WOO I"M ON FIRE! LETS GET THIS PARTY STARTED! Sorry for updating so quickly but I figured I should strike while the iron's hot!

Chapter 30

Run Like Hell

"It-it's the 30th, isn't dad?" Remus gasped, his breath seemed to have quickened, and grown shallow. His whole body was trembling, his hands were grabbing at the ground, as if trying to find something to hold. Link and Gea had both risen from their weary seats upon the hard ground, and over the fire, they watched as Kan fumbled with his son's thick leather coat, trying to unbutton it.

"Link, Gea," he said, not looking away from his son, whose tremors had transformed more into pained writhing. "Get out of here."

"What?"

"Get out of here, I don't care where to, just go."

Gea stepped toward him, reaching toward Remus' shoulder. "You aren't making any sense."

"I'm making perfect sense! Go!" He snapped at her, jerking toward her, a frightened look on his face. She raised her palms, and sidestepped toward the outlet that led to the rest of the caves. Link followed a short ways behind, only catching a glimpse of the writhing man's face, which had drained of all color, leaving his skin a pasty, sickly white. He made sure to grab a thick tree root before he left, dipping one end into the flame in the middle of the alcove and setting the root alight. When they entered the wide of the cavern, Gea took the lead, setting off into one of the narrow tunnels that zigzagged through the base of the mountain like a giant spider web.

"Where are we going?" He asked in a hushed tone. There seemed to be no reason to whisper, and yet even she responded in a softer, quieter voice than her usual.

"No idea."

They wove deeper and deeper into the mountain, getting a bit warmer as they drew nearer to the magma filled core. She was walking briskly, as if she knew where she was going, and he started to wonder why he was following her. She hated him, didn't she? At the very least she had no interest in being sociable with him, so why was he here?

Wouldn't this be the perfect opportunity to leave? Except he didn't quite no how to leave, given as far as he was aware, the only entrance/exit had collapsed, leaving them trapped in the dark, desolate place.

Would this be the place he died? The thought suddenly arose like a rock being dropped into his stomach. No, he couldn't die here. He had a family to get back to, children to raise, a farm to manage, and a wife to love. In a way, he didn't fear death. It was almost as if he'd already come to terms with it, with the fact that somewhere, sometime, it was inevitable. No, it wasn't the death part that bothered him.

He feared dying alone.

Dying without his loved ones, or worst yet, dying here, where they would never find him. Where they would never think to look, and be left to wonder if he was dead or alive for the rest of their own lives.

Technically, he wasn't alone, of course. There was Kan, and Kan was (or had been) a close friend, but he was no substitute to his real family, the one he'd made for himself.

"What do you think was wrong with Remus?" He asked, awkwardly trying to break the silence. She shrugged up ahead of him.

"Dunno. I'm more interested to know why the 30th has anything to do with it."

"Aren't you two…you know…"

"An item? Yeah."

"And you're not worried about him?"

"Its not really that serious, our thing. More of a…summer fling, you could say. I definitely don't plan on marrying the man or anything like that!"

"Oh…But you still aren't even a little concerned?"

"Not really. He's resilient, and 'concerned' isn't really my thing. Besides, Kan seems to know what he's doing."

She stopped suddenly, and without warning. He nearly bumped into her, hearing her growl when his hand touched her back.

"Don't do that!" he started to snap. She silenced him with a wave of her hand, holding it out for him to see. "What?"

"Something moved."

He looked toward the shadows ahead of them. There were three different paths, each leading in varying directions.

"Where?"

She pointed to the path leading left.

They both watched intently, and if they listened carefully, they could hear faint footsteps, scuffling around as if someone was searching for something. The footsteps grew louder, and slowly, a human shape came into view, bent slightly over, looking at the ground.

When it came into the firelight, they found that it was a man. A tall man, a few inches taller than Link, with shoulder length hair as white as snow and eyes that didn't match. One green, and one blue. He was clothed in a sturdy coat made of black leather, with purple around the collar and cuffs. He smiled warmly when his gaze met with theirs.

"Well, I certainly didn't expect to see anyone else around here!" He said jovially, outstretching a hand toward Gea.

"My name's Xenosis, everyone calls me Xen."

She reluctantly took his hand in hers and shook it firmly, giving him a suspicious glare from underneath lowered eyelashes.

"And I'm Gea."

Everything in her tone, in her body language, said that she was uncomfortable. Every muscle in her body had gone rigid.

When the man came toward him, he saw that a small green beast was perched upon his shoulder, a tiny, pink forked tongue flittering out of its mouth as they drew near, tasting the air. It was a tiny dragon, no larger than a cat, with forest green scales and silver trimmed wings.

