Corddae breathed deeply, letting the breath escape him, fogless. He always wondered what it was like to watch your breath leave you, small thoughts, like how a man wonders after the flight of a bird...
Something to distract him from his failure.
As he had suspected, something was quite off with this case. Not quite in the way he thought, closer inspection had revealed that certain "Third parties" had some interest in the girl, that alone would have told any two-bit inspector this wasn't your average undocumented magic user that they were dealing with. No, and considering the... aura that surrounded the steaming hole in the ground, he had a pretty good idea which "Third party" he was dealing with. Singular.
"Illuminist." Corddae greeted, tipping the edge of his hat at the well dressed man hurriedly making his way to him amidst the swirling blue and red lights of Police Cars and the hustle of disguised Inspectory agents.
"You must be Inspector Corddae," He responded in a deep baritone voice, clasping his hands around Corddae's and giving it a firm shake, "I must admit, caught me by surprise when I picked up the bell to find the Inspectory on the line. I assume you've found-"
"Fishy business?" Bayesian interjected, doing his damnedest to look official while sporting the appearance of someone you would find stumbling out of a monkey enclosure. The chase had not been kind to poor Bayesian.
"Ah, yes..." The Illuminist said, eyes lingering a little longer than he meant to on the officer and his disheveled condition, "Well, anyways, sorry, bit caught up in it all. My name is Michael Kainage, Father Kainage if you prefer."
"Well then, this way Mr. Kainage," Corddae said, sweeping his arm to the side and gesturing to the building. The Priest nodded grimly, and moved ahead into the house, Bayesian made to join them, but was halted by an open palm from his partner, "Paperwork." Then, without another word, he followed the Illuminist, leaving a grumbling Bayesian with a clipboard and a pen.
He supposed it was fitting though, leave the strange things to the strange folk. And despite appearances, Father Kainage was quite strange, aside from the base line of being an Illuminist, not many of his Order bore the cross. It was almost a contradiction, as the studies involved with such an occupation often involved pagan ceremony, ancient rites, and foreign ritual, not something a typical Priest would wish to be involved with. Strange things seem to congregate in this city, he thought, And he's no stranger than a nine year old girl that can shake two trained professionals.
"Is this the room?" The Priest asked, pulling Corddae out of his musings.
"Yes." Corddae nodded, pushing the door open, while Kainage whistled. "Excuse the mess, twenty thousand volts isn't an easy thing to get out of the upholstery."
"Well, this was certainly not what I expected," He said, walking into the room, crouching to touch the ground, "Still warm..." He muttered. "Did you already have Postcognitives look over the site?"
"Yes." Corddae said, rubbing his chin.
"What did they see?" Father Kainage was certainly interested, but that didn't peg him as involved. Besides, Corddae had no intention of solving this on the spot, one man was dead, and his daughter missing, fleeing terrified into the night. He'd take all the time he'd need to find out just who did it, best to be sure when you intend to kill the bastard. Otherwise, his primary objective was to find the child, even if that meant sharing information with the people that might be the cause of it all in the first place.
"A bed, a man, a flash. Then a steaming hole in the ground... We are working under the assumption that he was vaporized." Corddae waved his hand, as if to ward something off, "But God, I hope not."
"Yes, they handed me the initial report during the ride here, his death was made a clear possibility," He said, voice hard to read, "Alan McLane... Terrible. When do you intend to tell the mundane authorities?"
"Dispatch should have already handled that, at least one of those cars outside belongs to a normie. Nice kid, might have seen him, looked like he had shell shock?" Kainage stared at Corddae blankly for a moment, before returning his gaze to the ground, shaking his head.
"Ah, yes, well... I'd better get to my work." With that, he took a deep breath, whipping out a slab of chalk with his free hand and skimming it roughly about his other. A simple circle took form around his grounded hand and with its completion, he tucked the chalk back.
Corddae had rarely gotten to see an Illuminist work, but this, out of everything made him raise an eyebrow. Magic circles were common in the casting of certain kinds of spells, but a simple chalk circle was almost useless. Best it could do, so far as Corddae knew, was waste energy, storing it, but not providing a safe or efficient way to properly contain and release it. He'd seen novices cook themselves using more detailed circles. The danger, alongside the relatively mundane nature of this particular ritual, seeing as the few other Illuminists he had witnessed working usually involved animal sacrifice and intense rites, made him briefly consider that perhaps dispatch had rung up the some crazy poser... Then he remembered that all Illuminists were, as a general rule, crazy, so he stowed his doubts.
