"Damnit..." a soft voice ruined by the cold that had infected the throat of the owner of it rang out lowly.
The person wore heavy and warm clothing, concealing their appearance, they fell to their knees, exhausted from running in the high snow, they looked at their right hand, which until now had been holding onto their side, revealing a glove covered in frozen blood.
As the person felt their life draining out of their body little by little, they thought back on what had happened just an hour ago.
They were a team of explorers used to traversing the snowy mountains, their reputations seemed to have reached the ears of many people as the king of a small country hired them to explore the mountains the person was currently dying on, they had been told that these mountains had remained unexplored for as long as anyone could remember, the king seemed to believe that a dungeon had appeared on the mountains due to monsters and animals from the mountains descending from it in large numbers.
The explorers could now make a clear guess to the reason why they were running away, in fact, the explorer could make two of such guesses.
During the first few days of their explorations, they had come across a large humanoid creature, civilised enough to wear clothes and use things, such as bags but not enough to not try and kill them on sight, it was an enormous monster with a large mouth filled with jagged and pointy teeth, its hands were large enough to fully encompass a horse, it hands and mouth seemed to be permanently tainted with blood.
They had been able to keep it at a distance using magic, fire magic to be exact, the monster feared fire with a passion and would take off running at the very sight of it, keeping this creature in check had been easy, they had even considered leaving and reporting that this creature was the cause of the fleeing monsters but considering the equipement it wore, it had been in this mountains much before the monsters started fleeing.
In the end, the cause of it all wasn't a dungeon, after a few more days of unsuccessful exploration, they had run into it.
It was a tall and lanky looking monster, its limbs were long and seemed to possess primate-like feet, it had sharp and long white claws on each of its five fingers, its body was completely covered in a white fur, even where its eyes and other sensory organs should be, only fur was visible.
This monster did not fear fire, it did not fear anything, even it was lit ablaze using oil and flames, it kept on attacking them, it was at this moment that the explorer had received their wound, the only consolation they had was that the monster hadn't killed them yet.
Resolved not to die a dogs death, the explorer pushed themselves to their feet and continued to walk as a snowstorm was showing signs of rising.
The explorer lucked out and managed to find refuge in a cave, the inhabitants of it had since long escaped or so the explorer had thought, while the first part of it showed clear signs of beasts living in here, the latter part ressembled the habitation of an intelligent specie, illuminated dimly by crystals, the explorer saw furnitures, stocks of food, clothes, eveything was here, except that everything seemed larger than it should be.
As the explorer was struck with the realisation, it was already too late as they heard the sound of a heavy footstep right behind them, the explorer turned and was met with the more civilised of the two monsters.
Unfortunately for them, they weren't among the ones in the group that knew fire magic, the explorer walked backwards slowly as the monster stared at them.
The monster simply took a few steps forward, approaching the explorer slowly.
Soon enough, the explorer's back hit against a wall and the monster loomed closer and closer.
The explorer could already see themselves dying at the hands of that creature, they looked around for anything but found nothing that could be of use in this situation.
The monster slightly bent its knee to get a better look at the explorer's face, it was then that the explorer truly looked into the monster's eyes for the first time, the explorer saw something that shouldn't be there.
The explorer removed the clothes the covered their face, revealing a pale woman with blonde hair, the monster also stared at her eyes and realised the same thing as she did.
The monster seemed to think for a few moments as it mouth was left agape, it mouth opened and closed a few times before it managed to do what it wanted to.
"Frend?" it spoke out loud, it's voice not quite befitting its stature, the monster had a feminine voice and the tone of a child.
"Friend" responded the explorer and the monster made a strange face, it was hard to tell but it was smiling.
"Frend! Frend!" it repeated as it stepped back from the blonde woman.
"A-Are you a human?" she questionned, a question that would seem stupid to most, however...
"Yesse, me you-man!" responded the monster, it had some difficulty speaking but it was still perfectly understandable.
The blonde woman smiled and slightly chuckled seeing how happy the 'monster' was, causing some pain from her wound.
The 'you-man' saw this and went to fetch a few things, it had fashioned some pieces of clothing into bandages.
The both of them stayed silent for a while before the explorer decided to break the silence.
"Do you know why all the creatures are leaving the mountains?" she asked and her helper rubbed her chin using one of her freakish fingers and she thought of the words.
"Hary monsterre, killed lots of them, they no match for it, even me is scared" she spoke.
"I see" simply responded the explorer.
"I will get you back" said the you-man, confusing the explorer a bit.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Get you away from mountains, it too dangerous for you here" she responded.
After a few days, letting the explorer heal from her wounds and gain from strength, the unlikely duo set off or more precisely, the explorer was getting carried in one of the you-man's bags.
"It close" spoke the you-man moments before she suddenly stopped.
She brought the explorer out of the bag and put her on the ground.
The reason was simple, the fur-covered monster was blocking the way, the snowstorm had already finished but it seemed to rise again as the monster appeared.
It flashed its white claws, they reflected the few stray rays of the sun.
"Run" spoke the you-man, despite the confident words, fear was the only thing on her face.
However, the fear was momentarily overpowered by something else when she saw the monster trying to attack the blonde woman instead of her.
In a swift movement, she covered the distance and swiped the monster into the air, it crashed into the snow away from the you-man's friend.
The you-man roared at the monster with impressive strength, the monster seemed to finally acknowledge her presence and stood tall on its hind legs, for the first time, a mouth was visible on its face, it roared back, the power of its roar seemed to stopped the snowstorm as it noise overpowered that of the storm.
The you-man stepped back before stepping forward again, she had only one friend and before this thing appeared here, she had been the strongest of the mountains!
The blonde explorer could hear the fight from the distance, each of their attack echoed throughout the mountains, avalanches were caused by the sounds all around the mountains.
She considered going back to help her fellow human but, by herself, she could do nothing to do so, she ran faster, perhaps, she could get some help, perhaps, she would hold on long enough.
"..."
The you-man was indeed the strongest in the mountains, in terms of brute force, the fur-covered monster couldn't compete at all but such strength was not enough to kill the monster and in the end, it was survavibility that ruled this fight.