The three of them stood motionless, looking down in uneasy silence. What happened to Shifty didn't come as a shock, but it was still a hard thing to digest. An ominous feeling settled in their hearts — seeing the broken body of their companion, it was too easy to imagine one of them sharing the same fate.
No one knew what to say.
"Who cares about this?" Morgan was quick to comment. She couldn't careless about this guy's damned nightmare and this guy's death...
"I care, I find it quite amusing and want to know more about our friend sunny here..." Mordret was quick to say something back, instead of continuing the conversation... Morgan scowled and looked at Mordret in disgust. She muttered something along the lines of monster towards Mordret.
Mordret only smiled.
After a minute or so, Scholar finally sighed.
"It's a good thing that you took most of the supplies he had been carrying."
"Damn, quite heartless from a scholar." Athena said.
Many agreed.
'A bit heartless, but not wrong,' Sunny thought, giving the older slave a careful look.
Scholar frowned, realizing that his mask of a kind-hearted gentleman had slipped for a second, and hurriedly added in a somber tone:
"May you rest in peace, my friend."
"Bravo, this performance is excellent. I would like to meet him and congratulate him for his grand performance." Mordret laughed, he obviously found it hilarious.
...because of mordret tho, any other potential conversation went to shit.
Well, there was also nephis who studied carefully this... it was quite productive...
'Wow. What a performance.'
"Sunny! We have the same reaction friend, what are your thoughts about this?" Mordret started, trying to absolutely destroy any possibility for a good mood.
Noctis merely chuckled, heavily amused as Sunny chose to respond nicely.
"Im appalled, I couldn't be any happier to share the same thoughts as you, I'm absolutely honored and stand in awe at this miraculously and mysterious event and the ability to even compare to your highness."
Mordret smiled as he listened to the sarcastic words with a smile.
Actually, Sunny had not believed in his benevolent act for a second. Every kid from the outskirts knew that people who acted kind for no reason were the ones to be most wary of. They were either fools or monsters. Scholar didn't seem like a fool, so Sunny became cautious of him from the moment they met.
"Oh, so that's why you are so hostile, friend. I was merely trying to make an good impression on someone so similar to me! Was I overstepping, Sunless?" Mordret had a malicious smile across his face, deeply unnatural but what was unnatural about it... sunny had no idea how to say it...
Aiko shuddered as she listened in, so did Kai...
Morgan on the other hand, screamed from the other side calling him a creep.
He got this far by being a mistrustful cynic, and there was no reason to change now.
"But there is, you have great friends like me!" To all valor clansmen it was quite evident that he was toying with rhe boy, they had no idea for what purpose tho..."
Sunny on the other hand wanted this to stop, deciding to ignore mordret. Making the mirror guy chuckle. Jet on the other hand sighed, looking at her fellow rat with sympathy.
"We have to go." Hero said, casting one last look down.
His voice was even, but Sunny could feel a well of emotion behind it. He just couldn't tell what that emotion was.
Scholar sighed and turned away, too. Sunny stared at the bloodied rocks for a few more seconds.
'Why do I feel so guilty?' he thought, bewildered by this unexpected reaction. 'He got what he deserved.'
Some nodded to this, they heard and saw how the guy acted, he died from his own weakness...
Mordret on the other hand gave Sunny a grin as predatory as it could get...
"Such a misfortune for our dear friend Shifty!" Mordret exclaimed, Noctis too smiled at Sunny and mordret...
Asterion did not comment, but his gaze that settled briefly in sunny said enough.
A little unsettled, Sunny turned around and followed his two remaining companions.
Just like that, they left Shifty behind and continued to climb.
At this altitude, traversing the mountain was getting harder and harder. The wind was slamming into them with enough force to throw a person off-balance if they were not careful, making every step seem like a gamble. The air was becoming too thin to breathe. Due to the lack of oxygen, Sunny was starting to feel dizzy and nauseated.
It was as though they were all slowly suffocating.
"Some seem to have bigger problems than mere suffocation I would say. I hope that everything is fine within their blood."
Morgan gazed back at the thing. Did she not take notice of something? Yes she said she found this boring but she still paid attention.
"What are you talking about, disgusting, worthless creature?"
"Is that the language practiced by the Valor clan? How foul. I could never be as so mannerless. How hateful. Do you see how those warmongering animals are, sunless?"
Morgan glared.
Noctis chuckled. "Couldn't have said it better, my friend. All for this worthless glory that they scream of, yet there is no glory in sight."
Mordret started brimming with energy, "Indeed!"
Altitude sickness was not something one could overcome with effort. It was subtle and overbearing at the same time, affecting the strong and the weak with no regard to their fitness and endurance. If his luck was bad, an elite athlete could succumb to it faster than a random passerby.
