Shadow Slaves
Chapter 11: Crossroads
The three of them stood motionless, bowing in agitated silence. What happened to Shifty isn't surprising, but it's still hard to digest. An unpleasant feeling settled in their hearts seeing the shattered bodies of their comrades, it was too easy to imagine one of them sharing the same fate.
No one knows what to say.
After about a minute, Scholar finally sighed.
“Luckily you took most of the supplies it brought.”
“Agot heartless, but not wrong,” thought Sunny while staring at the older slave carefully.
The scholar frowned, realizing that his mask as a kind-hearted man had slipped for a moment, and hurriedly added in a grim tone:
“May you rest in peace, my friend.”
‘Wow. Amazing show.’
In fact, Sunny did not believe in her good actions for a second. Every child from the periphery knows that the person who acts well for no reason is the most wary. They're stupid or monsters. The scholar did not look like a fool, so Sunny had become cautious of him ever since they met.
He got this far by being cynical and in disbelief, and there was no reason to change now.
“We have to go.” Hero said, throwing the last glance down.
His voice was flat, but Sunny could feel the emotions behind it. He just doesn't know what the emotion is.
Scholar sighed and turned around as well. Sunny stared at the bloodied rocks for a few seconds.
‘Why do I feel so guilty?’ he thought, puzzled by this unexpected reaction. “He got what he deserved.”
Slightly agitated, Sunny turned around and followed her two remaining friends.
Just like that, they left Shifty and continued climbing.
At this height, crossing the mountain was getting harder. The wind hit them with enough force to make one lose balance if they were not careful, making each step seem like a gamble. The air becomes too thin to be inhaled. Due to lack of oxygen, Sunny began to feel dizzy and nauseous.
It was as if they were all slowly suffocating.
Altitude sickness is not something that can be overcome with effort. It was smooth and arrogant at the same time, affecting the strong and the weak without regard to their fitness and endurance. If his luck was bad, an elite athlete could succumb faster than one who happened to pass by.
It's just a question of your innate talent and body's adaptability. The lucky ones can cope after experiencing mild symptoms. Others are sometimes paralyzed for days or weeks, suffering from a wide range of excruciating side effects. Some even died.
As if all that wasn't bad enough, the weather was getting colder as well. Warm clothes and fur were not enough to withstand the cold anymore. Sunny felt feverish and cold simultaneously, condemning every decision he made in his life ending up here, on the endless slopes of ice.
This mountain is not a place for humans.
But they have to continue.
A few hours passed. Despite everything, the three survivors continued to struggle forward, slowly moving higher and higher. Wherever the old path that the Scholar spoke of was, at present, impossible to far away. At least that's what Sunny expected.
But at some point, he began to doubt whether the path existed. Maybe the older boy lied. Perhaps the road had long since been destroyed by the ravages of time. Maybe they missed it without even knowing it.
As he was about to despair, they finally found him.
It was weathered and narrow, barely enough for two people to walk side by side. The path was not paved, but instead was cut from black stone by an unknown tool or magic, meandering up the mountain like the tail of a sleeping dragon. Here and there, hidden under the snow. But most importantly, it was flat. Sunny had never been so happy to see something flat in her life.
Without saying a word, Scholar dropped his backpack and sat down. He was deathly pale, panting like a fish out of the water. Even so, there was a slight grin on his face.
“I told you.”
Hero gave him a nod and looked around. A few seconds later, he returned to the victorious slave:
“Standing. It's not time for a break.”
Scholar blinked a few times, then glanced at him with pleading eyes.
“Only... Give me a few minutes.”
The young soldier was about to retaliate, but Sunny suddenly put a hand on his shoulder. The hero turned to face him.
“What is it?”
“It's missing.”
“What's missing?”
Sunny pointed down, back in the direction they came.
“Body Shifty. Already lost.”
Hero stared at her for a while, clearly failing to understand what Sunny was trying to say.
He wanted to explain, but the Scholar and Hero seemed to have understood his point. Simultaneously, they moved to the edge of the stone road and looked down, trying to find the place where Shifty met his end.
Indeed, splashes of blood were still visible on the jagged rocks, but his own remains were not found.
The scholar jerked backwards and crawled as far away from the edge as possible. The young soldier also retreated, instinctively grabbing the hilt of his sword. The three of them exchanged tense looks, clearly understanding the implications of Shifty's disappearance.
“That's the monster,” Scholar said, even paler than before. “It follows us.”
Heroes grit their teeth.
“You're right. And if it is that close, we will definitely be forced to fight it soon.”
The idea of fighting a tyrant was just as frightening as absurd. He might as well have said that they would all die soon. The truth was very clear to Sunny and Scholar.
But the older slaves, strangely enough, did not look panicked. Instead, he lowered his gaze and quietly said:
“But of course.”
Hero and Sunny turned to him, all ears. The young soldier raised an eyebrow.
“Explain?”
‘This is it.’
The scholar sighed.
“The beast has tracked us so far in just a day. That means there are two most likely possibilities. Either it's smart enough to realize where we're going, or follow the smell of blood.”
After thinking for a while, Hero nodded, agreeing with this logic. The older slave smiled slightly and continued.
“Whether it's one or another, we can throw it out of our tracks and buy time.”
“How do we do it?”
Despite the urgency in the Hero's voice, Scholar hesitated and remained silent.
“Why didn't you answer? Speak!”
The older slave sighed again and slowly, as if against his will, replied. Sunny had been waiting for this moment for a while now.
“We just have to.. make the boy bleed. Drag him down the trail, then leave him there as bait and get on. His sacrifice will save our lives.”
‘Tap time.’
If Sunny wasn't angry and scared to death, of course he would smile. His judgment, it seems, is very precise. Affirmations are always good but not in situations where being right also means potentially being used as monster bait.
He remembered Scholar's words spoken back when Shifty campaigned to kill Sunny “Don't be too hasty, my friend. The boy might come in handy later.” These words, which used to sound kind, have now turned out to hide a much more sinister meaning.
‘Truly bastard!’
Now it all depends on whether or not the Hero will decide to follow up on the Scholar plan.
The young soldier blinked, astonished.
“What do you mean, make him bleed?”
The scholar shook his head.
“Simple, really. If the monster knows where we are going, we have no choice but to abandon our plan to reach the mountain pass and go to the top of the mountain instead. If the monster follows the scent of blood, we should use one of us as bait to mislead him.”
He's stopped.
“Only by leaving a bloody man further down the road, we can reliably avoid the chase no matter how it tracks us.”
Hero stood motionless, his eyes switching between Scholar and Sunny. After a few seconds, he asked:
“How can you force yourself to propose something so vile?”
The older slave expertly pretended to look sad and gloomy.
“Of course, it hurts me! But if we don't do anything, the three of us will die. This way, at least the boy's death would save two lives. The gods will reward him for his sacrifice!”
‘Wah, what a silver tongue. I almost convinced myself.’
The young soldier opened his mouth, then closed it again, hesitating.
Sunny silently watched the other two survivors, gauging his chances of winning in the fight. The scholar was already halfway into being a corpse, so defeating him would not be a problem. Heroes, however Heroes present obstacles.