At least the ones concerning the man's authenticity.
"Are you sure it's safe for me to be standing here?" Corddae asked, starring at the simple circle with just a little apprehension. The Illuminist in response, chuckled.
"You're plenty safe Inspector Corddae, but I may need a new coat after this." And with that, the Illuminist returned to his work, now speaking in a low tone.
Corddae couldn't quite make out the words, at first. But he soon realized it wasn't English, prayer of some kind was what he was guessing, probably Latin. But no, not Latin. The language seemed strikingly familiar, it made him uncomfortable, like he was venturing somewhere he ought not to be... No, he remembered, Hebrew. The realization made him... Wish that he had not stayed with the Illuminist, maybe even calling him here was a mistake, but... He quickly shook off those feelings, the only physical sign of their existence relegated to the pulling of his hat further over his forehead.
As the Priest continued to chant, the air became electrified, radiating a blanketing cloud of crackling energy that twisted and turned like the tendrils of a living creature. Corddae was confused by this, only for a moment, as the glowing rings conjured around the Priest's grounded arm soon revealed themselves as the culprit. He seemed to be funneling his magic through the rings, allowing for more delicate manipulation, as each ring striped more unstable magic that the previous ones had failed to. It was a favored tactic of Echanters working with dangerous spells, though such filters were more often engraved on a metal instrument than one's sleeve, though perhaps this was because of some Divination related quirk.
"Clever." Corddae muttered, watching closely as this newly introduced and refined magic began to interact with the remnants of spellwork that had been left behind. Corddae was unaware that Divination Magic could be used to disturb dormant magic, not even the most powerful mages were capable of keeping the spell's structure intact whilst dissecting its inner workings, but it seemed that the unknowns behind this particular School of Magic were always outnumbering the knowns. Considering the secretive nature of the Orders that used and taught it, that wasn't very surprising. What was surprising however, was how the seemingly dormant magic reacted. Both he and Father Kainage seemed to notice around the same time that the magic was rearranging itself, and with a quick wide eye'ed stare between the two, Kainage ripped his arm free of the magic circles, causing an explosion as the pent up energies contained in the rings were suddenly forced outward, cutting off his access to the foreign magic and settling the spellwork down, for now.
"What the hell was that?" Corddae asked gruffly, hurrying to Kainage's side and looking over his wounds.
"I... Have no idea..." Kainage said haltingly, whether that be because of the pain of his bruised and bloody arm, or the unexpected response from the spellwork, Corddae didn't know. But slowly, a hearty, good natured laugh began to escape The Priest's mouth, and he looked at him with the shining, curious eyes that gave his Order its name, "Now isn't that something?"
Bailey sat still on the bathroom counter, as Ella held her burned hand beneath a cold stream of water, wincing as the frigid flow slowly washed the pain away.
"So..." Bailey said, staring worriedly at her friends reddened, inflamed hand, "Can.. Can you tell me what happened?" As much as Ella would have preferred to, she had decided against keeping Bailey out of the loop. If she actually believed in any of that magic stuff, then she would believe her too, right? Even the Monster? Her traitorous mind asked, Even the eye? Briefly, Ella shuddered, recalling the nightmarish abominations, creatures she couldn't explain away no matter how hard she tried. Besides, when Bailey talked about magic, she was probably thinking about fairies, unicorns and the like, not horrid monsters. But no, Ella had made up her mind, so she told her wide eyed friend about everything she saw, though the names had seemed to have escaped her memory.
"W-well?" Ella asked, finally breaking back into tears while Bailey stared on, trying to work her mouth into pushing out something more than a hesitant grunt.
"E-... Ella, I... I don't... Know..."
"You don't know what?" Ella's tone had taken a turn for accusatory, "What to say? Do you not believe me?! M-my Dad is... He's probably dead right now and... you have nothing to say?" though the bitterness tapered off at the end, she could see each word hit Bailey like it was physical, regardless, regret rushed in almost as fast as the anger left. "B-b-bailey, I... didn't mean it, I swear, I just... I-I..." There was a lengthy pause, the awkward stillness occasionally broken by sniffling, but little else.
"I don't... I don't think we're very good at this whole... Support thing." Bailey said at last, before pulling her legs up over the counter and to her chest, grasping them tightly.
