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Ajax shivered, wrapping the cloak Skirk gave to him around his trembling body. He curled into the cold black rock. Outside the cave, he could hear the growling and snarling of abyss monsters prowling around the area. When was Skirk going to come back? It felt like eons had passed since she left.
There was a rustling sound just outside the opening of the cave. Ajax tensed, breaths quickening as his head snapped towards noise. His heart raced. Was it an abyss monster? Please, please don’t hurt me, please go away-
“Child.”
The tension melted out of his body at the sound of Skirk’s voice. Her sharp gaze pierced into him, but strangely enough, he only felt comfort in her presence.
Perhaps it was stupid and naive to trust her so completely after only a week of knowing her - plus, she was wandering the abyss. That was mysterious enough on its own without the glittering limbs made of Abyssal power and the otherworldly combat prowess. But she was also the only person he had come across in this wasteland, and she was protecting him. It didn’t matter if she had nefarious intentions - Ajax would be dead without her, anyway.
Skirk sighed. “You really are helpless without me, aren’t you?”
Ajax should be offended at the statement. Yet, he wasn’t - perhaps it was the way she said it. It reminded him of a nagging mother.
She set her catch down before placing a few sticks in a pile, and then she started a fire using her Abyssal power. The heat enveloped him in a warm hug. It brought him back to a time of peacefulness, sitting at the fireplace in his home with his mother and his siblings, chatting leisurely as they waited for his father to come home from work.
A lump formed in Ajax’s throat as his eyes started to sting. He let out a small sniffle and bit his trembling lip. I want to go home. At least Snezhnaya was just frigid. The Abyss was cold with fear.
“Hey, child.”
Ajax swallowed, quickly wiping away his tears with the back of his sleeves before looking up at her.
Skirk busied her hands as she talked, gaze fixed on the fire. “The Abyss is a cruel place. Only the strong survive.” Ajax kept silent as she continued. “I get that you’re scared. I get that you want to cry. But tears signify weakness to the countless predators roaming around here. In order to come out of this alive, you must lock those feelings away. You must build a facade and face the horrors with confidence.”
She stilled, and her eyes flickered to him. “I cannot always protect you. There are always going to be times where you will be left alone. So, I will teach you how to fight.”
Ajax nodded. He understood. He knew was weak. He was just an ordinary boy who had fallen into a world far more vast and dangerous than anything he had ever known. It was pure luck that had led him to Skirk and allowed him to survive until now.
Skirk smiled at him. “Eat, child, then get some rest. Tomorrow we will begin training. You’ll become strong, I know it.”
Ajax returned her smile. The movement felt foreign - it had been a while since he last smiled.
Hope flared in his chest. He hadn’t realised it, but sometime in the past week of living in this cold, desolate wasteland, he had resigned himself to the fate of a lonely, painful death.
He knew it would be hard to get strong. He had never even held a sword - or any other weapon, for that matter - in his hands before. But he didn’t want to die. He wanted to go home. And he would fight for it.
He would go home, he promised himself. He would make it out of this hellhole called the Abyss.