Chapter Eight
There was nothing quite like the smell of dried moss in the morning. The last of the water supply went into the pot to make the slimy, green mixture wet enough to choke down, to Frost's taste buds it was about as satisfying as choking down a wet dust bunny. In a sick, sad way she was craving dried meat, which she had confessed to detesting only a few days before.

Kenshi had been searching for him for two days, but there was no sign of Sub-Zero to be found. The only clue they had was the tracks of several Tarkata in the dust and even then they couldn't tell if it was the correct band of the beasts. They weren't all that sure they were Tarkatan tracks; they only assumed so because of the lack of other bipeds to be seen.

They were all discouraged and frustrated, it was evident in the short responses to questions, the complete silence between the few necessary words. Frost was managing to feel lonely despite the fact she was traveling with three other people. Min had been awfully quiet with her after the night she cried, and she almost missed his annoying questions. Almost. Kenshi had mostly remained quiet by choice, LiXue less so.

The tracks they had been following ended abruptly at what was once a riverbed but was now nothing but a channel of dirt and dust. She cursed under breath as LiXue bent down to examine the ground for any indication of where the tracks had gone. It was the fourth set of dead end footprints they had come to. Sometimes it seemed like everything about this entire journey was cursed-they'd had nothing but bad luck the entire time they searched.

"What's that?" Min asked. He was pointing off into the distance, when Frost followed his finger she saw a splotch of darker brown in the beige landscape. It stuck out against the paler background almost as well as if it were a brighter color.

"I don't know," she replied. Whatever it was, it was definitely different. "Ask LiXue."

The smaller woman was equally confused by the patch but agreed to check it out. The trail had ended completely where they were, and she couldn't pick it up again. She jumped down into the riverbed and followed it carefully with the others close behind. The dirt was swirled and smooth and darker just ahead like it had only recently been dried.

"Do you think it rained?" Min asked, scooping up a bit of dried mud. It crumbled in his fingers in large clumps.

"What is it?" Kenshi asked, and she felt a twinge of guilt for forgetting about him. She was used to seeing Min translate for LiXue, but no one seemed to remember to translate the view for Kenshi's ears. He hadn't complained, but she didn't know if his pride was preventing him from doing so.

"This part of the stream bed is wet," she answered him. "Everything else is so dry I can't imagine that this was natural."

"Maybe the stream is underground," Min suggested. "Water is more likely to be found at a river bend." He seemed to perk up at the thought of fresh water.

But LiXue was up ahead, waving her arms for attention. "What has she found?" Frost mumbled to herself, but hurried over to see what the new development was, leaving the other two to finish playing in the dirt. It seemed as though the tribal warrior had found the continuation of the tracks they were following.

This area was still moist, and the tracks looked fairly fresh, if shallow. The footprints were indicative of a large fight, and what looked like a brutal one if the occasional reddish tints were blood like she suspected. There were some telltale gashes in the mud where Tarkatan blades had dug into the earth, but no evidence of other weapons.

LiXue was following the footsteps forward, hunched down to the ground like a bloodhound. She was so intent on the ground she nearly stumbled over the corpse of a Tarkatan who had its skull crushed. The ground was heaped with bodies around the next bend, all mutilated nearly beyond recognition, and Frost couldn't believe they couldn't smell them before. They must have been upwind.

The ground was still wet here, and they sloshed around in an inch or two of mud while examining the bodies. "These are fresh kills," Frost said, kicking over a corpse to examine its face. "I don't see any signs of decay."

LiXue sniffed disdainfully and signed something to Min. "She says there are no maggots," Min translated. "They only smell a little rotten, so they probably died a few hours ago."

"That would explain the mud too," Kenshi pulled his foot free from a particularly deep puddle with a sickening squelch. "Sub-Zero did this. This must be from the melting ice."

"I've never seen him crush in anyone's head before," Frost protested.

There was a slight pause. "…You've seen him before?" Kenshi asked.

She mentally cursed. She hadn't meant to give that away yet. "I'm from the Lin Kuei," she confessed, hoping that would be enough of an explanation to prevent any further questions. Things were bad enough without having to explain her sordid relationship with the Grandmaster.

Kenshi didn't seem convinced, but at least he did not ask anything else, just concentrated on finding a shallower puddle to stand in. He hadn't acted like the kind of person who stuck their nose in other people's business before. LiXue, following the conversation with assistance from Min, had a suspicious look in her eye, but did nothing either.

