Breath of Fire: A Frozen Fate

Chapter 2: Off to Wyndia

The next morning, Ryu woke up to see Dyne packing some supplies into a bag. For the first time, Ryu was able to get a good look at him. He looked a bit old, around thirty years old. He had a very muscular build, he wore a very thick black shirt that's covered by a black jacket, blue pants, black leather boots, and two short gloves. He had light skin and the standard woren feline ears and his arm was covered with short yellow fur. Ryu couldn't see if he had any claws, but he felt they were there. Dyne also had short, smooth, blonde hair.

"Where are you off to?" Ryu asked.

"Wyndia settlement. I'm getting loads of profits lately and nothing in nearby settlements interests me, so I'm gonna see if there's anything worth my money in Wyndia." Replied Dyne. Wyndia was the biggest settlement in the world, and probably the only one which most people in the world know it's name. Items considered rare elsewhere sold by the hundreds there. It was owned by the Wyndian race, although many different races lived there.

"Would you mind if I tag along? I don't really have any destination right now and I really want to see Wyndia." Said Ryu.

"Sure no problem. I wasn't really keen on going alone anyway, since John has to stay here to tend the inn." Replied the woren with a smile on his face.

"So, how are we gonna get there? Wyndia is a far away place from here." Stated Ryu. The journey to Wyndia from their current location would take weeks.

"You'll see." Said Dyne with a laugh. He walked to a piece of wall and tapped his finger on it in a special pattern. Suddenly a door to a secret basement opened in the middle of the room. Ryu and Dyne grabbed all their weapons and clothes. Dyne headed down the stairs to the basement. Ryu followed, but not before taking one last look at John, who was sitting behind the desk.

"I could have sworn I saw a dragon yesterday." He said in a defeated voice. Ryu smiled and continued down the stairs behind Dyne.

"Observe." Dyne happily said as he switched the lights on in the basement. Standing in the middle of the room was a green machine standing on four rubber wheels.

"Is this what they used to call...a car?" Ryu said with an amazed look on his face. Most cars were scrapped into more useful tools when the fuel used to power them became scarce and needed to power more vital machines when the Ice Age came. As a result cars became extremely rare.

"Yup, and I'm gonna take it to Wyndia and sell it. I'm not sure if I want it anymore. Someone may find out about it and try to steal it and harm me or John in the process." Dyne continued. "Besides, I'm not a big fan of rare objects. It's better in the hands of some collector."

"How did you get this thing anyway?" Asked Ryu. Suddenly Dyne's face grew tense.

"I'd rather not talk about it." He said quietly.

"I understand." replied Ryu. He has had his fair share of bad memories.

"Well let's get going!" Dyne shouted as his face became cheerful again. He flipped another switch on the wall and part of the ground rose towards a door on the ceiling that opened. It was a secret exit to the road."Jump in!" continued Dyne.

Ryu and Dyne both hopped in with Dyne behind the wheel. The jeep sped forwards out of the garage and onto the road. Dyne was a bit excited since he usually never travels at speeds like this, but Ryu seemed strangely used to the speed.

"So how long will it take us till we get to Wyndia?" Ryu asked.

"At this speed, a day or two. We will have to camp on the road side at night though, so it will take a bit longer." Answered Dyne.

"Fair enough." Ryu replied calmly. An hour of silence passed. There wasn't much to see in the landscape, mostly snow, a few patches of trees here and there, and the mountains. Although Ryu didn't mind the silence, Dyne was quickly getting bored. He tried starting another conversation.

"So Ryu, where do you come from?" Dyne started.

"I don't come from anywhere. I'm just a drifter." Replied Ryu in a calm but serious voice.

"Yeah I understand that but you must have been born somewhere!" Dyne said with a bit more curiousity in his voice. Ryu didn't reply. He just looked away from Dyne. Dyne understood. Ryu seemed a bit more open and friendly to him than most drifters he met, but it was still a mistake to try and get personal information from him.

"...Sorry about that." Dyne finally continued.

"Forget about it." Ryu replied in a friendlier voice than before. Dyne returned to concentrating on the road but something at the back of his mind bothered him. His keen woren senses sensed something not exactly normal about Ryu. Something not exactly...human. The woren quickly shook off this thought and continued driving.

Soon enough, it started becoming dark. Dyne pulled up at the side of the road, switched off the engine, and climbed out.

"I'm not really getting tired, but driving at night is dangerous. Besides, if we sleep now, we'll get an early morning headstart tommorow!" Said the woren.

"Heh, I don't mind. Say, you have some food? I haven't eaten for ages!" Replied Ryu.

"Well I got some canned meat in the back. Although we'll need a fire to cook it. You find something we can burn, while I set up camp, okay?" asked Dyne.

"Fine with me." Ryu said as he turned around and walked away from the jeep. Dyne opened the trunk and started unpacking camping supplies. Ryu used the remaining evening sunlight to scan the surrounding area for plant life. There were almost no trees as far as the eye could see. But he did see a group of bushes about a ten minutes walk away.

"There." thought Ryu. He started walking towards the bushes. The sky started getting a bit darker the more he walked. By the time he got to the bushes the sun's glow near the horizon was the only light visible. He pulled out his sword and quickly hacked off a load of twigs and branches. One minute of hacking later, he had finished. Ryu picked up the huge pile over his shoulder. It was very dark now, and viewing distance was limited, but luckily for him Dyne had left the jeep's headlights open so he could see it from afar. Ryu strolled back to camp in about the same time it took him to reach the bushes. Dyne had already finished setting up the tent, and was laying out two sleeping bags inside. Ryu laid the pile down in front of the tent.

