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The wind buffeted a lone fox’s fur and howled into the cloudy blue skies, carrying a flurry of snow and ice along with it.
He shivered as he sat on a small rock, watching the snow-laden land ahead. He couldn't spot any cliff faces, except for the one behind him, but a low hill rolled out of the obscuring snow, a single tower of small stones marking its crest. As well, two smaller towers lied before the hill.
And beyond that he could see the trail that he'd been following.
The sky was marked with red, a deeper and more crimson red than he'd ever seen before- like the very heavens above was bleeding from a wound cut deep.
But where was the wound, in that case?
That was what the fox'd set out to find out.
He pushed himself up to his paws and trotted forward with fluid grace, paws meeting cold, crystalline snow that came up to his forelegs.
He cut a swathe through the pure-white sea, barely noticing the snow that settled on his face and ears and back and colored his dark forelegs just as white, except for the mild chill it brought in its wake.
He was already close to freezing, he could handle being a bit colder. But he'd probably need to find shelter soon, lest the snow swallow him whole.
It was a short walk to the hill and tower (which he used as a makeshift shelter), and as the sky trail shifted above, he beheld an awe-inspiring sight.
A mighty glacier rose out of the snow like a slumbering giant. More towers (although not all were upright) lead to it, like a trail.
There was no way around it, and it was going to be good shelter anyways, so he set off towards it.
It was a slightly longer trot to there, but he made it in due time, and slipped into the surprisingly small tunnel of pure blue ice as the howling of the blizzard dulled behind it, although the snow remained.
He walked through it, admiring the way the ice shone in the light, until he came to a small rocky part of the glacier.
The way forward was blocked, and there was a skeleton beside it, its pelt(?) still fluttering in the wind.
He sniffs at the skeleton warily. Dead. Has been for a while now.
He turns and takes a side path, in hopes that perhaps it will have a way forwards.
The snow and rock turned to black sand under his paws, and he beheld another rock formation.
Small steps lead up to it, a glowing skylight illuminating a... stick(?) buried somewhat in the black sand. It was straight, but one of the edges curved into a claw-moon shape, and a small stone was embedded where the curve began.
He grabs it (although he isn't quite sure why) and heads back to the main room.
As he does so, the stick's crystal begins to glow, and a crackle similar to rushing water breaking ice (or a warm fire) sounds out.
He doesn't know why, he should've just dropped the stick, but he took it back to the skeleton.
A strange piece of rock that it had began to glow as the stick got closer, and closer...
He dropped it.
And proceeded to jump back-and-away as a spirit rose from the skeleton, red-being-consumed-by-blue.
It... made some sort of motion. Was it thanking him?
He startled back again as the rock wall behind the spirit crumbled.
There was a way forward now.
He proceeded, deeper and deeper- and, surprisingly enough, upwards.
Until he eventually went back down again, the winding black-sand path leading him to a rock jutting out over the path, little things he didn't quite have a name for dangling from it.
And... that was a fox.
Gleaming blue like frosted snow and speckled with glowing white swirls like the sky-lights that the oldest foxes could remember, and faintly translucent- he could see the ground beneath her-, but still a fox.
He approaches, quickly turning in circles and yipping excitedly- it’s been so long since he’s seen another traveler! Much less a fox!
She rose, looked at him, and calmly walked away, over a ridge.
He scrambled over to the edge, watching as she flew, jumping on air like it was ground beneath her paws- ripples like water pulsed from each jump, spiraling in the same blue color as she was.
And he'd heard of the lights that followed her.
He'd heard of them in tales, old-old tales.
The sky-lights!
He watches as she curls up again on one of those rock towers.
But... he still had so many questions!
He trotted down the path near from where she jumped (not taking the falling route, no thank you), stumbling into yet another glistening-ice cavern, this one with water carving channels through it and falling from the sky, fading into mist as it carved its way forwards and back.
It was a gorgeous sight, truly, but he only really cared about the mystery fox right now.
He walked up to her and yipped again. Hello?? I still have so many questions!
She got up again and used that flight of hers to find her way to an even taller tower- more a spire of natural rock then the unnatural formations of the smaller towers.
