He trudged through the snow, legs heavy as if weights have been chained to him, and arms barely swinging, parts of his skin turned blue from the cold, the frostbitten shadows covering parts of his nose where freckles should've been. He squinted his amber eyes against the biting wind, his eyes narrowing to slits as snow lashed his face, and tears welled up, blurring his vision and freezing almost instantly when they moved out his eyes. Some snowflakes tangled themselves in his messy black hair as his white buttoned shirt and black loose-fitting pants blew with the freezing cold breeze.

  *Where the hell is it?* He wondered, watching his breath puff out as pale clouds, teeth chattering so hard his jaw ached.

  He shivered as he struggled to walk through the narrow pathway, walking past small square structures that held dead bodies inside, the black, white, red and yellow pigments on the vertical surfaces forming geometric patterns, symbols that meant something once.

  Shoulders trembling, he slowly looked up, the snow clouds making the ceiling grey like they were a lid on the world. He hugged his arms, trying to get warm, but it was almost impossible.

  Something caught his eye on his right. A small square building, like all the others. Except, the wall of this one has a mural of a female figure with a crown, holding a staff with three other figures bowing before her. Painfully, the shivering boy cracked a small smile, his breath shivering but getting excited.

  *This is it!*

  He dragged his legs to the buildings’ door. It was half decomposed, but still needed to be opened with the handle. With a shaky left hand, he reached out to the doorknob, but his fingers felt too still to curl enough to grab the knob.

  “C'mon…” He muttered.

  He forced his fingers to curl with a pained grunt and pushed the door open, his eyes slightly wider in anticipation.

  Sure enough, with the room lit up in faint grey light, the room had a tomb with golden artifacts around it. The person's tomb was made of silver and had golden patterns. He staggered towards the coffin and kneeled down to open the coffin. He lifted the cap, smiling in excitement as the coffin revealed the corpse inside.

  *Wha..?* The corpse that looked like it belonged to a woman didn't have a crown like he expected.

  “D-Damn it…” He muttered.

  He shut the lid closed and grunted as he fought to stand back up. *Man, I'm so cold!* He thought as his body felt sore.

  He trudged out of the room and continued walking through the narrow snowy pathway, glancing left and right to find another special chamber. As he did, he heard a splash in the distance, his head twitched in the sounds’ direction. He tried to ignore it as he dragged his legs onward, but he immediately stepped out onto a small open space, several paces ahead was a small, clear pool with a creek flowing into it and a waterfall falling from the ceiling further ahead, untouched by clouds, water shimmering in open air.

  He trudged along, hoping to drink some of that water, but suddenly felt his right leg suddenly give out, paralyzed. His eyes snapped downwards to his leg.

  *What the..!*

  He tried limping forward, but his balance shattered and fell down face-first into the snow, the rest of his body giving out.

  “Oof!”

  Only his eyes moved, frantically looking around as the snow fell on his limp body, his breath becoming ragged from panic. He cooled himself down, breath slowing.

  *Maybe I just have to wait until I can move again… heh heh.* He thought nervously, not sure of his words as his body became more cold as snow slowly covered him.

  He closed his eyes, hoping that his body would magically be able to move, as he tried moving any part of his body, but failed, all he did was shiver involuntarily.

  He felt the snow start to calm as less snowflakes fell on him. *...my ear is itchy …* he thought with a miserable huff escaping his mouth, knowing damn well he couldn't scratch it.

  He sighed in defeat after a few moments, and closed his eyes again.

  *Guess this is the end…*

  Suddenly, he heard a soft, but clear “thud” sound nearby in front of him. Slowly, his eyes opened and he tried his very best to lift his head, his neck screaming, to look at what made the sound, shaking from both effort and cold. Surprisingly, his head tilted up as he commanded, he cracked a small smile.

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  *Guess I'll move after all.*

  He saw the snow now completely stopped, everything in front of him clear now. With tired eyes, he spotted a figure floating on the water, right by the edge, and could see the silhouette of hair; he could see the gleam of a sword floating beside the figure. It seemed to be a person.

  “Huh?”

  He was confused, *Someone else is here?* he asked himself, his body starting to twitch when he tried moving. His limbs felt stiff and cold, refusing to budge, but he stiffened his jaw and tried to force his arms and legs to move.

  “Hnnnngh!” He grunted. He felt his right arm start to budge just a little bit, but he kept trying to move it, along with his left arm, which was still twitching beside his side.

  “Grrrr!” His face started turning red from effort, now starting to pant.

  Finally, he managed to propel himself up, his right forearm folded under his chest, lifting his shoulders off the ground, panting and shivering.

  He could see the body clearer now; a male, looked around his age. He had black hair that was slightly brown and had honey-brown skin, and surprisingly, was holding dual swords while unconscious.

  *Who is this guy?* He wondered, eyes widening a little.

  Realizing his other limbs just didn't want to move, he improvised and used his arm to slowly drag his body forward.

