A full moon looked down upon the tundra, dyeing it in an ominous blue hue.
Aster stared up at it in a blurry haze. He was beyond exhaustion now, his mind grinding to a faltering halt.
He had long since lost track of the beasts on his tail, but he knew they were still there, closing in on him.
The ridge ahead was close—perhaps less than an hour's walk.
I can make it. The thought replayed in his mind, over and over.
---
Up close, the ridge seemed more like a curved wall. It towered at about three times his height, stretching in either direction.
Fortunately, it was far from flat and vertical. The ground looked as though it had been pushed back and molded into the wall's shape, leaving many extruded holds that he could climb.
His exhaustion weighed him down heavily, but his mind had woken up slightly since his arrival, the last dregs of adrenaline pushing him to grip the first hold.
Aster took a deep breath and placed his foot on the wall.
---
The climbing wasn't too hard, but the caked dirt and rock were anything but stable. His holds crumbled in his grip more than a few times, almost sending him tumbling.
His hand reached for the final hold. It felt more rock than dirt—this one, he was confident, would hold. Using it as leverage, he heaved his broken body upward, peering over the ridge for the first time.
Aster's mind went silent as he took it all in. It wasn't despair; it wasn't anything. The fragile hope he'd clung to had just...
Poof.
It was a crater, massive and yawning, plunging dozens of meters.
Worse yet, the whole thing seemed devoid of life. Not just empty—it felt untouched as if nothing living had set foot inside for decades.
The only notable feature was a distant hole at the crater's center, likely where some ancient meteor had struck.
Aster hauled the rest of his body onto the crater's edge, sitting there as he gazed out over the barren tundra he'd escaped from.
The beasts were still following him, easier to spot from up here, but somehow, they felt less threatening from this vantage.
After all, his time seemed near, with or without them.
Finally, he let exhaustion win. Lying down on the crater's edge, he surrendered to the darkness.
---
To his surprise, Aster woke up.
He was still weak, but his mind felt a touch sharper.
Down below, the beasts had nearly reached the crater.
He could see them clearly from this distance: three more Aggoars, one significantly larger than the others. All three looked far better fed than the one he had fought before. Their black fur glistened in the early morning sun.
Aster's mind scraped together the rough outline of a plan.
When they start to climb, I'll throw rocks at them and kick down any that make it near the top.
Not much of a plan. But what choice did he have? Nowhere else to go. Wolves can't climb anyway… Right?
---
The beasts reached the wall's base. Aster gathered a small pile of jagged rocks beside him. His plan had taken slightly more shape.
"Three beasts' worth of meat… Could it be enough to survive the journey back?"
It would have to be. Otherwise… well, it wasn't worth thinking about.
Aster gripped a rock, staring down at the beasts.
As he went to throw it, he noticed one of them hoofing at the holds.
"Hoofing… not pawing."
Something felt wrong. He was forgetting something important.
The largest of the Aggoars backed away from the wall, brushing its front hoof against the ground in preparation.
Its hoof wasn't one solid piece but rather split, claw-like. The first Aggoar he'd fought had been so gnarled he hadn't noticed.
Almost like the hooves of a mountain goat.
The beast launched itself forward in a mad sprint.
"No way," he thought, his mind racing. He threw the rock in his hand.
It went slightly left of the beast as it collided with the wall.
Its hooves dug into the hardened dirt, propelling it upward.
Aster scrambled, grabbing another rock from his pile as the distance between them shrank disturbingly fast.
He hurled it as hard as he could at the beast's skull. It struck with a sharp, ringing thud.
The creature didn't stop. His heart sank. Poison-laden blood streamed down the beast's face, making it look like a fiend straight out of hell as it charged to end his life.
It sailed over the crater's edge, slamming into Aster and knocking him back.
He groped for something to grab hold of, but his fingers found nothing. His weight tipped.
"SHIT." The first word he'd spoken in days echoed as he plummeted into that desolate crater.
---
The crater was far steeper than he'd anticipated.
His body was tossed around violently as he rolled down the incline. The world spun; his fingers, slick with blood, failed to hold on.
It couldn't have been more than ten seconds, but it felt endless by the time he came to a jarring halt.
His body trembled; his mind swirled. He needed to get up now. His burning throat retched, but nothing came up.
The beast was approaching fast.
Aster propped himself up with his good arm. He had only seconds to shake off the dizziness.
He raised a knee, then pushed himself upright. He faced the hole at the crater's center.
The slope he stood on made it hard to balance. The dizziness made it harder.
Fighting was impossible. Escape meant only one direction.
He had no choice.
He bolted for the hole.
Or rather, he stumbled toward it, letting gravity pull him as he forced himself forward.
Each step crashed into the ground, pain jolting up his legs.
His vision blurred, shrinking into a dark tunnel.
The hole or death. Likely both.
A howl echoed from behind him.
The tunnel narrowed.
Something slammed into him from behind.
His ankle twisted.
It wouldn't support another step.
One chance left.
He used his good leg to launch himself forward.
The hole was just a few feet away.
The world went black.