"W-What?" Sylvaila narrows her eyes at me as she backs even further away. Was it something I said?
"The thing on your choker. Give it to me."
"Absolutely not! This is an heirloom that has been passed down to be in honor of those who lost their lives in battle!"
"Do you want to make it out of here or not?" My eyebrow raises as I extended my hand further.
Upon further hesitation, she unhooks the charm on her choker and hands it to me with a shaky hand.
"See. That wasn't so hard was it?" I take it and hold the thing with both hands, inspecting it even further. I pinch a small section of the charm and break it off without any problems. Huh. That was easier than I thought. I would've expected even something like this to be harder to break considering elves take their fashion and items very seriously.
Sylaila gasps as she watches me break a piece of her jewelry, a small frown spreading across her face as her ears droop.
The part I broke off was made out of metal, vaguely resembling a needle. Using that rock I got earlier, I start rubbing it against the needle, starting at the bottom and the brushing it forward. It's important to only do it in one direction as opposed to back and forth to make sure the magnetic domains don't get misaligned. By starting at one point and ending at the other repeatedly, the magnetization all leads up to the singular point that the rock ends at.
"Get the bottle of water and fill a bowl with it inside my backpack." My voice lowers as I concentrate on the compass. Suddenly, a loud roar sounds in the distance.
"RAAAARGH!" It sounds like one creature, and based on how it sounds, it's probably a ghoul. That doesn't mean it's not dangerous though. Ghouls are like wolves, they hunt in packs. The only thing that's different is that they split up to cover more ground, notifying the others when find some prey. And if I had to guess, we're the prey here.
"Hurry." I continue to rub the needle with the rock.
31... 32...
The elf rummages through my bag and does as I say, shakily pouring the water into the wooden bowl before screwing the cap back on and placing it back inside. "Alright!"
33... 34... 35 should be enough.
Taking the rest of the broken charm, I take one of the sharp edges and chip a small piece of wood off the bowl. I gently place the piece of wood in the middle of the water with the needle on top. The needle in the water turns back and forth for a few seconds before focusing on one direction. Good!
"Is there any way you can make this stable while we carry it with us?"
"Yes!" She says quickly, pressing the tips of her fingers together. A green aura surrounds her figure as it travels over to the bowl, causing it to float upwards and stay midair between the both of us. So this is what magic looks like here... I've heard it being described so many times in TVAHF, but the real thing is leagues beyond just reading or listening to it on a screen.
"RAAAAARGH" The ghoul howls again, this time sounding even closer.
"We have to go. Now!" Grabbing her hand and focusing on the compass, I run in the direction of it pointing upwards. The one thing about makeshift compasses is that you can't exactly tell if they're pointing North of South. Of course though, I took this into account before I started making it. Necrohyme is an area that spans from East to West, making it lack in terms of North and South. In short, it's a large, thin strip of land in Aethyra, the world of TVAHF, that goes from left to right, so that means that even if it's pointing South and not North, we'll still be able to get out of here as fast as possible.
The two of us pant while we run through the death-cursed forest. I make note of each small thing we come across, just to make sure we don't get lost. Syvaila grips my hand tightly, just barely making through the rough terrain behind me. I glance over at the compass every now and then, making sure we're heading the right direction. The problem is...
SHRIEEEK
North-South is where the ghouls are.
I spot them off in the distance. Their eyes are completely white and hollow, their gray flesh rotting and decomposing with each second of their existence. Despite their physical forms basically falling off of them, they still had the means to chase after us. The one thing that I noticed upon seeing them however, was what was protruding out of their skin. The magnetic rocks.
"Crap!" I grit my teeth as I plant my feet into the ground to stop Sylvaila and I. My mind completely glossed over the fact that these guys have those inside of them! The magnetic presence the rocks they have are even stronger than the ones we found earlier, meaning, the compass as pointing at them the entire time.
"Frost!" Sylvaila raises her voice to warn me. The pack of 4 ghouls are already beginning their chase. Guess it's time for plan B.
"Come on!" I pull her in the direction opposite direction of the ghouls, hearing them gasp and shriek behind us as they get on our tail.
We run across the trail that we already traveled on. I start looking frantically around our surroundings.
"Remember when I broke off another piece of your charm and threw it on the side of the path?!" My chest heaves as I speak.
"You need not remind me of such an act, but yes!"
"We need to look for that!"
"Understood!" She does a couple of hand signs with her free hand, causing a now yellow aura to appear around her which branches off in a certain direction. "Follow it!"
I nod as I start to pick up the pace. Even though the ghouls aren't in range, they'll catch up to us eventually. We only got a head start.
SHRIEK!
The ghouls behind us scream again, but this time, it brought even more trouble. More ghouls stalked us from behind the trees, joining in on the chase until their numbers almost tripled.
One of the monsters appeared from a tree in front of us, scratching my leg in the process.
"Ugh!" I wince through the pain and keep running. There's no way I'm going down this easily! I want to live!
"There it is!" Sylvaila points out at the yellow aura surrounding the charm.
"We take a left when we reach it!"
Both of us sprint to the jewelry, more and more ghouls appearing behind us. Almost quadruple now. Upon reaching the jewelry, another ghoul jumps in front of us and we barely dodge by taking a hard left. We find ourselves in a deep, dried out river, all of the ghouls funneling into the half pip tunnel.
I let go of Sylvaila's hand.
"Take out your bow and arrow!" I scream, slowly down just enough to get behind her. She grabs her bow from her back and I hand her an arrow. As if instinctually, she started to take aim. I guide her hand slightly over to the right.
"Don't shoot until I say so!" My head turns behind me. They're only a few paces behind us, one of the ghouls in the front just barely scratching at us again.
"Now?!" Sylvaila panics.
"Not until I say so!" Exhaustion starts to settle in as we keep running. The wound on my leg is just thankfully giving me enough adrenaline to keep going, but I'm starting to feel the pain.
More and more of the ghouls fight for a spot in the front like a hoard of animals. My back gets scratched a few time, but I push through the pain. We run and run and run until...
"There! Now!" I scream upon spotting the area I was looking for.
Syvaila fires the arrow into a cliff overhang. It the strike on the terrain causes the dirt to shift ever so slightly. Large boulders roll down as the dirt falls, tumbling down into the dry river. I lunge forward, pushing Sylvaila and I just before the boulders come crashing down on all of the ghouls behind us. The sounds of their bones cracking and their fleshing getting overwhelmed by the weight of the rocks fill the air for a while. Then just like that, it's silent.
My head spins as I look up at the avalanche, my mouth dry from each breath I took. We did it...
A small rock hits my head. I get knocked out.
"Frost!"