  “Hnnngh!” He grunted as his body shifted forward towards the boy on the water, leaving a shallow trail behind him.

  When he reached the edge, he saw the body in its full glory. With a closer look, he saw the boy also had a scar on the left side of his upper lip. The body also wore light colored loose-fitting pants and a sleeveless shirt, and saw the high-quality swords in his hands.

  *Those are cool.*

  With his right arm shaking from the effort of dragging his weight, he tried moving his other arm.

  Arm shaking violently, he reached out his right arm towards the boy, lying prone again. He tugged at the body, almost impossible to lift the guy's weight with one near-frozen arm with sore fingers, and while also trying to move his other arm.

  “C-Crap…”

  ***

  Tenaro slowly blinked open his eyes, his body shivering involuntarily, his limbs feeling cold and heavy. He lay on his back, looking directly upward. He could see his breath as it trembled in the air above him . The last thing he remembered was him sinking into the abyss, now he ended up here?

  *Where am I?* He asked himself, his eyes becoming wider as he felt frosty wind send more cold into his skin.

  Feeling vulnerable, his confusion turned into alertness, and he jolted upright, eyes wide open. As he sat up, he saw a figure right beside him. Tenaro gasped and recoiled back, chest tensing in surprise, shifting a few paces back in a flash, forgetting the cold.

  The sudden movement caused the figure to flinch.

  “GAH!” It yelped, dropping the sword that was in its hands.

  They stared at each other, tension building up.

  “Uhm…hi?” The mystery person said with a nervous smile.

  “Who are you?!” Tenaro barked, springing to his feet as he glared into the figure's wide amber eyes. He also noticed his black hair and faint freckles on his face.

  He then noticed a gleam beside the guy, and realized it was one of his swords. The other blade was next to where Tenaro lay just a minute ago.

  “What the hell are you doing with my swords?!”

  The figure struggled to climb to his feet, almost falling again, trembling almost violently. He stared back at Tenaro and reached a shaky arm out, signaling that Tenaro should calm down.

  “L-Listen, ‘gasp’, M-my name is-” The guy was cut off when Tenaro charged at him, throwing a right hook to the head.

  Eyes wide, the person raised his left hand and caught Tenaro's punch, shivering from cold and effort.

  Tenor felt how cold the guy was but didn't give it much thought and threw a left punch to the guy's stomach, but he caught that punch too.

  The guy lifted his right leg and tried giving Tenaro a front kick, but Tenaro nimbly leaped back, the two of them staring at each other again.

  “C-calm down, man.” The guy started, “My n-name is Tatsu. You were out c-cold on the water there and I pulled you out. T-that's all.”

  Tenaro glanced to his left, seeing a pool of clear water, with a creek flowing in. He slowly dropped his arms, and looked back at Tatsu.

  “See?” Tatsu said, lifting his shaky arms to show he's harmless.

  Tenaro's gaze softened a little but still didn't trust him, “Give me my swords.” He stated simply, walking towards Tatsu.

  “Y-your swords d-didn't have scabbards. I t-think they got lost when y-you ended up here.” Tatsu said, as he picked up Tenaro's swords.

  Tenaro said nothing until he was in front of him, “My swords don't have scabbards.” He simply said, taking the swords from Tatsu as he stared back at Tenaro.

  “No scabbards?” He repeated.

  “Yeah.” Tenaro replied, looking at his hips, expecting his rope to be there. But he remembered that he ripped it as hell into the trench.

  *Damn it.* He cursed inwardly.

  Tatsu scratched his pitch black hair, “So…w-what's your name?”

  “Tenaro.”

  “That's an, o-odd name.”

  Tenaro stayed silent, looking at the ground for a split second. Tatsu stared at him with curiosity.

  Tenaro noticed he was shivering, and his teeth chattering, “Why's is so cold in h-here?”

  “Dunno. I think I'm g-gonna get frostbite from b-being here so long. Heh.” Tatsu replied, looking at his arms, some patches of them having blue skin.

  “Why are you here?” Tenaro asked.

  “Looking f-for a gold c-crown that belongs t-to some important l-lady.” Tatsu said with a proud smile. Tenaro raised an eyebrow at him and just drifted his gaze away.

  “Pretty straightforward.” Tenaro commented, looking around and spotted a waterfall from behind him and the stalactites made of ice on the ceiling above where clouds weren't there, and he scratched the back of his head.

  “What is this place? Are we still in Baru Naga? And why the hell are there clouds in a cave?”

  “Mhm.” Tatsu shrugged, “I j-just know this Baru Naga. I think.” He said, looking around as if wondering himself.

  “You think?” Tenaro gave him a side eye.

  “I haven't gone up there yet so I don't know.” Tatsu explained, “I took a route that led to this cave, so…”

  “I wanna go back up to the surface.” Tenaro said, walking past Tatsu and toward the chambers.

  Tatsu looked back at him, “H-hey, w-wait up!” trudging after Tenaro while panting.