The ball of dark matter dissolved, unveiling Hassan's motionless form within it. Simultaneously, the Blizzardkin creatures vanished without a trace.
I had grown accustomed to Hassan's knack for achieving extraordinary feats, defying the bounds of what seemed possible.
Rushing to his side, I watched as he began to cough up water, and desperately tapped on his chest hinting at his desire to expel every drop that he had inhaled. Guilt gnawed at me for not offering assistance as I pondered on my failure to help him when he needed it.
"Are you okay?" I asked as I offered my hand to assist him to stand
"Yes," he replied as he looked around.
"I'm glad you're okay," I said with a mixture of relief and concern.
As he scanned the surroundings, seeking the mysterious creature, his gaze settled on the sight of Sky laboriously pulling the creature against the ground. The way she dragged the creature was evidence that the creature's weight matched its immense size.
I rushed to Sky's side and offered, "Let me help you with that."
In the midst of these unfolding events, something had caused me to momentarily forget about the fact that my legs had been healed by Sky's mythical leaves after being fractured, and how ridiculously insane that was. With the way things were going, I barely had time to feel the strangeness of suddenly using the leg after not using it for long...
Meanwhile, Hassan went to the tree that nearly sucked out our lives and started striking it with his Ice gladius.
"We're going to turn this into firewood " His determined strikes echoed as he declared his intention, a proclamation fueled by the dual forces of survival and the gripping pangs of hunger.
Survival and immense hunger; From what I had experienced, these two had a way of bringing out energy you didn't know you had.
Equipped with her dagger, Sky set to work on removing the creature's furry skin, preparing to turn it into the most anticipated meal of all time.
Sky's skill with the creature was impressive, as if she had practiced it before.
Curious, I asked her, "How are you able to do that?"
"It's simple," she replied. "You just cut it into smaller pieces, remove the intestines, and roast it after washing. If it's poisonous to us, I can handle it because I'm a mage."
I observed as she swiftly disassembled the massive creature, skillfully extracting its bones. It seemed like an extra skill of hers.
"You've never done this before?" she asked.
"No, I've never cooked anything like this," I admitted.
"It's called an IBAI-IZAKIA," Hassan chimed in, arriving with sharpened tree branches to penetrate the creature's meat.
Eventually, Sky transformed the creature into smaller chunks and stacked them in a corner. Hassan had also cut down nearly half of a tree for firewood. I assisted by gathering lighter wood and then brought it closer to our cooking area.
The wood was damp due to the proximity of the tree to the river, but Hassan surprised us for the umpteenth time by placing his hands on the logs and using a dark essence from his palm to draw out the water.
He wasn't initially certain if his method would succeed, but he persevered.
With Hassan slowly warming up to us, I saw an opportunity to ask the many questions I had about him.
"How does your power work, Hassan?" I asked while tending to the meat over the fire he had ignited.
His dark essence had the unique ability to transform into actual flames.
"I don't know," he responded, his focus fixed on the cooking meat.
Curious, I pressed on. "And all these remarkable things you can do? How did you discover them?"
"By accident," he replied, showing more willingness to engage in conversation than before when he was rather reserved... but still not as lively as Sky.
Sky's voice carried a trace of envy as she said, "Your abilities are so much more extensive than mine, and we're both mages."
Seated around the fire on the ground, we remained vigilant for any creeping miniature plants. Sky raised a valid concern, "What if this fire attracts some creature?"
"The creature will have to wait," I said as I rotated the meat to ensure that every part of it was exposed to enough heat and would not get burnt.
As the first batch of cooked meat was ready, followed by subsequent portions, I found myself holding myself back, waiting to consume my share only once the entire creature had been cooked.
"You don't plan on roasting the whole creature, do you?" Sky asked between bites of her meat.
"What else am I supposed to do?" I replied
"Eat it," Sky answered simply, already enjoying her portion.
She had a point. I had been roasting for probably eons but the meat that remained was still massive.
Hassan finished his last piece of meat and grabbed another, his demeanor suddenly shifting to one of somber confusion. His eyes seemed teary, as if on the verge of tears.
"Why do you think we are here? Is this place some kind of hell? Did we die and go to the hellish afterlife?" he asked, his voice laden with anxiety.
Silence filled the air as we exchanged looks, as the thoughts that we had no concrete understanding of how we ended up there or how any of the inexplicable events were possible dawned on us, for probably the millionth time.
The weight of Hassan's questions seemed to cast a profound sense of wonder over us all. I couldn't even get myself to talk about the horrible taste of the meat when I finally had a taste of it.
The creature's size far exceeded our seemingly insatiable hunger. Storing it in Hassan's inventory for future consumption was the only practical solution. Even though there was a risk of it getting spoilt we had to keep it for fear of when our next meal would be.
After the long moment of soberness, we finally snapped out of it and decided to think about our next plan.
Our goal was clear: navigate through the snowy landscape in search of the next puzzle piece. But our attire was ill-suited for the harsh cold. Against the brutal weather, our light clothing provided little protection.
Our glimmer of hope was Sky's healing aura, which offered protection against the frigid weather.
However, this aura drew from her vitality, which could easily be depleted if she had to walk and maintain the shield simultaneously. So, we decided that it would be best if Hassan carried her so her energy expenditure would reduce to just providing warmth for the three of us.
With this plan in place, we embarked on our journey, now acutely aware that everything in the strange realm posed a significant danger.