Sheyric was closest to the lake when the nightmarish horse-headed mob burst out. Part equine, part crocodile, and all rage, its sharp-toothed maw yawned open to swallow Sheyric whole. Kayara yelled, yet in some odd twist of fate, Ayn reacted first, pushing past the ranger to tackle Sheyric out of the way.
The mob snapped its jaws shut. Its lunge had brought it half out of the water. Despite the almost refined, light blue horse's head, the rest of its body seemed wholly crocodilian and huge. The lake was only forty or fifty feet across, and Ayn wondered how the thing had hidden so well. Maybe its back half was stumpy. She wasn’t sticking around to find out.
“Get up the cliff!” she yelled.
Ayn scrambled to her feet and dragged Sheyric along. Not only did the party not have much money for potions after the floor, they had little before. Ayn only had one, and she wasn’t about to waste it on a mob that looked like it could one-shot her.
The horse-headed crocodile lunged again, but as fast as its first strike had been, it slowed down considerably on land. Once the party got up the cliff, the mob lost interest and slid back into the lake without a sound.
A sharp screech made Ayn jump. The Kaneake flew in the distance, circling a spot deeper inside the rocky terrain.
“I think we should head that way,” Kayara said. “Get more feathers before these wear off.”
Bren’s eyes widened. “You think they wear off?”
“I haven’t noticed my feather getting weaker,” Ayn said before Bren panicked. The heat the feather put off had quit melting the surrounding snow, but she felt as toasty as ever.
“Really?” Kayara frowned. “What about yours, Sheyric?”
“Fine.”
“Mine is fine too, if you care,” Bren said.
Kayara didn’t seem to notice Bren’s annoyance. Her frown deepened.
Ayn hadn’t been paying much attention to Kayara, figuring the ranger could take care of herself, but now that she was, she could see Kayara’s skin had paled, and her lips had a blue tinge.
“Swap with me.” Ayn freed her feather from her belt and held it out to Kayara. “If yours is faulty, we can just trade back and forth once we get too cold.”
Kayara looked like she wanted to argue, but after a moment of staring at the feather in Ayn’s hands, she nodded and exchanged it with her own. The new feather felt perfectly warm to Ayn, but perhaps swapping it had recharged it or something, and its powers would fade as it had done with Kayara.
“Any better?” Ayn asked.
Kayara hesitated, then shrugged.
“Maybe give it a little time and see.”
With the feathers swapped, they continued their climb up to a plateau of more flat white. Higher cliff faces formed walls, funneling the plateau into smaller paths which led farther into the ice-capped mountains. The party picked a path and delved deeper. “Deeper” proved to be true in more than one sense as the path dipped down into a thin cave shaft, which opened up into a circular cavern laced with rust red veins of ore.
“Ask and you shall receive,” Kayara said with a grin that almost covered up the chatter of her teeth. She pushed away Ayn’s questions about her well-being, instead urging her to take as much ore as she could carry.
The deposits proved to be both iron and copper, an unexpected boon which almost overrode the sinking feeling in Ayn’s gut. Kayara wouldn’t hold her gaze, and she was shaking so hard, Ayn wasn’t sure she could hold anyone’s gaze. The feather Kayara had swapped with her was keeping her plenty warm. That meant whatever Kayara’s problem was, it wasn’t the feather.
Bren and Sheyric had noticed her shaking as well. Bren grimaced for a moment, probably trying to come up with something that wouldn’t get him snapped at, then shook his head.
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“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Fine.” Kayara barked the word out, seemingly on reflex.
“Let me rephrase, then. What’s wrong?”
“Noth—” She paused.
The confusion on her face made Ayn wonder if Kayara was trying to be stoic, or if her dislike of Bren was killing her common sense.
“Is that feather not working, either?” Ayn asked.
Swapping targets seemed to do the trick, and some of the confusion ebbed from Kayara’s face. “Uh…no. Still cold. Freezing.”
“Curse,” Sheyric said.
All eyes turned to him.
Kayara looked away, but Ayn’s mind was already connecting the dots. If the feathers never worked for Kayara, and it was a curse, there had been only one odd thing that early on the floor. “The mist from the barn.”
“What mist?” Bren asked.
“There was a white mist that came out of the barn when Kayara opened the doors. I’d thought it was just an effect. Didn’t you see it?”
“No. I was more worried about was what behind the door.”