He jumped into the water that separated him and the tower and swam to the other side, finding his way back onto a path of black sand that he followed for a bit, before, using small ledges of rock and a snow-covered path, climbing up the tower.
The fox was sitting this time, but she still flew away the moment he came too close.
This was starting to get annoying, but he found his way back down and started walking in the direction she took, trotting through a small-and-close tunnel of ice before it opened into another large water-filled cavern.
Swimming through yet more water that blocked his path, he took the black-sand way that curved up.
She was waiting again, still sitting, this time behind a waterfall.
Lights above, what did she want? She didn't respond last time he asked...
This time, she didn't fly away, instead simply walking through a path behind him.
He followed, staying close (but the fox was fast), before she burst into a run- he, of course, ran after her, until he tumbled down a slide of ice beneath his paws.
He took the path the ice had slid him to, although the fox was mysteriously missing (again), weaving between multiple pillars of ice that stretched floor to ceiling- although that wasn't much, these caverns were much closer together.
The fox- spirit?- waited on a small pillar of rocks outside a piece of ice that blocked the way forwards.
He yipped at her, watching as she trotted over to the ice piece and yipped at it.
It sunk into the ground.
This was a spirit, most definitely.
He ran after her as she suddenly burst into a run- that led him to yet another ice slide, one that led back outside.
But something felt off here.
Once he reached the spirit, he took a right instead of following her, climbing up a hidden path.
There was another stick here.
There must be another skeleton, as well.
And his intuition was rewarded- as he went back down and to the other side, he found another path that led to it.
He let the staff go and fled before the skeleton's spirit awakened.
He was terrified of them, really.
Even the fox. She was powerful, certainly, to make the earth move for her!
Once he had finished his sprint downwards, he went to the spirit- for a bit, before deciding that, no, he was not going to let her leave this time, and switching directions to slide down the ice path.
The spirit noticed and followed, but he was already sliding away by then, down back into the ice caverns.
Walking past yet another rock, he discovered several small patches of ice that led to a larger, more complete slide (back outside, too)- which he took, of course.
And now he was officially back in the glacier- right?, and he took yet another slide downwards.
It seemed he was constantly going to encounter more outside areas preceded by covered slides- another of which he crossed before his paths crossed with the spirit again.
She leapt out of a high-placed tunnel, before running-on-sky to ledge and following him as he slid down yet another slide (this one out in the open).
As he came to a stop, she spiraled down and landed on a small rock formation.
There was another skeleton here.
Which meant...
He trotted into the structure on his left, his intuition again rewarded with a staff which he brought to the skeleton.
The spirit was whining at it.
Did she know it, before?
Well, he placed down the staff once again and stepped back, hiding inside the structure and peeking out a hole to make sure it was absolutely safe.
Once it was, he stepped back out to rejoin the spirit.
She trotted down a snowfield, him following close behind- before changing into a run that he matched, although his breaths came fast and labored.
He was not happy about running so fast, but he did, coming to yet another ice wall which the Spirit took down, yipping at it much the same way he did her- although with much more of an echo.
Yet another slide- this one more icy ground than actual ice- was behind, which both of them took.
Deeper and deeper into the earth they went, as his fur was soaked by a few small streams of water that he had to pass through.
The Spirit jumped, and the fox was not quick enough to understand what to do before he fell into a lake.
Small pillars-of-gray-rock greeted him as he swam to the only place that he could get to (the Spirit had taken a high pillar of rock that he had no hope of getting to).
He walked forward uncertainly, taking a sloping path upwards.
There was some sort of upright stone here, near strange things he had no words for, red and black and fleshy and strange, and as he approached markings on it glowed pale sky-wound red.
He sniffled. Something was in the air here, curling inside him with each breath he took.
He still went forward. The Spirit could protect him, possibly, she seemed to have taking a liking to him.
His pawsteps began to slow as he limped forwards...
And stumbled, and fell, collapsing to the ground in front of the stone as the thing that it brought tore at him from the inside.
He knew only darkness then, and did not see the Spirit- or Aetlyena, to give her her correct name- make her way towards him, nor saw her glow with power, and with a single bark tear plague from rune.
He did not see the stone fall, either, nor the platform he was on.
And down, down, down he went...