"Well, I don't see him in the pile here, so I guess he survived," Min said, politely changing the subject. "You said you thought he would head for the Earthrealm portal?" He directed the last question to Kenshi.

"He mentioned a rendezvous point too, but I don't know where that is or if he would try to meet there first," Kenshi replied. "But I feel better now, at least I know he survived the Tarkata's attack."

"Do you think there'll be more of them?" Min looked disgusted and terrified at the same time as he surveyed the carnage.

"Well, I wouldn't recommend us standing around here too long," Frost said. "I don't want to find out if there are any carrion eating beasts around here."

LiXue was pointing and waving again, looking very much like an overexcited schoolgirl. She was practically jumping up and down with excitement and looking proud of herself. When they walked over they realized she was standing next to a solitary set of large footprints. The sole was covered in a very shallow diamond pattern, suitable for traction on a smooth surface. The kind of sole found on LiXue's boots, in fact.

Frost smiled. It looked like things might pick up after all.

They had only been following Sub-Zero's trail for a few hours and already Kenshi was on edge. LiXue didn't seem to have the same suspicion, but watched their backs just the same, apparently approving of Kenshi's superior senses. Their behavior was making Min and Frost nervous more than their own suspicions of something going wrong. The result was a very paranoid, very cranky group who spent more time jumping at the noise they made than doing anything useful.

Suddenly, Kenshi stopped dead in his tracks and held up one hand to shut them up the same way LiXue normally did. Then he did something LiXue had never done. "Run!" he called, taking off at full speed.

Frost didn't know what was going on, but decided to follow orders and sort it all out later. She had survived long enough in dangerous situations that when somebody screamed, "run" like that, they usually meant it. They had barely made it a quarter mile when she heard the pounding of feet behind her and the snarls of Tarkata on their heels. She didn't look back as they ran as fast as they could towards the rockier landscape ahead, hoping they could lose their pursuers amongst the stones.

One had nearly caught up to her, and she felt a gust of wind as it took a swing at her neck. She gulped, and put her head down and hoped the adrenaline rush was enough to keep her from becoming a human shish kabob. She'd never been the fastest runner, but emergency situations have a tremendous ability to bring out the sprinter in everyone.

LiXue was the first to reach the rocks and charged in at full speed, hurtling over the nearest obstacle. Kenshi was next, and he dodged his way into a narrow opening between two stones as neatly as if he saw them. They were almost out of sight when she hit the rocks, and she didn't try to track them, just fought her way through the terrain. She'd lost sight of Min too, and she hoped he had made it into the cover. There was no time to look for him.

Something caught her ankle as she jumped over a smaller stone, and she fell to her knees, skidding a few feet from the momentum and tearing up her pants. She turned over as best she could and used her free foot to bash the Tarkatan clinger in the face until he was forced to let go. It didn't matter when he finally did; she had lost too much time in the incident.

Scrambling to her feet, she finally glanced behind her and saw five more Tarkata within range to catch her. At least that meant that the Tarkata had split up as well, and no one specific was being targeted. She leapt over another outcropping and wished the Tarkata were less nimble as they followed her easily. They bounded over the rocks like mountain goats, closing the distance between them.

A large shadow on the ground surprised her, and she looked up just in time to see the Tarkata leaping from the top of an outcropping as it landed on her, pinning her to the ground with its weight. She kicked wildly at it and rocked from side to side to try and heave him off of her, but she had no leverage on her back. To make matters worse, the other five caught up, making escape impossible even if she succeeded in bucking off her first captor.

They seemed to be arguing amongst themselves, which was good to the extent that none of them were trying to run her through. That didn't make having a smelly, sweaty thing lying on top of her any more pleasant, and she tried not to retch as it snorted its foul breath in her face. Unfortunately the thing was squishing her chest so hard holding her breath was not a viable option.

Whatever the argument was, it seemed that two of them were on one side and three on the other. It looked quite heated, and Frost wished it would break out into a full-fledged fight and buy her some time to get away. She had no such luck and after several minutes of intense tension the smaller group appeared to concede and pout a little. The biggest one, which Frost assumed to be the leader, said something to the one restraining her and he got to his feet, yanking her up with him.

He kept a firm grip on her hair, and she yelped as he yanked her head back to keep her from moving. It felt like he was trying to scalp her without the aid of his blades. Mule kicking him only resulted in him smacking her back, so she settled for squirming vigorously and screaming obscenities at the filthy creatures keeping her from her friends.

