by Andrew Jones
"I have a plan." He spoke as he looked down at her.
Blaze looked surprised as she watched him stand up, but she stared up at him and slowly grabbed his hand.
He never explained the plan, but Blaze felt like she trusted him enough, so she didn't ask about it. She watched him type on a little device as they made their way inside the building again. She stayed cautious though, the building appeared to be empty, but she had a feeling Ace was still around, watching their movements. Xanadu had finally prepared a way back to Blaze's Timeline, but as he pulled it up, Blaze noticed his worrisome face. The Timeline was going downhill fast and was heading toward the phase of sealing. He sighed and pressed a big red button which would open up a portal. The portal looked a lot like the sky, the portal that took the Divergence throughout time. Blaze was startled, but she felt somewhat safe with Xanadu, especially when he held out his hand toward her. She took her hand and felt herself being held softly by Xanadu as they made their way back to the Timeline. The more they passed through the portal, the more it became distorted. Red lightning flashed within the portal, the walls of the portal would sometimes flicker static, but Xanadu was confident nothing would happen. And then a bright light opened up at the end of the portal. It felt like they were in the portal for days, maybe weeks, but they were finally passing through to the Timeline, back home.
Verse IX
A Desperate Escape
There was one undiscovered part of the land. It was cold and it was quite the opposite of the Ancient Desert. The land was called Snowpeak. It had been called Snowpeak even in the old world, and it was known to be the true place in the world that would bring Human waste. The mountain of Snowpeak stretched high and wide, and the ice fogs limited vision for those who dared to travel the frozen lands. It was the perfect place to hide away, according to Amaya.
The frozen temperature brought danger to her people, the last few citizens who survived the mysterious machine invasion within their previous village. Some of the Humans became frozen, and the machines who traveled with them could not move any longer because their machine parts would freeze in place. It was a horrid way to die, the machines had to sit in the cold and wait around to die as they were quickly covered by the passing snow. It was a burden, and it had upset the rest of the travelers, but to the dismay of Amaya, she had forced the survivors to press on.
Jet informed Amaya that they shouldn't trend into the frozen lands too far, but she had heard from the past that an abandoned mansion was sitting on top of a lone hill. A mansion that housed enough room for everyone and then some. The people who had spoken to her about it said they were travelers of the world, and Snowpeak was their most recent trip. They said it was a perilous trip, but the satisfaction of sightseeing unknown territory was beyond pleasurable.
"Are we almost there, Amaya?" A little boy asked her.
She stopped and had a look around, sighing. Her breath was visible, it was a white patch of fog that materialized from her moving lips.
"Just a little longer, sweetie," Amaya answered, looking down at the little boy.
Jet scoffed and grabbed Amaya by her upper arm, pulling her away from the group as they started making a campfire. He took her just behind some trees where they could have some privacy.
"The hell is wrong with you? You bring us to this God forsaken land, the unspeakable land?" Jet whispered at her, but he sounded quite harsh.
"It will be safe, Jet... If Drakkar really goes through with his plan, then we'll at least be the last ones to fall." Amaya answered, sounded confident in her words but also conflicted.
"If we can stay alive long enough. This past twenty-four hours, we've seen more of our people die than we had previously. This risk of yours is mighty high."
Amaya frowned, "This mansion, once we find it... Everything can go back to normal..." She spoke, but her voice sounded more conflicted as Jet scoffed at her and turned away from her, "Please, Jet. None of my plans had failed thus far. This place has food, space, defenses... Sanctuary."
Jet quickly pushes her away from him, seeing as she fell to the snowy ground, "To hell with that, Amaya! I've always trusted you on making the right decisions. If it wasn't for my mechanical leg I would be making the decisions around here. I cannot trust myself, I could damn well be as much of a risk as the other machines of being controlled by this Network!"
