Heeyyy…. So there's a very good reason why I've updated so late. (Scene switches to me sitting on a couch in a bathrobe, eating Cheez-Its and binge playing Persona 5) ANOTHER reason. You guys ever feel like so apathetic to everything, that even your passion ends up feeling like a chore? No? Okay. Either way, lately, it's been hard for me to be...happy. I only write these stories to have fun and it's hard to have incentive to do them when rarely anything is fun for you anymore. Also, I'm like REALLY lazy. But I don't think too many people throwing fits over how late I update my fanfic. At least I update more often than Jontron, right?
So you should know the drill by now, I don't own Rooster Teeth or Naughty Dog yadda, yadda, yadda… On with the show.
(Line Break)
The bullhead was in awkward silence as they made their way to their destination. Nathan was going through his ammo clips making sure he had enough dust bullets. Winter was sitting across from him, glaring. And in the pilot in the cockpit was just not trying to poke a sleeping bear.
"So…" Nathan attempted to break the silence. "What business does the Atlas military chasing down a supposed fairy tale?"
"Classified," Winter replied tersely.
"Figures..." Nathan huffed. "So I heard that your sword can turn into smaller sword, why?"
"Classified," She gave the same answer.
"Of course," Nate rolled his eyes. "Seen any good movies lately?"
"Classified," Winter kept her cold glare.
Nate groaned as he leaned back in his seat. "These benches could be a little bit more comfy, you know?"
"These bullheads are for transporting elite Atlas soldiers," Winter scowled. "Not for being comfy."
Nate shrugged. "Wouldn't hurt to toss in a couple of throw pillows."
"You fancy yourself a comedian?" Winter narrowed her eyes.
Nate simply shrugged his shoulders. "I do pretty decent on open mic night."
"Well, let me get one thing clear, Drake," Winter grasped her sword handle threateningly. "This mission is strict Atlas business. I will not tolerate insolence, insubordination, or incompetent stooges who think their funny."
"Oh, please," Nate brushed off her threat. "Do you even know what we're looking for?"
"Hans Christia, the Palace of Diamonds," Winter stated like giving a report. "Long ago, after the brothers of light and darkness left this world, there was an ancient race born of the last traces of magic in the world; The Matayans. Legend says they could use their magic to accomplish the impossible. They could move the earth, see into the minds of others, it is even their magic could create souls."
Winter's eyes became distant. "Eventually, others began to seek out the Matayans and steal their powers to use for their own personal gain. Fighting broke out, fights turned to battles, battles turned to war… until the Matayans decided they no longer wanted any part in this world. They took all their magic and relics, and hid where no one could find them; a city of their own making, Hans Christia, a palace said to be made out of the most precious ore in the world."
"Oookay…" Nate gaped at her. "I didn't ask for that whole exposition dump but… I think it's safe to say you know what we're looking for."
Winter allowed herself a smug grin. You know the one. "I've always been interested in fairy tales, but in the end, that's all they are; Fairy tales."
Nathan narrowed his eyes. "Then I'll ask again. If you're so sure it's just a story, then why are you out here?"
Winter didn't show any reaction. "I don't question my superiors, Drake. I suggest you do the same."
The pilot then meekly called out "Uh… sir- I mean ma'am- I mean-"
"Spit it out, soldier!" Winter snapped.
"Uh…" The pilot tried to hide his voice crack. "We're here."
Winter stood up and made her way to the cockpit. The mountain tops converged together to create a small passage too small for any vehicle, but from above one could see where it lead. A frozen lake dotted with multiple rocks and stone structure sticking out above the water. From above, it almost resembled a snowflake, thus giving it the name...Snowflake snow lake.
Winter suppressed a groan at the name that could have been made by a three-year-old. It was mostly just for tourism, mountain hikes to see the wonders of frozen nature and rock formations. Yet Drake had insisted that's where they started.
"I can't bring the bullhead any closer," The soldier reported. "There's no safe landing space."
"You've done enough," Winter said. "Bring us down."
The pilot nodded and lowered the bullhead. It slowed to a hover at a couple meters off the ground.
The cargo ramp lowered open and Nate and Winter hopped out. "Return to base," Winter spoke into her scroll. "I shall send a message when we need retrieval."
"Roger," the pilot responded. The bullhead lifted off and turned around to fly back to Atlas.
Once the bullhead was out of sight, Winter turned to Drake. "Now, why are we here?"
"Remember that map I told you about?" Nate made his way to the narrow passageway. "At the start of it, was a snowflake."
"And so you believe that it begins here?" Winter raised an eyebrow as she followed him. "Doesn't that seem a bit too obvious?"
"If you've got a better idea of what it means, I'm all ears," Nate walked through the stones.
