A strange silence dissipates.
An uncomfortable sense of wrong hangs in the air like the burnt smell of thunder.
Terri...he thinks his name is. Yes, yes that's his name. That's coming back to him. He wipes his wet hair away from his face as he tries to stand up. As he puts a hand behind for leverage he only finds air, and with a startled yelp he finds himself lying just on the edge of a cliff face.
With a frantic crawl he manages a safe distance away from the edge, but while he is safer, he does not feel safer. He needs to get away from the mountain he is on. Something…wrong is here. Something terribly wrong! His entire being tells him that. It's screaming from deep inside of him to get away from the mountain as fast as possible!
But...he can't!
There is something left he has to…
No, not something.
Someone!
The ground around him is brushed away from the gaping cavern that he finds looming its wide agape over him. Has it screamed? Is that why the dust around him looks to be fleeing away from the cave?
"H-Hello!" he shouts to the someone that he needs to help. To the someone he needs to save from herself. She's...she's climbed up this mountain too for a reason, but not a good one. A horrible one. A reason that's destroyed her… Her…
The word, it's on the tip of Terri's tongue, but receding away. It tickles on his tongue as if mocking him, but no matter how much he tries he can't speak it. No matter how much he tries he can't think it. Or feel it. It's just...gone. He knows that it was there, but feels that it was real less and less with each second that passes by. "Where are you? We need to get away from here!"
Why is he waiting for her? He's too afraid! He should be running away! Far, far from here! Leave this place and never think of it again!
But what is it? What is… Is it even something to be afraid of? Something to be...forgotten? Is he afraid of remembering it? Of trying to think of it? Can he even?
The sleeve on his hand, with its intricate lines, where did he get that? He is someone important to his kingdom. Close to the Hjearta king and queen, which is why he is wearing such ornate clothing. His sleeve though, that is not from Hjearta. Well, it is, but not really? A gift from another kingdom? Yes...yes that sounds right. A kingdom that is...no more. It's gone. There was a war.
Only Hjearta and Xoff remains from it. They fought together against the kingdom of...other humans? Yes, that has to be it. Other humans with a culture vastly different from Hjearta and Xoff. That was why they attacked. It was too different, yet too similar at the same time. They threatened Xoff and Hjearta. They threatened the very beings of all in Xoff and Hjearta. They were all…
"Monsters."
The word fills Terri with fear and blank forgetfulness. It is a word that he feels dread towards. To be inhuman in their actions and being. To be against humanity.
To be...evil?
Why else would Terri feel such fear towards that word and what it represents then?
His thoughts are interrupted by a steps without rhythm. By lumbering staggers and sharp, irregular breaths. Terri looks inwards into the gaping cave, squinting. "Are you there?" A name pops up for him. "Cter! Is that you?"
Can't be anyone else.
No one else would ever want to be near Mt. Ebott.
He meets the staggering human a short ways into the cavern, folding her right arm over his shoulders to help her. "I'm..." she whispers in exhaustion. "I'm...Cter?"
Where is her left arm?
"I'm...Cter."
Why isn't it bleeding? Has she only had one arm?
"I'm...done?"
No, no she's not! She asked him to help her! And he will!
"You'll be fine," he assures as he carefully lays her down onto the ground outside of the cave. "There are some medicinal herbs nearby. Don't move." As if she even can. "I'll be right back."
The human's hurried footsteps echo against the mountain wall the same as the setting sun's rays bounce off them. It stands tall and wide, a monument to all that lay their eyes upon it. All that do though, can't help but feel that it is not a place to be at. It is cursed, the mountain. A curse that stays the same as the world around it changes. As the two humans walk down the mountain, the curse is the same. As the gathered humans at the foot of the mountain scatter as quickly possible, the curse is the same. As war and peace ebb and flow around the mountain, the curse stays the same.
To eventually become a legend.
That those that climb the mountain will never return.