Three more days had passed. As far as the eye could see, nothing but white, snowy plains spread out. There was simply nothing. No tree, no ice pillars, and no living beings. Except for two, that is.
A large black wolf and a small white fox made their way through the snow. They've been walking for a long time with no finish line in sight.
The snowstorm continued to rage on without stopping. It has been days since the whirlwind of snowflakes blinded their steps. Truly, this place was like the end of the world.
"We need to turn back! This will get us nowhere!" Yuki yelled inside Aurora's mind, sounding uncharacteristically desperate.
'We tried and failed... There's no back or front. We got completely lost in the snowstorm. The only thing we can do now is move and hope for the best.' Aurora shook her head; her tone completely resigned.
Suddenly, before she could say anything else, her instincts shot up to the max for a split second. But that mere instant was enough for her to realize that something was wrong. She quickly jumped back, narrowly avoiding a flying projectile. An arrow.
'More humans!?' Aurora's guard turned up to the max as she tried to use her aura to find the attacker or attackers.
Unfortunately, no matter how much she tried, she couldn't sense anything. Even the arrow just a second ago was the same. Her aura didn't pick up anything, and she only sensed the attack when it was already close to her.
The snowstorm blocked her senses, and the attacker/attackers used this to their advantage. Clearly, they knew what they were doing and were used to fighting in this kind of weather.
"Dodge, quick!" Yuki yelled out suddenly, but she was a second too late. By the time Aurora moved as she told her to do, the incoming arrow grazed her hind leg.
'What is... this...' Aurora's vision blurred, and soon enough, it went completely black.
-----
An unknown amount of time later, Aurora's eyes slowly fluttered open. The dazed fox looked around, scanning her surroundings.
"Finally! You woke up!" Yuki's sudden outburst brought her out of her shock, but with the recovery came a sudden wave of confusion.
'I woke up? Where even are we? What happened?' Aurora asked, still a bit dazed from all that was happening.
"We got captured. You were unconscious, so my vision to the real world got cut off, so I have no idea who it was." Yuki answered immediately, sounding very relieved. She was probably quite worried about her sister.
'I remember, we got ambushed!' The memories of the moments before her consciousness faded returned to her. This subsequently immediately forced Aurora's guard and wariness to shoot up.
'A cage?' Only now did she really understand the situation she found herself in, and she wasn't a single bit happy.
"Try using your aura. The snowstorm doesn't seem to be here, so there's nothing to block off our senses." Yuki suggested, to which Aurora merely nodded and did as her sister said.
Aurora's aura shot out, scanning her surroundings. She didn't even bother to hide her presence, as right now, all she focused on was gauging her current situation.
Soon enough, her aura reached many other auras. One of which she knew very well, it belonged to Rejoke. But the others were completely unknown.
'About twenty of them, none too strong. Just what did they hit me with to make me black out so quickly?' Aurora questioned silently as she retracted her aura completely. Thankfully, none of the unknown beings managed to spot her, probably.
'Time to get out of here.' She took a deep breath and her mana towards her claw. The mana concentrated around the claw, and under the effects of her magical power, the mana began to heat up. Actually, it didn't only heat up, but at the same time, its temperature dropped below zero.
It was a strange combination, one of which a pale blue flame was born. With a swift motion, Aurora swung her claw, aiming directly at one of the cage's bars.
Soon, her paw collided with the metal, causing the freezing flames to immediately burst out and lash around the metallic bars. There were no loud explosions; the whole strike was almost completely silent.
However, silence didn't mean it wasn't effective. Not only was the bar Aurora struck nowhere to be seen, most of the whole cage got blown apart.
'Phew...' Aurora released her breath and let her mana return to her body. While what she had done may seem simple, this kind of attack was much more complicated than a regular powered Slash.
This simple attack alone cost her 50 points of mana, but oh boy was it effective. Besides, while the cost wasn't ideal, 50 mana points wasn't that bad and was a price she could afford by now. Heck, her max MP was now more than 400 points, so just spending an eighth of her whole full mana wasn't that big of a deal.
'Let's help Rejoke first. That fool is probably still out.' Aurora sighed and quietly began to move around.
She seemed to be in some sort of camp, so sneaking around wouldn't be really all that simple. Thankfully, Rejoke's aura wasn't too far away, so combined with her high agility, she should be able to reach him without getting spotted.
And sure enough, like a ghost, the cunning little fox elusively moved around the camp, avoiding any possible contact with her captors. It didn't take her long to arrive at a much larger cage compared to hers.
Inside the cage was a black wolf. Quite naturally, the wolf was Rejoke, who still seemed unconscious.
'I knew it!' Aurora exclaimed when she saw that Rejoke still wasn't awake. Still, she didn't stand around and directly walked up to the large wolf.
"He probably got hit worse than us. The arrow only managed to scrape us, so the poison or whatever it was wasn't as effective." Yuki theorized, but giggled nonetheless when she saw the way Aurora acted.
