[Chr24] Ancient Ruins and Lost Children: Survive

“Shit! Get in! Get in!” 

Jaeyho shouts with urgency to the other team members as the storm finally catches up to them. Two figures rush inside the castle ruins that continue to stand strong after years of neglect left over from the distant past. As the last member runs inside Jaeyho slams the door shut before the harsh winds can reach him and the others, falling to the ground as the wind howls behind the door at his back. They had barely missed the forefront of the whiteout that had been chasing them since the mid-afternoon.

“That– that could’ve gone a lot smoother,” Tsukuyomi says still trying to catch his breath a nervous smile plastered on his face as he looked around the room the trio was currently trapped in.

“You’re telling me. This lead better turn something up, I don’t think a kid could survive in this kind of weather. Especially so young.” Elias says somberly looking at both Jaeyho and Tsukuyomi with concern written on his face.

“This has to be the place. I used to visit places like this all the time when I was younger. So the kid has to be here! He has to be,” Jaeyho says worry written on his face as he finally looks around the room and the state that it’s in. 

The room itself wasn’t fully shielded from the outside elements with small windows lining the wall that Jaeyho had his back up against. Snow drifted onto the floor where they weren’t boarded up and a harsh draft whistled through the windows. The floor was wooden and noticeably rotten in some places with holes and what looked to be smashed planks littered around the torn-up room. Wooden tables and chairs were upturned against the wall as if an attempt at a barricade was made in the past that had also been weathered over time. The walls of the room were mainly stone with large gashes of what looked like giant claw marks and signs of fighting that flowed over to another open doorway at the other end of the room.

“...This is bizarre. I mean this is an old building that we don’t even know that much about…It could be super dangerous…and a kid decides to come here? What even happened here?” Tsukuyomi says confused fully standing up and touching one of the gouged-out stones in the wall. He continues to follow the path of markings across the room, the echo of his steps being heard with the howls of the wind following the broken stones until he reached the doorway where he stood silent. The doorway that he stood in was completely carved out and cracked on all sides as if something was pushing its way into the next room over with great difficulty.

“Hey Tsuki maybe you should step away from the door, something feels…off,” Elias says coming over to Tsuki and grabbing his hand in an attempt to lead him away. With the mention of unease, Jayeho takes notice of how the room seems too quiet. As if the room is holding its breath and aware of every step any of them take. It was entirely too silent for an old building even if it was made of wood and stone. 

“...I’m sure it's fine, we just…it's probably just the storm quieting everything dow–” A loud thump is heard from the darkened room halfway through Jaeyho speaking startling everyone into silence. The trio all look at one another and slowly begin to congregate into a group in front of the door. Elias takes both Jaeyho and Tsuki’s hands pushing them behind him, and waiting to see if anything else moves. After a moment Jaeyho looks to Tsuki and Elias, who shakes their heads, before looking back to the door and calling out into the darkness.

“Hello? Anyone there?....Saurun?”

The trio is met with silence until a cough is heard that then is followed by a small whimper that resembles kids which immediately perks all of their interest. Tsuki is the first to break away from their small group and walk through the darkened threshold with urgency.

“Saurun? Where are you? Saurun your dad asked us to find you! Saurun?”

Tsuki calls out with concern as he begins to look for any signs of a child in the dilapidated room, with the others following behind him doing the same. 

The new room was slightly darker than the last with large long overturned and broken tables. A blacked-out stone fireplace sat at the other side of the room with a giant hole in the front of it that matched with a caved-in section of the roof above it, showing that the daylight outside was quickly disappearing. This room seemed to be a form of a banquet hall with one remaining metal chandelier swinging and creaking ominously above their heads, and the other fallen in another collapsed spot on the floor not too far away. The same claw marks flowed into this room from the last onto the walls, the tables, and the floors further confirming something desperately wanted to get into this room. To the left of the entrance, a stone staircase led up to the upper balcony that overlooked the banquet hall, and to the right three large windows with various stages of being boarded up faced the concerned group. This room was much colder than the last further pushing the urgency to find Saurun and seek better shelter with the approaching night.

