No Sun in Winter

[Lion]

Theon was right behind her, the torch igniting the dark and bringing to life the skills and bones imbedded onto the stone and ice.  Animal remains were left on the floor and the smell in the air was dense with the odor of ash.

He wondered how many ages of men and animals had gone by and found themselves here, trapped by fate and ice eternal.

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A strange thing to behold- where ice, stone and bone collected. It was a rare sight, and Ninn lingered against a particular wall where it seemed the most skulls were heaped and studied it as the torch light flickered. She reached a hand forward and drew her hand back, rubbing her fingers together as she said, "It's wet." She looked at the wall again before taking a step back.

"If it wasn't already obvious, I'd say this is not a natural layer of ice on the walls." She gestured to Theon. "Let's keep moving. These caves go deeper."

[Lion]

Going in further made the temperature raise just slightly, however Theon's breath still came out in small white puffs.  He held the torch high, stalking further into the darkness and the cave soon opened up into a tall giant cavern, one where small fonts of steam and hot water emerged from geysers of sorts along the side.

"Those creatures," Theon found himself asking.  "Where do they come from?  How long have they been hunting in this area?"

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"I couldn't know," she told him, eyes hard and studying the steaming room and how it made the icy walls wet and sticky, and the footing, hard to make concrete. "I do know they've been around long before you and I." But that's what they were here for, to figure this out-
and to stop these slaughtering beasts.

There was a sudden rumble, and Ninn lost her footing, slipping onto a nearby steppe of coarse rock and stone. Cursing, she tried to right herself, but it was difficult as debris came down in pinging pieces from above. Luckily, whatever shook the ground didn't last long.

"We should hurry... if the ground here is unsteady, our search won't be as productive."

Once she found more solid footing, she rose off the ground, and steadily, slowly, began to navigate through the hot springs room.

[Lion]

After the ground shook, Theon helped Ninn along, with some trepidation.  However his care was unnecessary, he knew and he kept close.  This was the quietest Jouzan had ever been, and the soft rustling of movement in his hood, and was sure the bird was still there.

Suddenly there was a scream somewhere deeper in the caves, of a man's voice in agony.

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Ninn stiffened and gripped the hilt of her sword. Her eyes shot in the direction she had heard it and gestured forward.
"Quickly! That way!" And she rushed down the dark cave.

[Lion]

The scream they chased echoed again, and the steam grew hotter around them actually summoning sweat from Theon's skin.  He panted lightly as they came to a rise of rocks that would carry them to the source of the noise above.

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And what they would find made Ninn's blood turn cold, and nearly lose her lunch-a nd grip on her blade, for dark as the room was, there was a sort of chaotic order to this one with a million rows of recesses, appearing hive like in their distress. But it wasn't this strange pocked wall that made the woman pale, but the sight of a man wallowing in his own melting body, as he sat there, arms too big and awkward, bulging from his form; and teeth grinding together that they began to burst, all the while long fangs seemed to saw out from bleeding gums as the flattened lips swelled forward, forming into the gnarled form of a wolf like mouth.

[Lion]

The transformation was horrific and Theon gasped quietly at the sight if it.  Other wolves roamed hungrily around him, and he watched as the pulled at his useless mortal flesh.

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The flesh of his previous form was useless, and the few other fire-heart wolves that stalked around his form gobbled it up in a savage frenzy, all the while the poor soul in the center continued to change, it's form bubbling like lava, steam billowing out from all over before some semblance of a beast began to draw up from the ground.

And though fully formed looking near like the others, the monster threw it's head back, throat broiling with colors before it howled out a blast of fire laden steam.

[Lion]

"We can't just run in there, they'll slaughter us.  We should wait until they leave the cavern.  Most of them anyway," Theon suggested.  And as if he'd predicted it, so it was done.  The wolves were sent out, and moved out toward the other tunnels to welcome their new brother.

To think that these things were human, or perhaps were at some point was unnerving.  Theon had felt anxiety before, but this seemed to graduate into a determined fear.  When he saw the room was mostly empty, he quietly crawled over the lip of rocks.

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Ninn hesitated. Would it be wise to even go in the same room? However, they needed answers, and she wasted no more time and followed him up and over the rocks.

The room smelled putrid, even without the beasts within here. She flinched and held a gloved hand over her mouth and nose to stifle the smell.

She moved around, observing the room but nothing seemed too out of the ordinary here, so she moved towards the only other opening within the room aside from the path the beast had left from, and began to explore deeper into their nest.

The path grew narrower here, and she let Theon take the lead to light the way. At one point, a sharp bend forced them on their hands and knees until the path opened up into a larger pit- and before Theon could take a step inside, Ninn grabbed his shoulders and pulle dhim back against her, so her face was near to his and her front pressed to his back.

"Don't move," she whispered into his ear. And soon he'd see why- for there were moving shadows off int he distance. No doubt, more monsters. But it was hard to see.

[Lion]

The jerking motion knocked the bone torch from Theon's grip and he leaned back against her in the crevice that they had crawled from.  He held his breath when he saw the shadows ahead.  With the torch away from them, it hid them well, blending them in darkness.

And up ahead there were creatures that resembled the wolves, some of them walking up on their hind legs as if they had not yet fully transformed yet.  Steam emerged from their snouts, and their teeth dripped with saliva.  The crevice before them opened up to a single path, a section of cliff that overlooked the blackened pit on the right side.

The drop off was step and steam emerged from the darkness.

"What are those things?' he murmured in a soft whisper.  He would get to see one up close when one noticed the torch burning softly on the ground.

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Lapping flames glistened off crunching fangs, and before Ninn knew it, she was howling in pain as she shoved Theon out of the way and threw her arm up to shield him. The bite was savage, and the beast did not yield and began to drag Ninn from the corner, just as the other beasts began to race their way.

[Lion]

Shoving him out of the way only have advantage to the wolf creature that attacked Ninn. His bite was savage and he shoved her to the ground, claws digging deep into vulnerable flesh.

Theon's eyes widened and he was quick to climb to his feet, drawing his blade and hacking at the neck of the creature. Lohengrin struck clean and true, severing the head from the beast.

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The impact left her stunned, long enough to choke on failed words of warnings as another set of beasts rushed at Theon, while she failed to notice a third racing up behind her as she clutched onto her wounds.

[Lion]

Theon felt outside of himself. The sword was firmly in hand and he twisted suddenly feeling the edge of Lohengrin digging deep into the fire wolf. His eyes were cool and he moved and flowed like water.  Crashing into the oncoming pack with swiftness and ferocity. The edge of his sword was dripping with their blood.

And he saw the beast coming for Nin. He side-stepped and lunged, pinning the animal to the ground.

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The beasts were slain, but not for long, for she only had a few seconds left to the ragged sounds of her deep breathing when snarls echoing in the caves alerted her there'd soon be more. Her lips curled back into a snarl.
"We need to move."
Before the bite got worse, and before there could be even more.

[Lion]

Theon gripped her arm and yanked her from the carnage. He kept Lohengrin firmly in hand just as more wolves were coming from back where they came.

They ventured further ahead. There was no place to hide and it was too late to turn back.

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So deep in the dark, it was hard to tell what direction the beasts were coming for them. But the caves thinned out, and Ninn's grip tightened on her sword.
"If we're going to fight more, it might as well be here."