"You're making fire?"
She could tell he was demanding an answer from her, as if whatever she said was incorrect. He might not have any way to express emotions, but his narrow eyes were pretty expressive in a way.
Esarah's hands remained above the soon-to-be bonfire, her brow raised skeptically as she answered him.
"Yes? Is there something wrong with that?"
"What isn't wrong? We're in the mouth of a whale".
A beat of silence.
"What?"
The mouth of a whale? Earlier, whenever she had to find a resting place, she usually chose a shallow cave such as this one, and in reality, they didn't look different from this one either, so what was the difference?
"The mouth of a whale? Could you tell me about it?"
The way of his words got her curious.
What did he know that she didn't?
"We're resting in a giant's mouth, if you tickle with its senses, then these walls around us will claim our bodies together". He'd revealed.
"I've done this since I was fourteen, I've never had any experience with walls suddenly pressing themselves on me, or... well, actually I have, but not when I have hours of resting such as this".
Then a silence. His eyes pierced her from that immense darkness, as if he ridiculed her,
"Forget the bonfire, Esara. If you're going to start it, then we're doing it when we reach the surface. We're not taking any risks".
She was hungry, but she had to understand him; she withdrew the lantern of fire and looked at him for a comical moment.
"Fine".
She considered his words, and she began packing her things. Once everything was settled inside the leather back, she rose to her feet, looked at Salty with something similar to complaint.
"I understand, but I have to eat soon, my body needs energy to survive".
Salty, who still stood in the dark, seemed relieved as his eyes returned to their round shape.
She walked towards him, whilst holding the lantern as its light caught his body.
Then, she muttered complaingly to him.
"Just like earlier... You're probably scared of fire".
"What was that?"
"Nothing".
***
The two continued down the steep floor, and eventually they found an exit. How does she know it was the exit? There was a subtle light of fog, and small clouds nestled on the floor beneath them, which only came from the surface.
The two exited the cave and found themselves back on the outside of the mountain, where? she wouldn't know, she never knew.
It wasn't different from being inside the veins and tunnels, because even out on the surface, all vision was blocked by the deadly fog.
"Well, we're here now. Where should we go?"
"Straight ahead". Salty answered, taking the lead.
For a while, Esara kept glancing over her shoulder. Her way of travel consisted mostly of being inside the mountain, because the surface was just as bad, no, even worse, actually.
There was a small sense of security around Salty as he always seemed to know where they were going. But even he, who is some abnormal deity, couldn't possibly stand a chance of beating the forsaken of the surface.
She felt even more worried treading the stone terrain — their feet echoed somehow louder compared to inside the veins.
Minutes later, the fog around them cleared, as though light had coincidentally marked an oasis.
The fog had unveiled a familiar, large, broad building in ruins.
The thing rose from the rubble like a broken rib cage — curved dark planks arching upward, ropes trailing from tall wooden poles stripped bare of whatever they once carried. It sat half-swallowed in the center of a wasteland, groaning faintly as if its purpose was lost.
She'd come across this type of shelter from time to time; it wasn't exactly a house, nor could it really be a shelter; it was more like an unusually large treasury, which was one of the core reasons for her survival.
"We can take shelter here, no??"
Salty looked around into absolute nothing, as if he was eyeing for something particular.
"Yeah, we can do that".
The two entered the large cove at the bottom, arriving at a dark wooden hall. Inside, Esara began prepping her stuff again, and Salty didn't intervene. He placed the red orb near a wooden crate and then stood by the exit of the cove, looking out for any suspicious behaviour within the mist around their shelter.
Once the fire came alive, she began to pierce her cloth-clad meat with a nearby wooden stick. She settled it into a position where it wouldn't fall into the flame or ground and then began looking around.
"Salty, do you know what this is? I've seen these many times, but I've never understood where they came from".
"I've seen these sorts of buildings too. I don't know myself. But it's definitely man-made; whatever it was, it must've been important".
He didn't stray from his position.
"I see".
Esara took it as a sign he would stand guard for the time being, knowing that she scavenged through the old, destroyed craters — looking for something in particular. From time to time, she would see skeletons in the corner of her light and weird iron objects that seemed to serve purposes unknown to her.
Her eyes fell on a nearby skeleton near the end of the hall, which wore rusted plate armor carrying an old insignia of a... rose?, a past warrior, perhaps?.
"...That armor looks beautiful; I like that rose symbol".
Despite its old look, it was still valuable armor, so she'd jacked it off, pulling the strings around her own chest so she had protection for her own valuables. She moved slightly until the chest had settled completely.
