A real shorty this time around. The end suited well in my opinion so I figured it would be best to end it there.
I hope you enjoy the new chapter :D
Somewhere inside the icy confines of the underground ancient cave, droplets of cold water dripped from stalagmites that had formed ages ago in a steady rhythm. When they reached the frozen ground their forms shattered into billion pieces of their former self, the resonating splash crawling across the seemingly endless ongoing walls of solid water.
It was the first noise that her ears picked up. They wiggled slightly with each plop in the far distance, uncertain whether they should let the incoming sensation pass any further. Ultimately they decided to do so. Much to their owner's disdain. The annoying sound disturbed her peaceful slumber and succeeded in ripping her away from it. The dreamy barriers inside her mind crumbled to dust and before she understood what was going on, her eyes already flattered open.
There was not much light and so she barely saw a single thing. But what she saw was at least enough to calm her worries of being in immediate danger. Aside from the still falling droplets of water, there was no other sound, except the dull and steady beat of a drum. She felt with the skin of her right cheek how its source pulsated with every beat. If not for the watery noises washing over her in an unending stream the drum would have lulled her straight back to sleep.
It was a warm and comforting sound and she had to admit it felt like balsam to her mind and soul. She rummaged through her memories whether she had felt anything similar beforehand but only discovered emptiness. The warmth emitting from this newfound perception spread across her body and pulled her firmly yet gently closer and she allowed it to happen without fighting back nor a seconds hesitation. Too alluring and too addicting was this new sensation. The echo of the water was pushed further and further into the background until it had vanished entirely from her senses' radar and she was about to fall asleep again but suddenly her brain reminded her of today's events.
At first, the crazy swordsman bastard who attacked and stabbed her for no reason and then the bitches who dared to threaten her friend. She vividly remembers how Fenrir's fur was tainted by his own blood. A sight she hated and never wanted to see ever again. And those responsible for it would pay the price! She got all of them really good already, especially the silver-haired maniac with his burning sword, but it was not enough to quell her thirst for revenge. Considering what they had done to Fenrir the bastard got what he deserved and Laurana felt no remorse whatsoever about her actions and if they would meet again she would give him even more, all of them. But playing the battle in front of her inner eye again her thoughts soon solely whirled around the brown-haired boy around her age.
She was everything but in top shape but the same could be said about him as well. From the weary and tired look of all members of the group, she concluded that they must have been awake the whole day, probably even without much of a rest. Still, the other teenager was capable of holding his own against her. She had learned that weapons are unreliable in wild nature so she transformed her own body into a weapon of flesh and bones and not once was she betrayed by it. She had overcome struggles beyond imagination but this time the wall was too high for her to reach the top.
It was the first time that a human was able to counter her every move and if the situation wouldn't have been so dire she might even consider it as a funny occurrence. It has been a contest of not only strength but skills and technique as well and for the first time, she saw the tiniest glimpse of enjoyment in the heat of battle.
So far fighting has only been her means of surviving. Whether it was to get her hands on meat or simply to defend herself against the wild and feral Zeugles roaming the frozen land of Cyslodia didn't matter to the blond girl as long as she could see a new day arise at the horizon. But when she crossed fists with the boy things changed. A small spark was lit inside her but she wouldn't allow it to grow because no matter how she looks at the events, he belongs to the people responsible for Fenrir's suffering and she won't forgive this.
She should have listened to Fenrir's inquiry on that day a few years ago. It was the time she met the other teenager for the first time. He was already frozen half to death when Fenrir and her stumbled upon him, his limbs showing clear signs of Hypothermia with his skin blue and purple alike. It was no wonder since he was basically naked with only dirty rags covering his body. It looked like he was not even from this country, to begin with since the stench of ash and fire clung to his body like sticky nasty glue.
It was not the first occurrence when she found people in this condition. Even the thickest winter clothes won't be able to save their owner when faced with the bottomless powers of mother nature. She's simply too powerful so in order to cling longer to life, the human body goes through large lengths to prevent death even if this means sacrificing mobility, independence and self-sufficiency by stopping the circulation of the red life elixir through arms and legs. A cruel fate indeed and she has seen that there is as much hope in doing so as in trying to rebel against the Renan Overlords from beyond the heavens.
