As Vera's eyes fixated on the horizon, it slowly hovered down. To the vast and open expanse that separated the peaks from the ground. Her eyes dwindled as she staggered back. Falling while her nails dug into the ground beneath her, to make sure it doesn't leave her.
Watcing, Naren giggled: "Really? Even after seeing how beautiful it is?"
Naren looked down at the view before them and then at the terrified Vera before him. Suddenly, his eyes glimmered in a devilish and impure manner. Transluscent beads of sweat forming along his forehead as an impish smile grew on his lips.
A shadow passed overhead them. But Naren paid it no interest. He had something more fun in mind. Slowly he lurked, edging closer to Vera, trying his best to hold his laughter in:
"Hey...pftt...wanna see something cool?"
Vera's eyes grew narrow as she could already tell what terrible thing Naren had in his mind.
"D-do not come closer, Naren."
"Come on shrimpy. It's just a little height."
Vera crawled backwards, shaking her head violently. She kicked her feet in the air trying to push back Naren.
"Get away this instant! Now you wretch!"
Just then, a shadow swooped down and snatched Naren. Suddenly, Vera was meters below him. Matter of fact, the whole world was suddenly far below him.
Naren shook his head, making sure he wasn't seeing things: "Huh?"
A lean almost skeletal pair of legs grabbed onto Naren's collar, claws tangling in his scarf as it ended up covering his eyes. Trying to shake free mid air and ruffling with his scarf, golden eyes peered through an opening in his scarf to see a cat-like body easily as large as a boulder carrying him through the land.
A majestic layering of feathers flapping in the wind as the creature screeched a bird-like cry.
"Shrimpy...What is this?"
The little girl was left completely overwhelmed. Not even noticing her nails still digging in the dirt. Her eyes shuddered as she wondered if what she saw was right. But there was no lying about what flew overhead.
The head of an eagle bowed slightly to Vera, wings flapping in constance.
A griffin.
"I've been saved from that fool..."
"Shrimpy...Shrimpy!"
Vera blinked before realizing just what kind of situation she was in. Suddenly, the sweat forming along her brows became more porminant as her face dropped.
Shooting up, she began running after the winged beast on foot while shouting:
"Eep Naren!...How-How on earth will you get down?!"
TINK.
She reached the edge.
Stopping herself just short of the fall off as a pebble slipped across the edge in her stead. One image flowed through her mind: Her mother falling through the earth.
She hadn't even seen the drop itself, but her heart was already pounding. Her entire body stiff as a rock by the thought of an all consuming void below her.
"W-what can I do now?"
Her voice trembled as her breathing grew haggard.
"S-surely I must wait for Naren...Right. Naren will know-"
A stray piece of cloth wound up falling atop her head. A ragged crimson scarf. Now with a sizable tear from the Griffin's claw.
Vera pulled the scarf over her head, taking a couple deep heavy breaths to calm herself down as she squatted down, hugging her knees.
"Why am I even here...?"
She stopped herself.
'What if he hears. What if he stops helping me.'
Vera stood, unaware of her previous limp that had disappeared. Instead she was more focused on what exactly she wanted to do. Why she had come this far?
Though she knew one thing. As her mother had taughter her...She had to be an adult.
The thought quietly planted itself in her head as Vera clenched her fists, kicking the ground.
TINK
She titled her head, kicking another pebble off the edge.
TINK
Not even a split-second went before the pebble hit something.
Crawling to the edge, Vera's eyes were only partly open. Sweat dripping from her face. Maybe from the heat, maybe from her fear. But as her eyes finally peered beyond the edge she saw it.
A stone staircase carved into the mountain-side. Protected on both sides by a low wall, reaching all the way to the bottom.
Even still, the view of the bottom was still there, albeit covered slightly by the low wall.
Vera stood, shaking. Wrapping the blood-red scarf around her body. Loosely hanging off, showcasing just how small Vera truly was.
With a shaky breath, she took a step onto the stairs, hugging the wall.
"Vera you must g-grow up..."
———————————————————
With one hand hanging limp, Naren was flailing around under the griffin.
"My scarf! Listen to me chicken. We can work out a deal. Just gimme my scarf..."
The griffin screeched in response as it dove down.
Naren's face stretching in the process.
"Screw the deal! You're just talking food!"
The dim lights of the twilight slowly disappeared as the last rays of sun glistening through the drowned sky faded. What remained was as close to pure darkness the world could get.