Amaya screamed silently as she fell to the ground and felt the coldness of the icy snow on her bottom. Though after Jet's argument, they both heard a set of quiet footsteps from the direction of their people. It was a man, and his name was Eerie. He was short, but he was built sort of tough. He was known for being a traveler, the same traveler who had told Amaya about the mansion in the first place. He had travelers clothes on, though his strangeness comes from him wearing a big black trench coat, an eye patch and having his long brown hair up in a ponytail. His trench coat had a hoodie sewn onto it, and the hoodie also came with a cover that could cover his face up to his nose, leaving his eyes to only be exposed.
"E-Eerie... I didn't know you came along..." Amaya hesitantly spoke, as she got on her feet.
"No, I had been traveling up these mountains again. For a treacherous land, it is the most peaceful of them all... I'm surprised to see you all here though, you look unwell." Eerie responded.
"That sounds just about fine, we're freezin' our asses off."
"I see." Eerie muttered as he reached into his trench coat pocket and pulled out a small notebook and began flipping through the pages until he found his desired page, "I'm assuming you're on your way to the Lookout Mansion? The one I spoke to you about?"
Amaya nodded her head, "How'd you know?"
"You're a smart girl, Amaya. I knew you would come to realize that the mansion is the only safe haven in this world. However, if need be I can guide your way... For a price of course."
Jet crossed his arms, "What do ya want?"
Amaya shoved Jet's shoulder, "Hey! Don't be so rude..."
"I'm as much in this mess as you, Amaya. Don't make a decision for these people without my consent." Jet quietly yelled at her again as he shot her a deadly frown.
Eerie rose his eyebrow, "The price is not too steep, but I would rather discuss it once we reached the destination if you don't mind."
"Then we would have to owe you no matter what!"
Amaya sighed, "We have no choice, Jet. We're dying out here, and I can tell the cold is messing with your well being. Please, Jet."
Jet sighed as well, he had tried to calm himself down by walking past Eerie and making his way back to the others. He knew he had gone a little over the edge in their argument, and he regretted everything he had said and done.
Amaya watched Jet walk back to the group and he voice sounded conflicted again as she went speechless by his reaction. But she had to take the chance that was being presented to her by Eerie.
"Fine," Amaya spoke quietly.
Eerie didn't say anything, he just nodded his head and turned back toward the group to prepare them for another trip- their last trip.
It took the group about an hour to rest themselves and get prepared to walk again. The campfire warmed everyone's bodies up again, but it only took mere seconds for everyone to feel cold once again. It was the blowing winds that carried snow with it that caught everyone off their guard. Eerie led the group, followed by Amaya and Jet who walked right behind them, and the rest of the group had been walking right behind them.
"So- uh, Eerie, was it?" Jet asked.
Eerie kept his eyes up front, but he would mumble back responses as if he wasn't actually listening, "Yes?"
"Do you know the origins of this here land?"
Eerie shook his head, "Not all too much. From the documentation I had read from the old world, Humans had called this place the Cursed Land because of this unstoppable snow storm. It is odd, as the world does not produce snow at all besides this land. Though I have had hunches that a cult had lived here way, way long ago, in the old world's old world,
like in the beginning of time."
"A cult? Aren't cults supposed to only seek demonization and domination over the Human race? Amaya asked.
"In most cases, yes. But there was one cult that seeks to control the weather. The cult had no name, but the leader's name was revealed to be Nemod, demon spelled backward. Apparently, he had learned a magic spell that could change the course of the world's weather pattern. I theorize that he changed the weather of this world, but I am not sure of the lands outside of this one."
Jet chuckled, "That is quite the conclusion you have there, ace detective."
Eerie chuckled as well, "It is not a conclusion, it is just a guess more or less. After all, Nemod wanted to create a world that would produce more death than breedings of Human life. If any place fits that description, it is Snowpeak. Just imagine how many frozen corpses we are walking on as we speak?"
