John leaned his head closer to the valve. He sniffed hard, trying to identify a fresh smell in the claustrophobic tunnels that reeked of fumes. He turned his ear to it. He wasn’t certain, not with the cluttering of tens of workers tending to the pipes in the labyrinth around him, but he believed he could make out a slight hiss.

It was better to be certain than risk a failure. His hand reached for the wrench in his belt before reconsidering. Metal was too precious to wear and waste without reason. Flesh was cheap and so was cloth. He used a scrap of fabric to get a better hold and tightened the valve as hard as he could.

John spent a few minutes making sure he had done the best he could. His fingers and arm ached but he ignored it. He had more work to do. He checked the valve once more, this time under the light of his fading glow stick. It looked good. No hiss, no smell, and his tools were unmarred so far. If he kept it up it would be extra ration credits for him. He smiled in self satisfaction.

He banged the valve’s code and his own on the walls along with the message of its condition. The clanging message spread outwards, was picked by other workers in nearby passages, repeated and spread until it would reach one of the foremen.

The fabric went back into his pocket and John fell down on his hands and knees once more, crawling to the next valve, checking the pipes next to his as he went. He was getting too big for this. His growth spurt came late but it came with a vengeance. He doubted he would be able to fit by his sixteenth birthday.

John delved deeper into the inner darkness of the walls of the City.

The section’s foreman checked the few tools John had been issued with, his critical eye scanning carefully for the slightest scratch. “Tools all clean?” he asked gruffly.

John lifted his hand, showing off the marred, bruised flesh and torn skin.

The foreman frowned at the sight. “Boy, if you bled in there and there’s the slightest corrosion because of you…”

“Come on Bark, you know me,” John said. “I was careful. I always am. Can I get paid now? Please?”

Bark leaned behind his office and pulled out a single receipt. He made a note with a pen and brought his stamp down on it as if angry at the world for teaching people to request compensation for their work.

John read the receipt. Four ration credits with a two credit bonus. That was not enough. “Bark, I got the tools back all clean…”

“I don’t care. That’s all I got to give. Six credits for a shift’s work is too much as it is.” Faces full of marks of grease, sweat, and exhaustion gazed at John’s back with envy. Bark was a moron. At least one of them would try to shake him down and get his credits for himself when he made his way out through the crowded work station.

“I need more work then. Have you got anything else for me today?”

Bark leaned forward, the desk groaning beneath his muscled bulk. He was an aged mountain, but one that could trash every single one of them in here. “Someone’s getting greedy. Have you fallen into bad habits boy? Should I call the Dogs to check you for marks?”

“That’s not fair Bark. I just asked for work.”

“Life’s not fair boy. Get used to it. Why do you need the extra work? Give me your reason.”

“Bark…”

“Reason. Or stop wasting my time you little-”

“Dad hasn’t been able to find work yet.”

Bark leaned back. Hostility had settled long ago on his face, but most of the time it was a front. It kept trouble away. “Four of you, right?”

“Yeah...”

Bark’s right hand went back into the drawer and came out with a form. He filled it in and stamped it. He gave it to John, almost shoving him back to the crowd. “Go home, use some of those ration credits, and rest. Be where the form sends you at the start of the night shift then be right back here for the morning shift. You will be going back into the wall.”

John nodded his thanks to his foreman and before anyone could understand what was happening he had ducked and ran through the crowd behind him, pushing and diving under seeking arms. He managed to escape with the credits still safe. All it cost him was some blood and skin left on the nails that tried to drag him back.

Let them keep it. It would grow back and he was getting mighty used to pain.

He dashed and turned among the crowd of low class workers in the streets outside. He took turns, made circles, and forced himself in the company of ragged teenagers scrubbing and searching for the slightest trace of recyclable materials, starving for that one extra ration credit. He faked injuries and hunger. Lying had become second nature.

Honesty lost you everything in this life. It wasn’t meant for people like him, not unless it was family.

He looked up, trying to make the fire towers through the cloud of ash and smog that covered the low levels. There was fresh air up where the higher classes lived. They lived in warmth that was comfortable and not sweltering. They did not have to bleed for every single meal.

...they could see the sun.