Naren blinked several times as he finally gave up fighting the griffin. Holding out his good hand in front of him, wiggling his fingers.
"Wow it's dark...So dark that..."
He yawned, trying to make out as best what was happening in the ground below. Half squinting it was next to impossible save for a couple lights that flickered.
From little caves and caverns within each finger-like peak, beasts arose. Some had their own light source like glowing sacs hanging from their heads. One even looked like a giant light pole — a ridiculously long neck with eyes that glowed like a biological flashlight.
Naren watched, but more so listened, as the glowing stags of a creature repeatedly headbutted while howling in the darkness. Rising on it's hindlegs, it dug its claws into its kin, blood splotches disrupting the glow if its antlers.
The other antler sank deep into the aggressors abdomen, gnawing it's guts.
Until the glow flickered out. But before long, the howls also dwindled as an ember flickered on the ground, swallowing the victor into a crackling husk.
Naren grimaced imagining the fight.
"Now that I think about it, there's a nice breeze, quiet ride, great service. What's not to love."
His good hand around his body as his words let out a wisp of grey mist.
There was no nice breeze. What was once a blistering hot day was now freezing to such an abnormal degree.
Shivering, he also began hearing a noise, from deep within the ground below.
There was no quiet ride either.
The ground rumbled, sending beasts into frenzy, then it cracked open.
A massive column of segmented flesh swallowed two feuding creatures whole, before continuing it's upward ascension.
A massive tube of translucent flesh pulsed as it rose. It's body folding in and out like a piston working through the ground, tree thick veins breathing through it's skin along with pulsating bulges under its skin of undigested food.
Naren's face fell as his mouth hung open watching the massive maw, filled with hundreds of rows of bristle like teeth enter his range of vision.
"You're kidding."
Fortunately for him, he was currently on a very fast flying creature. Unfortunately for him, the griffin decided to shed some weight as it escaped it's predator. Dropping him right into the open mouth of the hideous beast.
Naren watched as the griffin flew off. Flipping him off with his only good hand.
"Fuck you."
He turned mid-air, the corner of his lips curled up as his face scrunched.
"Can't you even follow proper dental hygiene?"
Naren's eyes scattered trying to find a way out. But the darkness really narrowed his options. Without any light source, there were no reflections.
Thankfully, he wasn't falling from thousands of meters like before, and he was also alone this time, so any reflection would do as long as he could find it fast, before he picked up speed.
His eyes narrowed on a flickering ember down in the ground below. Then it went back to the darkness of the flesh wall.
'Please be shiny. Please be shiny. Please...'
Naren twisted midair, landing and then quickly jumping off the oversized worm before it could clamp its mouth shut. Shuddering a little about the contact he made.
As he fell side by side to the wall of flesh, he focused his attention on the ground, near the flickering ember. And just like he thought, a shiny glint bounced off the slimy creature's skin.
'Bingo!'
Bare feet tried stepping out of the skin of the fleshy abomination, but instead the falling momentum made Naren tumble a bit. Rolling, until he finally came to a stop in front of the corpse of a some beast.
The ground freezing to the touch, Naren hopped up, shivering. Holding himself in his only good arm.
"Is this...shoulder...dislocated? It hurts...so damn..."
His teeth chattered as he tried his shoulder back into place. Instead sending a wave of pain down his arm causing him to grimace as he breathed heavily through his teeth.
Just then, a shrilling laughter could be heard coming from the darkness surrounding them. Stuck in between several rising pillars of mountains, there weren't many places it could be coming from. But somehow, it echoed through the pillars, betraying the true location.
Along with it, came the grating of stone, the slight dragging that only Naren could pick up on.
Naren's face shifted as he realized what the noises were.
The laughter of children. Followed by the movement of stone, now getting more and more pronounced.
The echo didn't betray the location, instead, the giggling was surrounding them. Surrounding the dim embers close to fizzling out.
Then, something fell out of the shadow, laying there, still as a tree. Making no noise. A child, built from stone, with a wide grin etched onto his face. Except it wasn't human. The face wanted to be human but it wasn't, the features were almost right, but wrong.
The stone statue laid on the ground, facing Naren with it's dead beady eyes. Laughter continuing, but it's mouth stayed in a petrified grin. Barely visible with the embers of the flame.
Then it fizzled out.