Chapter 8: Bad Areas
Night was falling upon the bright galaxy sky quickly and temperature was beginning to drop rapidly, if Kayla could guess or had a temperature reader then it would most likely say it's around 10 degrees despite it feeling like it was below 0.
Kayla who made a small pile of wood to slowly toss a few pieces into the fireplace she had just gotten going after her and Gwenn had found a suitable cabin within the old abandoned town as it had started to also snow outside.
Kayla, glancing at Gwenn who was sitting in his usual position like last time of being criss crossed, elbow on his leg and resting his hand against his cheek with his eyes closed. She can tell he was exhausted, cold and obviously still wet as they had just gotten settled, she let out a small sigh and stood up, scrounging around in the bag after tossing another piece of wood into the fire and blowing at it to get it going some more for warmth.
She grabbed the only towel that was in the bag, which made her glad as he seemed to have just about everything in this large bag, she also grabbed the very furry blanket that looked comfortable along with a brush she wished knew about sooner, and silently made her way to Gwenn, placing them down next to him and crouching down in front of him to his level.
She gave him a sad look realizing she had pushed him to this point, she had gotten some sleep and he hasn't as she had left him alone up in the cabin of the bar for several hours probably worrying him and unable to rest at all for entire day or two now, she couldn't remove the fact she also blocked him out when that bartender pissed her off and only was focused on the one task which was that trail that they now were completely off course from.
She was warned by not just the bartender and the elder, but also Gwenn, she regretted not listening to them as she should've just waited and thought it through and now Gwenn was taking the consequences for her mistake as he could not fly and was freezing, they could've honestly just flew or went around all that danger but instead her vulgar intentions had led them straight through it.
Kayla, gently placing her hand on his cheek to gain his attention, she didn't want him to fall asleep just yet as he only responded with fright, immediately recoiling a bit and jumping also spooking her slightly but quickly took action as she placed both hands on the sides of his face, making him look at her and soothing her thumb under his eye trying to calm him down.
"Hey hey, it's ok…" Kayla said softly, she didn't mean to spook him as he was clearly out of it, lost in thought and falling asleep and she could feel him shivering despite being always his usual warm self and now he wasn't and it honestly scared her a bit, not wanting him to get ill again.
"Can I dry and brush your wings?" She asked him, she didn't want to mess or tend to his wings without his consent as she doesn't know if they were sensitive to the touch, she hasn't really touched or messed with his wings other than that one time when he was passed out but based on what she's experienced so far they most likely weren't fragile at all.
"Don't care…" He said tiredly, returning to his usual posture. Now that she thought about it and remembers, he's honestly been pretty carefree with a lot of things in mostly regards to letting her touch him, let alone hug and tend to his injuries that were now just about fully healed. Though, she can tell he was still growing used to having company around this often due to how often he seems to be getting spooked sometimes.
She grabbed the towel and brush and decided to start with his right wing, they both were slumped down and tucked close to him though he willingly slightly stretched out the one wing out for her. She dried with the towel before brushing, she hated to admit it but she was glad they were sorta wet, made it easier to brush and smooth out his fur and feathers, she also glanced over his wing at him once noticing him relaxing and drifting off, seemed this was actually putting him to sleep and she found his soft spot.
Kayla smiled at the sight of Gwenn relaxed and falling asleep, after seeing him as tense almost all the time, she let out a subtle sigh. Quietly she tried not to disturb him, still brushing his wings, stopping when she heard snow fall from a nearby branch thinking someone was outside. She carefully stood up, moving and peeked through the window of the cabin to see if anyone was out there.
Kayla sighing and calming her nerves thinking her stressed mind is messing with her, she went back to brushing and drying Gwenns wings a bit more before gently placing the blanket around him as he fully dozed off. She sat back at the fire, glancing at him asleep made her feel sleepy but she couldn't sleep, she had already obviously gotten several hours of sleep back at the bar, not only that, she still had a small migraine.
Something at the back of her mind is telling her to stay awake as well, every time she tried to close her eyes, images of what she had witnessed flash before her eyes, spooking her awake as she tended to still at least try and sleep a bit. Though all the violence and things that have happened to this point, traumatized her.
Kayla sighed once more, giving up on trying to sleep and tried to watch over Gwenn like he had done for her as she was listening to the crackle of the fire in front of her, she stroked the embers and broken burning wood with another stick as she hears the wind pick up speed outside. She was relaxing herself, the warmth of the fire was very calming and helped, made her feel safe as she glanced out at the window. "Maybe we can finally have a nice peaceful night's rest…" She said softly to herself, resting her hand on her cheek and staring at the fire.
