Slowly she reached down doning her eyes with a tatered leather strip. Peering through the slits within it, the overwhelming whiteness of the mountain that now somehow seemed dimed as her vision sharpened. Peeling her pick from the frozen boulder it rest upon, she shivered momentarily to break the mornings cold and began dredging up the side of the mountain. Her body layered many times over with the fur and skin of many of the beasts slain in the valley for the most part reflected the winds razor sharp cold bites at her flesh. Her cheeks red, burnt from that same unrelentless torture no longer seeemed to bother her as they grew numb and toughened.
Hour upon hour past as she climbed, tired but energized by her self endowed quest she continued. Flurries of snow lessened her sight to meerly feet. As night began to fall, her extremitiies numbed she knew she would need to make camp sooner than later. Lifting her pack from her back and laying it on the ground, she paused. "Yes!", she thought. as she slowly began caressing the barely visible tracks in the snow. Re-energized she pushed forward, leaving her pack as it slowly covered in snow.
Seconds turned to mintues and her pace grew slow. Exhausted she droped her pick, and hunched over slowly made her way to a dark spot in the distance. relieved she pressed forward towards what was most assuredly a cave. at the mouth of the entrance she paused, and sighed heavily. looking out from the darkness 7 sets of orange glowing eyes. "I know I came here to kill the lot of you and bring your pelts to my people. But I am too tired. Kill me if you must but I am coming in". One step, two steps, and then she collapsed to the floor. unable to move her vision blurred to and fro, growls snaps and whimpers are heard in the darkness. She feels herself being pulled deeper and deeper into the umbra. Hot breath steamingly shrouds her vision as she feels a weight upon her chest.
Slowly her eyes opened, strands of light mystified her, bearly able to move a unusual weight pushed against her from ebery side. Nudging her body left and right the weight began to shift, on its own. Seven winged foxes stood in a semi-circle around her. Seemingly the eldest slowly walked forward lowering its gaze to to floor and presenting its horned crowned head to her. She giggled, never before had she seen such amazingly large ears on a creature before. as she reached forward and touched its head, it began to purr. Slowly the remaing six joined in and nestled into her, some turning and offering up their undersides to her caress.
Sudenly they all jumped up and looked at then entrance. A harmony of growls and yips erupted. Quickly she stood and realized she was unarmed. Slowly a white scaly image slithered its way into the cave. She had only herd of one of these before, a snake that lives in the cold. Its head was large enough, she knew it could comsume her whole. She reached around and finally found a rock, luckily with a slight edge. She pushed forward, hunters insticts and all. the beast lunged at her... Had it not been for the youngest winged fox headbutting her out of the way she would have surely been dead. Unfortunately he paid for it with his life as he was consumed by the creature. A blood fury erupted from the pack as they fought the creature, gashing at its fleash as each and every one of them persished until only one left. The matriach of the brood had stood over her guarding her as she tended to the unintentional wounds of her earlier saviour. The winged fox looked up, eyes seemingly filled with tears as it charged the reptile. As it struck she made no attempt to flee or dodge and instead dove into the mouth of the beast.
From the outside you could see the flesh of the beast erupt as it was punctured from the inside. It writhed and coiled until there was no movement from the beast or from inside of it. The woman furiously slashed at the flesh, until she found her saviour, crushed and bearly alive. She pulled the matriach out of her fleshy tomb and held her. A sole whimper bearly audiable was all she could muster. "NO!" she cried, "You can't do this!". The body fell limp, but she held tight for hours rocking softly to and fro. Unable to find the motivation to do anything, she picked up a loose feather and tucked it into her pocket. She stood, looked out into the whiteness and began her decent.
