KANA
I knew well that sleeping through such harsh weather conditions would also incite a nightmare. I was dreaming of Shino, calling out to me while stretching her right hand to reach me. I didn't know why she acted that way, but this was a dream—sometimes they were just as messed up and unpredictable as Mt. Lancel's weather.
"KANA!" My eyes bolted open when my mind registered Shino's voice—not from a dream but from the real world. I looked at her and she had this worried and scared look on her, similar to what she was showing in my dream earlier. "GET UP! WE HAVE TO GO! SNOW HOUNDS ARE ATTACKING US!"
In normal circumstances, it would take a few minutes for someone to process and digest those words. But for some reason, I understood them in an instant, and I didn't need to be told twice.
I got up, stepped out of my sleeping bag, and swiftly folded it to fit into its own sack. I searched the place looking for Mister Kenshi but found not even his shadow.
"Where's Mister Kenshi?"
"He's fighting some of the hounds as we speak! We have to secure at least the rations! That's Kenshi's instruction!"
"But how? There's no place to hide in this place!"
"I don't know, Kana! We just have to figure it out along the way! Now, let's go!"
Unsure, I grabbed my bag, which also contained a few portions of our rations, took Shino's hand, and ran.
"Wait? Are we going to leave Mister Kenshi behind?"
"I hate the idea as well, Kana, but that's what he wants!"
"No! We can't just leave him, especially when he's fighting the snow hounds! We have to help him, Shino!"
"I really want to help, Kana! I really do! But all of us will die if we stay here!"
"What?"
I couldn't believe I would be hearing those words from Shino. Even for the short time we had been together, I knew her. I knew she wouldn't just let this happen without a fight.
Angry, I removed my hand from her grasp and started walking back to where Mister Kenshi potentially was.
"Kana? Where are you going?"
"To where we are supposed to go!"
"Didn't you hear me?"
"I heard you well, Shino! And I don't agree with you! Leaving Mister Kenshi alone to fight is just wrong! So wrong! I'm going to help!"
"What can you do, Kana?" Shino asked. For the first time, she questioned what I could do, and it pained me. "Your arrows would just be thrown off their path because of the wind!"
"You have your magic!"
"Did you really think I didn't try it? I would not be agreeing with this stupid and selfish idea if my magic were working, but it didn't! And the snow hounds are well adept to the terrain of this place, and they're using it to their advantage! Mister Kenshi is just buying us time, Kana! The least we can do is make sure his actions are not going to waste!" Shino lectured, and I hated to admit it, but she had a point.
I knew her as someone who would never walk out from a fight, but she knew the fight was too unfavorable, which was why she resorted to this decision.
"I'm sorr—"
I failed to deliver my words when I saw two pairs of golden orbs behind Shino. There was only one creature capable of doing that and surviving in this place—the snow hounds.
"Shino! Behind you!"
The moment I shouted those words, the two snow hounds behind Shino lunged at her. Shino screamed as the hounds bit through her bag.
"They're after the rations," I whispered. "Let go of the bag, Shino! They just want the rations inside your bag!"
Following my suggestion, Shino struggled to unstrap her bag off her shoulders until she was finally free from it. She ran toward my direction and joined me in watching the hounds ravage through the bag like it was nothing. A chill ran down my spine when I imagined a human body in place of the bag.
"Let's go help Mister Kenshi, Shino! We'll have a better chance of surviving if we fight together," I convinced Shino, and she instantly agreed by nodding her head.
We immediately looked for Mister Kenshi and found him surrounded by six snow hounds. Two of their kind had been killed already, but it left Mister Kenshi injured and bleeding.
I grabbed my bow and an arrow and pointed it toward Mister Kenshi's location.
"It's useless, Kana! You'll miss!"
"It doesn't have to hit," I replied and started chanting the Wind Magic that I once used against the Dark Orb Wielder back in Aste City. When the magic reached its final preparation, I yelled at Mister Kenshi, "Mister Kenshi! Dodge!"
I unhesitantly released the wind-magic-imbued arrow, which passed through a magic circle. The arrow transformed into a concentrated gust of wind and dashed toward Mister Kenshi's location.
Using Vigor to reinforce his leg strength, Mister Kenshi jumped to evade my attack, which rammed through the hounds, dragging and catapulting them away from us.
Mister Kenshi landed and approached us.
"What are you still doing here?"
"Helping you, of course! Now, let's go!" I ordered and started walking. "How did they even find us? Did the warding device stop working?"
"The device was working just fine when they attacked," Shino answered.
"The smell of our food must've been too strong that they ignored the device's effect," Kenshi speculated.
"We have to find a safe place as soon as possible, Kana. Kenshi has to be treated," Shino reported, and I couldn't agree more.
An hour had passed, but we found no safe places. So we decided to rest for a while and had Shino treat Mister Kenshi. After fifteen minutes, we continued.
We skipped breakfast and lunch due to our limited food. With only mine left, I didn't think it would last until tomorrow. If that time came, we might have to hunt one of the hounds and make use of their meat.
Luckily, the descent to the side of the mountain was smooth. No snow hounds decided to attack us. I was even surprised that none of them followed us after what I did to them.
The wind had become less destructive since we were no longer at the peak. However, we ran out of food. We just finished the last bit of rations, and we still had two days of travel ahead of us: a day to the base of the mountain, and another day toward the city.
The last day wouldn't be much of a problem. We could find fruits or hunt some animals in the forest below.
Night came and no one dared to speak. Not because we didn't have something to talk about, but because we had to conserve our energy. Talking consumed energy, and depleted energy meant hunger. With no food around, all we could get was a grumbling stomach.
Speaking of a grumbling stomach, Shino's just sounded. I tried my best not to laugh because laughing also consumed energy. I covered my face with the sleeping bag, hoping it would help me forget what just happened and somehow quell the threatening laugh trying to escape my mouth.
***
Fortunate enough, we reached the base of the mountain. But we failed to celebrate because of our worsening hunger. Mister Kenshi had to endure the stinging pain of his wounds because Shino could no longer heal him due to starvation.
My vision was already spinning, and I felt like I was starting to lose control of my body.
A loud thud caught my ears. I pivoted myself to look at it and found Mister Kenshi lying on the ground, unconscious.
"Kenshi!" Shino's scream sounded like a whisper due to the lack of energy.
She knelt beside Mister Kenshi's unconscious body and placed both hands on him. A green magic circle appeared, but it flickered every now and then, signifying Shino's weakened state.
"Stop, Shino!" I told her, but my knees could no longer support the weight of my body, dropping me to the ground. When I returned my eyes to her, her body swayed before it dropped onto the soil.
"No!" I yelled, but my throat was so dry that the word came out like a voiceless utterance. My vision spun more intensely than before until it was slowly filled with darkness. The next thing I knew, my body hit something hard, cold, and rough, before my mind warped into the unknown.
Is this our end? Is this our fate? What a shame. We survived an attack from an evil cult but against hunger? Imagine the embarrassment when the world knew that the heroes who saved Aste City died of starvation. And how about Mister Daku? Shiro? Master Grosi? They will be devastated if they learned the news of our deaths. I won't be able to see Mister Daku get better. Or watch Shiro and I grow. What a shame indeed.
A howl roared nearby, and based on the intensity of the sound, the source was pretty close.
Just great! Now the beasts found us. We are definitely dead.