The wind began to howl almost masking any other sound from outside, the cabin rumbled slightly and almost seemed like it was being knocked around by the powerful wind, but still the cabin stood strong despite its age. Kayla quickly began to realize a snow storm was admitting outside, fast and obviously just getting worse and more cold.
Unknown to them both that something big was right outside, and seemed extremely angry and hungry. The unseen behemoth reels back its arm ready to push down the side of the cabin Kayla and Gwenn were holed up in for warmth and shelter, and a hopefully peaceful night until the storm passed as well.
A behemoth sized hand punched through the wall of the cabin, nearly missing both of them, this caused Kayla to let out a loud shriek which caused to scare Gwenn awake who lost balance when he felt the force of the massive fist that swung very close to his face, the behemoth roared loudly in anger as it picked up a tree from outside, reading itself to swing.
Gwenn reacting fast as he recovered quickly from his sudden frighten backward fall, grabbed Kayla and running out the back of the cabin nearly out of the way of the tree the behemoth swung, destroying nearly the whole cabin and putting the fire out as wood and just about everything about that cabin had flown into parts within the air.
The behemoth in a fit of rage threw the tree at the remainder of the cabin, causing it to collapse completely, realizing it lost sight of both Gwenn and Kayla, and started to sniff around which sounded like very loud huffs echoing through the area.
The behemoths snarls angrily as it couldn't smell either of them, who were now buried under the snow because of nearly being crushed under the cabin and were very much not in the mood for a fight, the behemoth starts to stomp away almost shaking the very ground with each step, almost disappearing into the snow storm like your average abominable snowman.
Kayla then popped her head out of the snow from where they were buried, Gwenn who was the one who resulted in the solution, as he had covered her with his wings had become annoyed at the fact Gwenn just got snow in his wings again. Kayla tries her best to dig Gwenn out of the snow who is promptly shivering and annoyed for the same reason, obviously giving up on trying to burst himself out at this rate.
Both understood if they stayed out in the snow those fox like creatures might stalk and attack them again, their best bet was to keep moving in hopes of finding a new place to hide from the snow storm before they froze to death. Kayla who quickly grabbed the remains from the cabin such as the blanket and bag that were surprisingly alright.
As the storm got worse it fogged more of their vision, Kayla had resorted to being a walking blanket burrito while Gwenn used his wings and arms to shield her and himself from the cold biting air that surrounded the both of them, treading carefully to not attract those fox creatures to their location or of any more possible traps.
As they wandered through the storm the duo spotted out in the distance what seemed like a fire, glowing orange hot. They carefully approached the fire only to see a bunch of those same looking crazed people wearing clothing seemingly made from the fox creatures from the surrounding area, all of them seemingly dancing around a statue of some girl, with a familiar distinction to it.
Kayla in awe at the sight of the statue, thought those people down there around the fire had made it, and that they might actually be intelligent, though she thought wrong when she heard one of them talk, "Fud col, me angy!" One of them shouted, dancing around aggressively like a monkey. At that moment Kayla's face went from one of semi joy to utter annoyance almost face palming in response despite the cold on her face.
Kayla, completely done with this crap, looked over at Gwenn who was staring down at them, also showing an annoyed expression and seemingly done too. "Lets go around before these...bone headed dull as water imbeciles notice us, if they are even capable of even recognizing us through the trees and storm..." Kayla says as she trails off her sentence with variations on the word dumb, Gwenn not hesitating to agree as they tried to walk through the snow in an attempt to bypass camp idiot below.
Kayla clearly annoyed with hearing the idiotic half speech those knuckle heads were speaking, trying to cover her ears in a vain attempt to ignore them, almost feeling her own brain cells deleting themselves. She would honestly rather deal with loud kids than crazy loud people who couldn't even speak proper grammar.
The voices started to sound distant and drowned out by the howling wind, both Kayla and Gwenn saw a mine shaft, quickly deciding to take shelter in it, hoping there aren't any dangers in the said mine, like bats for example because ew, bats.
As they wandered into the mine thinking it was safe, Gwenn who had started to set a campfire before they completely froze to death from the extreme storm outside, that was still howling away outside the mine and could be heard clearly by them.
As the wind howling echoed through the mine, Gwenn was able to finish getting the fire started, and Kayla who tried to warm up by sitting next to the fire, she knew Gwenn needed to be dried off and rebrushed as his wings were clearly not built very well for being wet, but knowing now nothing would cause his wings to get soaked well, at least for a little while.