After she was done eating, she gathered everything of interest on top of a red cloth she had stuffed in her bag. She sat cross-legged, trying to judge the compartments of each one, fiddling with whatever buttons they had as though they would do something cool.
"Hm...." Then, a defeated exhaled, "Nothing resembles a compass..."
Salty, who'd continued to stand on still point, had turned over to her, piqued by the last word.
"Compass? What's that?"
Her eyes rose back to him, and then she answered.
"It's a legendary artifact that lets you coordinate between cardinal directions. My parents used to tell me stories about it all the time; they believed that it would lead them to the perfect world... but of course, they never found it".
"... A legendary artifact that lets you navigate directions. It sounds valuable ". Then, he paused, "And your parents... what happened to them—?"
Her expression darkened slightly, as though he was treading thin ice. She'd remained silent for a few seconds, trying to muster up the correct words.
"...Salty, what does returning to the sea mean?"
"It's the term to tell if something has returned to the edge of this world, where a large black floorless world exists".
"Then they returned to the sea".
Silence.
"They're not alive... Well, did they live up to their purpose?"
"I'd say so; they raised me to decide what's wrong and what's right, independent thinking". Then, she shrugged and spoke with sarcasm, "Though it became sort of a hell when they were gone, I basically became a prophet of some sort of cult. Luckily, I ran away before they could drill more useless knowledge into me".
Then, Esarah had turned the question.
"What about you, Salty? Do you have parents?"
"Yes, a mo—".
Under the sound of the crackling fire, another sound arrived — outside of their shelter. Salty had turned sharply to look out, and Esara had risen from the floor and instantly grabbed her sword. Looking over his shoulder, she asked.
"...You heard it too?"
He didn't answer yet; his divine eyes were glued to whatever was nestled beneath the fog. There, a lone forsaken had unveiled itself. A large hound of sorts with open wounds that revealed its skeleton from back to feet; its nose was pressed to the ground, smelling for a safe place.
Esara initially thought of killing it before it would attract other forsaken. But Salty had raised his handless arm to her, stopping her before she could step forth — which had confused her.
"We should kill it; forsaken attract forsakens". She remarked.
"It has already attracted something".
"—What?"
Just as her words came out, large, smooth, transparent tentacles whipped out of the fog. The hound had initially dodged the first attack; it tried to growl as a form of intimidation, but the arms didn't react. Instead, one of its many arms slapped it hard until it was deemed paralyzed on the ground. Whimpering, the arms wrapped around its body, dragging it almost dauntingly back toward where it belonged.
Its legs moved subtly, tragically, as though it hadn't given up. Once it disappeared from the open view, loud whimpering echoed across the area, followed by the sound of flesh and bone being torn open.
Then, after a moment of silence, one black, scaled eye peeked out of the fog. Esarah quickly found cover behind a nearby wooden wall beside the cove, her heart beating heavily against her chest.
Its golden eyes darted towards the shelter, looking for something else of interest.
Salty hadn't moved from his position; instead, he seemed to challenge it.
"S-Salty?" She whispered, "What are you doing?"
He didn't say anything and continued the trade with the forsaken. It stared back at him, its eye dilated as it zoomed into his face. Taking notice of his vibrant eyes, it stared back.
Silence.
After a minute of staring, it retreated into the fog shortly after.
"It left..." He said.
Esara's heart returned to its usual rhythm. All that paranoia for what?
"Salty, do you have any survival instincts?" She asked, demanding.
He hadn't answered, and she settled back by the fire groaningly, still holding onto her sword in case of the worst.
"This is why I don't travel on the surfaces — the forsaken here are giants compared to the ones within the veins".
Salty remained standing by the exit.
"That wasn't a forsaken Esara — that was an acquaintance of mine".
An eyebrow raised involuntarily, an acquaintance? Was Salty acquainted with monsters?
"In the same sense that we're working to return the red orb to where it belongs, that creature has been given the grand purpose to neutralize any lost forsaken on the surface".
"Does it have a name?"
"Yes, it's called Death".
Esara didn't know what to say. The more she tried to understand him, the more she hit a wall. And at this point, she had to ask straight away, because leaving her any more in the dark would build her curiosity.
With a demanding undertone, she asked. "Salty, what is your purpose? Tell me so that I at least know what I'm getting myself involved in".
Salty paused, his eyes darting to the foggy skies and a finger on his jaw. He was contemplating the right words to tell her.
"...I serve the world".
She frowned.
"You serve the world? That isn't specific; give me something specific".
"There are no specifics — I serve the world".
Her eye twitched, then, without wanting to drag it anymore, she wrapped herself in a thin cloth, laid her head down on her bag, and dismissed herself from the entire conversation.
"Alright then, keep your little secrets for yourselves".