Cold.
Everywhere was cold.
Like the rolling winds of a valley the nocturnal cold kept on coming and going, sometimes being mild, other times being like lots of knives stabing you through your clothes without being capable of doing anything.
Among the white blanket of snow in which the mountain was covered, walking the frosted path barefeet, a young man of no more than fifteen years of age kept on track, going as fast as the enviroment and his own weakened body allowed him.
His delicate features still showed the inocent youth that he had once, but the same couldn't be said about his deep, scarlet eye, as he had seen the worst of the worst and had given up on trying to ignore that ugliness. His dark, luscious hair beated and moved against his face from the constant winds.
Frostbite could already be seen on his feet as well as his hands, overall on his fingers.
He was trembling from the cold enviroment as well as from the wind, each breath that he took was labored , like trying to breathe dry air, but this one being cold.
Each time he breathed out, vapor clouds scaped his lips and nose. His eyes showed a tiredness like no other, wanting to rest, to let go and embrace sleep, but a light of stuborness kept him from doing it.
A sudden growl resounded around the boy making him stop momentarily, only for him to discover that it came from. His stomach sounding like the roar of a beast, from the hours he had gone without food.
Taking a second to recuperate his bearings he continued on his trek.
But he couldn't continue like this, at least, not for long.
All it took were a few steps to suddenly fall to his knees. His legs not capable of continuing.
Embracing himself into a fetal position, the boy trembled, but no one appeared.
At that, the boy started to close his eyes, little by little, feeling sleep calling to him.
As well as death.
Mere moments before he closed his eyes he saw a nebulous figure appear from among the chilling winds.
The last image that the boy saw was the darkness habitating the eyes of a devilish mask.
And with that, he fell asleep.
....
Warm.
Everywhere was warm.
Moving under the covers, the boy shifted in his sleep, having survived another ordeal, and warming himself up near the lit fire, burning with dried wood as well as dried leaves.
It didn't take long for the young man to open his eyes.
Moving the furred covers aside, the boy rubbed his eyes, trying to chase away the last dregs of sleepiness.
Once he did, still reacting slow from the well deserved rest, he noticed the fire in front of him, getting near it, rubbing his hands to put them near the fire and feel its warmth.
Still not reacting, the boy noticed the rocky floor on which he was seating.
Furrowing his brows he looked around himself. It was when he saw the rocky walls, that realization started to settle in, which gave way to panic, which in turn gave way to fear.
Remembering the figure that he saw before losing consciousness that fear turned into terror.
The kind of terror that prey would feel when presented face to face with their natural predator.
Looking around carefully, the boy tried to calm himself down, which didn't go as he expected scaring himself more with dark thoughts.
Finally taking a deep breath he felt the panic subside a little, as such, he continued taking deep breathes and exhaling later until the terror had finally, even if not comepletely, settled down.
Standing up from his sitting position the boy looked around himself trying to spot an exit, without sucess.
What surrounded him was a deep darkness that when looked at for too long made one feel as if it was staring back at you, an oppressive stare that made one despair from the weight of its creepiness and maliciousness.
Feeling cold sweat starting to appear the boy shook his head with force, trying to rid his still damaged mind from those kind of thoughts.
Regaining composure, or, as much as one could in a situation like this one, the boy crouched towards the fire and took hold of a stick with one end still on fire and held it for a moment in his hands.
It made him feel better at least, to have some form of light with him.
Looking once more around himself, the boy took the furred blanket and tossed it over his shoulders. Done with that, he took one of the two ways at random and marched on towards the darkness with torch in hand.
....
Once you were surrounded by nothing but darkness, only having the visibility that the torch you carried projected around you, would make even the bravest of souls tremble and try to find the exit to such a kind of place the sooner the better.
But that was not the case with the young man covered in furs and with a burning stick in hand.
Little by little the stick continued to burn itself, leaving less and less of the stick still intact so that it could continue to burn.
The boy had his nerves on edge, for he could only hear the distant drops of water against either rock, or another source of water, his feet tapping against the ground, and the stick he was holding crackling from the fire.
But, fortunately for the boy, he finally found a place in which there was no more darkness.
