Leurheart II (Chapter 6)
#5 of Leurheart II
Chapter 6: Castle In The Snow
The cold winds were blowing against our faces when we climbed up the steep and rocky mountain path. It was a tad hard to breathe and the air was really thin when we were so high up. Thank god it wasn't raining or snowing.
Blaine was walking in front of me, trying to shield me from the blistering wind.
Dylan was koughing loudly behind me and his eyes were watering a little.
"How much longer to the cave!?" He shouted trough the wind.
"Just hold on for a little more! We're almost there!" Raynald yelled. He was walking a short distance ahead of us.
The path was slowly getting more and more narrow and we had to walk dangerously close to the edge. We couldn't even see how long the fall was, because there were some clouds and mist in the way.
"Here we are." Raynald said and stopped at long last.
The entrance of the cave was a large round hole that we could easily fit trough.
We stumbled into the humid cave and the wind didn't seem to get in. It was quiet and the only sounds we could hear were small droplets dropping on the stone floors and the moaning of the wind outside.
"This place is creepy..." Dylan pointed out and leaned on the slightly wet stone formation next to him.
"It almost sounds as if the cave is... Breathing..." Jaze said and looked around warily. I couldn't blame him though, the place was making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end too...
"We shouldn't waste any more time here. Let's go, the exit should be this way." Raynald said and began walking forward.
There were no forks on the cave, and it seemed to go on like an endless twisting road of cold stone.
All of us stopped when the path suddenly ended to an extremely large and dark pit with a stone bridge going over it. That whole part of the cave seemed so vast when you couldn't see the ceiling of the cave nor the bottom of the pit.
"Let's move slowly. Wouldn't want to fall down there..." Blaine said and leaned over the pit. All he could see was darkness.
One by one we began walking over the bridge, our footsteps ecoing loudly when their sound bounced back from the stony walls.
There was a sudden gust of air coming up from the pit and with it a loud noise that resembled that of a giant whale or something. The sound made the walls of the cave tremble.
"Sweet mother of Jesus! What was THAT!?" Dylan yelled and tryed not to lose his balance.
"I don't know, but I don't want to stay and find out... Let's go." I said and nudged him a little as a sign to move on, fast.
"There it is." Raynald said and pointed at the light coming in from the other end of the tunnel.
"Finally!" I exclaimed and began running towards the exit.
Just when I was about to leap out I stumbled on a rock and fell down on a large pile of cold, sparkly white snow.
I jumped up and quikly wiped the snow off of my face.
"Geeze that's cold!" I exclaimed and shivered.
Everyone walked past me looking around in amazement.
I too rose up my head and stared at the extraordinary sight.
It was snowing slowly and gently. There were a few withered trees around, all of them covered with a thick sparkly layer of snow.
There were more mountains in the horizon and snow as far as the eye could see.
"We made it..." Dylan gasped and smiled.
"We made it to the ice fields!"
I grinned widely and rolled up a snowball from the grit I had fallen into.
"Blaine, heads up!" I laughed and threw the snowball towards him and just when he was about to turn around it slammed against his shoulder.
He simply grunted sinisterly and hoarded as big of a pile of snow he could with his large arms.
"I'm going to get you for that..." He said and smiled sheepishly.
He trhew the large ball of snow towards me but as I jumped aside it hit Dylan who fell on his back in the pile of snow.
Blaine and I stared at him. He was now all covered in snow.
"You guys... Are so going to get it now...!" Dylan growled.
Pretty soon all three of us were throwing snowballs at eachother while Raynald and Jaze stood and observed from the sidelines.
"Should we tell them to stop...?" Jaze sighed and shook his head while walking past us.
"You three, this is no time for fun and games. We have to move on." Raynald said and caught a snowball that was just flying towards him in his hand.
Blaine coughed and I rubbed the back of my neck.
Dylan just shrugged and sighed.
"Well they started it..." He muttered.
Raynald sure had a talent in sponging up the fun from everything, even if he was right...
After we had walked for another hour or so, there was still no sign of any life. There were no trees, no plants, no bushes or hills. Just snow, snow and MORE snow. The wind also began to arise dangerously.
"There's a storm coming, we must hurry." Jaze said and tryed to protect his face from the frigid wind.
I rubbed my hands together to keep them warm, but with no result. The wind picked up yet again and the snow was now everywhere. We couldn't see a thing.
"I have to be honest now...!" I yelled trough the moaning wind.
"If we don't find any shelter as soon as possible, we're screwed!"
Dylan growled trough his teeth and forcefully waded forward in the thick layer of snow.
"Damnit, we don't have time to get hypothermic now!" He exclaimed even though he, and everyone else, were getting weaker by the minute.
