Fire crackled as the frigid winds buffered at it, another stick was placed in the fire to make sure it did not stop burning. I placed my cold hands over the fire and sighed at the warmth. It was a great feeling going from the icy cold to the warm fire.
It had already been dozens of hours since we had begun searching for the owners of this realm, however we had found nothing. No trace of civilization nor of life. It was like this winter land was the only thing this realm had to offer.
After we had searched for that long we,
and by we I mean Delta, had suggested that we find a shelter. Neither Aoif nor I had objected to that. It was for the simple reason that both of us still had a psychological need for sleep. It wasn't that our bodies actually needed sleep, no, they had gone away with that need after evolving to tier 4 but our minds still thought we needed it. That was the whole reason that we even had a shelter, the sleep deprivation that would come from the constant awareness would cripple us in battle. Even though Delta was most likely able to combat anything that we came across it didn't mean that I wanted to leave everything to her.
"Hm…" I hummed, my eyes glanced to the side to look at Aoif who had leaned her body against mine.
"Sleep" She mumbled, her arms wrapped around my body and dragging it to the ground.
"Mmkay" I said, my own eyes closed too as I snuggled into Aoif. The warmth that she gave off was enough for the sleep to be comfortable.
"Night… love you" I mumbled into Aoif's ear, my own consciousness fading at those words.
…
"Up" I heard from above me as a cold hand touched my neck.
"Guh" I grunted out, the hand shocking me into awareness.
"Food" was all that I heard before a slop of some mystery food was put in front of me.
"What is this?" I ask, my hand pointed to the food that Delta had reached out to give to me.
"Food" Delta repeated.
"Hah" I sighed, even though I would rather not eat whatever that was, my stomach told a different tale. The hunger stopped me from even thinking about not eating so with another sigh I ate it.
'It's actually not that bad' I thought to myself after having swallowed it. There was actually no taste to the food. It was just tasteless with a slightly chalky texture. Nothing bad, just unpleasant to eat.
Though after it had reached my stomach I was immediately full, full in hunger and in energy.
"Nnn…" I heard next to me, Aoif had woken up while I was swallowing down the food that Delta had made.
Another plate of food was placed in front of Aoif and just as I had eaten it so did Aoif. Though Aoif made a face about it, the texture apparently did not agree with her.
"Ready" Delta said, already at the entrance of the cavern that she had carved out.
"Yeah" both Aoif and I said, as we nodded our heads.
…
All around us was snow, even when I kneeled down to search for vegetation through the snow I found nothing. There was no plant life here, even the wood that we had used last night was synthesized by Delta.
It had already been about 5 hours since we had departed but there was still nothing, no signs of anything. The only thing close to life we found was a dead patch of grass and that was only after so much searching. At this point I was thinking of giving up, of just going home.
Even up on the mountain that we sat now, with the great vantage point that it gave us nothing was in view.
"Anything" I asked, turning to Delta who was constantly scanning the surroundings.
A shake of the head, no further answer as she went back searching was the only answer that I got.
"What if we try looking for caverns, caves or anything underground. If life couldn't survive above ground then maybe they could have survived underground?" Aoif next to me spoke up for the first time in the few hours that we had been searching.
"Actually that might work, Delta?" I turned my head from its gaze on Aoif to Delta.
"Maybe, there are an unusual amount of cave systems around the area." Delta mumbled as her eyes gazed downwards.
…
"Stand back" Delta said, her arm holding what seemed to be a trigger.
"Wha-" I jumped back before I could even finish my sentence, instincts forcing me to the side.
BOOOM
A huge explosion rang out, snow and ice fell to the giant hole that Delta had created.
With a jump I was by Delta's side, Aoif next to me.
Though before I could even ask why she had done that Delta had jumped into the hole, her form disappearing as she fell further and further.
"Hah" I sighed, my legs tensing as I readied to jump after her.
"Wait" I heard from beside me and stopped as Aoif walked to my side.
"There" Aoif said, her legs wrapped around my waist as she hoisted herself into my back.
"Now you can jump."
Again I tended my legs, and this time I did jump. The sun that had attempted to blind is from when we appeared to now, fading into the background as I fell further and further into the hole.
…
BANG
My feet touched the ground, a hole appearing where I had touched down. On my back Aoif got off, her feet had touched the ground just as I was recovering from the fall.
I looked around me, taking in the surroundings and what I saw amazed me. It wasn't snow and ice like I had expected. No, it was like a paradise, creatures of all walking around as they cautiously avoided the crater. Vegetation grew wildly as it consumed the walls. Most striking was the massive behemoth that seemed to be sleeping despite the amount of noise that we had made.
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