"Yeah..." Ella said, averting her gaze, "But... Do you believe me? You don't have to... I... I just need to know." Slowly, she turned her head to find Bailey staring at her burned hand, and soon she spoke.
"Y-yes Ella, I believe you... I just... I don't know how to help." Ella took a deep breath, resting her free hand against her forehead.
"I know how you feel..." There was another lengthy pause, before once again, Bailey broke it.
"So if those guys are after you... Do-do you think they'll figure out you came here?" Ella's heart froze, in her panic, she had not even thought about the consequences of running to someone for help.
"I... I need to leave." She said shakily, pulling her hand from beneath the water and making for the door, before being blocked by Bailey, as she slid from the counter.
"Yeah, probably," She said, looking down at her feet, before renewing her intense gaze,"But not without backup."
"B-bailey-" Was all Ella managed to get out before Bailey's hand covered her mouth.
"I'm not going to let a... little thing like the possibility of a brutal death stop me from helping you..." She said, forcing Ella into a tight hug, "And I may not know exactly what to do... I do know what not to, and I'm not going to throw you to the wolves... Especially when those 'wolves' have... floating eyeball monsters. I mean, we don't even know what they want, right?" Ella sniffled, Bailey smiled, and the two embraced each other a little while longer.
"We are so going to die." Ella said.
"Yep." Bailey winced, "Especially if my Dad finds out about any of this."
"So let me get this straight," Alan said, staring down incredulously at the Hydrus, as she had clarified she was indeed not the mutant offspring of a rabbit and a weasel, "We fell... From space?" She had also made it clear she had no idea where they were, or who the currently unconscious purple horse they were dragging behind them through the snow was. So she was pretty much in the same rickety boat as Alan, presumably minus a few... Extra problems. And maybe the existential crisis this absurd first contact scenario was liable to bring on any second now. Annnnnny second now.
"Well, I don't know if was that high." The Hydrus responded, waving around her hands expressively as they walked across the frigid landscape, "I mean, I could see the horizon... Is that in space?" When Alan didn't answer, she continued. "Anyways, The purple one saved our tails, if she hadn't of... done that thing she did, I don't think we'd be in as good a shape." Alan was left to consider this, all the sudden feeling rather guilty about his the emotions he'd directed her way. If he was getting this right, the unicorn had saved his life twice now, this revelation however, did not make the unease surrounding his every awkward step disappear, and he doubted anything could.
"I dunno," Alan muttered lowly, "I think I'd feel better as a pancake."
"What'd you say?"
"Nothing," Alan looked back at the makeshift travois they had managed to put together using the camping supplies they found in the bags, and its load. She was wrapped so tightly in blankets and sleeping bags that you could barely tell she was there, save for the steady puffs of breath that shot up like smoke from a smokestack. It had been a long night, trying to get the poor thing into the sleeping bags had been a nightmare, though luckily the Hydrus had opposable thumbs, he still hadn't the foggiest idea how to work a zipper with... dumb unshod nubs. Luckier still those saddle bags Twitch had recovered had stitching, lest he wouldn't have had a harness to awkwardly slip his hooves through. Involuntarily, he shuddered, hooves. Almost as soon as he thought about it, he wished he hadn't, he still struggled to even walk correctly, much less keep his mind in order. Soon, that dread he had stirred up would turn into anger, and the anger into resentment, never good feelings to have when you're stranded in who knows where, with complete strangers to boot. Too easy to make them the villains.
"Do... Do you think she'll wake up?" The Hydrus' question halted the growing storm within Alan, not releasing the anxiety, but staling it... For that he was grateful, but... It was not a question he wanted to answer right now. He had no idea what to say, so, he changed the subject.
"Where did we fall from?" He asked, his nerves getting the better of him, force in excess, too much panic. He sounded desperate. Aggressive, Irrational. Combined with his jerky movement and legs that refused to work right, he probably checked every box off the crazy list. It certainly wasn't lost on his companion, who shrunk from him, ears folded back.
"Ah... We-Well, You see... I... Don't know, exactly." She said, for the first time sounding timid... And unfortunately, Alan knew why, he couldn't imagine he would react any differently to seeing at 10-foot tall monster forcefully trying to change the subject. Though it didn't make it hurt any less. He'd always tried to be the laid back guy, and he had usually succeeded. Seeing someone react to him with fear was... Off putting, to say the least.