John wasn’t sure if he had ever seen the sun, at least not clearly. He thought he might have once, or he might have dreamt it. But he had seen the moon and the stars once. His father sneaked him outside the walls for just a few minutes. The air was clean and you could see the cold white outside for miles. When he looked up…

It was only once but he would never forget. He fell in love with that sight. He was determined to join the Fire Scourgers one day. Then he would be able to walk outside. He would see the stars again. He would see the moon again.

A rusted rectangle of metal fell from somewhere above, crashing and killing the unfortunate low class that happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. His fellows around him rushed around like pecking vultures. A fight broke out for the bloodstained metal piece and the right to search through the dead woman’s pockets.

John had too many credits on him to gamble them against a prize as this, no matter how desirable it was. If it had happened on his way to work instead… he sighed at the lost opportunity.

The bodies available for looting had become two already. He left before he was tempted too much.

He reached home, a shell like all the rest around him, but it was his shell. His family was inside and that made it special. It made it the greatest place in the world.

“Alright mom, I gotta get on my way!” John called out.

His mother, bent, way too lean, but still strong and enduring, halted him. “One second honey. Your little sister has something to show you. Ok darling, come show your brother what daddy got you!”

“Dad got her something? Mom, how? We can’t afford to-”

John’s mother shushed him with a finger expertly placed on his lips. “Come on Johnny, just this once, stop worrying, ok?”

His little sister came bouncing into the room. The six year old made a pirouette and presented her blonde hair for his inspection with a smile that could blind. A small bow made out of a small ribbon of the most vibrant purple that John had ever seen adorned her golden hair.

His tiny sister ran up to him and jumped so he could grab her in his arms. “Do you like it?” she asked. Her voice had a lisp that she had found amazingly funny ever since she lost one of her front baby teeth.

“I like it,” John answered. “Purple is a very nice color.”

“It’s lavender,” his sister answered with the arrogance of a toddler who had just learned a word and every grown up who didn’t use it was stupid.

“Lavender then. It’s very nice, but I have to go work now, ok?” He tickled her stomach. “This little tummy needs food, right?”

John leaned over and kissed his mother on the cheek after his sister retreated back to her room and dolls, giggling. “I gotta go mom. See ya tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“I’m heading back to the wall for the morning shift right after. I’m not coming to bed tonight.”

“Johnny, you are overdoing it. Things are not-”

“I’ll be fine. Just because things are not that bad now doesn’t mean they can’t get worse later. I’d rather we have something we can fall on if something happens, you know? Let dad know.”

“Be safe honey!” his mother called out as he left out the door.

“Always am,” he answered back.

One time he ends up setting foot in the Long Spire, the largest and highest reaching tower of the city, and where does he end up going? Down. All the way down to the holding pens. Sometimes John believed that luck had a very weird sense of humor.

He went into the room he was directed to. A mountain of a man, though unlike Bark who was made of solid muscle, this one was built out of layers of fat, was inside joking around with a lean, grey haired old man. The fat one’s look of joviality turned sour when he spotted John walking in. The old man just glimpsed once at him, tiredly.

The mound of lubber rose slowly. “What you doin’ here little boy? Area’s off limits fo’ the likes of ya!”

“Do you think the Dogs would let him down here if he didn’t have business here you fat blob? Sit down before you have a heart attack,” the old man said calmly, drinking from a weathered old canteen.

John rushed to speak before any argument could rise up. The Dogs had let him through and he wasn’t in the mood to have to pass before them once more so soon. Those bastards are always too glad for the slightest opportunity to beat or kill somebody so they could search through their pockets before ditching them into the furnaces.

“I’m here to work,” John jumped forward and gave his form to the fat man. “I’m here for the night shift?”

The fat man didn’t even look at the paper. He passed it immediately to the old man and came to stand before John, hand rubbing his triple chin thoughtfully. “Does he check out?”

“All right and proper. Be good to the kid, huh?”

A huge, sweaty palm rested on John’s shoulder, almost taking him down. “Alright boy, calm down. We’re not Dogs so you can stop trembling in your little pants. We are former Fire Scourgers though so remember to show respect, huh?”

“Yes sir. Uh, what are my duties here sir?”

The massive shoulders shrugged. “Clean, fetch, feed, and water the prisoners on this level if we ask you to… you’re basically the lil’ bitch on our block. You do everything we ask.” He winked hungrily at John.

“I said be good to the kid!” The old man hadn’t even turned his head around to watch.

“My… my father is… was a Fire Scourger too.”

That attracted the old man’s attention. “What section?” he asked, scratching his scraggy beard.