"That indeed seems to be the case..." Caster nodded, "unfortunate that it wasn't you that succumbed first, mongrel."
While sunny ignored, mordret smile became bigger. Shaming for being a rat, yet not seeing more than the rat in question.
It was just a question of your body's innate aptitude and adaptability. Lucky ones were able to get over it after experiencing mild symptoms. The others were sometimes crippled for days or weeks, suffering from all kinds of torturous side effects. Some even died.
Mordret nodded full with exaggeration. "Indeed, they can seem even poisoned at times with how weak they can get. It's very lucky that you have such an adaptable physic and the clean water also seems truly helpful, no?"
As though all that wasn't bad enough, it was getting colder, too. The warm clothes and fur weren't enough to keep the chill at bay anymore. Sunny felt simultaneously feverish and freezing, cursing every decision he had made in his life to end up here, on the endless icy slope.
Anvil now chose to inquire. "If you truly accepted death than why did you not just slit your own throat rather than this torturous existence?"
Sunny wasn't sure what to answer... damnation...
"I... don't see a reason to die. I've come to terms with the possibility but I'm not that suicidal."
This mountain was not a place for humans.
And yet they had to go on.
A few hours passed. Despite everything, the three survivors continued to struggle forward, slowly moving higher and higher. Wherever that old path Scholar had talked about was, by now, it couldn't have been far. At least that's what Sunny was hoping for.
But at some point, he started to doubt if the path even existed. Maybe the older slave lied. Maybe the path was long ago destroyed by ravages of time. Maybe they had already missed it without even noticing.
"Don't say such things, Sunless. You shouldn't doubt your comrades who in turn Don't doubt you and your great trustworthiness!" Mordret exclaimed. He found this really fun.
Just as he was about to fall into despair, they finally found it.
It was weathered and narrow, barely enough for two people to walk side by side. The path wasn't paved, but rather cut from the black rock by some unknown tool or magic, winding its way up the mountain like a tail of a sleeping dragon. Here and there, it was hidden beneath the snow. But most importantly, it was flat. Sunny had never been that happy to see something flat in his life.
Jet gave Sunny a look of disgust before moving her body as if shielding herself from his perverted gaze.
"T-thats not what I meant!" Sunny exclaimed at Jet.
Without saying a word, Scholar dropped his rucksack and sat down. He was deathly pale, gasping for air like a fish out of water. Despite that, there was a slight grin on his face.
"Told you."
"Well, atleast he knows where they are going." Nephis said.
Some of the people in the theater, looking to her in surprise to hear her speak at all. She had been pretty much silent like most...
Which wasn't surprising, what had they do with this boy... they did watch tho and got entertained by the back row where mordret sat.
Hero gave him a nod and looked around. A few seconds later, he turned back to the triumphant slave:
"Stand up. It's not time to rest yet."
Scholar blinked a few times, then glanced at him with pleading eyes.
"Just… just give me a few minutes."
The young soldier was going to retort, but Sunny suddenly put a hand on his shoulder. Hero turned to face him.
"What is it?"
"It's gone."
"What a surprise! The Tyrant followed! None could've seen that coming!"mordret started, sarcastically.
Morgan just told him to shut up.
Mordret just started to talk bullshit that did not matter just to not shut up... Sunny decided to filter that out of his mind.
"What is gone?"
Sunny gestured down, back the way they came.
"Shifty's body. It's gone."
Hero stared at him for a few moments, clearly failing to understand what Sunny was trying to say.
'Oh, right. They don't know that Shifty's name is Shifty. Ahem. Awkward.'
He wanted to explain, but both Scholar and Hero seemed to have grasped his meaning. Simultaneously, they moved to the edge of the stone path and looked down, trying to spot the place where Shifty had met his end.
Indeed, the splattering of blood could still be seen on the jagged rocks, but the corpse itself was nowhere to be found.
Kai gulped at the sight, even after being already here in the dream realm for a bit, he still wasn't used to this...
Scholar flinched back and crawled as far away from the edge as he could. The young soldier also backed away, instinctively grabbing the handle of his sword. The three of them exchanged tense looks, clearly understanding the implication of Shifty's disappearance.
"It's the monster," Scholar said, even paler than before. "It's following us."
Morgan sighed, "no fucking shit... who is this genius?"
Mordret nodded, "his genius is truly great, so great that your feeble mind struggles to comprehend the sheer power of his astute observation, expected of some warmonger like you."
Morgan again glared with such intensity... expected of a warmonger.
Hero gritted his teeth.
"You are right. And if it is that close, we will inevitably be forced to fight it soon."