"Just... Just ignore me for now... I'm... not my normal self." It took all he had to push that out. He was going for apologetic, but to him, it sounded pleading. And that was a tone that accentuated his predicament rather clearly, sending a shiver down his spine was every word. The sensation someone else's voice coming from his mouth was almost more than his mind could bare.
"Nono, you're fine!" The Hydrus assured, hopping into Alan's vision and waving her hands, "I... I'm just a bit of a blabber mouth..." Well, that certainly made him feel better, but not by much. He knew he had to come to terms with himself eventually, but... Well, how the hell was he supposed to do that? He'd barely come to terms with himself before all this, and even then, it had taken... Help.
Vel, I wish I'd taken the time to let a little more of you rub off on me... I miss you.
"Hey, are you-?" The Hydrus may have been able to catch herself, but Alan was well past that point before he realized his eyes were stinging, and again, before he could keep himself from making a small... noise in surprise. He hadn't cried since his wife's funeral, and here he was, practically weeping at just the thought of her. What was he becoming? Were even his emotions unsafe? Could he no longer trust himself to even be himself? "Hey... Um... So, I kinda just realized, not that I was curious, I mean I am... What's your name?" And once again, this small creature was proving remarkably adept at suddenly and clunkily shifting the conversation, not that you'd find Alan complaining.
Though maybe not for the better. What could he say, he didn't know what was normal in this situation, he wasn't even sure there was a normal anymore. Would his true name be acceptable, or should he fully commit to the role he'd decided to play? Would they even consider the name he came up with feminine, could he inadvertently defeat the point? Had he already done so? Would it make a difference? Why were they even able to communicate, had the transformation effected even his ability to speak? Too many questions, too few answers. But, like the stubborn mule he was, he stuck with his first plan... Now, what name would work?
"Aurora..." It felt so weird to try and accept that name as his own... He had a history with it, with games, but he was never meant to... live it. It made him feel more than a little dirty, like he was accepting this, lying down, rolling over to this fate. He had to tell himself, over and over, You're not that name, you're Alan, you're a McLain man, saying it doesn't make that any less true... just to keep from freaking out, to say nothing of the blush that spread hot and red across his face, near ear to ear.
"That's very pretty!" The Hydrus clapped her paws together, all the energy lost seeming to jump back in out of nowhere... She even sent a little smile Alan's way, not doing much good for his flushed face. "Mine is... Twitch!"
"W-well," Alan said, trying not to make eye contact, mostly out of embarrassment, the rest was to keep... Twitch from seeing Alan's now tickled expression, "Its nice to meet you, Twitch." He even let loose a chuckle, but that was quickly reined in. No room to laugh 'Aurora', his mind said, Not with the story behind your name, 'Twitch' might as well be God given. That kept his mouth shut, well enough for him, it wasn't generally a kind thing, laughing at someone's name. He'd had his fair share of 'McLame' shoved at him, he was tougher with words than most, but he had seen what some people let those words do to them. Mockery was not worth the risk, least of all now, in a foreign environment. Accompanied by aliens. Hell, for all he knew, culture and custom would dictate that he could be rightfully killed for such offences (Not that he feared much from Twitch, her being two feet tall and all). Best to let the sleeping dogs lie...
But perhaps there was one thing he needed to address, and sooner rather than later.
"I'd like to ask you a couple more questions, if you don't mind." Alan asked, looking back at the Unicorn once again, wishing she was awake, so he wouldn't have to go through all his questions again, but he pressed on. The question would have bugged him till she awoke anyways. Twitch nodded, eyeing him curiously. "How exactly can we understand each other?" He asked. Twitch, in response, scratched the back of her ear, seemingly at a loss of words.
"Oh please don't make me think about that... I really don't want to end up a gibbering mess all because I couldn't just leave this madness as it was. I mean... You're a talking horse! That may not be strange to you, but I've got exactly zero experience with talking animals... And if I'm honest..." She rubbed her arm, averting her gaze from Alan, "I wasn't exactly the... most stable person before all this."
Oh goodie, His mind said, We're stuck here with a crazy person, as if we didn't already have enough of that on Earth. He quickly shoed those thoughts away, he wasn't about to let himself treat Twitch differently now, her behavior was not indicative of a girl with a few screws loose. Though, it didn't stop the guilt, he hadn't done anything, or said anything, but still. Just the fact he had thought it nagged on him, and as tempting as it was to lay blame on the transformation, he had to take responsibility, especially once he finally connected the dots.
