As Vera's eyes fixated on the horizon, it slowly hovered down. To the vast and open expanse that seperated the peaks from the ground. Her eyes dwindled as she staggered back. Falling while her nails dug into the ground beneath her, to make sure it doesn't leave her.
"Oh right. You don't like heights."
Naren's eyes glimmered in a devilish and impure manner as he sweat from the heat. While an impish smile grew on his lips. Edging closer to Vera.
A shadow passed overhead them. But Naren paid it no interest. He had something more fun in mind.
"Hey, wanna see something cool?"
Vera shook her head no, already assuming what he was going to do.
"S-stay back."
"Come on shrimpy, it's just a little height. Why not take a peek?"
Vera crawled backwards, shaking her head, trembling.
"Get away pervert!"
Naren snapped his head back. But it was too late. He was hearing the noises, but was too distracted.
The shadow swooped down and snatched him up in its claws. A lean almost skeletal body filled Vera's view. The head of a bird, majestic and proud, but the hindquarters of a predator. Cat-like limbs made for hunting. Dull bronze feathers rustled as it flapped. It's amber eyes stared at Vera, with Naren hanging by it's talons.
The Griffin grabbed Naren by his collar, tangling in his scarf which wound up covering his eyes. In the next split second it soared high into the air. Taking Naren with it.
"VERAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The little girl was left completely overwhelmed. Between what had happened and what was happening she was completely lost staring at the squirming and blinded Naren.
"Did I get saved?"
"VERA SAVE ME! I'M YOUR GUARD REMEMBER!"
Vera's eyes widened as her face dropped.
"Oh no, what am I going to do?"
She stood up in a jolt, chasing after the Griffin on foot.
"NAREN HOW DO I GET YOU DOWN?!"
Then she reached the edge of the peak. Stopping herself just short of seeing the immense drop as she watched a loose pebble fall in. One image floating through her mind: Her mother falling through the earth.
TINK.
As she stood paralyzed by fear, not wanting to see that daunting drop, a stray piece of cloth wound up falling atop her head. A ragged crimson scarf. Now with a sizable tear from the Griffin's claw.
Vera, pulled the scarf over her head.
"W-what do I do?"
She staggered back from the edge. Taking a couple deep heavy breaths to calm herself down as she leaned on her knees.
"I need Naren to-"
She stopped herself, clenching her fists.
'What if he hears. What if he stops helping me.'
Vera finally calmed down. Now thinking about her situation as the twilight ambience of the world got dimmer by the minute.
"What can I do?"
But a thought went through her mind.
'Wait. The stone.'
Vera picked up a nearby pebble and rolled it towards the edge. Until it fell off. A split second later.
TINK
She crawled closer, her eyes half open, her breath shaky as she steeled herself. Sweat dripping from her face. Maybe from the heat, maybe from her fear. But as her eyes finally peered beyond the edge she saw it.
A stone staircase carved into the mountain-side. Protected on both sides by a low wall, reaching all the way to the bottom.
Even still, the view of the bottom was still there, ableit covered slightly by the low wall.
Vera stood up, shaking. Wrapping the blood-red scarf around her body. Loosely hanging off, showcasing just how small Vera truly was.
With a shaky breath, she took a step onto the stairs, hugging the wall.
"B-be a grown up.."
———————————————————
With one hand hanging limp, Naren was flailing around under the griffin.
"My scarf. Stop flying chicken, lemme pick up my scarf first."
The griffin screeched in response as it dove down.
Naren's face stretching in the process.
"Myyyy scaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrfffffffff."
The dim lights of the twilight slowly dissappeared as the last rays of sun glistening through the drowned sky faded. What remained was as close to pure darkness the world could get.
Naren blinked several times as he finally gave up fighting the griffin. Holding out his good hand in front of him, wiggling his fingers.
"Wow it's dark. It's like my eyes are closed...Man do I wanna sleep."
He yawned, trying to make out as best what was happening in the ground below. Half squinting he could barely even make out a ground.
A couple seconds passed, then lights flickered.
