?! Go lay in the sun or something, dumbass!" Selio responded by merely lying on the ground and deciding to stare at the sky until she stopped, "You left Frederick here mumbling about boats and losing his brand-new customers! Logan what happened with the boat?" Logan took a second to respond, not having realized she'd ended her tirade.
"We found no boat, sorry." Logan explained shortly. Lucania's eyebrows furrowed her eyebrows in frustration.
"Did you find anything?" She asked. Logan nonchalantly gestured to Grayson who was sitting on the ground poking Selio in the cheek.
"Also, we have discovered that zombies in the arctic wear parkas! Isn't that interesting?" Logan informed her excitedly. Lucania ignored him as she stared at Grayson incredulously.
"You brought back a fucking kid!?" She screeched. Logan explained their occurrences on the beach and in the arctic. Lucania pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, not even caring to try anymore. "Okay so we'll have Selio build another room, I guess one more addition isn't so bad. Anything to add, Selio?" Lucania asked the sunbathing teenager. Selio directed his gaze up to her and thought.
"You look cute with your hair down." He admitted. Lucania blushed furiously and kicked him in the ribs before storming off to inform Frederick that 'Dumb and Dumber' and their little sidekick 'Fish-Boy' are here, which very much confused the elderly man.
"What the fuck?!" Selio called after her, clutching his assaulted ribcage in pain.
"She's very loud." Grayson stated as he watched Selio roll around on the ground cursing. Logan snorted and walked off to find a book. Grayson had easily decided that being here would be much more interesting than sitting around fishing all day.
Sorry chapter took so long but good news is that I'm almost a lifeguard! I've been training for the past while and it's taken up a lot of my time, not to mention I start school again on Wednesday. Thanks for reading!
R: Interesting start, reminds me off that short comic series on youtube. Any pairings in the story?
A: I've never heard of this comic series, what is it? I do plan on having pairings in the story at some point, yes. Have I decided what they'll be? Not just yet.
R: Tbh, the story won't get any attention until like chapter 6-8, but just saying, this is my fav terraria fic so far (with only 2 chapters. Don't give up on this, it has alot of potential and I hope to see it one day in the front page of the most followed/reviewed/favorite fanfics on terraria. Excelent chapter, I wonder how could things go with the wall of flesh (if it even reaches that point) Logan seems pretty close to the protag. Hoping you can update soon
A: With Terraria's limited popularity in the fanfiction department, I have realized that it will take a while for it to rise up in the ranks. Though, I have those hopes as well! I thank you for your support. Yes, the Wall of Flesh ordeal will be quite interesting, won't it? And trust me, I plan on taking this story as far as I can, considering I can increase my work ethic and update time, which I am working on!