My knees were stiff and the cold air made it hard to breathe. It was extremely difficult to move when all of your joints were frozen, to the core!
"So cold... Can't move my limbs anymore." I tried to say as clearly as I could. I was shivering all over and my vision was blurry.
"Hang in there Michael." Blaine said and pulled me close to his body to keep me warm.
Dylan was slowing down too.
"Raynald, can't you do anything?" Jaze said and grit his teeth.
"I am a wizard, not a god." Raynald said calmly, even though he must've been freezing too.
As I was just about to give up hope, I saw something amidst the snow. It was a grey figure... No, two, or three grey figures approaching us.
A small smile appeared on my face when I saw the figures.
'Help...' I tought as I began to feel light headed and was about to lose contiousness.
"Michael! Don't you go out cold on me now!" I heared Blaine yell before I blacked out.
'They have to help us.'
I felt warm. It was soft and comfortable, and I didn't feel like getting up or opening my eyes.
"Mmh... So cosy..." I mumbled before I remembered what'd been going on.
I sprang up and opened my eyes. I was on a comfortable soft bed in a large room.
"What the..." I said while looking around. The room looked clean and the walls looked like they were... glass? I pressed my hand against the wall, it felt slightly cold.
"This is... Ice?" I gasped as I got out of bed.
The whole room, except for the bed, was made out of ice! But strangely, it wasn't too cold in the room. It was like in any other cosy room you could imagine.
I walked around and stared at the furniture and walls. They all cast a blurry reflection of me, like hazy mirrors.
"What is this place..." I mumbled again while rubbing the surface of a table in the middle of the room. That's when I noticed the other bed in the other end of the room.
"D- Dylan!" I exclaimed and ran to the edge of the bed. He was still sleeping.
"Dylan.. Wake up." I said and shook his shoulder a little. He just groaned and turned around on the bed.
"I said wake up!" I yelled and shoved him off of the bed. Dylan fell on the floor with a loud "oompf".
"Now why'd you do that!?" He growled and looked at me with an annoyed expression on his face.
"Just look around, will you." I laughed and grinned.
He looked around slowly and after a bit he stopped to look at me.
"-the heck!?" He yelled and got up leaving the covers in a pile at his feet.
"It appears we found the castle." I said smiling brightly.
"Hell yeah!" Dylan laughed and rose his hands up into the air.
I laughed too and looked at the large door of the room.
"Perhaps we should go find the others... Or should we wait here?"
Dylan shook his head.
"No use sitting around here... I guess." He said and went to the door.
He pushed the door open slowly and went out. I jumped trough the doorway too and looked around. We were now in a large hall. There was a staircase going down from where we stood. It also appeared as though there were other rooms up here too, since there were multiple doors on our left and right.
"The others are probably already down, come on." Dylan said and began running down the stairs.
I went after him while looking around the place. There was a great chandelier on the ceiling and it appeared to be entirely made out of ice crystals. The large windows let shattered beams of light trough the rippled surface of the ice glass, and made the lighting of the room look almost magical.
"Be careful Dylan, you might slip and-"
Just when I was about to finish my sentance I heared Dylan yelp on the final steps of the stairs. He had slipped and was now falling on his face, but then he was caught by someone who had just rushed in.
"Oh, thanks I tought I might... have...." Dylan went silent when he rose his head up and saw who had caught him.
There was a pair of crimsom red eyes staring at him calmly. It was a wolf.
The wolf had dark gray fur and the fur on his back was slightly thicker, longer and darker than on the rest of his body. Like all of the Leurs, the wolf also seemed to walk on two legs, and its physique was mostly like with a man, except for the legs that were slightly different. He was wearing only a heavy looking belt with a loincloth and there were some feathers behind his ear. He also had small tattoos, or paint, on his muzzle and under his eye. The choker around his neck seemed to be made out of some shiny, black material. It was hard to tell from afar.
The wolfs body was just as musculars as Blaines was, but being a wolf's body, it was a tad slender of build. Blaine was a Leur afterall, and Leurs are extremely heavy of build.
The most charming thing about the wolf, however, defineatly had to be the eyes. The look on them was powerful, yet calm and maybe gentle too, if you looked deep enough.
"You should be more careful." The wolf said calmly and lowered Dylan down on his feet.
Dylan just nodded slightly without saying a word. The wolf beamed at him for a moment before turning around to leave.
"I might not be here to save you the next time." He said bluntly when he left trough the door near the bottom of the stairs.
I walked next to Dylan and looked at the door the wolf had left trough.
"Well that was an awkward moment." I huffed amused.
"... Who was that...?" Dylan mumbled. I was barely able to make out what he had just said.