Ayn frowned. Curses in The System all had cures, and all curses found in the Dungeon had cures found on the same floor. They just needed to figure it out. “Sheyric, have you seen this curse before?”
The healer shook his head.
Right. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy. A bit of panic wormed its way into Ayn’s thoughts. The curse was spreading fast, if Kayara’s chattering teeth and slowing movements were any indication. While they didn’t know if the curse was lethal, they had little time before they found out.
“Fine. Let’s keep moving. Everyone keep an eye out for anything unusual. Landmarks, glowing bits, that sort of thing.” Ayn trotted off without waiting for replies. The change in focus took the edge off her worries. She sped up.
“Hey,” Bren called out. “Wait up.”
Ayn slid to a stop, her boots slipping on the icy stone ground of the cave, but not because of Bren. At the mouth of the cave stood five large dogs. Their overall look reminded Ayn of Dobermans except for the complete lack of hair, pink skin, and far uglier features. The lead animal lowered its head and growled. Its companions echoed it. She was in their midst before they finished their display. The mobs yelped as her sabers flashed.
AEGIS OF AGILITY ACTIVATED
90 POINTS OF ABSORBTION REMAINING
70 POINTS OF ABSORBTION REMAINING
43 POINTS OF ABSORBTION REMAINING
Ayn barely noticed where the attacks were coming from. All that mattered was the feel of her weapons piercing their flesh, and the danger closing in on her.
A fireball crashed into one dog as her shield crumbled. A different one sunk its teeth into her leg. She ended it with a quick downward slice.
HEALTH AT 265
Aisha had been yelling at her for most of the fight. Dodging hadn’t been on her mind. Kayara killed the last mob. The ranger barely made it into the fight, and her target was already on its last leg, yet the dog still bit her before she ended it. Gone was the rapid, graceful attacker who couldn’t be touched, replaced by someone whose every action looked mentally and physically exhausting.
They continued out of the cave and back to a fork in the mountain’s path. All ways looked identical. Ayn gritted her teeth, shoved down logic, and picked one at random. She’d taken a few steps when the snow under their feet started to crawl.
Snow white snakes struck from the powder, latching on to the nearest party member they could find.
HEALTH AT 252
THREE STACKS OF VENOM APPLIED
MINUS THREE HEALTH PER SECOND
VENOM DECAYING AT ONE STACK PER FIVE SECONDS
Ayn didn’t care to do the math. She sliced down at the serpent stuck to her ankle. It drew back as fast as it had struck, disappearing once more beneath the snow. The eight or so others did the same.
Ambush predators. And since the Kaneake feathers no longer melted the snow, they had no way of telling where the bastards were.
“Run!” Ayn yelled.
Her command didn’t have the effect she’d hoped. Her party scattered in different directions, Kayara lagging behind. The snow coalesced around her. Ayn lunged in, striking low. Two snakes puffed into glitter as they left the snow. Three others aimed at Kayara’s legs, only to find a mouthful of thick brown and black fur.
The wolverine was back. Ayn had no idea when it had got there, nor how, yet there it stood in front of Kayara as if it belonged. It snapped its jaws, separating a snow-white snake into two bloody halves. The rest of the snakes burrowed into the snow. To Ayn’s surprise, the snow went still. Even more surprising, Kayara hadn’t yelled or hit the wolverine, although the vacant look in the ranger’s eyes told Ayn it was more likely from the freezing curse than acceptance. Bren, on the other hand, stared at the animal warily while Sheyric surged forward with a hand outstretched.
A rough bark, reminiscent of a dog if it smoked too much, came from the Wolverine. When that failed to deter the healer, it bared its teeth and growled.
Sheyric hesitated.
Seemingly assured that Sheyric was finally listening, the wolverine trotted over to the entrance of a path, barked over its shoulder, then continued on.
“Follow,” Sheyric said.
Ayn wasn’t so sure, yet as the wolverine grew farther away, the snow shifted around their feet. “Yep. Let’s go.”
She grabbed Kayara’s arm. The ranger’s skin was as cold as ice. Kayara stumbled as Ayn dragged her along, teeth chattering, body shaking, and Ayn could only hope wherever the wolverine was leading them had something to do with the cure. If it didn’t…. Ayn shoved the dark thoughts away, but without immediate danger to keep her distracted, she could feel the panic seeping out as the cold seeped in. The System wouldn’t give them a curse they didn’t have a chance at breaking, she told herself. But, a small voice countered, if she messed up, it wouldn’t have a problem punishing her for it.