Coming into a rocky clearing covered entirely by moss and grass, with a giant lake in the center of it, with a vast hole in the roof of the cave from which moonlight streamed in, like music would into the ears of people, made the young man somewhat relax, but not entirely.
Seeing the crystal clear water reflecting the light coming from the moon made the boy swallow his own spit, which made him realize that he was parched, and in urgent need of water.
Breaking into a kind of sprint he got near the lakeshore not before imapling the burning stick into the earthen ground so that it wouldn't get wet, the young man kneeled and started to scoop water with both hands, drinking greedily the nectar that was water.
Its freshness slid down the dry throat, burning it from being left without water for some time, but he didn't care, he just wanted to satiate himself from the pain.
He drinked and drinked until he stopped, taking short but deep breaths.
Finally, his thirst was no more.
Using his forearm he dried his wet lips and taking the burning stick again he stood up.
Now that he was calmer he could finally start to think, even if little, a little more logically.
That is, until he felt his hand suddenly to hot, dropping the burning stick, while holding his burned hand and blowing on the affected part.
Seeing and feeling that it wasn't working he put his hand into the water once again, now feeling the pain go away, but leaving behind a sting and a little bit scarred hand.
Finally, after a few more seconds, he moved his hand out of the water looking at his hand now all red with damaged parts.
Looking down he saw as well the previously burning stick now under the water and with no fire on it.
Letting out an annoyed groan, the young man started to search around for any more sticks, surprisingly finding some.
Along with it he took some moss from the walls with him as well as few rocks.
Getting against the rocky wall he put down everything he was carrying, good thing that what he was wearing under the fur coat had a few pockets, and took hold of two rocks, one in each hand and started to smash them together.
He hit one against the other again, and again, and again, and again. He did it until on of them suddenly broke from the repeated hits.
Groaning he took another rock with his free hand, this one of nearly the same size as the one on his other hand, and started to hit one with the other but on a more diagonal way, while having a patch of dried moss under the rocks.
He persevered on until suddenly, in one of the hits between the rocks, a tiny spark appeared from the continuous hits.
Suddenly filled with happiness from such a simple thing, the young man started to strike them with renewed vigor and even more diagonally until several sparks started appearing while some of them fell on the dried moss, making it catch on fire.
Suddenly burning, the boy took one of the sticks he was previously carrying and put one of its ends against the now burning moss.
He waited a few moments until the stick caught fire as well.
Happy with this, the boy took the stick while throwing some dirt onto the burning moss to extinguish it.
Finally with another self made torch, if it could even be called that, the boy continued on through another opening on the wall diferent from the one he had come out from previously.
....
Having walked for what felt like hours the young man stopped tiredly to rest.
Sitting down as well as putting down the burning stick, the boy took hold of the edges of the furred blanket and tried to wrap himself even more than he already was, as if it made him feel safe and secure.
His stomach grumbled in pain, making the young man hold it, with one hand, feeling the emptiness that was gnawing at him.
Letting out a sigh, the boy took the stick once more, standinh up to continue on his treck.
....
It might have been a few hours, or a few minutes, time didn't matter anymore to be honest, but the suddenly heard not too far away from him the sound of something scurrying around the ground, making little sounds as if lots of tiny feet were walking all at the same time.
That made the boy stop, making a sudden shiver run down his spine.
He didn't know what it was, but he was certain of one thing, that wasn't the kind of sound that a human made, which him panic.
Now, taking slow steps, trying to make no sound at all, the boy continued on, trying to be as silent as possible, not knowing what was waiting for him, dreading finding it out.
He marched on until he came across a sudden curve to the left on the rocky passage that he was traversing.
Flattening himself against the wall of the cave, he inched closer to the edge of the curve, taking a quick look further down.
What he saw made his hair stand on end, with cold sweat starting to accumulate.
Before him, another big clearing, but this one, without any kind of green, only white.
Moonlight streaming down from another hole in the roof of the cave gave way to the slippery horror that had made that sound some time ago.
Hanging from the bit of ceiling that still was rock, cocooned bodies hanged, enveloped in fine-looking, white silky thread, leaving no rome for movement.
