Just as the creature was about to bite down on the unsuspecting human, a chill crept up its spine. The creature wanted to stop but it was too late, it couldn't stop itself mid air.
Cassius jumped up and quickly reached out with his arms to grab the cunning fox creature. "YIP!" The thing let out a cry as Cassius strong-armed it to the ground. "You seriously thought I would go to sleep when you've been following me you little creep?"
Cassius had been cautious of the subtle movements of various bushes in the forest. To an unsuspecting individual the fox would be a deadly ambusher, but Cassius was no pushover. He purposely sought out stimulants he had seen along the way to the lake to make sure he would be awake for a potential ambush.
"I've been pretty hungry… you should make for a nice meal!" The fox's eyes filled with fear as it realized its impending doom it desperately let out various noises, perhaps to try and garner help from some of its kind.
"Not on my watch!" Cassius forcefully shoved its maw closed, and soon the creature only let out whimpers. Cassius wrestled it until he had the ugly fox in a chokehold. He was going to have to snap its neck to end the struggle. "Wish I had my damn axe right about now…"
"Alright, on three, one, two, thr- Holy hell!" Cassius and the fox were blown backwards by an insane gust of wind. Cassius desperately clawed at the ground to prevent him from flying back any further. The fox also tried to stay put. Looking up Cassius witnessed the lake, which had just been calm minutes ago, now threw rageful waves. Cassius remembered the ghastly wind that had caused him to end up in the valley and ice ran through his veins.
If the wind that had mostly been blocked by the sturdy mountains was that intense, how bad would the wind in the valley be? Cassius realized he needed shelter and fast. Looking around he saw the fox had left him behind and was running deeper in the forest. It looked confident as it expertly weaved through the brush of the forest. Cassius had a vague memory that most mammals had burrows for homes, so he decided to try and follow the fox that he had nearly just eaten.
The wind easily blew the trees around him. Each tree bent to an absurd degree. Every once in a while an explosion of splinters would happen near him. Yet with all this turmoil Cassius still ran the best he could. Occasionally a particularly strong gust would knock him over into the ground or a tree. He hardly wanted to think about how sore he would be later. After ages of running and falling he finally saw the fox once again. It was crawling into a fairly large cave on the side of a hill. Greenery covered up the entrance, making it a fairly hidden place.
Cassius crawled his way in. Once finally inside the cave he finally had a respite from the wind. Although the fierce noise of the wind bounced off the cold stone walls of the cave. It sounded like a perpetual howl. Cassius glanced over at the abyssal creature. The fox stared at him with wide eyes.
Both of them were exhausted from struggling outside and running all the way here. They both warily watched each other in silence as the tempest outside raged. Eventually Cassius sighed aloud, startling the thing. Cassius took out one of the fruits he had collected and tossed it to the thing. "Lookie here, we both know we can't fight right now… so let's try and get along at least while this wind is going wild…" Cassius shook his head, he had to be crazy. There was no way those bloodthirsty abyssals would understand him…
The creature sniffed the fruit a bit before snatching it and running a few meters away. "I'm surprised you can even eat that… I've only seen abyssals feast on meat." The creature still warily eyed the human, but seemed a bit more relaxed than before.
As time passed the makeshift pair eventually fell asleep. They still did not trust each other, but exhaustion finally caught up with them.
…
Cassius's eyes shot open, his eyes darted around the cave to confirm his safety. The creature stared at him, not daring to make a move. Cassius slowly got up, and the fox backed up. "I'm not gonna kill you now… you seem surprisingly reasonable compared to the crazies I've met so far down here." The fox turned its head and its ears perked up.
"On a second look… you're kinda cute in a weird way…" Cassius had definitely lost a screw along the way to the mountains. "Guess I'll go see the aftermath of that wind." Cassius moved towards the entrance of the cave. He strained his eyes as he tried to acclimate to the bright light outside the dark cave.
"Huh?" Miraculously, the forest looked to be at peace. There was no trace of the wind last night, and in fact there was no trace of pretty much anything. There weren't even any broken branches, much less fallen trees.
As he made his way to the lake he heard rustling behind him. A familiar red coat shone through the leaves. "Hah, look it's obvious you can't eat me, alright! I'll let you off the hook so shoo!" Cassius tried to shoo away the creature with his hands, but the fox stood there panting with a dumb look on its face. Cassius shook his head as he continued on. However, the fox never stopped following him. For now he just chose to ignore it.