"You... Don't know if I'm real?" He asked, hesitant, she made no move to correct him. The two walked in silence for a while, and what words could have even be said? In truth there weren't any, just the waiting, and the wondering, taking the time to let the awkwardness seep from their minds before once again engaging in halting conversation.
Finally, Twitch spoke up, thankfully disregarding the threads of the previous conversation.
"Soooooo... You know any cute guys?" And unfortunately right into another hot bed topic. Twitch stared up expectantly at Alan, his eyes now wide and face as red as heated iron.
And we just got out of the fire! I swear Twitch, everything you say is designed to get me in a state!
"Oh... I um, I, well... You see-" Twitch rolled her eyes, smiling at Alan's inane ramblings, then chuckling, then laughing, she cupped her hands around her face, shaking her head from side to side.
"Figures I'd get a shy one." She said, "Girl, when we get back to civilization, remind me take you out for a few." Her eyes glinted with a strange light as she brought her gaze back to rest on Alan, a glint far too familiar for his comfort, "I'll get you out there in no time!" She paused for a moment, staring at the sky and leaving a worried Alan to wonder after what she meant. "By the way, you're sure we needa' go south?" Alan, the blush still resting unshakable and firm across his face, took his time in answering.
"Ah, y-yes. I'm sure."
"Hm," Twitch brought her paw up to her chin, eyes dancing between the horizons, "I dunno, it might get colder... The Sun here... We might already be in the south... Maybe." This prompted Alan to stare up as well, the sun was indeed rather high in the sky, though Alan didn't know what exactly... Oh, Uh oh.
"Twitch..." He said, squinting at a Sun that was nearly on top of them.
"Yea' Aurora?"
"I hope to god I'm wrong... But I don't know if it's going to matter what direction we go."
"And... Why's that?" Twitch asked, now showing signs of alarm.
"Because this might just be the Equator." The two stood in silence, as the few shadows around them slowly started to disappear, till finally, everything was as a white, shapeless plane, stretching onward to the horizons. The realization finally seemed to make itself known on Twitch's face, dancing from expression to expression in rapid succession, before landing on a sour, scrunched look.
"... May I say now, if we die, that I am going to haunt my boss forever. How about you?" She asked.
"5th Grade Math Teacher, definitely."
After a moment to regain their spirits, Alan and Twitch set off again, headed now for the east. Honestly an arbitrary direction, they had little hope aside from the vague sense that that direction might be leading into an ever so slight decline. Might mean that they were headed toward an ocean, might mean they were stumbling into a basin. But regardless of it all, Twitch had kept up conversation, likely to keep Alan's spirit up. And it wasn't that he didn't appreciate the thought, its just when Alan wanted some quiet, he was used to actually getting some quiet. So with the revelation that they may very well freeze, or if they were lucky, starve to death no matter what direction they headed, and Twitch's increasingly random choices in topics were steadily wearing his already strained nerves down to a razor's edge. What was even worse however, was that he couldn't even muster the heart to ask for some silence.
"- I mean, have you ever just thought about it? We drink liquefied crystals to survive, its weird!" She carried on, heedless of Alan's attention, or rather, lack there of, "Imagine waking yourself up, walking to the cooler and grabbing a cuppa' liquid quarts or somthin', that's basically what you're doin'."
"Uh-huh." Alan muttered, trudging onward with his head hung low. He had already been moving slow, incapable of moving much faster because of his altered physicality, but now he moved at a mere snails pace, as one was want to do in a hopeless situation. How was he to react? They had been dropped into a world in the middle of an ice age, it was likely a fluke that they had managed to survive the night, for the other two at least. Alan could feel the chill, but he couldn't properly gauge it, to his skin, or rather, coat, it felt like a nippy autumns day, but he couldn't very well ignore the biting cold that ripped down his throat every time he took a breath. Even at this pace, it made his lungs hurt.
Though actually, perhaps, if he was to really think about it, neither he, nor Twitch were showing signs of succumbing to the cold. Not that he knew what to look for, but if the fact that Twitch had still not stopped talking was anything to go by, they weren't quite in the red yet, or the blue, as it were. As in, frozen corpses...
Anyway;
Alan thought he was getting used to the endless babble, though it was starting to remind him of someone he'd just rather not be thinking about.
So they continued on, as the sun fell ever on at their backs, reaching its final quarter just as Twitch seemed to be reaching hers. Yawning between her sentences, stumbling between her steps, she finally took a break as the sun slipped behind distant clouds, halting her one sided conversation. Alan, for his part, was grateful for it. He'd been waiting for the quite eagerly, talking that time to let his mind slip into the silence, thinking of nothing but the cool air and the face of his daughter. Soon though, she spoke up once again, her voice horse and cracking as she declared her weariness.