"Right on time I see." Snickered Dyne as he walked outside of the tent wiping his hand. He walked over to the jeep and pulled out several cans of dehydrated meat. "You got any matches?"

"No need" laughed Ryu. His hand glowed for a second and suddenly a fire erupted in the twigs and branches.

"Wow! Magic, that's not something you see much nowadays. Your better than I thought!" exclaimed Dyne.

Ryu just chuckled.

"Believe me, you've seen nothing!" Was all he said. Dyne opened the canned meat with a knife and emptied the contents into two small very old looking metal pots. He held them over the fire for several minutes before passing one of the pots to Ryu. They both ate the meat with their hands. It was silent, for the meat was nothing to brag about, and the incident in the jeep stopped them from starting any conversation. Eventually the meal was finished and the two travelers went into their tent. Although it was warmer than outside, it was still very cold and they had to sleep with all their clothes on, even in the sleeping bags. Dyne had a strange dream...

He was in a dark, hot, rocky place, a tunnel of sorts. As he walked down the tunnel, it got hotter and hotter, but he could never tell where he was. Eventually he was in a very large cave hundreds of feet high and hundreds of feet wide. Small rivers of lava flowed in every direction over the floor. Sitting in the middle of the cave was a large black beast. It was very hard to tell what it was, as it was dark, and just as Dyne started recognizing it, he awoke.

Something was wrong. Dyne raised his head and sniffed the cold air. There was something outside that wasn't outside the night before.

"Ryu! Hey Ryu!" He whispered sharply.

"What is it?" Mumbled Ryu as he got up.

"There's something wrong outside. I'm not sure what it is." Dyne cautiously whispered back.

Ryu didn't reply, he just grabbed his sword and slowly opened the flap that led outside the tent. Just as he started opening it he quickly closed it and turned towards Dyne.

"Damn, a pack of currs heading our way. Quick, grab a weapon and you might not get turned into dog food." Ryu whispered sharply and alarmingly.

Dyne nodded and picked up his rifle. When the two exited the tent, the currs, about five of them, were close to the camp. When they saw Ryu and Dyne exit the tent, they quickly surrounded them in a half-circle formation. Both Ryu and Dyne stood still and alert. Most of the currs seemed young, but one of them, standing in the middle of the formation, was bigger than the others and had several scars running along his body. Ryu assumed he was the leader.

"Why aren't they attacking?" Dyne quickly whispered to Ryu, his teeth clenched. The currs seemed more cautious than usual, as if they were afraid of something. Dyne has had enough. He wasn't going to let the currs take him by surprise. He was a woren, and it was natural for him to have the first strike. He pulled the trigger on his rifle.

The high-powered bullet slammed into the head of the nearest curr, killing it instantly. This caused the remaining currs except the leader to lunge at Dyne and Ryu. Dyne quickly dodged to the right and caused the single curr that was attacking him to land awkwardly. He raised his rifle and quickly fired a bullet into it's side. Although the curr was a large animal, a high-velocity rifle blast at close range was still enough to knock it right off it's feet and wound it heavily. Dyne easily finished it off.

Ryu quickly dodged to the left and with a very quick side slash intercepted the curr in mid-air, knocking it to the ground wounded. Then with a quick forward thrust, he impaled the second curr right before it was about to jump. He pulled his sword out of the dead curr's body and with a powerful downward swipe took out the first curr just as it readied for a second strike. All that was left was the lead curr. Ryu turned towards him only to get hit by an incredible force that knocked the sword out of his hand and sent him flying towards the ground. As he lay helpless on the snow, Ryu stared into the angry, battle-hardened eyes of the leader. He only had a few seconds to think before he would get his head bitten off.

"Well, I guess I have no choice but to use this..." He thought. Ryu closed his eyes and concentrated. Immense amounts of energy moved to every corner of his body. "This stupid puppy is asking to get it's ass whooped, and an ass-whooping is what it will get."

A rifle shot rang out across the snow-covered plains. Ryu's concentration was ruined. The energy dissipated from his body and his eyes shot open. The large body of the curr above him went limp and fell on him. He pushed it off him and looked down at it. A round and very deep hole was in it's neck. Dyne's rifle was smoking.

"Thought you needed a hand." Laughed Dyne.

"Thanks." Chuckled Ryu as he got up and brushed some snow off himself. Apart from a few bruises, he had suffered no injuries.

Ten minutes later, everything was packed and the two travellers were on the road again. The rest of the day passed without anything eventful happening. The volume of roadside travellers and settlements increased as the day went by, but other than that there wasn't much to see other than snow. As the hours passed by, the sun rose into the middle of the sky and back down. The sky started becoming darker and darker again. Just as the sun sunk below the horizon, Wyndia came into view.

"Would you look at that..." Dyne uttered the first words since they set out. Although most of Wyndia's buildings were only one story tall, the vast amount of them were still quite a sight to see in this day and age. With their lights on, the buildings looked like a small wall of light coming closer to the jeep. Before they knew it, Ryu and Dyne were driving through Wyndia's streets. Most of them were empty, and since that was expected, not many lights were laid outdoors and Dyne had to rely on the jeep's headlights to guide him through them. Both Ryu and Dyne noticed a few parked cars, probably belonging to the richer citizens. Soon enough they were parked in front of the inn.

"Phew, finally we're here." Dyne said.

"If you ask me, I would say we arrived here sooner than expected." Replied Ryu. The two entered the inn and got themselves a room. Without saying a word to each other, they immediately hit the beds and went to sleep.

To be continued...

Thank you to anyone who reviewed the last chapter, hopefully this one is long enough. Keep the reviews coming! The plot will start to pick up next chapter. And exams are bogging me down, so don't expect chapter 3 for a while.