A Match of Monsters

Chapter Two

Stumbling, half frozen with blue fingertips shaking as they tightened around her cloak and attempting to retreat into her fingerless gloves, Elain headed further up the mountain. She'd overheard the village hunters enough times at the local tavern to know that the rocky mountain side was riddled with caves.

But blanketed in inches of heavy snow as it was, Elain could not find any of the cavern openings, forcing her to move higher and higher in desperation. She knew she would not last much longer exposed to the harsh weather. Already her naked fingertips were beginning to darken with frostbite,

The weak steam of Elain's breath cooled so quickly in the snowy gusts that her bruise coloured fingers could feel nothing when she lifted them to her lips.

The frozen landscape was barren, providing only a deep chill that sunk through Elain until she felt the marrow in her bones was frosting over. Every step she took, every second longer she spent out in the rising storm, weakened her further. Soon she could focus on only one step at a time.

Left foot. Right. Left, right, left.

And on and on it went as the sky slowly coloured and darkened behind her.

If the sky had been clear of the heavy, depressing clouds, Elain would have seen the emerging stars as the night slowly arrived over the other side of the great mountain she stumbled through. She did not know the names of many of the stars, but she did know of one – a visiting bard had recited the tale once of the goddess Adora banished to the sky by her husband when she gave her heart to the god's own brother Guerri. At dusk and dawn, when the sun was just breaching the horizon Adora would appear. But when the moon was high and the heavens had fully blackened, she disappeared form the sky to spend time with her lover.

The legend had always fascinated Elain, but she did not know why it crossed her mind at that moment, when she had barely enough energy to think of survival, let alone silly fairy tales.

Just as she was ready to give in, to curl up in the snow like one of the great winter hounds and let the cold slowly lull her into her into her final sleep, her leather covered toes caught on the edge of a stone hidden under the layers of snow.

Wagon-wheeling her arms as she lurched forward, Elain lost control and began to fall into a disguised cave entrance, falling between the sharp rocks that had caught the snow and covered the rocky maw from sight.

Now, through feet of snow and jagged stone edges, she tumbled down a steep incline.

The path was not smooth, littered with gravel and many other sharp edges. In the dim light, she feared that she had even seen the brittle dried skeletons of rodents and other, larger, more fearsome animals that she did not want to identify. Every edge and ledge that bounced off gave Elain so many cuts and bruises she felt that by the time she finally arrived there was no clear flesh left, every part covered and uncovered alike by her clothes hurt unbearably.

When she finally rolled to a stop atop a cold, hard mound of something that chinked like metal, all she could do was groan. Elain hurt everywhere, and despite having spent long enough falling that she felt sure she was deep inside the mountain – maybe even at its roots – she did not want to move.

Her eyes would have surely adjusted by now to the darkness, and it took many minutes before she could gather the energy to even open them.

What Elain saw stole her breath away.

Author's Note

Well, here's chapter two for you. Like before, this is dedicated to my father @PhillippeAnthonyReid for his birthday yesterday.

Please support my story and give me motivation to continue it by voting and commenting, and thank you for giving it a chance.