The GATE Academy [Please read description]

Chapter 29: Susano, the God of Storms

The storm lasted for days, maybe even weeks, and we were restricted from travel during the time. We lived off of a fish diet from the surprisingly abundant amount of fish we could catch from the frozen over lake for the time being and stayed confined to our earthen home.

"I'm so glad that I brought some Tajín with me!" Riku exclaimed as he seasoned his fish for the thirtieth time, "It really spices things up!"

Riku's small remarks kept the group in light spirits, but we understood that time was being lost here, as well as back on earth.

"I'll go scout out the area again," I said, rising to my feet, having quickly recovered from my self-inflicted wounds.

"I'll go with you," Mizu said, rising with me, "Got to make sure you don't kill yourself out there again."

Mizu chuckled and rose a similar response from the group, myself included. I just nodded my head in understanding and headed towards the exit of the cave.

Once again, I stripped off my shirt and pocketed half of it, leaving the rest to hang; however, for defensive reasons, not self-harm. My body glowed a warm orange color as I raised my internal temperature to 106°F and created a small, condensed aura of fire around myself to melt the incoming icicles. Mizu, dressed perfectly normal, was unaffected by the cold and grinned as he saw me prepare myself for the storm.

"So does this mean that ice beats fire this time?" He asked.

"Ha," I scoffed, "Not even, fire always beats ice..."

We headed along the banks of the frozen over lake to pick up the scout. Previous scouts had all consisted of the same route along the lake to examine its size and of any possible villages or other natural resources that may have been helpful. On an earlier scout, Mizu and Falen had discovered a berry tree that produced a very hard, frozen berry, but if crushed and melted, became a delicious sort of jam that went well with the fish, though, Riku stuck to his Tajín.

We followed the lake to the right, unsure of which Cardinal direction it was actually in, which was the route that had the frozen Berry tree along the way. We planned to take some berries back on the way back from the scout.

I took the left path when I scouted the day before with Riku so this new trail was unfamiliar to me. After passing the berry tree, which was relatively close to our cave, Mizu spoke up.

"After here, there is a large, icy hill that spans out for some distance. We can either climb over it like Falen and I did before, or we can perhaps try to find the end of it, which would you prefer?" Mizu asked me.

"Let's see how far it goes down, maybe there's another cave somewhere along the way, or some village, hopefully," I said.

Mizu nodded and we started to follow the icy hill. Every time I looked up at it, it's sharp, escalated precipices warned me of danger. I had a feeling like we were being watched or followed from above.

"What did yoy guys find at the top of the mountain?" I asked Mizu.

"Nothing, just more ice, and once we scaled down the other side, the terrain levels out to be just as flat and boring next to the lake as our side of it."

"Fun," I said in reply.

We walked in continual silence until we were interrupted by the sound of sickening crunching.

"Do you hear that?" I asked.

"Yeah... What is it?"

"I don't know but it sou-"

A loud, piercing hiss interrupted me, followed by a series of sniffs. There was an animal somewhere ahead of us through the icy fog, a large one.