"Aurora, I... I'm so beat, when do you think we'll settle?" Alan barely had to spare a glance to tell that she was done, eyes lidded, ears folded down, and Alan really couldn't say he felt much better. Or, at least, he was convinced he should have been, his mind seemed to want to say he was tired, but every step sapped no more energy from him than a flick of the eyes. It was strange, one half saying he needed to rest, the other felt like breaking into a run. It had to be something with this body. Regardless, he knew that after last night's restlessness, he needed a long sleep, as much as it pained him.
"Real soon, real soon." He knew Time wasn't exactly on there side, but what could they do? If even the equator of the world was a damn icebox, where were they to go? Why not simply hunker down now and think on it some more. But then again... Shelter seemed nonexistent, and the bitter wind was sure to make any sleep they clawed from it restless. He could certainly try constructing another Igloo, but even then there were significant obstacles. The ground seemed harder then before, solid and immovable, it could've taken days to dig up enough material, and Alan wasn't even sure they had that.
Alan's heart jumped, his pulse quickened, something was wrong. He turned to Twitch, finding her similarly panicked.
"What in the hell..." She mouthed, quiet and hushed, like someone was going to overhear them. Or something. Time went on, but their unease never seemed to settle, in fact, it only increased as the night slowly stole away the color and light of the world. The fear left them frozen in their tracks, looking around at the empty plain of ice and snow, frightened and bewildered eyes starring into the dark.
"Stay on me Twitch,", Alan whispered, his voice harsh and stern, his tone serious and commanding. Something was out there, something that wanted them. It was something more than the feeling one got on a long walk home, late at night when the street lamps were flickering, when you stare into the darkness... And the darkness stares back. "Get on the Stretcher." There was a pause, then without a word she climbed onto the travois. Another pause, more silence, then, panicked whispers.
"Aurora! I saw something move!" Alan twisted his head around so fast he made his neck crack, but the dark revealed nothing to him, even as the last light was extinguished beneath the horizon, and the stars became the only illuemination in a cold, dead night.
Then, there was the sound. So close it might as well have been on top of him.
A long, loud, winding, chortled call, like the death knell of an elephant. Though there was nothing quite so natural about it, and even as Alan ran, others anwsered, one, two, five, ten, twenty. He lost count as all his mind came to focus on was escape, though, as one could imagine, it proved hard to gain ground on the onslaught of terrible calls. Alan's new body wasn't cooperating with his need to run, his legs struck the ground at awkward angles, nearly sending him sprawling. What was worse, is that every time he seemed to lose his footing, the voices would squeal and crack, like distorted laughter, coming closer each time. Though whether by force of will or pure luck, Alan never fully fell, and even began to outpace the horrors on his tail.
It wouldn't give him much in the way of hope, even if he could keep up this pace, and he was fairly certain he'd collapse sooner than these things would. Perhaps that was the only reason they had not caught them yet, to wear him out, to watch him fall to his own weakness, they were playing with him. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide...
Alan took one final breath, closed his eyes, and stopped, feeling the cold dread wash over him. Twitch let out a sharp squeek, jumping onto Alan's back and clutching his hair, pulling it taught about herself and shaking, muttering curses and questions. Though Alan couldn't hear her over the howl of the wind, he knew what she was likely asking. Why did you stop? It was because they wanted him to run, they wanted him to fear them, they wanted him to run, to drink in the chase, why else would he not be dead. He could feel them now, all around him, were they confused? Disappointed? It didn't matter, he wouldn't submit to them, he wouldn't play their game. A hollow victory? Maybe, but what were they to do? This world would have killed them if these things had not, what was the point in fighting a battle that ended in death no matter what? His anger was far from burnt out, he raged that he would never see his dear child again, he raged for how little anything he did ultimately meant, he raged for the people that were being dragged down with him, for Twitch's tangible fear, and the Unicorn's silent ignorance. And most of all, he raged at the monsters surrounding them, rage that spiked dramatically when he heard the laughter, or at least, what Alan imagined passed for laughter.
He could feel them closing in, but still he refused to move, stubbornly holding stock still, convinced his actions would spite them...
But was that all he was going to aim for?