A few minutes later Min was dragged between the rocks, kicking and screaming. The group of four holding him was covered in bruises and he landed a last kick to a particularly nasty looking one's thigh, and it hissed in pain and slapped him with enough force to swing his head. Whether Min was so disgruntled because he was caught or because he had lost his pack with his precious scrolls inside was hard to tell. He was bright red in the face and Frost half expected steam to start pouring out of his ears.

They both waited breathlessly as the two groups of Tarkata conversed, but neither of the other groups arrived with LiXue or Kenshi in tow. Frost could only hope that it was because they got away, not because they had been killed. Another argument was starting up between the Tarkata, and Frost took the opportunity to try and find out what Min knew about the situation.

"Did you see LiXue and Kenshi?" she asked hurriedly.

"No, not since we entered the rocks. I hope they escaped," Min said, and Frost noted the blood on his teeth as he spoke.

"Me too," The conversation was cut short as one of the Tarkata backhanded her to stop her speech. She tasted copper and made a mental note to add him to the list of people she was going to kill. The list was getting amazingly long as their journey continued.

The Tarkatan leader, which turned out to be the big fellow Frost had noted before, must have decided that the other hunting parties had failed, because he ordered them all to move out. Frost was made to walk behind thee nastiest creature she had ever had the misfortune of ever having to smell, even their moss rations made her less nauseous. Min was shoved into line next to her, but she decided not to risk a conversation with so many of the beasts watching them.

To her surprise, they weren't being led back the way they had come, but East towards where the supposed portal was. Their capture might not become the disaster she had originally envisioned. Not that being captured by man-beasts with mouths crammed with pointy teeth and natural swords sheathed in their forearms was ever really a good thing.

She began mentally running through escape plans, but none of them seemed particularly good considering the circumstances. It would have been a lot easier if she didn't have to account for Min as well, but if she got to choose the circumstances she wouldn't have been captured at all. All she could do was try to make the best she could out of the whole mess.

She sincerely doubted the Tarkata would begin to stop if she claimed she had to answer the call of nature. Considering the way they stunk, likely they wouldn't care if she wet herself. Feigning sickness wouldn't do any good, because that would leave her surrounded and she doubted Min could take care of himself in that situation. What she needed was a distraction and a big one at that.

…if only her powers weren't hiding from her. At one time she could have just started freezing them, but now all she could do was glare angrily at the back of the head of the disgusting slob in front of her. She tried reaching deep in herself to try and bring her powers to the surface, but the Tarkata behind her realized she was up to something and struck her upside the head, knocking her teeth together.

Min cast her a sympathetic glance, but he seemed to be concentrating more on the terrain than on what was going on. She had no idea what he was doing, but hoped it had something to do with running away, or perhaps signaling for help. Maybe finding Sifu wouldn't be so bad after all… If only there was something she could do she'd feel better.

She wasn't the only one getting restless. There was clear tension amongst the separate groups of Tarkata, and she got the distinct impression these weren't friends but rivals. Maybe she could goad them into a fight amongst themselves and escape during the confusion. They hadn't bound either her or Min; perhaps they thought the two of them were just incapable of coming up with an escape plan. Overconfidence was an easy thing to turn to her advantage.

She just needed some way to communicate with Min that didn't end with them both getting slapped around. The tribal sign language would have come in quite handy if she had bothered to learn it on the way. She mentally slapped herself for overlooking that, it would have given her something to do as well as let her talk to LiXue directly. It was just one more mistake to add to the pile.

As they marched on she began wondering if they were ever going to stop for the night. The sky was turning an unusual shade of purple, but they didn't even seem like they were looking for a campsite. Now nature really was calling her, and she wondered desperately if her earlier musings were true. Not that she could go if those creatures tried to watch her.

But just as she was about to give up hope, they squeezed around one last rock formation and were heading towards a rather scary looking forest. The trees were taller than any she had ever seen in Earthrealm, and their foliage was an amazing shade of green. It was the trunks that bothered her, they were gnarled and black, and something just seemed horribly wrong about them.

The rest of the group seemed excited to see them and she dreaded the idea that they might decide to stop for the night inside the tree cover. The feeling grew stronger as they approached, and Min was white as a sheet as they began to enter the forest proper. It looked like every horror film evil forest combined into one, except the monsters in this forest were real.