Still, when Fenrir moved on to end the boy's suffering his crystal teal eyes opened and found her mismatched pair. Time haltered as they gazed at each other in this small aspect of everlasting eternity. He must have just returned from death's doorstep so there was mostly confusion in his eyes but beyond that tangled mess, well hidden behind veils and walls crafted from his own thoughts, Laurana found what she didn't expect.
Why have I been born? Why do I live on? What is my reason for existing? Substantial questions everybody should be able to answer easily enough no matter how silly it may be in the end. If one was unable to give any form of response to these inquiries, death was waiting with wide opened arms, welcoming any newcomer in its domain with warm happiness. The blond girl was so surprised by the revelation because it was the same look she saw every day she continued to exist further.
After all, it is the very same look she gives off on a daily basis in her personal search for the reason of life, the purpose she has to fulfil in the gigantic construct that is called life. So far she hasn't found it yet and was still searching, just like the boy laying buried in a soft layer of snow, his body shaking furiously from winter's soft kisses. Before she realised what she was doing her right arm and hand were stretched out in front of Fenrir, stopping him in his tracks.
Bewildered by her sudden interaction he stared at his friend for a short while, before his gaze returned to the young human. He shifted it back and forth between the two teenagers, wondering what the blond girl with blue strands had in mind for the intruder.
She took a few, small steps forward, cautious for any sudden movements from the other child. The snow crunched beneath her bare feet as she reduced the distance more and more until she stood directly in front of the boy. He had passed out again, utterly helpless against the relentless forces of nature and death. Much to the ice Zeugle's dismay she crouched down and took a closer look at him.
She placed two fingers at his neck, right under the right side of his jaw and softly pressed into his flesh, searching for his pulse until she found it. Then she turned him around so the boy was no longer laying on his stomach. His body yielded without hesitation to her actions and let her do with him whatever she wanted to. In his unconscious state, he was totally at her mercy. Whether he would live on, solely decided in her palm and hers alone.
After turning him around so he would rest on his back her nimble fingers danced across each of his frozen limbs, examining whereas there was any hope left for them to recover from the damage they had already taken up to this point. She also searched for any other injuries and when she found none her gaze flickered to Fenrir.
The icy wolf had known her long enough to immediately understand, what the raging waves inside her mismatched eyes meant. For a reason he couldn't and didn't want to understand, she had decided to rescue the boy and whether he liked it or not, he was going to assist her in this matter.
His human companion has a ridiculous strong will, a godsend when living in the untamed wilderness but unfortunately her unyielding will made her quite stubborn as well. Once her mind was set on something nothing could stop her anymore. Any walls blocking her path would be torn apart by her bare hands. This is why Fenrir worries about her, this is why Fenrir stays by her side no matter what trouble she causes, this is why the Nordic wolf loves the girl as if she was his own offspring.
Neither of them expected, that they would see the boy ever again and without a doubt not under the circumstances they did reunite. If she had just listened to her friend, the spiky-haired hedgehog could never have hurt Fenrir or at least belong to the group which had done the damage. He would have been simply another corpse buried underneath the never-ending snow but on a whim, she saved his life and in return he almost participated in killing her one and only friend.
Simply thinking about this fact is more than enough to make her blood boil but not because she hates him. Her hands tighten to raging fists and tremble furiously because she is angry at herself for thinking it would do her any good of rescuing people from freezing to death. In the end, she got what she deserved for her blindness in this regard. Blaming the other teenager would be equal to denying the bitter truth.
As hard and hurtful as it is to admit but in the end she reaped what she sow on that day and she is the sole person to blame for Fenrir's suffering today. But suddenly the last missing pieces of her memory from today's events returned to her and her eyes widened in shock when she remembered what had happened before the fight could come to its conclusion.
By their final clash the earth beneath their feet broke and opened its hungry maw, swallowing not only her but the brown-haired boy as well as it was unable to withstand neither her opponent's strength nor her own. She remembers that a stone hit her and afterwards there's nothing but black inside her mind, a canvas of darkness painted on a wall of nothing but the blackest black, rendering its beauty invisible for the open eye.