Of course it was! What good would running do!? What good would fighting do?! Resistance was pointless, the only path he could take, the only one that would deliver to him even a sliver of satisfaction, was to not give them what they want!
Or was it? He had felt this before, crushing hatred, spiteful indignance, the air of total pointlessness... He realized something back then, just as he was realizing now, as the murderous laughter died in the bastard's thoats...
This wasn't him.
Even as he finished the thought, the screeching resumed, the force of the spiteful rage redubbled, but that only reenforced his certainty. And as he had back then, he turned to those who relied on him to pull him from the brink. Not just Ella now, no.
Twitch,
The Unicorn,
They were relying on him now too!
Now was the time to fight.
But even as he readied himself, a bitter howl cut through the chatter, a ragged, torn, but none the less bone rattlingly powerful burst of sound that seemed to shake the very ground. In that instant, like a sign from God, the chortled calls ceased, and the path was made clear.
RUN.
His eyes opened in a sharp snap, his limbs burst into furious motion, every peice of his body throwing itself forward with as much speed and momentum as he could muster. Which, as it turned out, was quite a hell of a lot. In the brief moments he caught sight of one the horrid creatures, his first instinct was to freeze solid. It stood directly in front of him, vauge, smokey form encompassing his vision, but his newfound will, pressed against that fear, shattering it, much like what Alan's physical body did to the beast. He smacked head first into the creature, the feeling of hitting a brick wall ending a suddenly as it came, as the wall gave, and crumbled. Through the monster he emerged, trailing peices of it's body that quickly faded to dust, and landing roughly on the cold, hard ground. Somehow, he maintained his momentum, speeding away from the monsters as they came to realize their quarry had made a break for it, even taking one of their own with them.
And oh, if Alan thought the sound before was bad, if death and madness could be put to song, then this was it. There were no words to describe this sound, it put to death any notion Alan had of trying to fight back in an instant. Running was indeed the only option. Unless one wanted to consider the promise of a death soaked in every brutallity imaginable an option.
Alan preferred not to.
He had no clue where he was going, or when he'd get there, but what he did know is that he he wasn't stopping for hell. Courage swelled in his heart as the snow and ice seemed to glide by at a remarkable rate, despite his constant stumbling and bad form, if he could keep this pace, maybe-!
Alan quickly dodged to the side, as one of the creatures came in screaming like a missile, colliding with the spot he had just been and kicking snow high into the air. Alan stared back at this with a slack jaw, watching as the ground continued to crack and heave from the impact. He quickly reassessed the situation, noting the speeding black masses the shot from the cloud of snow, the odds were definitely not in his favor. Alright, disheartening, but, if he just kept dodging, he could probably-
"AURORA!!!!!" Twitch's small scream caught Alan's ears, and he looked forward to find a massive wall of white, stretching from horizon to horizon, so tall he'd have had to touch the back of his head to his spine to the the top.
"Oh," As Alan's anger flaired his speed picked up, his eyes narrowing, jaw setting.
"AURORA?" Twitch yelled again, this time questioning.
"Come," At this point, Alan was well past angry at this point, his speed was so that he couldn't even hear himself think over the wind. He was only interested in one thing, surviving, and if he had to bust through a thousand miles of rock hard glacier, he was going to do it! He would survive, even if it killed him!
"AURORAAAAA!?"
"OOOOOON!" And with the both of them screaming like banchees, they crashed into the glacier... Well, less a glacier, and more a pane.
Turns out that the ice was only around a couple feet thick, and while that was, at the least, a difficult thing for a human to break through, in Alan's new body, and at the speed he was moving, the ice wall shattered like it was hit with canon shot. It took a moment for Alan to regain his senses after the collision, adrenaline could only hold off so many blows to the head, and as he did, he noticed something startling, he was falling. Panic gripped him for a second, but before he had the chance to let out more than a yelp he was already slamming into the ground, wheezing as his body slid to a stop.
He could faintly hear the groans of Twitch, not all that far away, and began getting to his feet, if he didn't soon, the creatures would catch them.
He jumped around as he heard the sounds of impacts, but, they were muffled, and he soon saw why. Through the holes in the ice made by them, he could see the creatures, writhing aross the surface of some strange, viscous wall, glowing slightly.
Alan stared up at it in awe, eyes wide as his injured brain clicked into place, a force field, or at least, what seemed to be one. He couldn't fathom why it had let them pass but... He wasn't about to look a gift horse In the mouth, he needed to get Twitch and the Unicorn as far as... Wait, where was the Unicorn?