“Uh, south wall, second section.” The old man scared him somehow. The giant man was nowhere near the level of intimidation this old man’s stillness exhaled.

“Was?”

“He got… burnt. Friendly fire. Someone got panicked and he, he lost his right leg to the flames.”

The old man nodded at his colleague. “I think he’s talking about John. Remember him?”

“No way! John? He’s still kicking? Well, I guess he can’t exactly kick now but… What’s your name boy?”

“John.”

The old man looked at him with a mix of amusement and pity. “Your old man couldn’t even think up a good name for ya?”

“I’m, I’m hoping to change it to something of my own one day.”

“Hah. Good luck with that. I’m trying to do the same,” the fat man laughed. “So, for your own good, call me Blob. Not very imaginative, I know, but hey, it beats the old one.”

“He is named after a flower if you want a hint.”

“Hey! I don’t go around telling your own secrets!”

“That’s because I have none.”

“Excuse me, sir? What is your name?” John asked.

“Sir. That’s all you get to call me. Enough with the chit chat. You have work to do. I’ll show you how we feed the animals here in block R.”

John almost sleepwalked into his home after the end of the morning shift in the wall. He removed the credits he had earned from his pocket and surrendered them to his mother before stumbling to the mattress behind a threadbare curtain that he called his room.

A few seconds later he was almost entirely asleep when kilograms of sisterly delight jumped on his stomach and other places.

“Tell me a story!”

“Little one, please… I need to sleep…”

“A story, please! You haven’t told me a story for ages…” Her purple ribbon danced before his eyes as she made a trampoline out of his intestines.

“Argh! Alright, alright. Just a short one, ok? I’m tired.”

“Yay!”

“Once upon a time there was nothing. Nothing but a song, a song as rich and wide as the sky. The song danced and filled the void, creating shapes and fate, bringing things it sang of to life…”

“Why don’t we ever feed that one?” John asked Sir.

Sir opened the little hatch located at the cell door’s eye level and looked inside for a few seconds. “That one is special. We got orders to keep him under special care. Me and Blob feed him when you are gone.”

“What’s he done? Killed anyone important?”

“No. We are trying to make him talk. Haven’t gotten a peep outside of asking us to let him go. The ones up high on the Long Spire above us are losing patience.” He kicked at the stone bowls on the floor. “You need to clean these up before you head for the morning shift at the wall or it’s half pay today, ya hear?”

“I hear you Sir. Why is it so important that he talks?” John asked.

“He is an outsider.”

If the bowls weren’t made of thick, rough stone, they would have shattered. “Outside? He is the guy who came from the east? I thought it was a rumor! That was years ago!”

Sir bent down, amazingly spry for his age, and helped John gather up the bowls again. “Don’t let anyone know or the Dogs will come after you. It’s not that big of a deal. We know there is at least one more city out there. What we want to know is how he traversed the frost and not get eaten.”

“He probably had a flamer.”

“No, he didn’t. Even if he did, how would he carry enough fuel? All he had was a strange shooter and some knives.”

“A shooter?”

“A weapon, like the one the Dogs use when they really need to. It shoots metal pellets.”

“That sounds like a real waste.”

“Yeah, and it would scratch the wyrms at best. No, I don’t know how, but he made it all the way here without a proper weapon.”

“Why won’t he tell? What’s the harm?”

“Beats me. We keep asking him every day.”

They walked into the room that had become Blob’s habitat. He was hovering over a device that John had never seen before. A multitude of metal slivers, like nails or needles, were punctured in a metal bed that was glowing red hot. “The lady’s nail slippers are ready old man. Ready to go agai- ah, you still here boy?”

“What’s this?” John asked.

“Nothing you should worry about. Get out and get on your way. You’ll be late for your wall shift.”

“But-”

Sir pushed him from behind. “Do like Blob told you boy. Get out. Now.”

John nodded. “Alright. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

He closed the door behind him and hid in the plentiful shadows of the tower’s underbelly, beneath some of the pipes that covered every inch of the city. As he expected, the door opened after a minute and Blob, luckily it was him and not Sir, checked the corridor. John waited some more. He had enough time until his shift started.

The screaming started after a while. It was muted and barely made it through the thick walls and doors, but John was waiting for it. It seems he was right about how exactly they were asking the outsider the questions they mentioned.