Along the walls and floor, interconected by more of the same white thread more bodies as well as lots of big, chitinous armored, eight-legged creatures, walking along webs.
Spiders.
Giant spiders.
All of them at the height of two meters, numbering in the hundreds, along with a much bigger of at least thirty meters of height.
The mother and its children, to not talk of the thousands of eggs loitering the ground.
The sight made the boys skin crawl, not because of the beings themeselves, even if part of the fear WAS because of them, but because of the proportions and the numbers that made up the beings he was looking at.
He couldn't help but feel despair at the sight before him, feeling a new pit form in his stomach, apart from the hunger.
He started to despair more and more when he felt the heat of the fire on his hands, once more.
Letting go of the stick, he cradled his once more, injured hand. Looking deeply at the burning stick, the spark of an idea manifested in his mind.
Taking a peek at the spider nest again, the boy noticed that it wasn't just the form of humanoid corpses enveloped in thread the only kind of cadavers that were around.
There were spider corpses too, some looking old, those being the bones resembling spiders, and some looking newer, true corpses that still oozing blood.
It seemed that this spiders feasted on their own, at least on the weak ones.
Seeing the rusted marks of blood as well as the liquid one, his idea finally formed, which gave way to a plan.
Taking notice of the burned through stone, where some of the rusted marks of blood where, the boy concluded that either the blood from the spiders was acidic, or the saliva was.
He was counting with the former.
Taking the burning stick, he placed it deeper into the tunnel, so that the light wouldn't alert the arachnid monstrositys that there was someone there.
Being as stealthy as possible, the young man took steps towards the bony remains of one of the spiders closer to the entrance to the nest.
Crouching low he got as near as possible before taking hold of two of the pointy legs and mounted them, covering them and himself with the big furred blanket to muffle the noise lf what he was going to do.
Taking one of the sharp stones that he used for the previous burning stick, he started to smash against one of the legs, chipping at it and craking it until it broke, doing the same thing with the second leg, finally getting two pieces of sharp bone which the boy instantly pocketed.
Taking a look outside of his furred coat, the boy saw nothing, assuming that the coast was clear when suddenly, the chitinous leg of an spider appeared before him, making him understand that one of the arachnids was on top of him.
Taking back out again both sharp bones which he had already put in his pockets, the boy waited.
The spider didn't seem to be in a hurry,which made the wait even more tense.
When he was starting to panic the leg disappeared just as it had appeared.
Letting out a sigh of relief the boy was going to stand up when the face of the monster appeared this time in front of tiny space left for the boy to look outside.
Seeing the sudden appereance of the spider made the boy panic, which gave way to him suddenly stabbing with both bones against the bigger eyes of the spider.
Feeling little resistance, both bones started to go deep until even a the boys hands got inside the spiders head.
Ironically, it was the spider the one who wasn't given time to react before it died, with its brain being punctured by the bones of one of its dead kin, maybe one of the ones it had eaten. Poetic, if anything.
Feeling the adrenalina still through him the boy rolled forward before he felt something heavy falling down behind him.
Taking deep breaths, the boy looked at what he had just done. Before he could feel any kind of thing for the death of something far stronger than himself, he heard the ticks and tacks that spiders of this size made coming towards where he was.
Panicking, the boy continued deeper into the nest, towards one of the recently dead corpses that was still oozing blood from its wounds.
Getting behind the corpse, the boy made sure that no more spiders where around before getting all the dry moss along with the stones and the rest of the sticks out in the open.
Taking a few threads that were lying around the floor he stacked a few sticks against each other, before putting one of the sharp bones on, and wrapping everything tightly, making sure of doing a tight knot.
Doing the same with the other bone, he put both makeshift weapons inside the inner pockets of his robe, only to take the dry moss and the stones into his hands, they were a little bloody still, but thought to himself that it wasn't anything much.
Drowning the moss a little in the pungent blood, the boy started to make a way of blood through the ground that passed through a lot of web.
He continued like that, drawing on the ground as well as any kind of web he came across, doing a full circle around the whole nest, taking his time to make sure that there was sufficient blood from all the corpses that were strewn around, the boy came back to the spider that he had killed previously.
