Tales Of The Underlands (jjba part 5 Wonderland AU)

Into The Snow

The next morning Prosciutto woke you up before dawn. That scowl seemed to be glued to his face as he ushered you to hurry and pack your stuff.

Everyone else was already awake and eating breakfast. It honestly felt like some summer camp, with Risotto and Prosciutto being the supervisors. You chuckled at the thought of them all in some camp T-shirts, sitting next to a fire and being forced to sing some weird songs about Friendship.

You sat next to Pesci as Melone passed you a piece of bread and a flask filled with water. Quietly you nibbled on your food and listened to what Risotto had to say.

" We will probably be able to leave the swamp today and continue our way to Bucciaratis camp. It will be at least a seven day journey and the king will more than likely send people after us, so we should always be prepared for a fight."

"And what are we going to do with them?" Prosciutto pointed at you.

Risotto rested his eyes on your form:" Can you fight?"

"I don't think so?" you would consider yourself tough in everyday life, but in a real fight about life or death with people aiming weapons at you, you wouldn't really be able to hold your ground. Best you could do was try to run away and hope they wouldn't catch you.

"Formaggio give them a knife, just in case."

You'd never thought they'd just give you a weapon, but the blade that shone silver in the first light of the day proved a different thing.

It was a simple knife with a wooden handle bound in leather. Careful you took it out of Formaggios hand. You probably wouldn't be that impressed if this was a normal situation, but what about the past days had been normal? It felt like a sign of their trust to give you a knife, at the same time it was also a sign that you were in danger and would need to defend yourself in the near future.

"Now," Risotto continued, "We will travel through colder regions soon, Bucciaratis camp should be further north from here if my informants were telling the truth. Ghiaccio, you know the north better than anyone else here."

Everyone looked at the blue haired man now, who just grumbled something you couldn't understand.

"I want you to inform me about spots where we could get ambushed by Diavolos men. We will avoid those. We will also need to stop in one of the mountain villages to restock our supplies. It would be better to do that sooner than later." Risotto finished.

You noticed a map laying in front of him, it was rather simple, but you guessed it was a map of the Underlands. Tiny symbols like trees or tents and houses or simple drawings of mountains extended over it.

Illuso got up and walked to the tent he shared with Formaggio, probably to pack his things. Melone followed and like an unspoken agreement everyone got up to prepare and leave.

You had a small satchel with some water and bread that they were nice enough to spare. You still wore the clothes from when you first fell down and honestly, you yearned for a nice and hot shower.

The swamp felt a little bit more welcoming than it did the day before, maybe that was because the sun was not hidden behind gray clouds. In the right light it might even be described as mesmerizing, the trees glowed nicely and the smell had become somewhat bearable.

You'd say that you were in a better mood than you were the last two days. Almost like nature wanted to tell you that it was going to be alright and this trip wouldn't be as bad as you feared.

You walked next to Risotto at the front, sometimes stealing glances at him. He was definitely the quietest out of all of them. You actually didn't know anything about him aside from his name and the fact that he had worked for the king.

He acted cold and calculated, and from what you could tell observing the ambush he surprised Doppio with, he was rather cunning.

Someone you wouldn't want to have as your enemy.

It looked like the weather was beginning to change: The sun, that you were so happy about earlier was now again covered by clouds and there was a drop in temperature.

The humidity of the air became less and instead of trees there were more shrubs in the land around you, glowing in very faint green and yellow tones.

You saw what looked like a bigger version of a hawk in the sky, before it swooped down, probably to catch some mice or a rabbit.

The land was flat and in the distance was the faint outline of white glowing mountains who were towering above the land like a gigantic monument of nature.

It only took about two hours to reach the mountains and with every step it seemed to get colder. Now it was snowing and you began to freeze in the clothes you wore. Lucky for you, Ghiaccio gave you his coat, since he didn't seem to need it. It only took some persuasion from you and Melone to get him to do this.

The hours passed quietly and quickly you were stomping through 3 inches of snow while the sun was setting.

The quiet was calming and this uneventful day was something you had needed after all the things you'd experienced in 48 hours.

At Risottos word the tents were being set up. You already started to collect some dry wood when out of the snow sprang some strange creature.

You couldn't really see it and only made out a long body, similar to a worm and sharp teeth that flashed in the last light of the day.

You decided that you didn't want to be near anything with sharp teeth, so with the wood you had you made your way back to the small camp, not noticing how the creature was watching you before slipping away under the blanket of snow.