“Saurun? Saurun where are yo–” Tsuki yelled out before being cut off by a tackled to the ground by something making him fall with a loud thump. 

Both Elias and Jaeyho’s heads whipped around to the sound of their partner getting cut off and disappearing from their sight. This led to both of them rushing over yelling Tsuki’s name in worry only to stop as both Elias and Jaeyho came across the sight of a kid clinging to him tightly in tears, and Tsuki doing his best to soothe him while he rambled on and on about a monster chasing him. While Tsuki was rubbing Saurun’s back he shared a concerned look with his partners regarding the spooked child, all the while the room seemed to drop further in temperature.

“Shh Shh Shh it’s okay Saurun, it’s okay, we're here now its-” 

Tsuki is cut off when a wet sloshing sound breaks the silence of the room behind one of the boarded-up windows. The sound is followed by a low-pitched growl that sends goosebumps down everyone's spine in the group, causing Saurun to cling tighter to Tsuki and let out one last whimper before going silent. The growl followed by the sloshing heavy footsteps seemingly walk along the outside of the windows as if testing the perimeter of the outside of the building. Sniffing sounds and scratching can be heard on the pieces of wood blocking the windows, with them bending under the pressure of whatever was out there testing it’s strength. 

With bated breath, Elias slowly made his way over to the lower half of the window, cautiously trying to see through the small crack of the boarded-up entrance. As he peered through the crack the outside snow was still falling heavily but the grounds right outside of the building had definite traces of something large moving about. As the growling moved away from Elias’s window movement caught his attention to the left outside and a scaled tail seemingly whipped on by as if something just ran past. In an attempt to try and see whatever creature this was right outside Elias moved trying to get a better view and accidentally pushed up a wooden plank causing it to shift and fall. Elias backs up and freezes in fear at whatever is out there possibly hearing the noise, but after a few moments of no sounds or signs of the creature he lets out a sigh of relief. 

As Elias goes to look again through the crack he is met with a piercing blue eye with a cat-like pupil staring straight back at him with such intensity a bolt of fear runs down his spine. In that moment of fear, Elias falls backward and the creature outside lets out a blood-curdling howl finally finding its prey. Immediately the wooded barricade is bashed upon as the creature is throwing its full body weight onto it in every attempt to bring it down. 

As the howl pierces the air Saurun lets out a sob gripping even tighter to Tsuki who in turn picks him up and looks for a viable place to hide while slightly shaking. Tsuki looks to Elias and Jaeyho and motions with his head to move upwards to the balcony within the dead banquet hall. Elias looks to the entryway they came in before and then back to the stairwell in a moment of hesitation before rushing towards Tsuki up into the balcony. 

Jaeyho looks to the same entrances as Elias getting ready to make a run for the stairwell that his partners took before a sickening crack resonates from the boarded window. At that moment Jaeyho realizes he won't be able to make either entrance and makes a dive at one of the broken tables nearest to the lone chandelier and holds his breath as the beast comes crashing into the ruins. 

Within the balcony, Elias and Tsuki watch in horror as they catch a glimpse of Jaeyho’s tail as he dives behind a table right below them seconds before the beast bursts through the threshold. As the beast bursts through it’s shrouded in the incoming snow from the storm swirling around it, hiding everything except the piercing blue eyes glowing in the darkness. As the snow recedes its form becomes clearer and closely resembles that of a dragon with two large wings acting as its arms, scales around its face and cascading down its back neck, large clawed feet fit for tearing things apart, and that familiar scaled tail that seen outside these walls moments ago. It lets out a deep growl as it sees an empty room, and lets off a blast of what seems to be complete ice out of its mouth onto the fireplace freezing it entirely. It pauses as it sniffs the air and then begins its search for those hiding within these walls starting with the wreckage of the floor.