Twilight didn't know how long she had aimlessly wandered the dreamscape, while one wasn't lucid, time often seemed to matter little in this realm, though she was keenly aware when she became so.
"Twilight!" She could hear the faint voice in the distance calling her name, but the distortions natural to the Plane of Dreams made it difficult to know who, or from where the voice had originated. But Twilight had a fair guess.
"Luna, Is that you?" She called, looking about. The couldn't see the Princess approaching, but it was soon evident where she was, as the twisting wisps of the Dreamscape tried with great effort and spectacle to subdue and remove Luna from her presence. The sheer size of the disturbance would have clued her in easily, but the magic that flowed to her from the swirling silvery mass well quite the tell-tale sign as well. "Luna!" She cried, galloping as fast as she could, till finally she could see the Princess, struggling against the tides of the Dreamscape, sweat dripping from her chin in clear sign of her tremendous efforts.
"Twi-Twilight!" Luna shook under her stain, lifting her head to meet Twilight's concerned gaze, "We do not have much in the way of time, Our Sister, you must speak with her, I will-!" Luna was unable to finish speaking before she collapsed, gasping, her front legs pushed to the ground with great force.
"No time, no time!" Twilight said, trying to light her horn but failing, how could her magic betray her at a time like this!? She didn't even know what was going on, she needed to know! What was so dangerous that it necessitated Luna contacting her in such a way? What could be trying to halt her? Plenty of things, none of them good. "Tell me Luna, quickly!"
"We know not what to tell, only to ask what we need to know!" Luna collapsed further, now fully on her knees, "Where are you Twilight! Your friends have searched, but you, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie remain unfound... And I feel that my discovery of you may not be easily repeated."
Dash and Pinkie? Lost... what happened?! Twilight knew that certain circumstances could lead to an unstable Dreamscape, making it difficult to contact an individual or for said individual to recall recent memories, though the presence of Luna should have been counteracting that!
"I... I don't know... I..." flickers of memories danced across her mind, always staying just out of reach. But finally, faint recollections began to coalesce, faint shadows at first, though time sharpened her mind's eye, and soon recognizable forms began to make themselves known to her. "We... We fell, the three of us."
"Loyalty and Laughter?" Luna asked, panicked, grimacing as the effort she expended took its toll.
"No, I... I have no idea who these... ponies are. I managed to save us, but I never saw Rainbow or Pinkie during the fall."
"Then this is... Grave news indeed, we have seen no hair nor hide of any of you in a full day... You are certain, that you fell? Nopony has returned from that place Twilight, it was exactly why we had advised against the expedition in the first place! If so... We may not be able to recover you by our own power..." Luna starred at Twilight, with eyes full of apprehension, as Twilight took full stock of how dire the situation truly was for the first time. The map had told them, north of Yakyakistan, farther than it even dared to depict, something was brewing. As with all friendship problems, they never truly knew the purpose of the journey, only that Harmony demanded their presence there. What perhaps set this particular adventure apart from the other however, aside of the seer distance involved, was that the map had called all of the elements. A sure sign that something was seriously amiss in the North.
And Luna, she had told them that the North was nothing more than the domain of Windegos and other, greater evils. She had warned them of the darkness that lied beneath the world.
But you just had to push it, didn't you Twi', She was such a fool.
She had stood there, at what seemed like the edge of the World, gazing into the abyss, into a darkness that swallowed even the light of the Sun. They had arrived at the Northern most point, only to find the end of the world. Mountains and valleys alike cracked and wrought into a jagged cliffside that seemed to continue on forever, circling the impossibly large pit that must have been thousands upon thousands of miles in diameter. If she had fallen in... Celestia, where was she now!? Regret and dread hit her harder than the actual physical fall ever could. Her breathing became labored, her body shook.
And all Luna could do was watch, as Twilight began to weep. Though, as her time began to wane, the Princess steeled her gaze, and raised her voice, determination seeping from every word she spoke.
"Twilight, I swear to you, we will never forsake our search! As long as you do not give up hope, as long as you fight, we will as well. I swear to you, I will not rest till I have seen the elements reunited!" With those last words, Luna began to disappear, as if being ripped away from Twilight's dream by gravity of impossible strength, "I swear it!" Then, she was gone slipping through the inky swirls of the Equestrian Dreamscape, the last she would see of Twilight would be a smile that had never reached her tear filled eyes.