Sunday Storytime: 001 (Patreon)

Snow cut like a swarm of bitter little knives on all those open wounds. The wind was howling at the moon and trying its hardest to hurl them down to the jagged rocks below, but they were nothing if not stubborn.

One tortured, bloody footprint after another, each slower than the one that came before it, dragging forward into the harsh night. They had to get off these mountains and back to the city somehow, but their pursuers couldn't be far away by now...

Letting out a heavy, strained sigh, one of their knees buckles from the pain, almost causing them to slip and fall from the path. Leaning back against the rocks for balance, they wipe their blood-soaked eyes and peer back down the mountain. Even with it being late into the night, the moonlight danced across the snowy peak, bathing everything in its glow. It was right around that time that they heard it.

Those damn dogs and their diligent, single minded barking.

There was no time to lose. Summoning all their will to push through the pain, they regained their balance and continued to ascend the mountain path.

It couldn't have been much longer when the sound of people yelling started to cut through the blustering wind. At this rate, those bastards would catch up and finish what they had started. And all over that stupid little stone. "Was it really worth all this?" they thought between painful, rasping breaths.

Daring a moment to look back once again, they accidentally slip on the icy surface, landing hard on their side before rapidly sliding down towards the edge. With a desperate lunge of their arm, they reach out, only to grasp at mocking flakes of snow and wisps of wind. Now plummeting towards a snowy ledge below, a bramble of branches sticking outward rushes into view. Flailing wildly for something to grab, they smash into and through most of the branches, but not before managing to get a hold of one.

The ledge isn't much further below now

CONTINUED AT 002