As the dragon-like beast begins its search Jaeyho begins to shake as the temperature drops even more after the blast of ice was set off, and begins to look around frantically in partial fear and for any way that his group could escape. He looks up and locks eyes with Elias who is staring down at him with fear defiant on his face gripping the bars that lined the balcony. At that moment Jaeyho flashes a small smile as a way to comfort Elias, who only ended up looking more sacred, before whipping his head towards the swinging chandelier that squeaked as the creature threw a piece of debris accidentally hitting it. As it swings from side to side the groan of the nails in the ceiling can be heard as the chandelier moves downwards slightly at the sudden jolt. This gives Jaeyho a very dangerous idea, all the while the creature is getting closer to his hiding spot.

Elias looks back at Tsuki still clutching onto Saurun like his life depends on it and passes a look to him that is a mix of worried, scared, and mad all at the same time before looking back down at Jaeyho who’s staring very intensely at the swinging chandelier. Elias in that moment has a feeling that Jaeyho is about to do something extremely stupid right as he looks up at him and starts making motions of throwing something with his arms. After a few attempts, Elias looks back to Tsuki for any guidance on what Jaeyho wants them to do. Tsuki leans closer to the bars which causes the kid to try and burrow further into his lap out of fear for the creature, and motions back to Jaeyho asking what they were gonna throw it at which then Jaehyo motions to the chandelier.

In that moment of communication between Jaeyho, Tsuki, and Elias both Tsuki and Elias start to protest at what Jaehyo wants to do, but he looks at both of them and mouths ‘Trust me, Please’. This freezes the two in their tracts as they both look at each other before looking back down at Jaeyho. Tsuki looks at Jaeyho and mouths ‘You better not die’ and readjusts Saurun into a better hold while Elias goes to grab one of the heavier objects left in the ruins in the balcony leaving Jaeyho’s sight. Once Elias comes back, an old chalice in hand, and looks down at Jaeyho once more, Jaeyho looks at both of them and mouths ‘I won’t. I love you both’ before getting into position. 

The creature had now made its way over to the other side of Jaeyho’s table seemingly breathing on his neck even more than before as it approached his hiding place. All the while Jaeyho hoped and prayed to the Tree that something would distract the creature just for a moment so he could get into position, and in that tense moment as he felt the cold breath of the creature on the top of his head, his prayers were answered. Across the room, something moved, whether it was a rat, the ground settling with the added weight, or the creature itself it was enough to deter its attention and move away from his hiding spot to investigate. Jaeyho took this opportunity to quickly and quietly navigate the sea of broken tables until he stood underneath the swinging chandelier. He looked over to the balcony, made eye contact with Elias, and nodded his head to be ready. Tsuki was standing at the ready with the kid to make a beeline for the new hole in the wall of the ruins and in their case a chance at freedom from the beast.

Slowly Jaeyho stood up and faced the creature now shaking from an adrenaline rush and the cold, and with one deep breath opened his mouth and yelled. It turned around immediately and snarled at the noise, its piercing eyes staring straight into Jaeyho’s and spit flying from its jaws as it salivated at the sight of the prey it had been hunting. It stood there for a moment watching Jaeyho its tail swishing back and forth like a cat getting ready to pounce, and then it stilled its entire body. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife as the creature and Jaeyho stared at each other unmoving.

Until it pounced and a series of events occurred in quick succession.

As the creature jumped towards Jaeyho he stood his ground for what felt like eons, right until it wouldn’t have a chance to be able to turn around, and then dove under its stomach. In the process, the claws of the creature snagged his back tearing into his skin causing him to cry out in pain in his dive. As soon as the creature landed Elias threw the chalice hitting the chandelier enough to knock it loose from the ceiling and come crashing down onto the creature. As the chandelier hit the creature the floor beneath it gave away furthering its fall and securing the chandelier almost as a cage on top of it. With that, the creature screamed and shot blast after blast of frost further encasing itself in its self-made prison in its frustration.

Both Elias and Tsuki made it down the stairs and rushed to Jaeyho who lay passed out on the broken floor, with Elias picking him up the group made a mad dash into the whiteout. The shrieks of the creature could be heard in the background like a haunting reminder of what could have almost happened to them, but at least they were alive and completed their mission somewhat unscathed.