Tonal whiplash. That's what day to night felt like to Vera. The scared girl, trembling down tens of thousands of steps suddenly had the dim twilight atmosphere snuffed into pure darkness.
Vera's knees buckled as she fell to a seat on the stairs, holding the scarf tight around her neck.
"I-I am not afraid!...I-I can not afford to be afraid."
It was freezing now despite being scalding just moments earlier.
Vera could hear various howls and screeches coming from the darkness surrounding her, even if her hearing wasn't as good as Naren's. Each one made her recoil.
She hummed a tune her mother taught her.
'Come dry your tears...It'll be alright...'
Vera pushed on the stairs and got up once more, taking another step down, finally reaching the solid ground.
She continued humming. Quietly, forgetting the lyrics to her favorite song. Her hands on the box of matches on her chest pocket she managed to nab from the Sargant. Scared they may attract unwanted attention if lit.
The ground was a maze of pillars. Some that rose as high as the mountain peaks, others that stopped just short.
Vera held tightly to the walls as she walked. Quietly trying to heed caution. Humming.
'I'll be with you...'
Then a slight warmth invited her. A light dim came from around one of the rocky pillars, lighting the darkness. The crackling of embers hit Vera's ears in the quiet of night.
She edged closer, peering by.
In the pillar in front of her was a cave opening. From inside, the ashen smoke escaped, giving hint to the existence of fire. Something warm.
'Naren!'
Vera took a step closer, it had to be him. She was saved.
——————————————————
Naren was bruised and battered. Bleeding from his head.
The laughter continued in shrill beats. Stopping abruptly as if they never existed in the first place before picking up just as suddenly.
Every few seconds, the grating of stone would echo before a pressure would hit Naren from behind, followed by laughter. No matter what, it always came from behind.
Naren could hear it, but as soon as he turned, the sounds would cease, picking up behind him once again.
Naren was breathing heavily. He was already dealing with the pain of his shoulder, now random bouts of blunt pain would arise every few seconds.
He clenched his jaws, golden eyes looking around.
'Gotta hate kids.'
Naren planted his legs flat on the ground. Closing his eyes.
'No point in seeing.'
He listened. The wind. Distant footsteps. The laughter. The grating of stone. The twitching of a stone statue, ready to punch.
A punch came at Naren from the back, but this time he didn't turn around. This time, he dodged blind, slipping his head to the right.
Sure enough the wind of movement flash right beside, for just a second. But that was enough. Naren shut his left hand up, grabbing on the stone child.
He held tight, pain signaling all through his body in waves as he exerted himself. He clenched tight, until the stone finally shattered under the pressure. With a swift follow up, he pivoted off his left food, digging his heel into the stagger statue.
Hearing a thud, he was satisfied. But something caught his attention. There were so many noises that Naren kept track of that most got shuffled into the back of his head. But he made sure to prioritize familiar ones. So he lost concentration for a moment as he heard the whisper of a specific little girl somewhere in the distance.
———————
"Naren, are you there?"
Vera whispered into the distance, lurking towards the cave opening. As she drew closer, the size of it became apparent. It was tiny. She had to curl up into a ball just to get in.
Her legs suddenly shuddered as she began to rethink her actions.
'Is this really Naren? Is he in there?'
A little thicket of smoke lingered and slithered in through her nose, sending her into a coughing fit as she quickly covered her mouth.
The crackling of fires became more apparent within the echoes of the cave wall.
At least, Vera was certain there was a human in there.
With that thought she crawled in, squeezing through the gap until the glaring flames broke through the tunnel, giving rise to a warmth she had missed.
But along with that warmth her eyes faltered as her face grew pale.
———————
Naren was so distracted that he didn't hear the punch directed at his stomach. Coming from the front for the first time.
He spit out a mouthful as he tried to keep the stew Boris made from coming back out while staggering forward, his eyes still shut.
"...You damn rocks!"
Stone chunks continued to shift, grinding on one another as he backed up, hitting a rocky wall behind him.
'They can't kick my back anymore...'
Then a thought crossed his mind.
He held an orthodox boxing pose, opening his eyes with his back to the wall. One arm held out, blocking slightly to his side. The other, injured hand, was hanging, touching the wall.
He followed the wall, moving sideways. Stones shifted, but none attacked...yet. Nothing from in front, nothing from his back. They just laughed. Finally, Naren managed to reach a corner he noticed earlier while there was still a dim ember.
He faced his entire body to the left, turning his head to the right. While his back and left were to a wall, his sight held the right while his body faced forward.
Naren kept his eyes opened, despite how tired his eyes were, listening.
A stone fist flew through the air, aiming right for his chest. Naren ducked, feeling the whiplash of the force hit his hair before stepping in for an uppercut, sending a stone head flying. He made sure to keep looking right as he hit a side kick right to the abdomen letting the stone shatter.
Then another child followed right through the debris of its kin, opting to grab him as another attempted to ram into him.
Naren ignored the stone child holding him steady, instead elbowing the next in line, letting it stagger back before, he kneed the one on his waist. He raised his right foot to the side, at a forty-five degree angle before digging it right into the statues waist.
It hit the wall with a thud, parts of it crumbling out.
"Just get in line."
A strange noise echoed. The shattered bits that Naren had destroyed vibrated, rumbling on the ground. Then the sound of stone rubbing on stone, assembling again.
A rocky hand grabbed his legs, this time much rougher than the previous smooth finish of the statues. As the laughter echoed, the sharp edges of the rocky hands drove into Naren's ankles.
The crumbled face of the one Naren just kicked, found itself back, this time contorted into an even more eerie persona. Thankfully, it was too dark to see it.
Naren kicked his leg, freeing himself of the rocky hand.
"...Come on!"
A quiet toss set the grass aflame. Finally lighting up the maze of rocky pillars.
The wrongness of the child statues finally illuminated for Naren to see. They were even worse than he thought. Completely distorted images of children. Almost human. Terrified by the newly lit fire. Terrified they were seen.
They scattered.
A couple footsteps approached him. He was too distracted to hear them earlier, but...
"Atta girl!"
Naren staggered forward, as Vera propped him back up.
"Glad you could make it."
Vera pulled Naren along.
"Naren, I must show you this."
Naren didn't feel like retorting, instead letting the little girl drag him along. His eyes faltering every now and then as his yawns grew more frequent.
——————
Inside the narrow tunnel of a cave entrance, the two were propped onto a slight ledge overlooking a cavern.
A carcass of a creature, too burned to be recognized in the middle, taking up a fourth of the space. A shallow stream cutting the white stone floor beside it.
Naren wasn't focused on that though. He was focused on the man that took up an even smaller fraction of the room. Yet somehow filled it completely with his presence.
A cup-like plant sprinkled water onto his head, taming his short sharp white hair as it trickled down his bare chest. The cut lines on his body giving way to just how sculpted it. Like the rocks right below his feet.
The puddle at the foot of his black baggy pants hinted at just how long he was at this. The very edges of them wet only as the rest seemed to be steaming.
The man gripped a cloth scabbard with his other hand, his gaze slowly filtering onto Naren. His face covered in half with unkempt bandages, only one sharp grey eye left to size them up.
"Who y'all supposed to be?"
Naren spoke unconsciously like he almost always did. His golden eyes meeting the man's grey eye.
"Freak."
Vera's face crumbled into a mess of fear, embarrassment, and anger as her head flicked towards Naren.
"Pardon?!"