Winter growled as she followed him. One day, she was going to have a retort for that.
She followed the thief through the icy passage. Now while it may look like snowflake from above, from ground level it just looked a simple frozen lake with awkwardly placed rocks.
"This place has been a tourist attraction for years," Winter walked up behind Drake. "Don't you think that someone would have found this supposedly secret entrance by now?"
Nate didn't respond as he took out a pair of binoculars. He aimed them towards the center of the lake and peered through them. "Well, that would be true unless the entrance was put where no one could reach it."
Winter followed his gaze and caught on to what he was thinking. "The Crystal Heart…" It wasn't anything impressive, just a bit of solid ice in the very center of the lake. But tour guides decided to drum up hype by giving it a name as if it was some sort of sacred treasure.
"It makes sense," Nate put down his binoculars and turned to Winter. "No one can swim in these waters, and due to the formation of the mountain around it, no one can use a bullhead to fly in."
"Very astute observation," Winter conceded. "Unfortunately, if the entrance really is there, how are we supposed to get to it?"
Nate turned back to look at the lake and all the awkward rocks sticking out. "We'll use the rocks."
"What?" Winter raised an eyebrow.
"We use the rocks to jump across," Nate gesture to the white stones.
"Impossible," Winter shook her head. "Those stones are covered in ice and hardly any of them have a stable surface." Indeed barely any of the rocks had a flat surface. "You'll slip, fall into the water, and freeze to death within seconds." The water temperatures in this climate were practically sub-zero so any outdoor swimming was suicidal.
"Well, yeah. I can see how that's impossible...for you," Nate casually said.
Winter narrowed her eyes at the treasure hunter. "Are you mocking me?"
"Who? Me? Oh no no no…" Nathan said innocently. "I'm mocking your choice of footwear," he gestured to her high-heeled boots. "I mean, I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure heels aren't very practical on the battlefield."
Winter scowled at Drake's smug expression. "Fine. Jump into the lake and freeze to death, I won't stop you."
Nathan shrugged and turned towards the icy water body. He started to jog to get a running start, at the end of the bank he leapt towards the nearest rock.
His boots touched base on the stone but the ice removed friction out of the equation, combined with his previous momentum Nathan began to slide of the rock.
Nathan would have met an icy fate if he didn't make a last-minute jump to the next rock, and did the same with the next. Eventually he was forced to leap at a rock that was too steep to land on, but Nate thought fast as he latched his fingers onto the rock's ledge suspending him right above the water's surface.
Nate let out a breath of relief before shimming himself around the rock to jump to the next area. This continued for a while. Jump onto a 'stepping' rock, nearly slide of it, jump to the next, take a breather at a 'hanging' rock. He sprained his ankle on a stepping rock but was able to shake off the pain at the next hanging rock. It wasn't the most linear way of getting to the center but he was making it work.
"Made it!" Nate landed on the center ice cap. He rested his hands on his knees as he waited for the adrenaline to subside.
Winter's eyes widened in surprise, but she wasn't impressed.
Nathan squatted down onto his knees. "Okay, let's see what we got here," he began to brush the snow out of the way looking for clues. Underneath all the snow was pure stone, a circular picture edged into it. The picture was indistinguishable, layers of it seemed mismatched and out of place.
Nathan scratched his chin in thought. Maybe this was another puzzle like at the mural. He laid his fingers on the outermost panel and applied pressure. Sure enough, the panel began rotating in parallel to all the others.
"What are you doing?" Winter impatiently called out.
"Hold on a second," Nate called back. "I think I found something!" He continued to rotate the layers until they seemed to resemble some kind of shape. "Of course," Nathan smirked as the plates aligned to make what else? A snowflake.
Once he pushed the last stone into place, a small 'click' was heard and the picture locked up. Nate raised his eyebrows as he pushed down on the plate. The stone sank as Nate felt a distinct rumbling from below.
The water of the lake trembled before it began to drain. The crystal blue surface sank and sank until the once great lake was nothing but a glorified bowl.
Winter was agape at the large basin, the bottoms of the rocks now being visible and at very center of it all at the rock Nathan was standing on, a doorway was carved into the stone with a set of stairs leading downwards.
"Well, well, well…" Nate smirked at Winter from across the new chasm. "Looks like someone was right about the lake."
Winter snapped out of her stupor to glare at Drake. "Don't go patting yourself on the back, a toddler could have figured that out."
Nate shrugged his shoulders and was about to make his way down when he saw a black figure squeezing out of a crack in the mountainside and making its way towards the specialist. "Look out!" he yelled.
Winter drew her sword and turned around just as the black figure leaped at her. She slashed her sword, decapitating the creature. She stepped to the side as its body went limp and harmlessly crashed to the ground.