He left his hiding hole and returned to his own life. He had a family to provide for. That’s what was important.

Something was thrown at him as soon as he passed through the door. He grabbed the object out of the air before he even realized what was happening. Looking down, John saw he was now holding a mop.

He didn’t need to ask. Sir pointed him to the floor. He started cleaning up.

“Next time you try to overhear, make sure you don’t hide somewhere that hasn’t been cleaned for ages,” Sir told him and left him to his work.

“Here dad, let me help you to bed.”

“I’m fine, put me down! I’m not a fucking cripple yet!”

“Don’t swear, our little one will hear you.”

“Sorry. Sorry, I’m just… I’m… I haven’t found anything yet, I try and…”

“It’s ok dad.”

His little sister tugged at his trousers. “What does fucking mean?”

“Nothing you should worry about. How about I tell you another story before I head to work, ok?”

John made his way to an empty cell. A pen as they called it. If the Dogs brought you down here you were no longer a person. You were an animal. He intended to mop every available surface. Sir was in a foul mood. It was best to spend his shift staying out of his way doing some work.

The pen’s floor was covered in blood.

He quickly retreated. His back made contact with something that wasn’t a wall. He turned around and came face to nipple with Blob.

“You’re a curious little rat, ain’t ya?”

“I’m just doing my job. What the hell is this?”

Blob pushed John aside and closed the door. “The old man told me how you spied on us a couple of weeks back. I guess you figured it out. The guy we ask questions? Some very important people are tired of waiting. One of them came down here. Said he had a way to make him talk.”

“What happened?”

“Bullshit happened that’s what. Asshole should be a Dog, not a Spire class. Ways to make him talk… bah! I haven’t seen a man get higher that he did while… nasty business kid. Worst part is it keeps happening. Drives the old man crazy.” Blob shook his head sadly. He patted John’s back. “Come on, it’s feeding time.”

“This is insane. Why doesn’t the guy talk?”

“I don’t know kid.” They started setting the bowls in a line, ready to fill them up with the nasty gruel concoction the animals in the pens ate. “But I don’t think he ever will talk. He’s certainly gone through the same before. We won’t break him. I’m thinking we should do him a favor and kill him. Stage an accident or something. Won’t be long until one of the Dogs or occasional Spire class that come down here to have their fun goes too far one day anyway.”

“This isn’t fair.”

“Life ain’t. There ain’t no kindness in this world kid. Sorry. Get me a couple more bowls, will ya?”

Two weeks later one of them came down from the Spire while John was still there. Blob and Sir brought the outsider to another cell. John got a good look at him. Poor guy could barely stand. They had to half carry, half drag him. They put him in the cell where John had found the blood.

“Want to leave kid? Call it a night?” Blob asked him.

“No.” He didn’t let his disgust show. This was torture for torture’s sake. The man wouldn’t talk and even if he did… what secrets did they imagine he held? Maybe he had just gotten lucky. You walk outside where the wyrms hunt, you get eaten. That’s it. If he had any special weapon, any device that kept him safe, they would have gotten hold of it.

The screams started again. John’s courage almost failed him.

But it didn’t. After a few seconds they only strengthened his resolve.

“I’m gonna go get the mop ready.”

His sister was asleep. He kissed her goodnight and got ready to head to his night shift once again. He had made a decision. Today he would follow through with it.

Blob and Sir didn’t realize anything. He went out on the corridors, mopping the floor as he surreptitiously made his way to the outsider’s cell. He checked around before taking out the keys he had pocketed. John unlocked the cell and walked inside the outsider’s cell, dagger ready in his right hand.

There was some kindness in the world. The man wouldn’t have to suffer anymore.

“Are you ok?”

“I’m fine little one. Are you here for another story?”

“I wanted to see if you are ok. Is mom going to be home soon?”

“Her shift still needs some time to end. We can go for a walk if you are bored.”

“Ok. How come you don’t go to work now?”

“I’m still not allowed to. Mom will have to work in my place for a little while. Come on, let’s go.”

John had to keep calling for his sister to come back. She kept running ahead or to the side, poking everything in sight. She loved to explore. She hadn’t learned how dangerous and terrifying the city could be at times.

He had dreamed of Blob and Sir again. Nothing much, just… how he found them when he regained his senses. Sir, with his face punctured by those needles, limbs broken… the old veteran broken like a ragdoll. Blob with his throat swollen and burnt black, unhinged jaw and broken teeth. The plaque where they heated the needles had been lodged inside his throat. It was the most horrible sight he had ever seen.