The blankness her mind offers her tells Laurana that she must have fallen unconscious and when this thought cruised through her mind she gasped audibly and shot upwards or at least tried so. Something had taken hold around her and stopped her advent with clingy desire, restricting and denying her much room to move. If she was in top form there's almost nothing that could stop her from doing whatever she wants to but the wound she received earlier still puts enormous restrictions on her abilities.
Whatever it was which held her down, the blond teenager was at least able to move her head freely and with it her perspective of view as well. She looked around herself but didn't find anything that could serve as the reason for her restriction. The same applied to the ceiling. Aside from rocks covered in a thin layer of ice, there was nothing else. Finally, she turned her view to the last possible location and what she discovered made her breathe hitch because what she found was beyond her expectations.
So far she thought it might have been ancient tree roots buried inside the earth for a very long time which had caught her but she was wrong about the origin. Instead of woody confines, it was arms made of flesh and bones that held her close to their owner. Due to her narrow options of movement, her face was only mere inches away from the face of her assailant. It was the boy around her age she had fought intensively before they both fell into the first pit towards hell.
She lay atop him, their chests tightly pressed against each other and their legs a tangled mess. Even though his thick, green uniform, she could feel his steady heartbeat with her own while his chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm despite the extra weight of her body sprawled across him. Her hands were placed at each side of his young and boyish face from her attempt of rising but his arms tightly locked around her back prevented her from doing so. His eyes were closed and from his silent breathes she realised that he was fast asleep. His mouth twitched sometimes or moved slightly from side to side from whatever dream he had. Since his tongue darted out from time to time in order to wet his lips she supposed it must be something related to food.
If the situation was a different one, Laurana would have laughed her ass off at the display offered to her because it was so funny but right now she couldn't find it in herself to utter even the smallest of chuckles. Not only because he was one of the bastards who almost killed Fenrir but also because their current position was rather embarrassing. They were almost equal in size, he may have a lead by an inch in terms of size minus his flashy hairstyle but the difference was not enough to prevent their inconvenient position. From head to toe, their fronts were pressed against each other and her opponent made things even worse with his steel-tight hug. She could feel every part of his body, especially those where females and males have the most differences and in response to this realisation a soft layer of redness creped up her cheeks and soon spread all over her face and even her ears.
Luckily they were far away from any other humans, at least she hoped so because their current predicament was more awkward than anything else. She may live in the wilderness together with a feral Zeugle but that doesn't mean she is some sort of uneducated barbarian. She can read and write and it had come in handy to know which plants and berries are edible and which ones will cause you to vomit for days every few minutes or transform the bathroom into the bedroom.
Still, knowing about something or experiencing something is a huge difference as Laurana learned at this very moment. Being in the gentle embrace of a man affects her stronger than she expected. In the face of her overly active and raging hormones only possessed as a teenager there was little she could do at the moment.
However, her hormones won't be able to keep control over her other emotions and soon enough her blush had already subsided and left behind was nothing but furious rage about everything that had happened today.
The blond girl kissed by the ocean let her hands slide alongside Law's arms and untangled his intertwined fingers which formed the barrier in front of her freedom. After the last lock was opened she placed his arms and hands above his head and forced them on the ground with her left hand and body weight. Her right hand sneaked to his waist and took a hold of the small survival knife stashed away from the scarce use of its owner. Laurana had caught sight of it the moment she first met all of them outside. It was a natural action for her to scan any opponent she comes across in order to decide whether she stays and fights or if she has to run away.
Fastening her grip on the tool she placed it at his Adam's apple and harshly pushed the sharp metal against his skin, already breaking the first, thin layers protecting life from death. His primal instincts awoke Law from his deep slumber, his crystal teal eyes wet from the essence of dreams. He looked bewildered at her, at the moment unable to comprehend the situation he was in but Laurana wasn't nice enough to wait until he was fully awake. She pressed the cold steel deeper into his skin, forcing a shocked and struggled gasp from the boy's throat before she silenced him with her cruel command, her voice barely louder than a whisper but it only served to make it even more frightening.
"Give Me One Good Reason to not slit your throat."
As long as the plot Zeugle does not run amok once again inside my head the next chapters will mostly focus on Laurana and Law. I hope you look forward to their interactions :)