Kayla sighed after warming up and promptly started to dry off and brush Gwenn wings again, sighing after words once more, feeling safe where they both were for the time being. That peace slowly wears away with sounds coming deeper from the mine shaft, sounds that sounded like aggravated squeaks echoing and slowing approaching.
Kayla, looking deeper into the mine, clearly annoyed, just yelled down the mine shaft, "Don't even think about it!" She growled loudly. The sounds stopped for a short moment, almost as if whatever was making the sounds were frightened by Kayla's attempt to sound threatening and had at least some intelligence, only for them to continue once more as if ignoring and pushing Kayla's utter annoyed shout away.
"Yelling at them won't make them shut up, I'm annoyed as well and it is disturbing, but you'll grow used to it. Plus, don't do that again unless you're wanting us to be found." Gwenn said as he sat down on the opposite end of the fire, wings folded close for more warmth. Kayla, who was only covering her ears at this point, plopping down onto the ground still in her little blanket burrito as she let out an annoyed growl.
The sounds went on for hours, as annoying as it was. The only thing Kayla can do was just look annoyed about it, letting out a slight sigh and watching the storm outside hoping it passes, so they can see more then three feet in front of them and continue their journey out of this freak show area.
Kayla looked back at the fire, "How long do these storms last if you know?" she asked as she stared at the fire becoming slightly distorted when she heard his response, "Not entirely sure, heard rumors they can last for hours at the least. Weeks at most." Gwenn said as he poked the embers of the campfire with a small stick.
Kayla Directed her attention at Gwenn, "You know... It would be nice if we had marshmallows that are not stale. Stick them on sticks and toast them over the fire that would be nice." She only saw Gwenn just stare at her confusingly in response, not saying a word. "Wait... You know what a marshmallow is, right?" She questioned, looking a bit shocked to see him shake his head in response.
"What do you mean you don't know!?" She said with slight shock, "I just don't, sugar isn't common to come by here anymore..." Gwenn replied back to her question, "Look when we get back to Arkawa, you need to try a marshmallow!" She exclaimed excitedly.
Gwenn looked at her with his eyes, subtly with a small concerned expression, "Maybe if and when we get there, ok?" Gwenn said, seeing she is still staring outside the mine, faintly hearing the creatures outside but has the feeling they won't bother being somewhere with not enough snow to hide in.
In what seemed like a few hours the night made way to day, but it still was a bad snow storm outside as that the sunlight was blocked out by the thick snow storm clouds, Kayla falling asleep slightly after the exhausting time the night prior having two close calls, and having to trek through miles of thick snow wore her out, she looked back at Gwenn who to no surprise was out cold sleeping.
The storm slowly lightened up revealing partially the snow covered forest the duo wandered into on their way to find Arkawa which still seemed like a very far off journey to a destination that is still unknown to where.
Kayla woke up after sleeping next to the fire and yawned, annoyed at how the storm was still continuing its rampage. She then returned her look at Gwenn, standing up with a stretch and making her way in front of him, poking his face subtly, "Hey sleepy… Wake up… you didn't become a turtle sicle I hope?" She said, only for him to be subtly snoring away, clearly sleeping off the exhaust, this caused her to sigh slightly, clearly still too exhausted mostly because of the cold air and the cozy fire letting out a soft warmth. "Sheesh… I think I know how he feels like, sleeping all the time..." Kayla said to herself as she tried to smack her face trying to fully wake up after letting out yet another yawn.
Kayla after waking up enough, just poked Gwenn face out of boredom a bit, "Still crazy how hard it is for you to wake up sometimes..." She said, still poking his face snickering at how his face looked when it was poked. She's never seen someone who sleeps so deeply like he does, it actually made her somewhat jealous, sleeping through everything without worrying about waking up to the slightest sound or danger, but it also resulted badly in situations like these.
Kayla bored again sighed, taking a stick to draw in the snowy edge near the mine, trying to draw her parents clinic back home, she looked at the picture she drew and smiled for a little bit before frowning, thinking if her parents would even recognize her after everything she had been through so far as she sat in Silence for a short moment.
"Am I even anywhere close..." Kayla said to herself as she looked out into the distance which is still partially shrouded by the unusual snow storm, even if it was lighting up, it was taking its time about it, as if it was just there to spite her.
Kayla became annoyed and frustrated, stomping back and sitting near Gwenn, mumbling to herself, still mad at the continuous storm outside slowing and stopping them, she looked deeper into the mine.
Kayla contemplated for a moment and decided to wake Gwenn, as she readied to slap him awake, he caught her hand before the slap connected "Don't even think about going that way." Gwenn says as he opens one of his eyes, subtly giving her a stern expression.