"What?" I asked and leaned in front of him, looking him in the eyes.
"Oh, it's nothing. Lets just go." He said and went trough the same door as the wolf did before.
I stayed still for a while and grinned slightly when he had left. You can probably guess what I was thinking at that moment.
I caught up with Dylan and looked around. We were now in a large hallway with icy pillars and a midnight blue carpet that extended all the way to the other end of the place. There were many wolves around and the ones that noticed us were staring at us curiously, some in anger...
"We better find the others soon." I whispered to Dylan quietly.
"Yea, no kidding." He said back to me.
"It seems this whole place just got colder..." He continued while staring back at a large brown furred wolf who looked like he didn't want us anywhere near this place.
"Thank god." I sighed when I saw Raynald standing next to a large door in the end of the hallway.
We ran to him and looked around as if someone might attack us. It certanly felt like someone could!
"Thank goodness we found you." Dylan mumbled and gave a sharp look at a wolf that passed by with a discusted expression on his face.
"Where are Blaine and Jaze?" I asked a little surprised.
"I tought they'd be with you."
Raynald just nodded towards the door.
"They're currently speaking to the king of the wolves. It took us forever just to get a simple audience with him."
"I see..." I muttered and stared at the door. Just as I was about to speak again, the door opened.
Jaze slowly stepped out of the room, Blaine right behind him. Raynald looked at them both inquiringly.
Blaine shook his head.
"No luck, yet. He called for a meeting, for later today. He said he'd decide on what to do then."
"And we all have to be there." Jaze added.
The time we had to spend waiting for the meeting was like torture. We were forced to stay in our dorms until the time of the meeting and weren't allowed to move around too much. Blaine had switched dorms with Dylan and I was leying down on the bed, staring at the ceiling and as you could probably guess, bored out of my mind.
"They treat us like we were plannig to blow up the place..." I mumbled to Blaine who was sitting on the edge of the other bed.
He just shrugged and sighed.
"I guess we can't blame them. They've pretty much isolated themselves from the rest of the world, and of course outsiders could sometimes mean trouble. They have a reason for living way out here."
I placed my hand against my forehead and took a deep breath.
"Yeah, I guess you're right..." I said before glancing at Blaine who had a little grin on his face for some reason.
"What, what is it?" I asked and quikly examined my body.
"Is there something on me?"
Blaine chuckled and stood up before walking across the room. He sat down on the bed next to me and placed his paw on my cheek gently.
"It's been a while since the two of us have had some peace and quiet... Just the two of us together, you know." He said and brushed my cheek with his finger gently.
"I guess being locked up has it's good sides too, especially if it's being locked up with you." I said and giggled slightly when Blaine laid down next to me on the bed, still holding his paw on my face. His feet went slightly over the edge even when he bent his legs.
He pulled his face close to mine so that our noses were touching ever so slightly. Even that tiny touch sent waves of much needed warmth troughout my entire body.
Neither of us said anything for a little while. There was no need for words anyways. I lifted up my arms and wrapped them around Blaine's back before planting a kiss against the tip of his nose, making him rise his eyebrows.
"Don't think I'll let you off with just that." Blaine grinned and pulled me me in for another kiss, this time on the lips, and it wasn't just any little "peck" either!
Could you imagine what it felt like to kiss your lover like that after having so little time together alone? Well let me tell you, it felt so marvelous I could've melted.
I could feel Blaine's paw rubbing against my back before he suddenly lifted me up on my knees and pinned me against the wall behind us with a sly smirk on his face
"Guess you got me cornered now." I smiled.
"Yup... You got nowhere to run now." He anwsered with an even wider grin.
With a slight blush on my face, I pulled in for yet another kiss.
God, it felt so good. As I closed my eyes, I could almost see the sparks flying around in the air from the bliss of the moment. I could tell Blaine was enjoying it too, as he let slight moans slip trough the kiss. Even if it had been a while since we last kissed this passionately, I could never forget his scent, his taste, and the feeling of his warm wet tongue brushing against mine.
Our moment together didn't last for wery long though, as we were suddenly and rudely interrupted when a guard suddenly bursted in to the room without even knocking.
Both me and Blaine froze up and stared at the guard who just beamed at us both, almost in discust.
"The... King will see you now." He said without any changes in his expression. His tone, however, revealed what he was truly thinking.
Blaine coughed awkwardly and got up from the bed.
"Yes, yes of course." He said and helped me up too before we walked after the guard.
'You damn asshole...' I cursed inside my head.
I really truly felt slightly angry at the guard, even when it might not've been entirely his fault that we were interrupted...
Either way, on the bright side, we would finally meet the king, and get all of this over with!