"Link." He said, taking the man's hand a bit more amiably than Gea had. His eyes were still more drawn to the dragon though. The little beast was staring at him just as intently as he was at it, tilting its head and clicking its teeth.

The man named Xen seemed to notice his gaze, and laughed.

"Silly me. And this is Kaine."

The little dragon crawled forward and leaned toward him, sniffing with what looked to be curiosity. However when Gea spoke, her ears turned backward, and pinned against her neck like an angry horse, letting loose a few snarling hisses.

"I'm sorry but why are you here? This isn't exactly tourist central of Termina, you know," she turned to him, meeting his eyes with her deadpan steel ones. "If I didn't know better I'd say you were searching for something you shouldn't be."

"Well I certainly am searching for something. Is there something I should avoid? This is my first visit to Termina."

"Everyone who comes here is searching for the same thing," she walked toward the wall closest to her, and laid a hand against the cold stone. "This place is surrounded with legends. I'm sure you've heard them?"

"Do you mean the Legend of The Mountain Demon?"

She nodded. Link meanwhile remained silent. The old woman from the village hadn't said much of the Mountain Demon, and yet he was almost certain that it was the very being that had nearly killed him in the blizzard.

"The Mountain Demon made his home here. He was once a peasant boy raised in a snowy kingdom. But by cruel fate he was ripped away from the only place he'd known and forced to stay in the canyon to the east of here. When the Demon war was initiated, he was transformed into a demon, a horrible monster that killed for fun, and thrived on the fear of others. But his human side remained, and the weight of his sins grew heavy," she dragged her hand across the stones, her eyes slipping shut.

"So when his master was laid to rest, he came here, and made his home deep in the belly of this mountain, past the volcanic core, where no one could bother him. Most think he's dead. After all, the Demon War was centuries ago. But what else could explain this blizzard? He's alive, and something has made him very angry."

She turned to them both, her eyes locking with Xen's.

"You're after his sword, aren't you?"

"I only came in search of an ancient artifact from the Demon War. I don't have any details."

"If you go down there, it's a death sentence. The Mountain Demon wouldn't even have to touch you. You'd die before you got there, the further down you go, the more labyrinthine it gets. I suggest you leave, if you can find a way out."

The man tipped his head slightly, and shuffled a few feet in the direction of the path that led to their right.

"Well, I guess I should take your advice, although I might still do a little exploring before I leave. These caves are quite fascinating. It was nice to meet you both." Gea watched him intently as he ambled into the dark, not noticing as Link came up beside her.

"Gea," he said to draw her attention. "About the Mountain Demon. He's the one whose causing this blizzard?"

She only nodded. Her mind seemed to be in a far away place at that moment.

"So if the Mountain Demon were to die, the blizzard would stop?" This time he caught her attention. Her eyes flicked toward him, brow lowering just a touch.

"Probably, yeah. But its not that easy."

"No? He's just one person, isn't he? There's four of us, he'd be severally outnumbered."

"You seem to have forgotten the giant metal bull. The bull isn't a coincidence, you know. The bull is part of him, they're one and the same. Two heads, one heart. You'd have to kill them both."

She'd rendered him silent. At least he had tried to find a way to end the blizzard, tried to find a way to be positive.

However a gasping yelp from behind caught them both off guard. They swung around toward the direction they'd come from, and saw that Kan was practically flying toward them, panting already and pumping his legs as hard as they could be. As he flung past they heard him cry, "If you value your lives run like bloody hell!"

Someone or something else was coming after him at a frightening speed. It sounded like claws were scraping at the stone floor. The creature stopped when it came to the firelight, growling fiercely, making them both freeze.

A wolf was standing at the edge of the firelight, glaring at up them with crazed amber eyes, frothy saliva dripping from its half open mouth. Its coat was a deep, rich brown, like chocolate and honey, and the hackles were standing straight up on end as it eyed them. They shared a quick, wide eyed glance, then turned tail and bolted after Kan, racing deeper into the caves like the devil himself was on their heels...

...lets see what everyone has to say about that. I'm rather proud of this chapter to be honest. It felt like it came out pretty good, at least to me, considering I wrote it in a single sitting. Thanks again to everyone reading. Its you, the readers, that prompt me to continue writing. I doubt I would've gotten here without all of you.

And so Xen is introduced. He belongs to Courage Of Awesome, although his part in this story is very small, if you enjoy his character, check out the story following him and three other young adults that i'm writing as well, "The Legend of Verity."