Kayla looked surprised at the thought that Gwenn wasn't fully asleep this time and scowled a bit, "What..things? The bats? So? There were bats back home, how bad can these ones be?" Kayla said back to Gwenn who looked at her with a raised brow, "And... how big are those bats, Hm?" Gwenn questioned her as he sat up, who promptly replied "They weren't that big at all! So I'm sure these one be any bigger, what you think I'm scare of some tiny bats or something?" Kayla says as she tries to act all tough.
Gwenn only sighed, not wanting to even bother arguing with her. "Fine, if you don't think it's that bad i'll be right behind you." Gwenn said to Kayla moving aside to let her take the lead into the mine, Kayla looking at Gwenn still trying to be tough "Fine, I'm not scared of some tiny bats..." Kayla said in a tough manner as she walked down the mine, bravely taking each step into the cold damp darkness, stopping slightly hearing the squeaks of the bats in the distance, Kayla despite being startled by the sounds, still pressed forward, with Gwenn right behind her with a unamused look on his face.
After a while some bats flew above them as if oblivious to Kayla and Gwenn, seeing no other bats, as they wandered deeper into the mine a tiny bat head popped out from Kayla's hair, with her unaware, Gwenn just stared at the tiny bat, contemplating if he should tell her or not.
Gwenn started to snicker slightly at how ridiculous Kayla looked with the tiny bat in her hair suddenly, that how ever got her attention "What's so funny…?" She asked him in an annoyed manner. "There isn't anything bad about these bats." She says as the squeaks from the bats seem to come back fast when she says that, "What's so funny!?" Kayla questioned as she heard him snicker once more, stopping to look at him, with the small bat looking at him too as if it was mimicking Kayla.
Gwenn still snickering at Kayla seeing the bat is now mimicking her motions while sitting in her hair, "Ok really what's so funny?!" Kayla questioned annoyingly as she pointed at Gwenn, the bat doing the same thing as her, Kayla annoyed with the lack of answer started to walk again deeper into the old mine as she jolted around angrily, mumbling angry to herself clearly not going to get an answer out of Gwenn.
As they went deeper the mine felt bigger and bigger the more they wandered into the unknown, the bats from earlier still squeaking in the distance from them, almost as if following them, then the squeaks started to sound angry as bats swarmed around Kayla but not outright attacking her, she clearly didn't know that as her first instinct was to run around like a headless chicken swarmed with bats as they followed.
Kayla who is still swarmed with bats ran through the different connecting mine shafts as if it was a shall way, with Gwenn who leaned against the wall, with an annoyed and unamused expression upon his face, watching as Kayla still ran through the mine shafts being chased by an ever growing swarm of bats, clearly angry with her, almost like they think she took something from them.
Kayla tripping over a rock caused the small bat to roll out of her hair, squeaking in a confusing manner as if it wasn't sure why the fun ride it was on stopped suddenly or why its family was chasing.
Kayla stared at the small bat and thought for a bit, then widened her eyes and said "Was that in my hair?!" She yelled as she looked at Gwenn who just shrugged back at her. "What do you think?" he said, only for her to say "see, told you they were small!" She said as she picked up the bat and looked up to see bigger really really angry bats staring at her.
Kayla chuckled nervously, raising the small bat up to the bigger bats, only for the small bat to climb up her arm and into her hair once more, seeing this really made the bat swarm mega angry, and started to chase Kayla again trying to bite her until she gave the small bat back, "Gwenn! Ok I get it, now please help!" Kayla pleaded out to him as she was still chased.
"I'm sorry, speak up, I couldn't hear you over the bats!" Gwenn said back to Kayla who was still busy being chased by bats as Kayla yelled out "Ok you were right I was wrong, there I admit it now please help!" She yelled out to him hoping he'd help, Gwenn sighed and picked up some dirt, throwing it at the bat swarm, scaring them off, this caused the small bat to stick out from Kayla's hair.
Kayla clearly not wanting a bat in her hair said to it "Come on, time to go, shoo, go back to the other bats..." she tried to say nicely to the bat, all this managed to achieve was the bat burying itself into her hair to hide from the other bats. Gwenn getting a sudden realization, "Kayla.. This may sound odd but I think that it thinks you're its mother." he said to her as he pointed at her. "It what?!" Kayla said in surprise, realizing it's just a baby that decided to nest in her hair for safety and warmth, Kayla carefully reached into her hair to pet the little bat only to feel it nibble at her finger.
