Genesis #26

*Part 3 of chapter 11.*

_____

Rune’s world blurred into a black, blowing mass of worry and weariness. He trudged on, no longer able to feel his paws, nor the ache in his ankle; ice armored his snout and black nose, his frozen saliva camouflaged with his teeth in black icicles; his hot canine breath billowed from his fanged maw.

The humans lay close to his back, Keila’s head rested on his furred back, her closed eyes were barely visible under her hood and above her mask.

Clint set his jaw stoically, his entire body trembled with cold, despite his thick clothing. His cheeks were ruddy and his lips painfully cracked. His father was in a similar predicament, but slightly better off; he was a little more experienced with the numbing, deathly weather and he knew to not close his eyes or he could fall into the clutches of endless sleep; Clint desperately called out for Keila to open her eyes, but she had fallen asleep and he could not wake her. The young man pulled her to his side, holding her close and hoping they could get off this mountain soon; they were traveling for only half a day and already the frigid temperatures weakened them to the point they could barely move, barely even cling to Rune’s broad back. Clint just hoped Rune could make it; their lives were depending on him.

The sarsh had no intention of giving up; he knew the humans were much more fragile than himself, they could not last long in such savage conditions.

With determination blazing in his heart and burning in his eyes, he bounded through the thick, black snow, clawed up boulders and all the while kept a careful eye on his companions. Clint was struggling to stay awake, his face was bluish, no longer the regular ruddy. Keila was asleep, resting gently in her best friend’s arms; Jethro faced his son and Keila, his long blond hair hung in his face as he hugged both of the young people close to him in a desperate attempt to keep them warm.

_____

The white sky, once spattered with patches of scarlet, was black when the sarsh dragged his large body onto the stone crowing the summit of the mountain; it was a level area, but barely ten feet wide. The snow was blowing so hard now, Rune could no longer make out his surroundings farther than five feet in front of him; however, through the howling mass of darkness, far below, the sarsh could see tiny pinpricks of light, flickering as the snow fell harder still.

Hope leapt into his heart, and his heart leapt into his throat. Glancing back at his passengers through bleary and frozen eyes, Rune made a choice. At first, he planned to camp at the summit and replenish his strength; now, seeing all the humans had succumbed to sleep, their eyelashes fused together with tears of hopelessness, their faces frozen in frowns of fear, Rune pressed on.

His initial strength was depleted, replaced by the desperate scramble, but better to stumble in weakness than freeze and permit death to tighten its hold, the sarsh told himself.

And so it went. All night, the sarsh trekked on, carefully bearing his friends toward safety. He was no longer aware of his body, oblivious to each stone that bruised his body and the snow blanketing his body, which melted and refroze into ice; he only saw his shivering friends, and it was enough to keep him moving toward the lights in the far distance, enough to keep him from stumbling and never rising, to keep his eyes from falling shut, for they would not open again. There in the black tundra, four lives depended on the one.

_______

The sarsh dimly realized as he realized the air about him was growing warmer, a light breeze ruffled his frozen fur and sent the layer of snow blowing from his head and back. Still the day hadn’t come, but the sarsh staggered numbly on, unaware of how near the lights were now; he saw them and released a roar of joy; it was a strangled and weak cry, for his state was now beyond worse than even the humans’. The only thing keeping him awake was the safety of his friends.

And now, before him and in the near distance, he made out the indistinct shapes of low-lying buildings and a barb-wired fence surrounding it all. Had the sarsh been in his right mind, he may have been cautious to approach the settlement, but he was not. Rune’s mind had retreated to a dark corner to prevent him from collapsing where he stood, his body was numb, moving on its own accord with an animal instinct to survive; it was as if he had become the anarii he looked like, the animal instinct in the sarsh was stronger and would survive longer than Rune himself.

In this strange state, he cleared the base of the mountain, unware of the soft green grass that he now padded through instead of the hard, cold snow, and the warm breezy air ridding his body of the accumulated frigid black ice crystals.

Dawn was rising, but the light was still so dim anyone beside Rune could not see.

That is, almost everyone. Unnoticed by the lumbering creature that Rune was, a lone figure emerged from the darkness and stepped into the light of a floodlight mounted on a building near them. Set into the stranger’s strong face was blazing orange eyes; they wore a small, grim smile as they watched the beast approach slowly. The figure motioned to someone, or something, out of sight and the gates swung open. The beast, surprised, swung his head heavily to see what has caused the opening of the enormous gates before him.

__

Rune shook himself, mindful of his unconscious passengers; he forced himself into a more attentive state of mind and peered ahead of him where, silhouetted by the light behind them, stood a lone figure, bright eyes blazing. An image flashed before the sarsh’s eyes, the dream he had dreamed what seemed like so long ago. It was this very scene Rune saw, only yet to come were the words... No sooner than the sarsh thought this, the stranger spoke.

“You didn’t take as long as I expected. This is promising. Perhaps things will go even better than I had anticipated,” The shadow may have said more, but in that instant, Rune’s strength gave out and he sunk into a lying position, where blissful oblivion welcomed him.