They didn’t deserve that. They were just trying to survive, eke out a living like everyone.

The sirens went off. Wyrms.

“What’s happening?” His sister asked. She hugged his leg, afraid of the noise and the movement of the crowds as they ran for cover.

“The wall is going to fire up. Come on, we need to move away from any pipes. Remember not to touch anything, ok?”

His sister nodded. John carried her in his arms as he found refuge for both of them in a small alley. He waited for the screeching of the walls as they lit up everything around and the waves of heat that would hit them, even at the eye of the storm.

What he heard instead was a sound he had never heard before. An explosion of unprecedented fury and power. He pushed his sister back and rushed to the exit of the alley.

He caught sight of a tower near the wall falling. It was falling towards-

Oh mercy, please no!

The wall had a great hole in it. An entire section had blown off. It was the city’s worst nightmare come to life.

The Fire Scourgers would be rushing there to block off any wyrms managing to make their way past the fires. He hoped they would be fast enough. He and his sister were far enough but…

His mother was working near that section! She was in danger! He had to get his sister home and run there to find her as-

The earth quaked beneath them. He saw a giant fireball rise to the sky and debris coming down their way like rain as the wall near their section exploded. John barely had time to tremble at the sight before he saw two more sections explode as well.

Three.

Five.

Eight.

They were all dead. The city screamed with millions of voices. The wyrms were coming. There was nothing now to hold them back. Too many holes, too few Fire Scourgers.

“I’m scared! What’s happening?”

He took his sister in his arms. He looked up. Debris had struck the towers. Pipes all around the city must have burst. He could see clouds of black smoke and flames rise high. The city had fallen.

“We need to run… We need to run!” He had no idea where to go but he wasn’t letting his sister die. She wouldn’t burn in flames and she certainly wouldn’t be eaten by the wyrms, not as long as he lived.

It was a nightmare. Smoke, soot, ash, screams. The city had gone stir crazy in its death throes. He wasn’t sure where he was going. All he knew was he had to get away from the walls.

Death was crawling in through them.

People were killing each other. He saw one low class, braver than most, assault a Dog. The Dog, a burly, menacing looking man like all of them, tried to use his weapon against his opponent. He didn’t even manage to raise his rifle halfway up before a blade went through his eye and he dropped dead.

The man who killed the Dog bent down and picked up his weapon. John halted right there. He knew that man.

The outsider.

He evidently remembered him too. They looked at each other, two figures standing still for a second among the chaos. One of them cradling a little girl, the other a weapon.

The outsider spoke. “I owe you one for letting me out. I’ll let you turn around and leave, how about that?” He didn’t wait for John’s answer. He turned his back on him.

“Wait!”

“What?”

“They… they told me you know… you travelled outside without the wyrms eating you!” John said, desperate.

“Get to the point.”

“Take us with you!”

“No.” He turned around to leave.

“You owe me! You owe me and you’ll pay me back! Take us with you.”

The outsider paused. John waited with bated breath. “Fine. Keep up or I leave you behind.”

John had never thought there could be such cold. Little flakes of snow whirled around on the frozen winds that buffeted them. He was used to the heat of the cit-

The city was dead. Home was gone. He wondered if his parents made it. Maybe they had been too quick to abandon home. They had lost sight of the burning city two days ago as they headed to their mystery destination. The outsider, still refusing to give his name, told them again and again that his own home was now almost in reach.

John worried that he had brought his sister along to die in the cold. There was nothing here. The outsider was leading them up a mountain to the west. They were going to freeze to death somewhere with a view.

He missed his mother. Please, please let her be alright. Let him see her again. Please.

“We are stopping here to rest for a bit.”

John fell on his knees. He was exhausted. He had to carry his sister for hours every day. The outsider was relentless in his haste. He made a comfy burrow out of the bundle of clothes they stole on their way out for his sister to continue sleeping in.

“Are you sure you are not lost?”

“I’m not lost. I can’t get lost. We are going straight home.” The outsider sighed heavily. “Wait here.”

He left them there. John stood over his sister and thought. He thought of home mostly. He also thought of a suspicion he had. The wyrms had not bothered them. They were still alive even though they had spent days outside. He suspected he knew how they made it so far.