The idea of fighting the tyrant was as frightening as it was preposterous. He might as well have said that they will all be dead soon. The truth of it was painfully clear to both Sunny and Scholar.
"Not needed... the tyrant most likely relies on his sense of smell... a small sacrifice." nephis said.
But the older slave, surprisingly, did not look panicked. Instead, he lowered his gaze and quietly said:
"Not necessarily."
Hero and Sunny turned to him, all ears. The young soldier raised an eyebrow.
"Explain?"
'Here it comes.'
"You saw it coming? Not particularly surprising, but still..." noctis said
Sunny merely nodded...
Scholar sighed.
"The beast had traced us this far in just a day. That means that there are two most probable possibilities. Either it is smart enough to realize where we are going, or it is following the scent of blood."
Nephis nodded, her observation astute. Most didn't pay that much attention and thus not having picked up on the detail or like kai, just not exactly having picked it up even tho observing with all his might... he could see quite far, but here it was more about looking at the details...
After a bit of thinking, Hero nodded, agreeing with this logic. The older slave smiled slightly and continued.
"Whether it is one or another, we can throw him off our trail and buy some time."
"How do we do that?"
"How despicable, such strategies could only be employed from people such as the valor and their predecessors, he was probably a part of the empire of the war domain in fact!" Mordret declared. Noctis nodding along. They obviously saw what those strategies entailed, they would most likely use them if they needed too.
Morgan glared, "Why is he a slave than, idiot?"
"Details, infinitly small details... not worthy of paying attention to or simply a criminal. Again small details." mordret replied
Morgan snorted coldly.
Despite the urgency in Hero's voice, Scholar hesitated and remained silent.
"Why are you not answering? Speak!"
The older slave sighed again and slowly, as though against his will, answered. Sunny was waiting for this moment for a while now.
"We'll just have to… make the boy bleed. Drag him down the path, then leave him there as bait and go up instead. His sacrifice will save our lives."
'Right on time.'
If Sunny wasn't mad — and scared witless, of course — he would have smiled. His judgment, it seems, was eerily on point. Affirmation was always nice… but not in the situation where being right also meant potentially being used as monster bait.
He remembered the words Scholar had spoken back when Shifty was campaigning to have Sunny killed — "Don't be too hasty, my friend. The boy might prove useful later on." These words, which had sounded benevolent then, now turned out to hide a much more sinister meaning.
"Words that can only be muttered by warmongering mongrels!" Noctis said, his voice final.
'What a bastard!'
Now it all depended on whether or not Hero would decide to follow through with Scholar's plan.
"Why are you calling a warmonger a hero? Truly despicable creatures they are, don't worry sunny I will help you overcome this propaganda that you made for those warmongers!" Mordret declared. "Such monsters don't deserve to be called heroes."
Before sunny could say anything Morgan did, "ironic coming from you, monster."
The young soldier blinked, astonished.
"What do you mean, make him bleed?"
Scholar shook his head.
"It's simple, really. If the monster knows where we are going, we have no choice but to abandon our plans to reach the mountain pass and go over the peak of the mountain instead. If the monster is following the scent of blood, we have to use one of us as bait to mislead it."
Athena snorted, "just use the scholar as the bait. He seems to be more exhausted and will be more of an annoyance." From her years on the forgotten shore, she learnt alot and such bastards weren't good as parts of a cohort.
He paused.
"Only by leaving a bleeding man further down the path can we reliably avoid the pursuit no matter how it is tracking us."
"Warmonger!"
"Truly despicable!"
"Utterly senseless, like all the slaughter they commit."
"Shameless creatures"
Hero stood motionless, his eyes jumping between Scholar and Sunny. After a few seconds, he asked:
"How can you bring yourself to propose something so vile?"
"Even that Hero reconizes how appalling such ideas are."
"He's most likely a spy, because no way a Warmonger is capable of common sense!"
Seishan snorted in amusement.
The older slave masterfully pretended to look aggrieved and somber.
"Of course, it pains me! But if we do nothing, all three of us will die. This way, at least, the boy's death will save two lives. The gods will reward him for his sacrifice!"
"Valor this, glory that yet unable to fight for it! Those creatures are truly undeniably disgusting!"
'Gee, what a silver tongue. I'm almost convinced myself.'
"You need to keep yourself together and not fall for this creatures words and of any warmonger for that matter..." mordret told sunny
The young soldier opened his mouth, then closed it again, hesitating.
Sunny was silently watching the other two survivors, measuring his chances of coming on top in a fight. Scholar was already halfway to being a corpse, so overpowering him would not be a problem. Hero, however… Hero presented an obstacle.