Astrid stood up from her place and dusted her back, getting rid of dust. Walking over in my direction, she slightly pulled at my shirt.
"How's your fever?"
"It's alright." I stopped and hummed as she kept her gaze fixed at me. For a while I continued to look into her eyes, the sky-blue – further punctuated by the blue moonlight – orbs unblinking.
My shoulders drooped down a little. "It's manageable."
"I want to say that don't push yourself."
Her voice was low, restrained underneath a façade of composure.
Cocking my head in her direction, I tried to break a smile at her. "I can wait to hear that. Only a little though."
"If I say it, will you act upon it?" She eyed me curiously, a glimmer of hope.
Tapping her head once like a door, I turned around. "Nope."
I felt her rub her forehead while mumbling something.
Not paying much heed to it, I once again turned my attention towards the mountains. As I was saying, this place – the mountain range – had an unbridled potential to act as a natural fortress, providing ample amounts of both stealth, and better vantage points.
Cold wind blew and I felt a jolt go down my body. Zipping my hoodie up, I slipped my hands into its pockets.
Michael was silent but was impatiently tapping his heel against the ground. I could not tell if he wanted to say something, or if it was just genuine boredom before he could finally fight.
While he was quite on the edge before, after a whole day he finally came to terms with our current predicament.
"Do you have something to say?" I looked over Astrid's head whose eyes were trailing after me, silently. She would occasionally steal a glance at the mountains – the ones right beside us and then at the ones that were barely visible despite the moonlight – and would then frown, as if trying to come up with something.
The whole process of her thinking and being so expressive about it seemed oddly interesting and somewhat...tangible.
I could almost see the gears in her mind whirring, the seed of an idea taking root and spreading tendrils of excitement across her face as it brightened up.
Her eyes shone with the dawning realisation as the idea flourished within her mind.
Her lips parted, ready to speak, but then, as if a mischievous child had yanked a sapling prematurely from the soil, she snapped her lips shut as doubts and counterarguments made by her own mind stood up against the idea.
The excited, almost breathless flutter of her lips ceased and she looked away as if brooding. Her upper lip stretched over the lower one, lamenting herself over the failure of her idea before she could even manifest it into words.
"Not really." Michael's reply made me peel my eyes away from Astrid's face. Much to my astonishment, no snarky, sardonic remark came from his side. Just a genuine answer.
"You seem restless."
Letting Astrid immerse in her thoughts, I addressed Michael again.
"Itching for a fight, is all." The usual energy behind his reply was absent and his eyes were dull as he looked down at the ground while talking, long strands of white hair covering his features like a beaded veil.
Even though he said he was itching for a fight, his tone betrayed him.
Perhaps it is the sepulchral odds that stripped him of his fighting spirit.
I mean, no one in their right mind would be specifically cheerful about waiting for a battle they can't win.
I looked at Astrid as her face went through the same few stages of happiness and then remorse as she brainstormed ideas.
As for her, she had no idea about the impending doom that awaited us. Not because she was stupid. But perhaps ignorant. Ignorant of the scale of the situation.
Seeing how Michael was sitting dejected and trying his best to hide it was a louring reminder that despite the power he held, he was still a teenager. A mere 15-year-old.
My expectations suddenly took a downward curve and fell into oblivion.
I have to do something myself. It's not like I was an overly optimistic person.
Overly optimistic is just a longer and glorified way of calling someone stupid.
But I wasn't going to just sit here and wait for their arrival. Even if the numerical odds were against us, logically speaking there was still a lot we could do to flip the table of those odds back at the enemy.
"Done thinking?" I looked over to Astrid who suddenly shuddered as her mind returned to the present moment and she stared blankly at me, still stuck between the limbo of rapid fire of ideas storming her mind and the small utterance from me in the real world.
"Uh- yeah. I think so…" she sheepishly scratched her cheek, "…I did think of a thing or two. Not sure if it's going to be helpful or not."
Walking over to the wall where I had rested, I placed my foot over the small protrusion and climbed a step upwards.
"Speak your mind. It might help."
"Well, I don't think that anything that I may have considered as feasible would not have crossed your mind." She replied, her tone dejected.
"Doesn't hurt to speak your mind, does it?" Grabbing another irregular surface, I pulled my body upwards. Thankfully the platform was only around a few hundred feet away from the peak of this mountain. It wouldn't take that long for me to get there.
"Chokepoints." She spoke. Despite saying it in a normal voice, it continuously seemed to get distant as I continued to climb upwards. She paused and as I looked back, I saw her looking at me with a worried expression.
"Keep going. I am listening."
Nodding to herself, she continued. "How about we make chokepoints? That can be a good way to pile them up and then you can like- boom, rain magic spells on them?"
I paused midway as my hand pulled the loose rock. Tilting my body to the side, I let it fall downwards. Astrid stepped to the side as well and the muddy-rock shattered on impact. It was mostly made out of viscous mud with a few gravels in the middle that made it look like a small stone.
"Well, I am not really versed into this whole world ending apocalypse war thingy, but from what I can see, the monsters are going to attack us, right?"
"No shit, you dumb little rat." Michael's voice cut through the air as he smirked at her.
"At least I am contributing." Astrid retorted. I was still focused on climbing upwards, but the way her words sounded I could tell she had a silly grin over her face. "The more you talk the more I am convinced of something."
"Enlighten me." He scoffed.
"That thing you call your head only has two brain cells. And both of them are competing for third place."
Hmm. Well, that doesn't make sense. Technically speaking there are only two spots—
Contrary to my thoughts, Michael suddenly laughed. "You're prolly thinking you're funny, aren't ya?"
"I believe I am quite funny." She paused and then spoke again. "There's more to humour than mindless cursing."
He laughed once again.
"You've developed quite a tongue, scaredy cat." Michael hissed. While I do think he won't do anything, Astrid seems to be pushing her luck. "But eh, you have humour, unlike Spiderman from Walmart over there. So, I will overlook it."
I am what now? A Spiderman? From Walmart?
I should boil him.
"I am graced by your words. What I would've done without your approval?!" Her words were laced with sardonic mockery as she placed her hand over her chest with an exaggerated motion.
"Oye!"
I am guessing he is calling for me. Without turning back, I spoke up.
"What is it?"
"Where did ya find this little rat? She's funny."
"Stop calling me a rat!"
"Well, to be fair to you, you look like the rats we got in NYC. Albino rat. A fat white rat. A rat with a big mouth." Michael cackled, seemingly finding himself really funny and breaking out of the cocoon of depression he was inside a while ago.
"Grrr." Astrid growled, but refrained from talking any further.
Good to know she is aware of when to stop.
"And you! Reply to me."
Disregarding his question, I continued to climb upwards.
Once I had made it to the top, I could finally look beyond the wall of mountains. The front was something that we had grown used to. The area beyond the huge wall of mountains was much better than the one here, with thin lines – that I assumed were roads – lining the whole place amidst a huge forest.
I squinted my eyes; however, I couldn't make much of it.
But it was confusing. How was it possible to have a lush green forest right behind a desert-like place? It didn't make sense. While the terrain was never mentioned in Adam's notes, this was still bizarre.
It was only after a few seconds of blankly thinking about it for a while that I noticed something.
Something when I looked down.
Two crazed eyes separated by quite a few inches. The maw was shut tight and it had held its breath. However, the moonlight hitting its scales and reflecting the sickly green hue gave it away.