'...Stiff, but warm.'
The clothes slipped on Saphira with a slow rhythm, her frost-bitten fingers battling the pace.
The royal clothes of before?
Gone.
They had been draped over a wooden seat, insufficient for further travel.
Instead; rough, dust-stained garments draped over her shoulders and waist.
Nothing noble about it.
...Maybe that was good.
Wooooooh!
"I'm done." Saphira whispered, under the bite of wind.
Riven turned back around; previously staring at just a broken wall, whilst she changed.
His own coat that he'd changed into was a bigger size, to say the least....
But it was better than nothing.
Especially better than just Eldris' uniform; which he'd still kept on for extra layers, but it's sigil was covered, lost in the frozen atmosphere of it all.
It was riddled with holes and gashes around certain areas.
His right shoulder being one. It still stung from that Stalker fight, a pain that had been immortalised by the view, and grown numb due to their escape.
Creak.
Her red eyes lifted to meet his, coat now draped across her frame, more layers to protect against the cold.
Tap.
Neither spoke for a moment; only the faint sound of their breaths resounded in the hollowed hall.
"You look--"
Grrr!!
Hunger.
An eternal friend....or enemy in this case.
With nothing to feast it was the latter.
Grrr!
It echoed through Saphira and the air, as she clutched her stomach.
"hm.."
The pain was rising.
The hollow pit was growing.
'...It hurts' she thought as her golden hair fell down.
Woooooh!
Riven's mind flickered to that prayer, as a strained expression danced on his face; the pain reaching higher volumes for him also.
The word she muttered, the one she prayed to.
'...What was it again?'
He wanted to know.
Was it to mock?
No.
Wooooh!
It was slight, genuine curiosity, amid battling hunger.
His voice broke the silence that lived through their gruelling stomachs.
"...Saphira. What was it you were praying to?"
Her gaze looked up, as the pain still floated behind those crimson eyes; shoulders now sagging under the weight of a heavy coat.
She hesitated, a brow slightly raised.
'...Why?' , before her lips parted:
"...Isyra."
Wooooooooh!
The name hung in the air, thin and fragile.
"Haa...."
A breath exhaled from Riven's parted mouth, a question was forming in his mind.
Something bitter at the edge of his mind---
Squeak!
The thought fractured in his mind, stolen before it could manifest.
Both their heads snapped towards the stand at the front, the silence of the hall broken by a thin, mocking sound.
'Was that...'
A small shape emerged, trembling. Beady eyes glinting back in the dim light.
It didn't run, it only twitched as its whiskers quivered.
Scrap.
Tiny claws scraped against the wooden stand, as the moment stretched.....
Silence.
Thick enough to choke on.
tap. tap.
Then it hopped. Once.
tap.
Again.
It's tail dragged, brushing dust, leaving a faint line....of something across the floor.
Squeak!
The sound lingered, in the air, in their minds....
Their eyes fixed on it, neither daring to move.
A rat.
A rodent so impure.
tap. tap.
It echoed throughout the room, like a cruel joke.
tap.
No humans anywhere.
No way to call for help.
Squeak!
But a rat?
A rat, surviving here?
Wooooooh!
The wind chuckled, rising in strength before lowering beats as it clashed through the cracks of the walls.
Grrr!
"A rat...."
A slow extinguish came from Saphira's breath...
Woooh!
The word itself clawed at their minds; disease, filth, dark.
It was the kind of thing you flinched from.
Squeak! Scrap!
The sound was vile; high-pitched, as the scraping of wood accompanied it.
"Haa...." "Haa...."
Their breaths connected, clouding in the damp air of the hall.
They stared....
Squeak!
Its ribs showed faintly with every stretch. A twitch of its whiskers with every hop. The quick dart of its body, alive where everything else around was cold and dead.
It was alive.
tap. tap.
And alive meant flesh.
Flesh... what did flesh mean?
Scrap! Scrap!
Riven's throat tightened, as a singular word forced its way in.
"...Food."
Woooooooh!
The whisper slipped into the hollow air, before a gust of wind sounded shortly after....
Saphira flinched, shoulders jerking as if the sound had struck her...
It was shock....
But her eyes...they lingered on the darting shape, wide and red; for she was betraying the same unspoken hunger.
No. Had it come to this?
Truly?
Grrrr!!!
Creak! Tap. Tap.
Riven took a few steps forward, as the hall creaked all around him.
Tap.
Step. By step.
Before he could move further, he felt a pull on his coat.
Shhk-
He turned.
Saphira was standing, head lowered. Her fingers clutched the fabric, knuckles white.
She shook once, lips parting as if to form a plea.
A "no."
Wooooooh!
But no sound came.
Grrrr!
Hunger had stolen the word before it could leave.
Something stirred in Riven's gut as he stared into her eyes.
Not pity. Not sympathy.
Just the same simple truth reflected back at him.
Squeak!
They stood there, in that hall; their silhouettes bouncing off due to the cold faint light, onto the cracked walls.
"...We have to."
Wooooh!
The words weren't sharp.
They weren't firm.
They were low....carrying the weight of inevitability.
Her grip slackened.
Fingers that had caught his coat slipped away, one by one....until they dangled down at her side.
Squeak!
He stepped forward.
"Haahh..."
A cold breath.
Squeak!
Tap. Tap. Tap.
His steps bounced through the room, before he was close enough.
Scrap!
His hands darted before it could run.
Not graceful, not clean.
Fast.
Desperation fast.
SQUEAK!
The rat writhed in his grip, claws scratching at the open air, its thin body thrashing against his palm.
A disgusting scene.
One that Saphira shuddered at.
Wooooh!
The rat was decently sized.
Alive.
Meat.
Food.
SQUEAK!
It writhed harder....
Its squeals slicing through the silence as its breaths offered small fogs of its own.
Riven's grip tightened.
Just like before.
SQUEAK!
The scavenger.
The stalker.
Wooooooh!
It was the same reminder:
Death carried no weight except the one he placed on it.
A wolf.
A rat.
Or a man...
'...Any death is the same.'
Crack!