From little caves and caverns within each finger-like peak, beasts arose. Some had their own light source, flames that flickered from their tails, glowing sacs hanging from their heads, one even looked like a giant light pole — a ridiculously long neck with eyes that glowed like a biological flashlight.
Naren watched, but more so listened, as the glowing stags of a creature repeatedly headbutted something howling in the darkness. Rising on it's hindlegs, it dug its claws into the darkness, blood splotches disrupting the glow if its antelers.
The creature in the darkness, dug it's own head into the deer-like creatures abdomen, gnawing it's guts. Until the glow flickered out. But before long, the howls also dwindled as an ember flickered on the ground, consuming the large half-bear-half-owl into a rotten husk.
Naren grimmaced imagining how the fight was going through the sounds.
"Maybe not a bad thing to be up here. Nice breeze, quiet ride, great service. What's not to love."
Naren wrapped his good hand around his body. There was no nice breeze. The previous heat completely gone, now replaced by a cold that seemed to be constantly there. Shivering, he also began hearing a noise, from deep within the ground below.
The ground rumbled, sending beasts into frenzy, then it cracked open. A massive column of segmented flesh swallowed the two feuding creatures whole, before continuing it's upward ascension.
The massive tube of translucent flesh pulsed as it rose. It's body folding in and out like a piston working through the ground, tree thick veins breathing through it's skin. Beneath the patches of skin, bulges pressed agains the edge, twitching, still alive.
Naren's face fell as his mouth hung open watch the massive maw, filled with hundreds of rows of bristle like teeth enter his range of vision.
"You're kidding."
Fortunately for Naren, he was currently on a very fast flying creature. Unfortunately for him, the griffin decided to shed some weight as it escaped it's predator. Dropping Naren right into the open mouth of the hideous beast.
Naren watched as the griffin flew off. Flipping him off with his only good hand.
"Fuck you."
He turned mid-air, the corner of his lips curled up, sticking his tongue out as his faced contorted into disgust.
"And you're gross."
Naren's eyes scattered trying to find a way out. But the darkness really narrowed his options. Without any lightsource, there were no reflections.
Thankfully, he wasn't falling from thousands of meters like before, and he was also alone this time, so any reflection would do as long as he could find it fast, before he picked up speed.
Naren's eyes narrowed on a flickering ember down in the ground below. Then it went back to the darkness of the flesh wall.
'Please be shiny.'
Naren twisted midair, landing and then quickly jumping off the oversized worm before it could clamp its mouth shut. Shuddering a little about the contact he made.
As he fell side by side to the wall of flesh, he focused his attention on the ground, near the flickering ember. And just like he thought, a shiny glint bounced off the slimy creature's skin.
'Bingo!'
Bare feet tried stepping out of the skin of the fleshy abomination, but instead the falling momentum made Naren tumble a bit. Rolling, until he finally came to a stop in front of the corpse of a some beast.
The ground freezing to the touch, Naren hopped up, shivering. Holding himself in his only good arm.
"Is this...shoulder...dislocated? It hurts...so damn...bad."
His teeth chattered as he tried his shoulder back into place. Instead sending a wave of pain down his arm causing him to grimace as he breathed heavily through his teeth.
Just then, a shrilling laughter could be heard coming from the darkness surrounding them. Stuck in between several rising pillars of mountains, there weren't many places it could be coming from. But somehow, it echoed through the pillars, betraying the true location.
Along with it, came the grating of stone, the slight dragging that only Naren could pick up on.
Naren's face shifted as he realized what the noises were.
The laughter of children. Followed by the movement of stone, now getting more and more pronounced.
The echo didn't betray the location, instead, the giggling was surrounding them. Surrounding the dim embers close to fizzling out.
Then, something fell out of the shadow, laying there, still as a tree. Making no noise. A child, built from stone, with a wide grin etched onto his face. Except it wasn't human. The face wanted to be human but it wasn't, the features were almost right, but wrong.
The stone statue laid on the ground, facing Naren with it's dead beady eyes. Laughter continuing, but it's mouth stayed in a petrified grin. Barely visible with the embers of the flame.
Then it fizzled out.