Aurora said nothing, merely walking up to the wolf. Then she reached forward with her paw and smacked the wolf on his head. Normally, that kind of 'attack' wouldn't wake someone up from this kind of poisonous effect; however, as if he sensed that the one who 'attacked' him was his alpha, Rejoke immediately woke up.
The wolf looked around in dazed confusion, moments before his eyes fell on the small white fox in front of him.
The fox in question, however, completely ignored his questioning look. She merely waved her, paw indicating him to follow her.
In the end, Rejoke could merely sigh and use Shadow Movement to move into Aurora's shadow, effectively getting out of the cage.
Right now, the two could easily leave, but Aurora was way too curious. Silently, the two made their way over to the center of the camp, only to soon overhear multiple voices speaking.
"Why are we even keeping them alive!? Let's just kill them; they are nothing but some random beasts!" A rough voice belonging to a man boomed out across the camp, easily drawing Aurora's attention.
"They are much more than just some random beasts. They have treasures on them despite clearly being rank 1 creatures, not to mention that they were able to walk across the snowstorm! You know just as well as I do that beasts and monsters shouldn't be able to take even a step into it!" Another man, this one with a much more 'normal' tone, responded to the other man.
The two seemed to be arguing, and from their words, it wasn't difficult for Aurora to understand that the conversation was about the two of them.
'But I can use this.' She thought as she took a step out of her hiding spot. However, even after being in plain sight, no one noticed her.
"Kyu!" In a way to announce her presence, Aurora let out a cute sound, finally catching the attention of not only the two arguing men but also about ten others.
"The beasts have escaped! Quick, catch them!" The man with the rough voice called out, but before anyone could move, the other man stopped them.
"No, stop! Everyone, calm down." The man shook his head softly and took a step towards Aurora.
"Hey, little fox. Can you understand what I'm saying?" The man asked a question, which caused all the other men to laugh out loud.
However, everyone immediately shut their mouths when Aurora nodded her head seriously. Seeing the fox actually respond to their leader, all the men looked at the small beast with surprised eyes.
"So you really can, good." The leader of the group merely muttered and nodded a few times.
"I know you have no reason to do so, but please try to believe me when I say we truly mean no harm. If anything, I have a request for you." Upon hearing the man's words, Aurora narrowed her eyes and carefully scanned the man.
He was a fairly tall guy with long silver hair that could easily be mistaken for a woman's and light blue eyes quite similar to her own. But probably the most catching of all were the man's pointy ears.
"An elf. And from the looks of it, a snow elf." Yuki's voice rang out inside Aurora's mind, confirming her suspicions.
This man, as well as all the others, were elves, the same magical creatures that appeared in many fantastical stories from her past life.
The views on elves she knew were various. Some described them as kind-hearted, nature-loving creatures, while others thought of them as cruel, prideful creatures no different from beasts.
And how were the elves that now stood in front of her? Obviously, Aurora had no idea. But she couldn't exactly say she had a good first impression of them. After all, they knocked her out with some weird poison and were even debating whether to kill her or not just now. Still, it was too early to judge.
Seeing the small frown on the fox's face, the silver-haired leader of the elves scratched the back of his head.
"Yeah, I know you have no reason to trust me. Still, I hope you can give us a chance. Look, all I want to ask you is to come with us to our village so you can meet our village chief. I'm sure you'll like her." The elven leader said with a small smile; however, before he could continue, he got interrupted.
"What!? You want to bring these beasts to the village! Elijah, are you mad!?" The elf with the rough voice voiced out his disagreement immediately upon hearing the silver-haired leader's words.
"I know how you feel, Örlof, but do you really think these two are dangerous? Besides, they were able to enter the snowstorm. What if they are the ones the village chief is waiting for?" The elven leader, Elijah, raised his voice in excitement at the end.
Even though he wanted to retort him, the rough-voiced elf, Örlof, found no way to do so. Elijah's words were completely logical. In the end, all he could do was sigh and shake his head.
"You're right, I was too caught up in my emotions. Sorry for that, Elijah." Örlof apologized sincerely, which made Aurora think that the guy wasn't bad.
Yes, he could seem a bit rough and loud, but that was probably because he had a bit of a temper. But even then, when calm, he seemed like a good guy.
With a small smile, Elijah nodded and gave him a little thumbs up to cheer him up. After a brief moment, he turned back towards Aurora and asked again.
"So, will you come with us?" He extended his with the same small smile, waiting for a response.
Aurora didn't respond immediately. It was only after she had a quick chat with Yuki about the matter that it took a step forward.
Under the watchful eyes of the elven party, the small fox placed her paw on their leader's hand with a small nod.
Seeing her accept his offer, Elijah smiled further and got back up onto his feet.
"Alright everyone! Pack your stuff and let's get going! Oh, and someone prepare a little something to eat for our furry guests; I'm sure they must be starving." With those words, the whole camp soon began to move.