Redux: Lineage

I took a cursory glance at one of the Nekomata as I passed by, merely examining more of their clothing and pouches, before noticing something. The Nekomata my eyes landed on had two tails. I moved over to it, using the hilt of my sword to smash open the ice around it and look at the tails. They were narrow, lacking in a lot of fur, unlike normal Nekomata, and had a strange spike at the end of them, also something the usual kitty-cat-folk lacked.

"Zane, smash open another one of them and check for two tails," I said, the larger man doing as asked.

"Aren't we gonna try and thaw them out?" Annerose asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"No point," I shrugged. "They're all dead."

"But... aren't they just frozen?" she asked.

"Yup. And since they're frozen, they can't breathe," I said, smashing the rest of the ice off with my sword and beginning to examine the rigid body. "And since they can't breathe, they suffocate to death within a matter of minutes."

"Do they... do they feel it?" she questioned, looking at the Nekomata that was cowering in fear.

"I'd imagine so," I nodded. "If you're still conscious when you're frozen, it's not like your body stops working. You can't breathe and can't move, so you just suffocate and pass out, your brain becomes oxygen starved, and you die."

"That's horrible," Anne said in a terrified manner.

"There are worse ways to go. Drowning and suffocation are usually bad because you panic, but after you pass out, it's good and peaceful," I said, looking through the pouches on the Nekomata, a female's, belt and pulling out small, blue crystals. "I feel like the worst way to go would be getting set on fire."

"That one does indeed haunt me, too," Zane said, punching through the ice on one of the Nekomata and examining the spike-tipped two tails of them. "Yeah, this one's got two tails, as well."

"That's not right," I said, rolling the Nekomata I was handling over and noticing something else: the teeth.

The usual two fangs the Nekomata had as their incisors were missing. Not pulled out, literally the fangs just weren't there. Instead, the fangs were jutting up from the bottom of their jaws, much like a vampire fish. I got to my feet and stepped back, looking at the two uncovered corpses with sheer confusion.

"Something wrong?" Grael asked.

"These Nekomata aren't normal," I pointed out, using my middle finger to point at the one I'd pulled out of the ice. "The teeth are wrong, the tails are wrong, and the fur's wrong in some places too."

"Different breed?" Grael suggested.

"The only difference in breeds you get is skin colour and tail bushiness," I said with a shake of my head. "You get black Nekomata and you get white Nekomata with everything in between, colour-wise. You don't get ones with misplaced fangs, two tails, and barbs in them."

"So what are these things?" Annerose asked. "Some kind of experiment?"

"Maybe..." I said, pushing myself back to my feet and looking at the corridor. "We're not gonna find out standing around here."

"Agreed," Zane said, taking point once again and moving forwards.

The room only served to get colder as we got further away from the entrance, so it was no surprise that it dropped into minus numbers once we left the first chamber. Trying to keep my mind off the cold, I looked around at the scene before us. More of the frozen Nekomata littered the place, some clinging to walls, others lying on the floor, and even a few of them had been frozen in mid-sprint.

"What are you thinking, Richter?" Grael asked me, noticing the deducing I was doing.

"I think... I think they were caught in an explosion," I began. "And I think they knew it was coming."

"What makes you say that?" he asked.

"Look at the direction the ice has formed in," I said, pointing at one of the Nekomata. "Its completely smooth facing further into the fortress, but jagged and spikey towards the entrance. It means the initial impact hit them in the back. And look at the way some of them are sitting."

I pointed at two of them, both embracing one another as tightly as they could, both having the same 'blast' marks as the others.

"I've read about a lot of people being in situations like this, where they know they're going to die, and you see a lot of different reactions," I explained. "You get those that never give up hope of escape, the runners, those that let the grief and fear overwhelm them, the ones curled up on the floor, and those that use their last moments to share their love with one another."

I felt a small lump appear in my throat as I visualised what it must have been like to be any of these people. Death is a terrifying concept, no matter who you are, but there are preferred ways to meet it. If I was to die in any way, I'd want it to be a sword, a spike, or anything through the skull in battle, killing me instantly as soon as it hit. I'd hate to drown, I'd hate to burn alive...

And I'd hate to have to see my death approaching and knowing there was nothing to do about it.

"Hey," Grael said, rubbing his warm shoulder against me as he sensed the change in my emotion. "You're alright. You're alive."

"Yeah," I nodded with a heavy sigh. "I am."

"Do you think its safe to keep going in?" Annerose asked.

"Let's find out," I said, steeling myself, calming my nerves, and pushing forward.

As we went, there were more and more frozen corpses, numbering in the hundreds at this point, some wearing armour and clutching weapons. Not having them by their sides... but actually holding them out in offensive gestures, some of the warriors even appearing to be in mid-strike.

"Oh, that's not a good sign," I sighed, looking at one Nekomata clearly in the middle of swinging their shield.

"What?" Zane asked. "What's wrong?"

"These guys were fighting when the explosion happened," I said, gripping my sword tightly and looking around the area. "So if everything got frozen when the explosion went off-"

"-where are there opponents?" Zane finished off, gathering us all closer together and pushing forward. "Keep quiet and keep an ear out. I do not like this."