He made sure his sister was safely bundled up. He went after their “savior”.

The outsider was looking at the mountain they were climbing. His gaze was locked at the top. “What?” he asked gruffly.

“There has been no sight of wyrms,” John said.

“Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Why?”

“That’s a secret.”

Bullshit. There was no secret. There was no technique to crossing the frost. There was a city to the east though, that’s what Sir had said.

“It’s because they have eaten, isn’t it?”

The outsider turned around to look at John. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“The wyrms. They are not coming after us because they don’t have to, do they? They have eaten their fill. They feasted on the city. That’s how we made it all the way here, right?”

“Boy…” the outsider growled, warningly.

“What happened to the eastern city? The one you came from?”

The outsider just looked at him, silently.

“Why did the walls fail like that? I was in them every day, repairing them! If there had been something that could lead to this I would have seen something. Everything had been working properly. Yet even the section that I was helping maintain broke apart. Right when you needed passage, only weeks after you escaped!”

The outsider walked towards him. John tightened his grip on the dagger he kept hidden behind him. He didn’t mean to lead this to a confrontation, not yet, but he could not control himself.

“You killed everyone in my home so you could die in the frost? I tried to help you the only way I could and you killed everyone I knew! My family! My parents! You are nothing but a monster that-”

“I AM NOT A MONSTER!” John tried to bring his dagger forward but the outsider was faster. His arm snapped in half.

“They forced me to do it! I just want to go home! I didn’t ask for this, I just wanted to go home but you keep stopping me, you keep hurting me, you keep getting IN MY WAY!”

The outsider’s fists rained down on him. He felt teeth chipping and his jaw crack. His leg shattered as his opponent’s foot met the side of his knee.

“You think you know loss? You think you know pain, you little shit? You know nothing! Well, I’m not giving up. It’s not my fault! This time I will go home, this one WILL take me home, I know it will, I’m going home, I WON’T GIVE UP, I AM NOT A MONSTER!”

Every limb had broken. Every breath was fire. He had lost his sight out of one of his eyes. He didn’t think it was because it had swollen shut. It felt empty and there had been a slipping sensation…

“I’m not a monster,” the outsider whispered, regaining his breath, as he stood over the fifteen year old that struggled to hold to life.

“John? Are you here? I had a bad dream! John?”

His sister. His precious sister.

The outsider turned towards the voice.

“Keep her alive…” John whispered.

The outsider turned back to John, looking shocked. “What?”

“You owe me. You… you owe me… keep her alive… keep her safe… Mom… mom would never forgive me if I let my sister… If I let her come to harm...”

The outside gazed down on him for what seemed like years. His right hand rubbed at his chest, below his neck. He pulled something small from beneath his clothes and looked at it, paying no attention to the child at his feet. He was a slit of darkness as he loomed over him, in between the grey sky and the white frost. He left John to bleed behind him and moved back to where John’s precious little one was waiting.

John could do nothing but hear their voices before they left.

“Where is my brother?”

“...he went up ahead. Come on, we gotta catch up.”

“Why did he leave me here with you?”

“Someone had to go ahead.... What’s your name anyway?”

“I ain’t got one yet.”

“Well, how do they call you?”

“My brother calls me his little one.”

“Wow… that… that’s stup- what are you doing?”

“Tying my ribbon. Help me.”

“You little shi- fine. Give it here. There. Now that you have your stupid purple thing on can we go?”

“It’s lavender!”

“I don’t fucking care. Listen to me and listen well. Your brother is not here. I’m not doing you any favors. You keep up or I leave you behind to die. Is that clear?”

“You are mean.”

“Start walking or I’ll kick you, you little shit. Walk!”

They left.

John had nothing left to do but wait to die. He spent his last minutes as he froze and bled praying. Praying the outsider would keep his sister safe. Praying his mother had made it safe. Praying he could be forgiven for what he let loose.

Something slithered in sight.

A wyrm.

It was following their tracks. It was going to attack them. This one was hungry. It’s black, rocky surface slipped easily on the ice and show.

Well, he had one last thing he could do after all.

He wouldn’t let his sister be eaten alive.

“Over here you piece of crap. Come get your meal…” He forced his lungs to work, to speak up instead of whisper. The wyrm turned towards him.

Please, let the outsider keep his sister safe. Please, please, pleas-

The maw opened up and the teeth surrounded him.