Amaya sighed as she looked down at her feet, watching where and what she stepped on. She glanced back at the group, hoping they hadn't heard Eerie's words. But they were struggling too much to overhear their discussion. They all looked like lifeless bodies just magnetically following the three ahead of them. As Jet and Eerie's conversation quiets down, she looks ahead at Eerie and attempts to ask him how much longer, but as her lips parted, Eerie stopped.
Everyone else stopped behind him, and they all wondered why he stopped. He glanced down a deep snowy hill. It looked like a smooth hill, but the shines on it showed that it was frozen, which made it an impossible path to walk. Eerie turned back toward the group and smiled.
"Anyone wanting to have a little ride?" Eerie asked.
Jet frowned, "Ride?"
"Your destination lies just under this hill. The only way to reach the mansion is by going down this frozen hill."
"How do we go down it?" Amaya asked him as she glanced down the hill.
"Well, according to my device the temperature is not bad at the moment. So, extracting the giant frozen leaves off of nearby trees can be used to slide down the hill."
"Like... Snowboarding down the hill?" Jet asked, suddenly becoming excited, "I haven't snowboarded since I had my actual leg!"
"Stand on it, sit on it, lay on it, doesn't matter to me. You will get down the hill in a small amount of time." Eerie responded as he looked at the trees aside of them, "These should do, I suggest the men of the group hit the trees and break the leaves off of them. Afterward, we shall lay them on the edge of the hill and prepare for a ride."
Jet smiled confidently as he gathered the men of the group, "Let's go, boys! This is a job for the men!"
The men shouted in excitement as they kicked, punched and shook the trees in order to break off the frozen branches off of the trees. Slowly but surely they broke off one by one. One of the men placed each of them along the edge of the hill and another man helped the rest of the group onto the frozen leaves while ensuring their safety.
"Are you sure this is safe, Eerie?" Amaya asked.
Eerie looked at her curiously, "What? You do not trust me?"
Amaya looked away from him and watched everyone sit on the leaves and prepare to go down the hill.
"I can sense your answer just by looking into your face. Your facial expression is a dead giveaway. But as we are on this point, if you do not trust me then why did you listen to me in the past and come out here to the Lookout Mansion? For all we know, I could have been lying to you."
Amaya sighed and continued to look away from him, "It's... Because I'm desperate. Just leave it at that."
Amaya walked to a frozen leaf that Jet had laid on the edge of the hill. He looked up at her as he gently sat it down and then standing up.
"If you want, I can sit on this leaf with you and you know... Help protect you on it." Jet said, sounding more and more nervous as he spoke.
Amaya smiled at him, "What a gentleman."
Amaya sat on the leaf, and after she became comfortable she felt Jet sit behind her and wrap his arms around her. She smiled again, as she felt more confident about this plan because of Jet's sudden approval of it. But as Eerie sat on his own leaf, he held one of his arms up and held out five fingers. It would be a countdown for us to ride down the hill. She watched him and suddenly began to think this was a game. Like a game the people of the old world had played, the one where they ride their sleds down the snowy hill. Amaya herself has no memory of ever doing that, but she knew it was a thing.
His fingers slowly counted down. Five, four, three, two, and one. And after one, everyone pushed their leaves forward and began the escapade down the hill. Everyone was laughing like this was no dangerous stunt Amaya had assumed it would be. Jet steered the leaf, moving away from others who came close to him, and also dodging big frozen boulders that would block the way down the hill. The trip would soon take them into a little snow tunnel where the temperature had decreased dramatically. But no one even noticed, it was a short tunnel and everyone was having fun for one.
A light was seen at the end of the tunnel, where everyone blew out of the tunnel and began making a safe stop at an opening. They must've been on another hill, as the opening was somewhat small with the big wall of snow on one side, and next to it had a great view of the Snowpeak Mountains which had a little fence to block anyone from slipping down the edge of that hill. But behind them was a long wooden bridge. It was mostly frozen, but it was still sturdy. Past the bridge, and the little set of stone stairs was the Lookout Mansion. It was huge like it had six floors, and the material was made out of dark wood from the trees of the area. Eerie had mentioned the original owners of the mansion, before the theory of the cult staying there, had built the mansion themselves, but they had mysteriously disappeared about a week after the mansion was completely made.
