Snippet #2505063

As I lie face down in the snow, I feel all my senses heightened. Every shifting of weight the beast makes as its head gets closer to me, the sound and feel of its rasping breath down my neck. I can see every individual fleck of snow in front of my face, and feel the sheer coldness of it freezing my skin to an extent I have never felt before. My own breathing seems almost as loud as the beasts, but it is calm and steady, as is my heartbeat which I am suddenly very aware of as it bangs away in my chest.

Then, everything comes crashing down upon me.

The snow is no longer white and beautifully detailed, it is grey and seems to be spinning around in circles, drawing near to and then distancing itself from my face. My body goes numb, and my ears are filled with a roaring sound. Whether it is Knights battle cry or a blood rush, I’m not sure.

Suddenly, an explosion of noise erupts in my ears, and I gasp for breath frantically as the weight of the beast is lifted off me. I know I should get up now, but my body would rather I stay here, lying in the snow. The roaring in my ears fades to a soft ringing, and I hear Knight grunt as something hurdles into a tree trunk. I hope that it is not him.

I feel the presence of someone next to me, and my senses finally pull themselves together. I realise I am still lying face down in the snow, which is rather unpleasant.

“No,” I grunt in response to Knight’s enquiry, and reluctantly roll myself over and sit up. I accept his outstretched arm, and rely on it more than I would like to stand up. My knees almost buckle again beneath me, but I steady myself and put my weight on them again, more cautiously this time. They hurt, but I’ll be okay. At most, they’ll be sore for a few days.

I shake the snow off myself and take the opportunity to look Knight over, for he too was taken down by the beast, which I can now see slumped against a tree, dead. Knight looks fine, and now it is clear that we are both more or less in a good condition, I breathe a sigh of relief. I may pride myself over battling the Broken, but that experience is almost nothing against beasts like those. I hope we never come across one again.

But alas, we will run into more monsters one way or another. And they can probably only get worse.

Though if we are going to be optimistic, you can at least say that for my fighting skills, the only way is up.