Being done with that he took out both stones, a little bloody from holding them with his hands he positioned himself and striked one against the other to create sparks.
But nothing came out.
That alone alarmed the boy, which made him strike them again and again, each time with more desperation.
That's when he heard another spider coming where he was. Taking cover behind the body he dropped both stones and started to dry his hands on the furred coat he was wearing as fast as he could.
Hearing the spider getting near the corpse, the young man started to move around it, avoiding the spider that had come.
It wasn't screaming or giving the alarm as the boy thought, maybe this new spider thought that its now dead compatriot had died of natural causes.
Keeping on moving around the body, the boy started to get even more nervous when he suddenly came to a realization.
The spider might be feeling, for as faint as they were, the vibrations that the boy was making by moving around.
Not having time for this the boy looked around the ground, searching for dry stones.
Fortunately, the ground was full of tiny and large stones, maybe from the ones that fell through the giant hole in the ceiling, it didn't really matter.
Taking hold of two stones he rolled and jumped over the line of blood drawn on the ground and webs, taking the attention from the prowling spider which, this time, it emited a screech calling for the intruder, but it was too slow and too late already.
Striking both stones, sparks appeared from the hit which directly onto the blood, igniting it.
Suddenly, the fire spread as if it was fed gasoline and alcohol, all at the same time.
The bodys from which the blood was used caught on fire, spreading the flames even more.
It looked like the plan worked out wonderfully.
Taking his chance, the boy started to scalate the webbed walls until he got to the edge where the giant hole started.
That's when he took out both bone weapons that he made and started to climb the little stretch of wall that conected the exterior with the nest.
Hearing the screams and screeches of the spiders the young man climbed with even more fervor only to feel a suddeb pain on his stomach.
Looking down he saw the pointy end of an spider leg coming out from his stomach.
Suddenly feeling blood in his mouth, they boh puked a mouthful of blood.
Looking behind himself he saw the giant spider burning but looking at him, as if he was nothing.
Feeling the weight of the look from the spider made something snap inside the boy.
After all that he had suffered and was suffering even now, after everything, how dared this spider, this insect, this THING, look at him as if he was nothing.
Suddenly finding strength from seemingly nowhere, the boy took one of the weapons and drenched it in the blood that was coming from his still punctured stomach, aimed, and threw the makeshift weapon at one of the smaller eyes of the giant spider, catching on fire on the way before finding its mark.
That must have hurt really bad, because the spider suddenly let go of him and started to scream as if it was posessed.
"Burn and suffer, you wretched creature."
Saying words of spite towards the now trashing thirty meter tall spider, he turnes around and continued climbing to the surface where he came face to face with very tall trees surrounding the giant hole.
Feeling the previous strength leave his body, the boy fell onto the grassy ground, feeling his blood, warmth and life leave him.
Looking ahead he saw a cliff not to far away.
He started to crawl, leaving behind a blood trail. He persevered on until he got to the near edge of the cliff and turned with his face towards the clear sky filled to the breem with white dots, everywhere one looked, full to the breem with stars.
Looking at it, the young man felt a silent tear leave his left eye and roll down his cheek, looking up to the cosmos on a forming pool of his own blood.
"Why?"
The boy seemingly asked to nothingness, not expecting to recieve an answer.
"It could be because of whatever [Fate] had in store for you, maybe it is for a true and glorious purpose, or it could be for the sick entertainment of another."
Hearing a sudden voice, the boy turned his head right slowly, until he took in the full figure of who has just talked.
Once again, he came face to face with the nebulous entity with the devilish mask, with a worned out mantle that still had some of its glorious past still etched on it, drapped over the shoulders of said entity, hiding its body.
Looking intently at the tall being, the boy asked again:
"Why?"
"Haven't I just answered you-."
But the nebulous devil stopped his sentence.
It was small at first, but then it became full blown laughter coming from that dark devil.
"Ahahahahahahah..."
It laughed to its heart content and stopped shortly after.
"So that's what you mean."
The boy looked at the entity with clouded eyes and dull senses that got weaker by the second.
"Well then, hear well, for I will say it only once, Noah..."
Darkness.
Everything suddenly became darkness, and the boy fell asleep.