She snickered at her finger being nibbled by the baby bat, softly petting the bat and carefully picked it up and cradled it in her arms. "Awwww can we keep it Gwenn can weeeeeeee!?" She asked Gwenn, trying to imitate puppy eyes, only for Gwenn to look at her unamused yet again.
Gwenn sighed and thought for a bit, directing his attention at the bat, then her, then back to the bat and letting out another sigh. "Fine but it's your responsibility, not mine." he said, causing her face to glow with the biggest smile he ever saw on her face, She immediately softly hugged Gwenn then the bat in her arms and walked down the mine shaft with Gwenn close behind her and watching the ground slightly to make sure they don't step on a corroded part of the ground and potentially cause a cave in.
The bat started to squeak frantically as Kayla was going to take another step but the bat squeaks caused Gwenn to grab Kayla as parts of the ground collapsed under her, revealing what looked like a fifty foot drop to who knows where.
Kayla just stared silently at the hole that opened below her, obviously scared at the sight of it and tried not to move as Gwenn pulled her back up to solid ground with just one arm, sighing in relief. "Be careful here.. This place is older than I thought, be glad the bat knew something was wrong before it was too late." he said, glancing down at the drop.
Kayla scurried close to him scared at the fact of the fall, worried if she stepped on another bad footing on the ground the whole thing might fall, the bat just squeaking away ruffling Kayla's hair as it scampered into her hair.
Gwenn kept kayla close, almost walking in a single file line through the remainder of the mine, hoping to see an exit of sorts and hope this mine didn't stretch on forever, or they have been walking in a loop not going anywhere, with Kayla asking out of concern "Do you think this leads anywhere.. It feels like we have been walking in place for
hours now..." She questioned as she looked around the damp mine.
The duo came across torches that appeared to have been lit recently, this caused Gwenn to crouch down and move carefully, hearing what sounds like voices ahead of them, along with slight sounds of metal clanging, like pickaxes, or hammer to metal, either someone was mining or there is a forge of sorts ahead of the duo.
Gwenn caught the scent of molten metal so his best guess there was a forge ahead of them but unknown to them is who's using it, Gwenn taking a slight chance to peek, seeing a lot of people in some sort of metal armor patrolling around people that seem to be unusually short.
What they saw is that the forge seems to be for making weapons made from a strange metal, a metal that's unfamiliar to both of them, as both looked around, they saw an exit on the far side of the forge opposite of them, Gwenn took lead to sneak through to the exit.
As kayla tried her best to keep up with Gwenn and be sneaky like him, clearly she wasn't as sneaky as him and knocked over a pair of crucible tongs, Luckily Gwenn reacted fast enough catching the tongs mid air and placing them back, grabbing Kayla and helping her by guiding her through the forge, which seem to stretch on and on.
Both of them suddenly stopped when a group busted into the forge, running in as if it was a raid of sorts that was happening right in front of them, the sounds around them was just pure chaos inside the forge.
Gwenn taking the chance, grabbing Kayla by her hand and ran full Sprint out of the forge and seemingly outside, only to see more snow on the other side, Kayla looking back at the mine to see it was a whole mountain they went through Kayla then looked in awe at the mountain only for a second before Gwenn tugged her along, trying to get her to move because that chaos in the forge might seep outside any second.
As they ran deep into the snow covered forest beyond the cave, the sounds of the fight behind them still echoed almost like the chaos was following very close behind them, both of them stopping, and dead tired.
Kayla looked back at where they came from only seeing smoke and fire behind them, more than likely caused by the fight that broke out behind them. "Were those barbarians...out here?" Kayla asked, clearly worried at the fact they may have been followed or maybe some made their way up here trying to prove they are tough enough to their leaders.
Gwenn realizing those people who attacked may actually have been barbarians, he gently pulled Kayla prompting her to move. "They might be, if that's the case, there might be more on the way.." Gwenn said as he led Kayla along the snow covered forest.
Out in the far distance just over the tree line, seemed to be tall, old, and mostly broken and snow covered towers, seemingly close and yet so far almost at the same time, the sight was beautiful yet terrifying at the same time, "Gwenn..look at the towers..I have a bad feeling about going this way" Kayla said in a cautious tone to him.
The towers that are miles off seemed to be in the direction they needed to go, Gwenn looked at the buildings "Looks like it's north.. We have to go that way, are you ready to keep moving Kayla?" Gwenn asks, who replies by nodding relecutivly.
As the duo ventured off northward, now towards an old ruin of a metropolis, into the unknown, who knows what kind of trouble awaits them on the path ahead.