The trees had faces. Faces. Not even friendly ones at that, just horrible glowing eyes and a kind of evil grin. One of them groaned as they came close, and she suddenly wondered just what the trees ate. Every rustle of leaves made her look around to see if one of them had decided to reach for her.

The Tarkata were snickering at the two of them. Clearly they were not afraid of the horrible trees. She couldn't tell if that was because the trees weren't dangerous, or the Tarkata felt that they could defeat them. Bravery and foolishness often went hand in hand.

One of the Tarkata started sniffing the air like a dog, his whole body tensing up like a coiled spring. Soon the rest followed, growling and hissing like feral animals as they tested the air. Whatever had set them off did not appear; possibly it decided they weren't as easy prey as it thought. It did leave them all on edge, attack or not, and the tension amongst their captors was thick in the air.

They did decide to set up camp in the middle of the forest, and Frost knew immediately she would not be able to sleep that night. Min was shaking like the forest would give him day as well as nightmares whether he slept or not. She would have laughed if it hadn't looked like he was going to have a heart attack at any given moment. Then she realized she was shaking too.

The setting up of camp did give her a few moments to talk to Min again, and she sidled over to him at the earliest opportunity. "Can you understand them?" she asked, as quietly as she could while still being able to be heard over the usual camp set up.

"A little. I wouldn't be able to hold a conversation, but I think they are talking about some sort of military coupe."

Min whispered.

"A military coupe?"

" I think so. They were talking about someone named Baraka and how they were betrayed by a she-Tarkata. I think they're trying to get revenge."

"By kidnapping us?"

"I don't understand why they haven't killed us either. I can't imagine we would do them any good alive."

A Tarkata walked towards them and they fell silent, attempting to look forlorn and dispirited, a feat that was far too easy for them to do. As soon as he walked away, Frost asked, "Did they say anything about Sub-Zero?

"They just mentioned that after they bring him back to the Dragon King they will attack Edenia."

"That doesn't surprise me, Outworld and Edenia are at war. If we get out of this we'll have to warn Princess Kitana I guess. She'll get us to Earthrealm if nothing else."

"That still doesn't answer what they are going to do with us."

"I guess we're being taken to the Dragon King, too. Otherwise they would have just killed us when they had the chance."

"Why would they take us to the Dragon King? "

"I don't know. You're the one who was eavesdropping."

"That doesn't give me psychic powers!" He said that last bit so loudly that several of the nearest Tarkata turned towards them, and Frost snickered shamelessly.

But then a savage howl broke the relative quiet of the forest, and Frost was yanked to her feet and grabbed again by the hair so she was forced to run along with the Tarkata as they rushed through the woods. She couldn't see where they were going, and she had to concentrate all her attention on not tripping over the forest debris littering the ground. The pain in her scalp was making that immensely difficult and if she didn't think it would mean losing a handful of hair she would have dug her heels into the ground to stop.

She was out of breath long before they stopped, and couldn't imagine how Min was feeling. Her lungs were burning so badly her eyes were watering, but the only alternative was being dragged along. In the distance she could hear howling and screaming and the occasional shattering noise, but could see nothing.

Then it was eerily quiet again and the Tarkata finally stopped running, to her relief. The only way she was able to remain standing was to lock her knees as she gasped futilely for air. Her hair was being yanked again, but there was no way she could move if she wanted to. In the end the beast had to throw her over his shoulder like a rag doll.

At first she thought she was seeing red as they moved closer to the source of the commotions, but then she saw everything was simply soaked in blood. The ground was wet with it and it formed a sickening shade of black when mixed with the dark earth of the forest. The tree faces seemed to be in a frenzy, their maws opening and closing like they were cheering silently, the bark teeth stained scarlet.

She hadn't seen this much gore in any horror movie Hollywood had ever produced. The bodies of almost a hundred Tarkata were strewn about the ground like sacks, most nearly crushed, arms and legs bent at grotesque angles. A few were in pieces, shattered like so much glass. All were very bloody and very dead.

A smile played wanly on Min's lips as he turned to her from the shoulder of his own Tarkata. He pointed wordlessly to a pile of shattered ice melting next to a pile of inner organs. She wanted desperately to call out for Sifu, for some help, but didn't want to put him in danger because of her again. She didn't want anyone else to be put in danger because of her again.

This was her own mess, and she'd get herself out of it.