The silence fractured.
At first, only a tremor flowed.
Small.
Uncertain.
As if the ground itself had taken a breath beneath the snow.
Then came sound.
Crack.
Muffled....but loud in Riven's heart.
It bled through the frost, sharp enough to cut through the hazed sky.
WOOOOOOH!
The wind ran sharp. It wasn't laughing this time.
Crack.
Another one.
Crack.
Again it resounded.
...It wasn't the ice.
...It wasn't stone.
Bone.
The scene that flowed through Riven's ears, as he stared at Saphira:
Supernatural.
Reckoning.
"Haaa....."
His breath shallowed, before his eyes ran back to the snow.
"....What is it?" Saphira continued.
She could see the bright haze of blue, climbing into the sky.
But soon....
Crack.
Sounds flowed through her ears, causing her to shiver slightly.
'...Is it that voice?'
The thought came dragged.
Heavy.
That rhyme?
That representative?
But the longer she stared at Riven....the more his mannerisms unsettled her.
The tightening of his jaw.
The shake of his muscles as his eyes stayed glued.
Wooooooh!
The wind struck her from the cracks in the wall.
THUMP! THUMP!
The sound was diminished of it's true message.
Riven bared it's brunt.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She moved.
Hesitant.
Slow....before the pace increased.
Tap! Tap!
She edged closer, until she was at his side. The two stood shoulder to shoulder.
THUMP! THUMP!
"Hakkk--"
Her breath came shaky, due to the constant pulls of her heart.
Her eyes rose, past the cracked opening, into the snow.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
Forever.
Eternal.
A sound that gnawed at the air.
A sound they'd heard for days on end.
The parting of snow.
It was clear in front of them.
WOOOOOOOH!
'What in the...'
It was unsettling...
This wasn't a memory.
This wasn't an echo.
...This was real.
Saphira clutched the edges of her coat; its warmth was not enough to contain this storm.
Thump! Thump!
All around....the lumps of before stirred.
Tremors rolling through the white.
Unnatural shakes that plagued the path they'd emerged from....and up their spines.
Small bursts of powdered snow broke loose, as if Eldris itself was expelling something...
Something grotesque.
WOOOOOOOH!!
It started with an arm.
CRUNCH! PAH!
A pale limb that broke free from its grave of white.
It felt like a hole formed in Riven's chest as he watched:
Joints jutted out, bending wrong, as flesh peeled where it shouldn't.
CRUNCH! PAH!
Another.
Then another.
Bodies dragged themselves upright, figments caught halfway between death and life.
"OOOOAAHHHHH!!"
"URRHHHH...."
They pushed through, entire beings rising once again.
Saphira jumped at the sound.....it was a call from hell itself.
Guttural and endless, it wasn't just a voice....it was a wound screaming open.
WOOOOOOH!
The wind screamed as the ground split open.
PAH! PAH! PAH!
Their grip on the forgotten shell of a window only rose, for their bodies threatened to stumble back if they didn't.
'...Is this a dream?' Saphira thought, as her eyes twitched.
Was it truly real?
Even with the wind, clashing at their features.
Even with the cold, seeping through their fingers as they touched the stone wall.
Even with the smell of roasted meat, slowly lost in the atmosphere.
It shouldn't have been real....
Right?
'...A nightmare.'
The thought left Riven, as his breath misted at the scene.
WOOOOOOH!!!
Their eyes swept across hollow faces, rising from the snow.
Sunken.
More hollow than the feeling rising in their stomachs.
"OOOOAHHHH!!!"
"URRHHHH...."
Mouths opened and closed, groans dragging like rusted hinges.
It was the sound of hunger without end.
It was the scene of the undead.
They had returned, standing in the open air.
PAH! PAH!
How many were there?
70?
80?
....90?
Was it all of this?
Was this the remains of the village they'd stepped in?
"....ha...." "....hakk---"
A weight fell on their chests.
After reading the notebook, suspicion fell on the nature of those lumps....
"OOOAAHHHHH!!!!"
"URRHHHH...."
But this was the reality of it.
An unfortunate one...
What others may have shrugged off, as notes of the deranged?
No.
They told a story.
One that would naturally unfold....as it did so now.
WOOOOH!
Wait...
Behind the bursts of haze, rising from the piercing of still snow...
Behind the heavier groans and moans...
"ooahhhh...."
It wasn't as loud.
It wasn't as sudden.
It slipped out thin, a fragile whisper tangled under the pot of thunderous sounds.
They wouldn't have heard it, had it not been for their horror.
"ooahhhh...."
The owner of the whimper emerged, drifting out from the haze of snow.
WO---
The wind silenced.
Saphira stumbled back, shaking her head, as she whispered:
'...No...no'
Riven didn't move.
His breath caught, but his gaze stayed locked...
Looking away meant the vision might follow him inside his mind.
PAH! PAH!
Denial wouldn't take back what they'd seen.
The frame was smaller than the others.
Thin, unsteady.
Its outline half-lost in the swirl.
Its height, barely reached the chest of the groaning figures beside it.
"OOAHHHH!!"
It seemed like one harsh gust of wind, and its frail body would be carried away.
Wrong.
A wrong sight.
For a second, it felt like silence fell.
The groans paused, as slow steps marched forward.
"...ha...."
shk shk
It dragged something along, rested atop its shoulder.
A blanket.
The notebook flashed in their minds, as the image burned at them.
"ooahh..."
Shk. pat.
The blanket slipped, exposing a collarbone too sharp for its size.
The body swayed, fragile...but it didn't fall.
crunch.
It dragged forward, eyes empty, as if death itself had dressed younger.
...Thump!
It was a child.