"P-papa?" the little girl said, shaking him again, voice already fraying at the edges.
Above Si Hon's head, the window still floats.
「I… argh!!! I hate this guy. ಠ益ಠ」
She didn't understand why he'd fallen.
One moment he was standing, breathing hard, smiling the way he always did right after something almost killed him— and the next he was on the ground, not moving at all.
"Papa?" Sitting beside him in the snow she touched his cheek.
Warm.
Still warm.
"Papa."
No answer.
Something tightened in her chest that she didn't have a word for yet.
She shook him again, careful this time, like he might break if she pushed too hard. "Papa… wake up."
Nothing.
The mountain made no sound. The wind didn't howl. Even the System stayed completely silent, and that silence scared her more than anything else so far.
She pressed her ear to his chest the way she'd done earlier, back when she'd just wanted to make sure his heart was still there.
Thump. Slow. Uneven.
"Okay," she whispered.
She tried lifting him and he didn't budge an inch— her arms were small, her body light, and he was heavy in a way that felt deeply unfair.
She switched tactics and pulled instead, and his shoulder shifted a single inch, snow scraping under him, his arm dragging limp behind.
She stopped, breathing fast. "P-papa," she said again, voice trembling now. "You said… you'd stay close."
No answer.
The sky hadn't changed, but she could feel it anyway— time was moving again, and it wasn't waiting for her to catch up.
She wiped her face with her sleeve even though she wasn't crying.
"Okay," she said again, firmer, like repeating a rule she'd memorized. "I will do it."
She hooked both his arms over her shoulders and leaned forward with everything she had, and this time he moved— not much, but enough.
Snow carved a shallow trail behind them as she dragged him inch by inch, hands aching, legs slipping more than once, knees scraping raw against the ice, but she got back up every single time. Because if she didn't, he probably wouldn't.
The light began to dim, not fully dark yet, just thinner, colder, the night creeping in at the edges.
She looked around desperately— trees, dead ones, slopes, more snow— and then she saw it.
Dark. An opening. A cave mouth half-buried under snow and stone, narrow but deep enough that the wind couldn't reach past the entrance.
She gasped, relief flooding through her chest all at once.
"Ah… what's this feeling… but, There," she said. "Yes."
She dragged him again, and again, and by the time she finally reached it her arms were shaking so badly she couldn't feel her fingers anymore.
"If… if only I have my power," she whispered to no one.
She pulled him just inside, far enough that the wind stopped touching his face, and he still didn't wake up.
She sat beside him, chest heaving, staring at his still body. "Papa," she murmured. "You are really heavy."
She looked back the way they'd come— the trail carved through the snow, the spot where he'd fallen, and something else.
The corpse.
The pale, ugly thing he'd fought so hard to kill was lying there, it's blood hissing under the snow.
Food.
"Papa said it was food," she murmured, staring at it a long moment before nodding once. "I will be back," she told his unconscious body, and went.
The snow felt deeper on the way back, or maybe she was just exhausted.
She grabbed the creature the same way she'd grabbed him, under the limbs, ignoring how cold and strange it felt against her skin, and dragged it across the ground— lighter, at least, which helped some.
By the time she pulled it into the cave, night had properly settled in.
She shoved the body into a corner, away from him, the way she figured he'd have done it himself, then crawled back to his side and sat down, leaning against him carefully, pressing her head to his arm.
"I said I would hide behind you," she whispered, fingers curling into his sleeve. "But it's okay. I can do this too."
And for the first time since she'd arrived in this place, she cried. Not loud, not in any way that echoed, just small, broken sounds pressed into his sleeve so the noise wouldn't escape into the mountain, tears soaking the fabric as she shook silently.
Then, slowly, she stopped— because crying used strength too, and she didn't have much left to spend on it.
She stayed awake instead. All night. Guarding him.
***
The night wasn't loud, and that was the strange part.
The wind didn't scream like it had before, just brushed gently against the cave mouth, carrying snowflakes that melted before they ever reached them.
Drip.
Water fell somewhere deep in the stone, slow and patient.
She listened to everything, because when she listened, nothing surprised her.
Something crunched far off— not close, but not far enough either —and her body went stiff instantly.
She leaned forward, placing herself more fully in front of him without even thinking about it, small back pressed against his chest.
"Don't come," she whispered into the dark. "Please don't come."
The sound passed. Whatever it was, moved on. Her heartbeat slowed again, and she counted his breaths instead— one, two, three, uneven but steady —and nodded to herself.
(Okay)
She frowned.
"Hello?" she whispered.
Nothing answered at first, the feeling pulling back slightly, and she waited.
Then a letter appeared, slow and careful.
「…」or dot.
She tilted her head. "Are you the talking thing?" she asked quietly.
The text froze, a long pause stretching out, and then it vanished entirely.
Her lips trembled. "Oh. I scared it…?" She hugged her knees and went quiet again.
Minutes passed.
The cave settled around her.
Then, very slowly, the text returned.
「I am not… authorized…」
"Authorized?" she repeated.
The System hesitated, the letters flickering once like they might vanish again. 「I am not supposed to speak to you directly.」
Her fingers curled tighter into his sleeve. "Why?"
Another pause, longer this time. 「
Because you are not a variable.」
She didn't understand what that meant, so she just answered honestly. "I'm just tired."
The cave stayed quiet.
Then— 「…」 —something in the text shifted. 「He is alive.」
Her breath hitched. "I know that but..… Really?"
「Yes. Of course.」
She nodded, tears almost falling again before she stopped herself, sniffing hard. "Okay," she whispered. "Thank you."
