CHAPTER 23
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My left eye was opened, he still wore those leather gloves; the man outside the restaurant. A lantern lit up the pine trees around us. His red beak almost touched my face, as he closely inspected me.

“Stop, I’m not dead!” I extended my arms to push him away.

The lantern’s flame went out, and beak-man was gone. I rose from the whiteness that had cushioned my fall, shivering. The patches of snow on my skin melted away, and made my dress damp. Not very well dressed for winter. The storm must’ve blown us off course, because this was far from the tropical climate of Banana Island.

“MAH AAAAAM!! BROKAAAN!!” Abo screamed nearby.

I followed the sound up the slope. Snow reached my knees with every step I took. How unlucky could one be? Two Joe Barths in the same valley… But Mike was right, we won’t give up, knowing who did not have Maria was more the reason to continue searching.

Something grabbed my foot, I shrieked.

“Lea, it’s mee!” Abo said, “mah aam is brokan!”

“That’s not good,” I replied, “what do you want me to do?”

“Find a doctah!”

“I don’t know where we are, what direction do I go?”

“Aah don’t know! Wak ina streat liaan until ya find somwan!”

A reindeer watched us from between the trees. I took a second to admire the beautiful antlers branching out from its head, but something wasn’t right. The reindeer’s eyes looked like they were glowing red. It let out a high pitch roar, then dashed towards us.

I reached for my Schofield, but realized all I had was the empty brass pistol. The reindeer gouged down on Abo’s face. I jumped on its back, put the Kodachi’s blade against its neck, and made a slit. Blood spilled out over Abo, his broken arm flopped around as if he was trying to fight the reindeer. It did not react to having its throat slit open. Just kept on chewing the skin off of Abo’s face. He grabbed one of its antlers with his non-broken arm, trying to push it away, but to no avail. I pushed the blade into the reindeer’s heart. Blood turned the snow red. It kept gnawing on Abo, until all blood had left its body, then it laid its head down to rest for eternity.

“I’M STUCK!” Abo said, “LEA TRAH LYFTIN’ DIS BEEST OFF AH MEE!”

Put both my hands under the reindeer’s warm carcass. I already knew beforehand it was no use, the carcass did not move. A pair of red eyes blinked, another pair opened.

“There are more..” I said.

Abo turned his head in the direction I was looking. His white eyeballs widened into full circles.

“RUN LEA, RUN!” he screamed.

Did what I do best; I ran. I understood the sacrifice Abo had just made, broken arm and no face. At least one of us had the chance of making it out alive. The beasts with red eyes roared in unison, and chased after me down the incline. One settled on Abo, but the other was determined to catch me.

I pushed branches out of my way, and dodged trees appearing seemingly out of nowhere in front of me. Humans aren’t very fast compared to other animals. Really, it’s surprising we’ve made it this far. A gunshot whizzed by, reminding me of what humans have that animals don’t; technology. The beast squealed.

Someone grabbed me: “Come with me!”

We ran through the woods, not knowing whether or not the beast was still in pursuit. A little cabin with smoke coming out the chimney stood before us. The fireplace lit up the windows. The someone that had saved me kicked the door open, waited for me to run in, then shut it.

“Help me with this!” the someone said. He was trying to move a cabinet in front of the door.

I put my feet on the wall, and pushed the cabinet with my back. My legs were strong enough to get the cabinet to budge. We were safe.

“You got any bites?!” the someone said. His grey beard reached his chest.

“What?” I was confused.

“The beasts, did they bite you?!”

“N- no.”

“Good, wouldn’t want you to go crazy on me, but what the hell were you doing out there all alone?!”

“I fell off- the airship- I was supposed to- be heading to Sandfort,” I told him, still catching my breath.

“Well, you’re outta luck kid, ferries to the mainland have been suspended until we solve our rogue animal problem, so you’re probably going to be here awhile.”

“Where are we?”

“The Land Up North, middle of fucking nowhere! I’m Larry, I’ll show you around if you’d like, even though there ain’t much to see other than trees.”

“Uh, sure.”

“Once the sun rises, though, when the animals return to normal. Until then, I guess we should make ourselves at home.”

The cabin consisted of only one room. My eyes shifted from the brick fireplace to the rifle laying on an empty bed.

“Looks like whoever lives here isn’t at home,” Larry said.

“Father told me to never leave fires unattended, the person is probably nearby,” I replied.

“Good observation, but if he’s out there, I doubt he’ll ever be coming back. Get some rest, I’ll take first watch.”

Alone with a strange man in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, how safe. I inspected the rifle on the bed. Reminded me of a Winchester, but the lever was missing. It also had a rectangular metal box sticking out in front of the trigger. I pushed a little button on the trigger guard, the box detached revealing cartridges stacked inside. Looked like one didn’t have to load each round into the rifle individually, brilliant. Grimmington would’ve loved the design. I clicked the box back in place, and looked for the cocking handle to feed a round into the chamber. Turned out to be the pole sticking out below the barrel. I pushed it down, loading the weapon.

“Take it, if you’d like,” Larry said while digging through a leather sack, “finders keepers.”

It was evident that I would need to stay armed for my journey back. Larry came over with the sack, and tossed it on the bed next to me.

“There are five more mags in there, looks like each one holds about ten rounds, and they all seem fully loaded, you should probably hold onto them,” he said.

“Thanks, I will,” I replied, and tied the sack to one of the corset strings.

Larry didn’t seem like a threat, and besides, I had stayed with Mao and Ri without any problems. Placed the rifle next to me under the blanket in bed, resting my right hand over its trigger as I shut my eyes.

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