The body of the grimm began to disintegrate but Winter was able to see the body of a gecko that was the size of a large dog.
"Slinkers," Winter hissed to herself. The salamander-like grimm were nothing to write home about in ferocity or strength, but they were quick little buggers that seemingly lacked any sort of skeleton allowing them to twist and shape their bodies any way they want to and rendering any sort of blunt weapon useless.
One by one, more slinkers began to squeeze through the cracks of the mountain wall, skittering across the stone as they made their way to attack.
Winter found herself surrounded by the gecko grimm and readied her stance. One pounced at her but she quickly dispatched it by slashing it across its chest. Another aimed for her legs as it slithered across the ground at her ankles, but she spun on her heel as she embedded her blade into its head.
It was all for nought though, as more began crawling down the side of the mountain. "Aw crap…" Nathan cursed as he unstrapped his assault rifle. He took aim as bullets blasted out of the barrel, rapidfire.
The slinkers' claws went slack as their bodies were embedded with dust and lead, thus they tumbled off the mountain side.
"I thought this was a tourist spot!" Nathan yelled as he kept firing. "Why the Hell are there so many grimm here?!"
"Not the time for questions, Drake!" Winter yelled as she decapitated another beast. Another lashed at her with its claw as she backflipped out of the way. The specialist landed down in the waterless water basin in a crouch. The black salamanders began slithering down to meet her.
Nathan reloaded another dust clip as more grimm began to swarm the place. "How are there so many of them?" He muttered under his breath.
Unfortunately, he was unable to see a slinker crawl up behind him as it pounced.
"Gah!" Nate gasped as he was tackled off his feet and therefore the rock he was standing on. Thinking quickly, Nathan twisted himself in midair and grabbed hold of the slinker. He re-positioned himself as he crashed to the ground using the grimm as a makeshift airbag.
Nate groaned and pushed himself up to his feet as the grimm disintegrated. He didn't have time to rest though as another slinker made a bite at him.
"Oum!" Nathan swore as he nearly lost his arm. He switched his weapon to machete mode and swung it like a baseball bat, knocking the creature away. He switched back to gun and started firing in all direction, trying to kill as many grimm as possible.
It was then that he noticed that he ankles were feeling a bit wet as he looked down. A thin layer of water rested on the stone floor. That's funny it looked completely dry before unless…
Nate turned around to see that a stone slab was slowly lowering itself over the doorway.
Nate's eyes widened as he twisted back around. "Winter!" he yelled. "The lake is filling back up! We need to go, NOW!"
"Little busy at the moment!" Winter yelled as she spin kicked another creature.
"Crap," Nate muttered under his breath. He switched to machete mode and charged.
Winter was a whirlwind of sharp steel as she continuously slashed through the grimm. But for every one she cut down, two more took its place.
They didn't show any concern or their fallen comrades as they continued to charge Winter, but then a screaming treasure hunter ran into the fray, swinging his sword like a madman. The grimm were so startled by this unstrategic strategy that they actually scattered and backed off.
Now that she wasn't being dog-piled by grimm, Nate grabbed Winter's shoulder. "We need to get moving."
Winter bristled at the contact. "Don't touch me!" She snapped as she pulled her arm away.
Nathan gawked at her. "Hello? Flash flood incoming! Now's not the time to worry about my cooties!"
Winter suddenly blinked back into reality. He was right, she could see water beginning to pool in between the rocks. She turned her head back to the doorway; it was halfway closed!
She sheathed her rapier and ran towards the doorway, followed by Drake and several angry grimm.
Winter was considered a very fast huntress, even faster when using her glyphs. But one tends to forget particular skills in times of stress. Such as Winter forgetting how fast she can move when running towards a closing door. It was still a quarter open, if she could just reach it-
Winter found herself tackled from behind. It appeared that Drake had barreled right into her but fortunately, that tackle carried just enough momentum to get to the doorway.
The two reluctant partners tumbled underneath the doorway just as it closed shut. The slinkers hissed and clawed at the stone surface to no avail. And before they could think, they were crushed beneath 200,000 gallons of water.
(Line Break)
So… yeah. Short chapter that probably wasn't worth the wait. When I first started these stories, I knew it was impossible to get out a chapter once a week, that I was content with. But I at least thought I'd update one of my stories at least ONCE every two weeks but you don't know what I've been through! (scene switches to me, in puppy-print pajamas, playing Smash. Ultimate.) I mean MENTALLY. Anyway, hope you like the mini backstory I gave on Hans Christia. If you can't get enough of this story, check out AwesomeDude94's story Holiday Cheer. It's based off of my story (don't worry, I gave permission) It's sort of a non-cannon holiday special. And it's just as well written, if not better, than mine! Well, see you all in a month!