The System flickered once.
「If something approaches the cave…」
The text stopped, like it had already said too much, and she waited patiently until it continued.
「I will alert you (˘･_･˘)」
Her eyes widened slightly. "Even though I'm not allowed?"
The text dimmed further.
「Just this once.」
She smiled— very small, barely there. "…Thank you."
No response came back after that, but the presence didn't leave either.
***
Outside the cave, something massive shifted beneath the snow, so deep it didn't shake the ground, so large it didn't need to hurry.
***
"AGHAUWHN!??!!!" Si Hon woke up shouting, which came out more as a strangled "aghsndow." than anything dignified.
Dark— that was the first thing he noticed.
"Agsn…?" he repeated, quieter this time, body jerking awake with pain screaming through every joint, throat letting out a half-choked shout that echoed thin off stone.
Something soft was pressed against his chest.
He froze.
His hand moved before his brain caught up, fingers brushing against something warm, round, smooth.
"Huh?"
The thing against him stirred.
"Papa…"
His breath caught.
Then— "PAPA!!!" —she bolted upright and threw herself at him, arms locking around his neck with a terrifying strength for someone her size.
Si Hon yelped. "Woah! Wait!" He wrapped an arm around her back on instinct, steadying them both as she buried her face into his chest like she'd been holding her breath for hours straight.
"You woke up," she said, muffled, voice shaking. "You woke up."
"Yeah," he muttered, patting her back awkwardly. "I noticed."
She didn't let go.
He sighed. "Okay. What's happening right now?" He looked around slowly, eyes adjusting to the stone walls, narrow and cold.
"Where are we?" he asked quietly.
"A cave," she answered. "You fell. I moved you."
His brow furrowed. "You moved me?"
She nodded against him. "Hmm." He went quiet for a moment, then cleared his throat. "Right. Thank you.."
He shifted carefully, testing his weight, pain kicking in immediately, sharp and deep but manageable. "Ugh, shit…" he muttered. "What's with my life…"
He eased her back gently to look at her face— eyes red, a little swollen. "You kay?" he asked.
She hesitated, then nodded.
"Okay." He believed her exactly 0%, but let it go anyway.
Si Hon pushed himself up slowly, stone scraping against fabric, joints cracking sharply and immediate.
He looked straight, and the cave mouth came into view, not bright, not dark, just washed-out gray bleeding through the narrow opening, thin and weak like daylight filtered through ash.
Snow drifted past the entrance, not falling so much as settling.
"Morning?" he guessed.
The girl glanced toward the opening, tilting her head to listen to the mountain instead of looking at it.
"Almost," she said.
Si Hon exhaled through his nose. "Figures."
He took one step, then another. "Oh!" He slipped, balance gone entirely, and dropped— cheeks first. "Ouch!"
The impact echoed off the stone, pain shooting straight up his spine. "Ah, fuck, why."
Then he froze, because something crunched underneath him. "Ah..."
Very slowly, very dramatically, he reached down, fingers brushing something smooth.
A bone.
Then an empty socket where eyes used to sit. "F-fuck." He screamed and lunged straight back toward her, scooping her up into a full panic hug like a man fleeing something genuinely terrifying.
"Skellyton!!! T-there's a skeleton!!! Why is there a SKELETON THERE?!"
"Papa…!" she protested, startled but unharmed. "It's not moving!"
"I don't care!" He stopped, blinked, breathed hard. "It's not moving?"
She pointed. "It's been there."
He peeked slowly, eyes adjusting further, and the cave wasn't empty after all— bones slumped against the stone wall, old and dry, clothed in tattered remnants barely clinging to shape.
Beside it sat a backpack, modern, worn, but intact.
Si Hon swallowed. "Oh." He loosened his grip on her slightly. "Okay. That's… that's better."
She looked up at him. "Why?"
"Because," he said quietly, staring at the pack, "that's not just a skeleton."
He coughed once. "That's a predecessor."
"What's a predecessor?" she asked.
"Someone or something that came before, in another time," he answered.
"Woah," she said, and clapped.
The cave felt heavier all of a sudden, like it remembered something it hadn't planned on sharing.
He set her down gently, keeping her behind him this time. "Stay there," he said, and she nodded immediately, no argument.
He approached the skeleton slow, no System window popping up, no warning at all— just silence.
The backpack looked intact, zipper closed, weathered but not ruined. "Huh," Si Hon muttered. "Someone made it this far."
He glanced once toward the cave entrance, the gray morning waiting patiently beyond it, then back down at the bones. "Oh shit… wait, there's people who has been summoned before me?" A laugh came out of him. "Guess I—" he looked at the girl beside him. "We're not the first idiots."
Behind him, the girl hugged herself. "Did they have a papa too?" she asked quietly.
Si Hon didn't answer right away.
Then, softly— "I don't know." But his hand tightened on the backpack strap.
He crouched beside the skeleton a while longer before actually touching the bag, some quiet instinct telling him this deserved more care than just yanking it open.
"Hey," he said, mostly to the bones, voice low. "Sorry for screaming at you, by the way. It wasn't personal."
The girl peeked out from behind him despite being told to stay put, curiosity winning out over obedience the way it always seemed to with her lately. "Do you think they're mad?" she asked.
"Nah," Si Hon said, working the zipper loose with careful fingers. "Dead people don't really do mad. Mostly just do nothing, which honestly, I respect."
The zipper gave with a dry, reluctant hiss, and inside he found the kind of things that told a story without needing words attached.
And it was…