"It's beautiful." Amaya smiled widely as she gazed at the mansion, "I can't believe we're finally here..."
Eerie chuckled, "It is a beauty. But don't forget about our deal."
Amaya turned back to him, "What do you want?"
Eerie stepped toward the mansion and sighed, as he reached his hand toward it and made a soft fist, "I want to join your group, Amaya. Permanently."
Verse X
Frozen Teardrops
It had taken some time before Amaya's group was able to gain entry to the Lookout Mansion. The mansion itself was frozen shut. So, Jet and Eerie did everything they could to break through the frozen walls that created a barrier between them and the front doors. The ice was thick, but they managed to do it in a short time. Having overheard the pressure of the group, their desperation for warmth and sanctuary only gave them more to stress about. But Amaya had no doubt in her mind that they would prove to be successful. One last punch by Jet cracked the ice wall, which then forced the ice to shatter into hundreds of microscopic pieces in front of the front doors. Eerie swept them away as he was ensuring the safety of everyone as they walked through the doors.
The doors were frozen as well, and so was the doorknob. Amaya sighed and turned away in frustration while letting Jet and Eerie crack at it again. But Jet did not want to break through the doors, there would be a giant hole in their defenses if he did so.
"Got any ideas, big guy?" Eerie asked Jet as he crossed his arms, looking as though he had no ideas.
Jet nodded his head and brought his backpack forward, the backpack he basically brought with him everywhere. It was a dirty backpack and it's green top color and the brown bottom colors faded due to the wear-and-tearing of which time had slowly begun its course of destroying it. It wasn't to study, and it could not hold much material, but to Jet, anything was useful. He carried around all of his tools and materials in that backpack, including some matches.
He sifted through the backpack, as all Eerie and Amaya could hear they watched him was heavy and loud objects moving around in the bag. Jet's head jolted like he found his key item. And with a quick pull of his arm, he had a box of matches in the grip of his hand.
"Jet... Didn't I say having matches was a bad idea?" Amaya asked, sighing again.<
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"Like I say, anything can be useful in their own ways. These matches should do the trick." Jet spoke with much confidence in his voice as he looked around, "Now I just need something to burn, so I can melt off this ice layer off the doors..."
Eerie thought for a moment, but he reached back and grabbed his bow with one single arrow. Eerie's special weapon choice was a bow and arrow. He wasn't too much of brute force, and killing was his last resentment. He mostly used the bow and arrows for hunting, but he thought of a clever way of using his weapon with the matches. He snatched the matches from Jet and quickly lit one. He then aimed the little flame up against the wood part of the arrow, which created a blazing flame on the sharp part of the arrow.
"All right! Everyone step back!" Eerie announced as he prepared his arrow on the bow and took aim at the frozen doors.
Everyone stood back just as Eerie took the shot. The arrow quickly hit the ice wall, creating a large mass of flames. The melting of the ice erupted a loud sound that indicated that the ice was melting. But just as the front doors became more visible, the flames went out due to the cold air. But it was enough to open the doors, Jet, and Eerie had to really push the doors to open it. It would seem the doors were still slightly frozen.
One loud shout from Jet and they both tackled the doors open, falling inside as the doors quickly swung open. They were both laying on the ground while Amaya let everyone storm into the mansion. It was huge, and the introductory room looked like a huge meeting room. It was very comforting, especially on the other side of the room which held a big window. It was frozen, but the ice displayed a stunning and beautiful ice pattern which gave the room a nice coloring of light that reflected through.
"Everyone, please be careful with the exploring! We have not yet explored this place, so traverse with caution and alert any dangers to us, please!" Amaya announced to the people as they all immediately ran into a different room to check out the rest of the mansion.