Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 98
98 Death. Everywhere around her. She could smell it, taste it, hear it, feel it, but most of all, she could _see_ it, dancing in front of her eyes as a thick, black line. It was like a serpent without head or tail, just an endless band of darkness...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 97
97 No sooner had they taken the first steps out of the crumbling trench that had almost served as Shekka's grave than a figure appeared among the swirling spirals of snow. It was only a black silhouette from this distance, backlit by a stuttering line...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 96
96 Ander did not know how long he stared at that hand. In reality, it couldn't have been more than a second, but to him, it lasted far longer. Those long, sharp claws. The thin, emaciated fingers. The bony knuckles. How many times had he taken that...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 95
95 Ander's fingers had gone completely numb, but that was okay. He could dig much faster without that burning sensation. _You're not my son..._ He plunged his hands into the ditch. _I don't have any sons..._ He scraped them through the snow. _I...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 94
She had one hand curled beneath her chin, and the torchlight threw her face into a stark contrast of light and shadow, making her tears shine like torches themselves, but the one thing that stood out the most was her smile.
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 93
93 "Nilia, I'm - Oof! I'm okay I - Oof! I swear!" Mateo was cold, he was hungry, he was tired, he was fairly certain that Nilia had cracked at least four of his ribs during her overly enthusiastic hug (even the non-enthusiastic ones were no laughing...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 92
92 Kiana finally made it all the way up to those horrible wooden spikes. Save for the splash of snow that had exploded over the top of the wall, they had been spared the brunt of the avalanche, but she still felt cold and drained. Just making it over...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 91
91 - out of the snow and back into the waking world, where pain and death were more than mere phantoms. Snow tumbled down his face and slid off his back. He was quite possibly colder than he had ever been in his entire life, but Kiana's lips were warm...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 90
90 He knew this darkness. He knew this cold. He had been here before, but when? He couldn't remember... "Your blood is a lie." That voice was right behind him. He could feel the warmth of its breath on his neck, smell the fetid stench of blood and...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 89
89 Devin had started to think that something must have gone horribly, disastrously wrong, but then the deep, agonal sound of the ram's horn finally echoed through the pass, bouncing from cliff to cliff and crag to crag, until it sounded like there...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 88
88 The ground trembled beneath his feet, but Dorin didn't care. They swarmed across the snow, weaving between jutting pieces of rock and dead branches like water breaking upon a riverbank, but Dorin didn't care. Their roar was like the voice of death...
Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 87
87 The entire pass just... _exploded_. Ander stood frozen, watching in horror as a thousand blood-crazed Wolves came storming down the pass, waving spears and axes in the air, screaming and roaring, slobber flying from their teeth. They were like a...