Vyus didn't linger.
The silence that followed the Mahaha's final cries was more unsettling than its laughter.
He wiped his bloodied hands on the snow. The satisfaction he felt was already fading, replaced by unease.
"Come on, Tryss," he urged, his voice rough.
The wolf limped slightly as it rose, its eyes on the direction they had been traveling.
Vyus didn't need to look back. He could feel the presence of the remaining Mahahas on the ridge. He didn't want to find out what they would do now that one of their own had... felt fear.
They moved quickly, and Vyus, despite the incline and Tryss's injury, could still keep a good pace.
He kept his gaze fixed ahead, scanning the treacherous terrain, but his mind was racing.
'That first one... it was pathetic,' he thought.
Vyus was talking about the first Mahaha that he beheaded, before being chased by the others. All he did was an effortless sidestep and a clean slice of his claw-dagger. It had been almost too easy.
A disturbing thought began to form in his mind.
'What if... what if that was the weakest of them? A scout, maybe? Or... an offering?'
His already messed up brain couldn't process any more thinking. All he had to do was survive, and that was it.
But the curiosity got the better of him — the one that had ambushed him and Tryss had been stronger and faster. Its crude weapon had shattered his own. If not for a desperate surge of adrenaline, he might be lying dead on the ice right now.
And that one, in its final moments, had felt... fear.
He shivered, despite the exertion of running uphill.
The laughter had been disturbing, to say the least, but the cries... the cries were something else entirely. They hinted at a depth of suffering he hadn't anticipated, a vulnerability hidden.
Vyus glanced down at Tryss, who was keeping pace despite its limp. The wolf's low growl seemed to echo. They were still exposed on the open slope, and the Mahaha on the ridge were still watching.
Vyus looked more carefully at the figures on the ridge — they didn't look like Mahahas. Now that they were further away and he wasn't in immediate danger, he could look for more details.
They were still gaunt and humanoid in form, but their heads sprouted strange, branching horns, like a deer.
'Horns?' He thought.
The elder from his childhood hadn't mentioned anything about horns. The descriptions he recalled from the temple were vague, focusing more on their unsettling laughter and gaunt appearance.
These details were... different.
Vyus shook his head, trying to clear the unease from the Mahaha's cries. Focusing on their appearance wasn't helping him survive.
Whatever they were, they were dangerous, and he needed to put distance between them.
They continued their ascent for what felt like an eon. The terrain grew even more treacherous, the icy slope giving way to jagged rockets and narrow ledges.
Eventually, Vyus felt a sense of distance, the unsettling silence from above offering a small measure of relief.
Just as hope began to bloom—the hope that they had finally outrun their pursuers—the landscape ahead shifted. The air hummed with uncertainty.
"There's someone here, Tryss," Vyus said, whilst on guard.
Then he saw them.
They weren't the gaunt horned figures he had just encountered. These beings were smaller and more rounded, their bodies covered in thick, bristly fur that shimmered with colors.
There were dozens of them, perhaps more, scattered across the shimmering landscape. They paused their movements as Vyus and Tryss came into view, their wide eyes fixed on them.
A cold dread washed over Vyus, a weight heavier than the biting wind. These weren't the gaunt, laughing horrors he'd just faced. These were something else entirely, something... wrong.
The beings were smaller, their bodies surprisingly round. A thick coat of bristly fur covered them, a wild mix of colors that seemed to glow and shift in the strange light of this place. Emerald mixed with sapphire, ruby flashed against gold – colors that felt like they shouldn't exist. Dozens of them, maybe more, were scattered across the ground, their quick little movements stopping as Vyus and Tryss came into view. Their wide, dark eyes, like shiny black stones, stared at them without blinking. It was the kind of stare that made your skin crawl.
One of the creatures, a bit bigger than the others and wearing a crown of sharper, black bristles, tilted its round head.
A high-pitched chittering sound came from its small mouth. It wasn't laughing, not like those creepy Mahaha. And it wasn't a cry of pain. It was something else, a language, one that Vyus couldn't understand.
The other creatures made the same sound, a bunch of clicks and whistles that filled the air.
They didn't jump at them or growl like normal animals. They just watched, their weird eyes not giving anything away. But there were so many of them, and the way they seemed to twitch and move on the ground made Vyus feel like he'd stepped into a nightmare.
Vyus tightened his grip on his ruined claw-dagger, the worn handle feeling a little bit safer in his hand.
He looked around quickly at the ground. It was all smooth and shiny like someone had polished it.
There was nowhere to hide, no trees or rocks to duck behind. They were out in the open, facing something new and weird.
Tryss growled low in his throat. The wolf shifted his weight, ready to pounce if he had to. His usual brave eyes looked a bit confused like he didn't know what to make of these things either.
The crowned creature chittered again, a little bit different this time like it was asking a question or giving an order.
It took a small, clumsy step forward, its tiny claws clicking on the shiny ground. That seemed to be the signal.
Vyus froze in place.
Slowly, carefully, the other creatures started to move towards them.
They didn't walk normally; they kind of skittered and twitched, but there were so many of them.
A cold feeling settled inside of Vyus's gut.
He blinked. Then, as his eyelids lifted, the world around him seemed to stutter and freeze. It was like someone had hit pause on the whole world.
The little furry creatures froze in their tracks.
Even the sound of the wind just... stopped.
His eyes were glued to the hand of the one with the crown. One of its small fingers twitched, aiming at his eye.
Vyus couldn't move a muscle. It was like being stuck in super slow motion. But deep down, something yelled at him — 'danger.'
Without even thinking about it, his body leaned back, smooth and quick like butter.
As his body shot backward, Vyus's eyes snapped to the crowned creature's hand.
Vyus was dumbfounded
"Wait... what?"
A thin line of bright green liquid welled up from a shallow cut on one of the creature's strange figures. Green blood.
Vyus's gaze flicked down to the broken hilt of his claw-dagger.
His hilt was smeared with that green blood.
A realization hit him.
In that split-second of frozen time, his instincts had taken over. He hadn't even consciously registered the movement, but somehow, as he'd lurched back, the broken hilt had scraped against the creature's hand, drawing that bizarre, bright blood.
He turned his gaze forward one more time.
'So, is he still peaceful, or is it confirmed that he's hostile?' Vyus thought, whilst keeping his guard up.
The crowned creature suddenly threw its head back and let out a high-pitched screech that sounded like nails on a chalkboard mixed with a bird going crazy — not entirely pleasant.
Even though Vyus had no clue what it was saying, the way the little thing's body went stiff and its beady eyes narrowed told him everything he needed to know.
As that weird screech echoed in the air, Vyus didn't even think.
He bolted forward, charging straight at the bunch of flurry, colorful things.
The first of the furry things came at him fast, claws out.
Vyus ducked under its swipe, grabbed its arm that was reaching for him, and slammed his elbow down on its joint. There was a sickening snap, and the creature screeched again, its arm dangling uselessly.
Right then, another one jumped at him.
Quick as lightning, Vyus whipped the jagged end of his broken claw-dagger across the creature's throat — the result was a gurgling sound, and the creature dropped.
A third one, low to the ground, tried to tackle Vyus. However, he crouched down quickly, letting the creature slam into his body.
He straightened up fast, sending the furry thing flying off his back and onto the shiny ground. Without even aiming, he whipped the broken hilt of his claw-dagger like a throwing knife.
It spun through the air and slammed right into the creature's forehead, and, as a result, it went still.
Vyus, breathing hard, his eyes flicking between the fallen creatures and the crowned one, suddenly stopped.
A low sound escaped from his lips:
"I now know what you are."
He continued, in a louder tone.
"Ijiraqs."