We pushed further into the fortress, coming to frozen, icy stairs that went down into the depths. After an agreement between us all, we forged on, descending the dangerous stairs and being careful not to slip and break our necks. There were a good number of Nekomata on the stairs as well, but their 'blast' marks were facing in different directions.

"The explosion was funnelled through all the tunnels," I said, noting the change in direction of the marks with the angle of the stairs. "It chased them all the way up this staircase."

"What the hell happened here then?" Zane asked.

"I wanna know as much as you do, buddy, believe me," I nodded, our feet touching down on a central chamber with something nobody was expecting to see: a portal.

It was a tear in the fabric of reality, swirling and pulsing with magic as cold air continued to pour through it, snow billowing in from what looked like a mountainside. It was cold and windy in here, reminiscent of the blizzard we'd face on the way in, but nowhere near as severe.

"Where do you think this goes to?" Grael asked, his fur allowing him to approach the portal without fear of freezing.

"If I had to guess... I'd say the Frozen North," I answered. "Past Winter's Maw... probably near the polar regions."

"Why would anyone open a portal there?" Annerose asked.

"No idea... but there is something wrong with it..." I said, glaring at the tear.

"What's that?"

"There's no caster to maintain the spell, and it isn't hooked up to any kind of crystal to keep it going," I said. "Portals need someone keeping them open and focused on the destination, or else they close. That's a fact."

"So... what... you think its not a portal?" Zane asked, as confused as I was.

"It's not a portal in the way they work here... but what is here?" I asked.

"What are you getting at?" Anne barked.

"It's a magical portal that doesn't conform to the rules of our... world. In an ancient ruin filled to the brim of Nekomata that don't exist in our... world. See what I'm getting at here?" I asked.

"You... you think it's a portal to another realm?" Annerose asked in disbelief. "That's not possible."

"Why not?" I questioned. "We all know the Goddesses disappeared thousands of years ago and went to another world... who can say we're not looking at it right now?"

"That... that seems like a bit far-fetched to be our first guess," Grael stated, as nervous and as uncomfortable as me.

"So then let's put the theory to the test," I said, pointing the tip of my sword at the portal. "Let's go through it."

"Are you insane?!" Grael exclaimed. "Who knows what could happen?!"

"Pretty sure someone said the same thing to the guy that went on to create ice-skating, Grael," I said with a determined glare. "Whether its magic, cooking, metalworking, swimming, or diving... there's always gotta be that one idiot that tries it first."

I began to walk towards the portal, feeling the biting chill of the wind coming through it, seeing more snow pile onto the ground around it, before Grael called out to me.

"This is a bad idea!"

"Have you met me?" I asked with a laugh. "I'm full of bad ideas."

And with that, I put a hand through the portal, immediately feeling the stinging cold on my finger tips as I pushed more and more of my body through it. It was an abhorrent feeling, like my entire body was being pulled apart without pain, but still having the sensation of organs and muscle tissue being torn like parchment. It made me want to vomit and cry at the same time, but still I kept pushing.

Before I knew it, I was through the portal and standing on a frozen mountain that overlooked a city with an enormous statue of what looked like a dragon, half-concealed in a cloud of snow... and by my feet were the corpses of so many Nekomata. Their bodies were frozen, not coated in ice like the others, but covered in snow. They hadn't begun decomposing, but in weather like this, that wasn't going to give me a time of death.

Sellaweyr had said the noises had only been happening for a few days, so I imagined the killings, the portal, and the explosion that froze the strange Nekomata hadn't happened too long ago. I looked at the bodies once more, seeing actual injuries on them. Axe marks, sword slashes, and arrow puncture points were all over the place. They'd been murdered, and since most of the injuries were in the back, it had been done while they were fleeing.

The Nekomata held no weapons nor did they have any sheaths, scabbards, or holding straps designed to carry weapons anywhere on their person, nor were they dressed in armour or holding any kind of magical weaponry. So from what I could see here... these were unarmoured, unarmed civilians attempting to run away who were mercilessly slain by a heavily-armoured force that gave chase. Those that didn't make it through the portal were murdered here, while those that escaped their pursuers were killed by the ice explosion.

What the hell was going on here?

I turned around to the others, seeing them standing by the portal with apprehensive looks. I offered them a smile and a chuckle, gesturing for them to follow me in.

"Come on in, the water's fine," I said, being jovial about the freezing cold before disaster struck.

With a sound akin to the tearing of fabric, the portal slammed itself closed, disappearing immediately without any time to even see it do so. Alarm shot through my, sheer panic rocketing head to toe as I realised what had just happened. It was made even worse my the splitting pain in my lower leg that was caused by a steel-head arrow puncturing it, fired from a ridge atop the mountain.

I was then violently grabbed from behind, flipped over and slammed onto my back, the wind being knocked out of me instantly as my sword went tumbling away. Before I could even clear the snow from my vision, I felt the cold steel of a knife being placed to my throat and the sound of a bowstring being drawn once more.

"Signal the commander," I heard a female voice say. "We've found something interesting."

"You think... it killed them all?" another woman asked.

"I know not," she said, digging the knife deeper into my neck. "But I'm eager to find out."

With that, she cocked her hand back and slammed the hilt of her knife into my temple, knocking me out instantly with a stab of pain and an ocean of blackness.