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'm not scared. N-nothing here's scary."
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 making 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 before they fell. 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.
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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. As he clenched down, the stone arm shattered, and in the very next moment, Naren swept his foot back, sweeping the underside of the 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 is that you?"
He was so distracted that he didn't hear the punch that his stomach. Coming from the front for the first time.
Naren spit out a mouthful as he tried to keep the stew Boris made from coming back out.
He staggered forward, eyes still closed.
Another dull force swept at his legs, flipping the world on its side as his head collided with the ground. The grass doing nothing in softening the damage.
Naren, pushed off the ground, coughing in the process. Already forgetting about Vera.
"I'm gonna kill...every last one of you little shits."
He backed up as he heard stone shifting. His back hitting a rocky wall.
'At least they can't hit my back.'
Too bad they still attacked his front. Then Naren realized something. A slight smile lifting his face.
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.
"And you can heal."
He clenched his fist. One hand dangling, the other with bleeding knuckles. Now one of his ankles were shaking. He mistakenly turned his head back straight.
It wobbled as his vision shook from all the hits to the back of his head. Giggling continued.
"What a buncha annoying little kids."
Naren was so caught up with fighting the stone children, that he didn't hear someone get close to them. Someone bring out a match and light it.
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. These he heard as his head turned to the right.
"Atta girl!"
Naren staggered forward, as Vera propped him back up.
"Nice of you to join me."
Vera pulled Naren along.
"Naren I have to show you this."
They walked for a couple hundred meters, finally stopping.
"You were this far?"
"I whispered, but you didn't respond this time."
"Yeah I was kind of busy."
They turned a corner and Vera pointed at a cave. Smoke still coming out of it as if the fire had not died down at all.
"I heard laughter in there. I whispered thinking it was you, but it didn't respond."
Vera looked at Naren with a look of hope.
"I think there might be another person."
Both entered the cave's narrow entrance, breathing in a lung full of smoke. Struggling to keep from coughing. Once in, the cavern was much larger than it looked from the outside.
A carcass of a creature that was too burned to be recognized sat in the middle, taking up a fourth of the entire space. Right next to it was a man.
A man stood shirtless. Black loose baggy pants were held up by a thick rope. Also wedged into that rope were two kunais on one side, and a cloth scabbard on the other.
He had sharp white hair, short and unkempt, jutting out like spikes slicked back. He was tall, with a bulky body. Half his face was covered in bandages over his right eye.
He was holding a cup-like plant filled with water, pouring it over himself. While the grey iris of his left eye stared right at Naren.
"Who the hell're you two?"
Naren spoke unconsciously like he almost always did.
"Freak."