Once back on the shore an even more perplexing sight met his eyes. The fire that he had built yesterday was still there, albeit not burning. "Did I eat poisonous fruits?" Cassius had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. There was no way that wind didn't destroy his fire. Not to mention the waves from the lake.
"What exactly is happening in this valley?" Around that time the fox let out what sounded like a raspy bark. "What is it?" The thing pawed at the ground and sniffed the air. Soon after it raised one of its paws towards the forest to the left of the lake. "Ar- Are you pointing?" It didn't answer as it stoically looked off in the distance.
"Fine, we'll check it out." It seemed the two had formed an alliance of sorts as they made their way to where the fox had pointed. As the two made their way through the thick canopy of trees the fox suddenly stopped and pointed once again. Cassius scanned where he pointed and noticed something. Just a few meters away a large deer-like creature was eating with its face obscured. It had ears with a sharp tuft, and it had antlers black as onyx. It had clawed feet making it seem less like an herbivore and more like a predator. Its hide had hints of green, and moss was also growing on parts of its antlers. It mixed in well with the overwhelmingly green valley.
Cassius wondered how it hadn't smelled them yet, but then realized that they were downwind of it. He looked at the fox and realized it wasn't as dumb as it looked. Both sneaked up silently until they got as close as possible. Then, the fox leaped out! The deer was clearly startled and looked up. "I should have known there were no herbivores down here!" The deer had tusks emerging from a large jaw. All over its face was the blood and guts of whatever it had killed.
Cassius ran forward with the fox, hoping he could somehow wrestle the beast. The fox bit down on the hind leg of the deer, even drawing a bit of blood. The deer tried to kick the thing off of it, but to no avail. The little gremlin of a fox refused to let go. While the deer was distracted Cassius had enough time to tackle it to the ground. The deer let out a guttural bleat as it tried to get this strange duo off of it.
"There's no way I can snap this thing's neck!" The deer was about twice the size of him and he couldn't hope to get a good enough grip on its neck to try and break it. He looked around on the ground for a rock to no avail. Finally, he saw that the deer's antlers were strangely translucent along the edge. In fact, it looked like glass to an extent. In a last ditch effort he grabbed ahold of one of the limbs of the antler. "Damn it!" It was remarkably sharp and he cut his hand up. But he desperately tugged on it, until the piece of antler finally broke off. "Piece of shit! Eat this!" Using his sharp new weapon he jammed it straight into the deer's lifeless eye.
It squirmed and bleated in pain, but Cassius paid it no heed as he repeatedly sunk the antler into the deer's susceptible eyes. The fox also did its job as it sunk its teeth into the neck of the beast. Before long it went limp, and Cassius finally let go of the makeshift blade. He looked down at his hand and grimaced. Bright crimson blood flowed out ceaselessly from his hand. The fox cheerfully pranced around the corpse of the deer letting out a few odd noises. "Haa, you wanted to use me for an easy meal. Is that it?"
The fox stopped celebrating and nervously looked at the human. Even with reptilian pupils it was somehow making puppy dog eyes. "Fine, fine… you did pretty good." Even Cassius had to admit he was starving at that point. He had been constantly moving since he woke up in this place, and craved some proper meat. "First I'll need to bleed this thing, and remove its organs. Otherwise dragging it to be cooked is going to be a hassle. He also took notice of what the deer had been eating, or at least what remained of it. "Leave it to the abyss to make an innocent looking deer so creepy…"
He proceeded to use the antler knife to bleed the deer, before opening up its belly to remove any intestines and organs. The fox was more than happy to eat that and happily ate away at the spoils of the hunt. It took a lot of time but Cassius managed to make it back to the campsite where he once again made a fire. He grilled up the ribs and belly and feasted. The fox was curious about the grilled meat and Cassius threw him some scraps. The fox's eyes lit up as it tasted the delicacy.
Cassius made note of the dimming light of the abyss and decided to head back to the fox's abode. The fox followed happily with a full belly. "I can't keep calling you fox or creature, can I?" Cassius had grown somewhat fond of the thing and was trying to come up with a name. "Hmmm, you're a pretty cunning thing, aren't you?" A vague memory of some mythos gave him some inspiration. "How about… Metis?" The fox barked happily, ignorant of the human's musings.
Cassius and Metis eventually made it back to the cave and settled down. The fox still looked wary of the human somewhat, but it sat this time much closer than the previous night. Cassius looked up to the roof and sighed a bit. He still had no clue how he got here nor where his friends had gone. "A question for tomorrow I guess…" With heavy wind pounding the cave he was eventually lulled to sleep.