Cale carefully made his way toward the boulder, thoughts swirled as he did so.
Nothing could be seen clearly in the dark space, just him, and someone mistaking him for someone else.
He stopped, feeling smooth solidity embrace the palm of his hand.
Flipping his back toward the boulder, he slowly slid down.
As he blinked, the ethereal being a pace away from him talked to him, like it knew him.
[My...Feigling,I beg of you to open this wall]
No manner of sweet words seduced his mind, he remained still.
[Please....Feigling....My sweet boy]
It begged for Cale to open. Cale didn't respond to its wishes.
He only focused on his thoughts.
'Perhaps a mother looking for her son?'
Her pitch, being soft when speaking to him, gave a sense of parental feelings mixing well.
'But why does she think I'm her son?'
Cale thought long and hard about it.
What made him stand out? So much so that she gave him different sentences to hear unlike the last one.
'How would someone even mistake me for their son? Especially in all of this darkness'
Chuckles, they filled the air, distorted, yet within that same distortion, hearty laughter between a mother and son faintly echoed.
A knock, soft and brittle as if scared to fright thudded onto the boulder.
[....Feigling]
She called, no response came at her behest.
"....."
Cale intently listened, his gaze eventually fell on the coat he donned.
Air ran thin, breathing would soon become a luxury to him if he didn't try anything at all.
He shot up, fingers curling as the coattails fluttered in the dark.
Removing the coat, the air stilled.
A shift occurred, the presence behind Cale flickered.
His eyes softened.
'Ah, so that's why..'
Thud—!
A deafening thud snapped him out of his realization. The mother's voice broke.
[Feig...ling?]
She called out again. Her voice now tinted with a certain alienating tone.
"....."
Her voice seemed to fall endlessly onto deaf ears, but eventually, one ear perked.
"I'm not Feigling"
Cale's mouth opened, spitting out words, the instant he interacted, he felt somewhere within his mind weaken, his body weakening along with it.
[Who...Are you?]
Her voice, now stained with pure confusion, asked for something genuine.
"Not this 'Feigling', that's for sure"
Cale remained steadfast in his response, a pressure choked Cale when he spoke.
[.....]
At the words, she remained silent, truly not capable of understanding who this random was.
Silence gulped, the squirming darkness squirmed harder, a tinge of fear brewed in the back of his chilled spine.
Fists clenched, knuckles white.
Cale stood like that for what seemed like eternity.
Finally, the mold broke, and she answered just like how Cale thought she would.
[Where is Feigling?]
A smile stretched across his cheek.
'Interesting' He thought.
Crash—!
Slamming her fist into the wall, her voice pitched higher, it broke like chalk on a chalkboard.
[I asked you something! So answer! Who the hell are you?!]
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The ground shook wildly, ceiling dancing in tandem as small pebbles and sand fell.
Cale felt his heart race, he made sure to grip at the coat tightly.
His lips parted like a dam opening its doors.
"He's dead"
The pounding stopped in an instant, the words hung in the air, taking their sweet time to really register.
Cale hadn't the slightest notion of where some random kid would be loitering around, he only spoke to anger her.
His eyes shifted toward where he could feel the smooth fabric of the cloak.
'I take back every bad word or hasty review about this fancy cloak, it is worth every single damn penny of my suffering'
Cale didn't understand much, however, it also wouldn't take a genius to know that this cloak's description misled those who first read it.
'Or perhaps, it never was supposed to be used this way?'
That could also be just as true.
Nonetheless, he found another use for something he thought otherwise to be trash.
Bringing in undeniable joy onto his face.
However, the same couldn't be said for the mother a boulder away from him.
[You...What?]
Sighing. Cale ran a hand through his hair.
"Didn't you hear me?"
He flicked his eyes toward the stone, unblinking.
"Your son is dead, I mean, who did you think caused the ceiling to cave in the first place?"
His tone shifted carefreely, making him sound unserious about the whole thing. As if a child's death meant nothing.
Cale needed to get his act across first.
After provoking her, depending on what might happen next, he would go back to wearing the cloak and act as if nothing happened.
'If she breaks the boulder, I'll at least have air to breathe'
He didn't know if she had the strength to do so, but it also wouldn't hurt to try.
Expectations though, do disappoint.
Thump—!
A thump dragged, drowning every other sound, including Cale's bated breaths.
The supposed mother of Feigling stopped talking, having heard more than enough.
Every rough edge of stone started to shake to their core when the thuds on the boulder repeated, far more ferocious than before.
Thud! Thud! Crack!
The boulder cracked with a splitting sound.
Cale felt a bead of sweat trickle to his chin, it dripped onto the cloak.
'Alright, that is enough provocation'
The cloak in his hands spread open, he couldn't see it, but it should be more than possible to wear it flawlessly even with the lack of light.
His arm flew into place, ready to be caressed by exquisite quality of fabric, but.
"Ah?"
His arm and shoulder simply slid past it.
Another dozen of beads of sweat started to manifest, Cale tried one more time, it brushed away from him again.
Cale's mind slowed, it throbbed intensely, his lungs laboring for more air than necessary.
'Th-This....'
Cale's pupils shook at the sense of fear forming a knot in his stomach.
Strangely enough, he also realized the cause of the fear almost instantly.
He had interacted too much with the creature, and his body wasn't able to handle the strain any longer.
It made sense, Cale hadn't slept at all since the practical exam started, he forced himself up and awake due to his body growing more energetic and powerful than before.
Only due to the cold however, and right now. Cale was anything but cold.
"H...Ha..."
The temperature rose to his head, features flushed red from both the harm the extensive heat had on him and fatigue
Thud—!
Crashing downwards, most of his bodily functions started to fade into the dark.
Fingers curled and dug deep into the fabric of the coat.
'I have to—!'
Letting out a swift groan, he attempted to don the fancy fabric once more.
"....."
However, before he could do anything.
Boom!
Rock exploded from everywhere, fragments of stone as big as his head landed close to him, when they crashed he blinked sharply, head jolting in response.
'H-Ha ha ha'
Cale tried to chuckle, his mouth wouldn't move for him.
'It's okay, as long as I play dea—'
Thwack!
Cale's head caved in the stone, struck by something solid.
Turning unconscious in an instant.
In the scene, bare feet slapped onto stone.
A pale, delicate hand reached out to Cale.
The figure veiled in the darkness tugged at Cale's clothes, dragging him through the rough terrain to the outside, occasionally crashing into a few walls in the process.
Snow scrunched under her bare feet, a white dress fluttered through the raging blizzard.
She dragged Cale's body for a long while.
So long in fact that her long black hair that covered her every feature turned frosty.
But, the scenery didn't match what Cale traversed through.
There weren't any strange monsters lying around to pick them off, no bird to snatch and be a nuisance.
Nothing but the sound of blowing wind could be heard.
Glancing back at Cale, she looked at the trail of blood he left.
She hurried her steps, anxious.
Having not seen her son at all inside the cave, she wanted to interrogate Cale, twisting any information he could have like a wet towel.
Feigling, her only child had gone missing, she had followed the trail he left behind, but it was to no avail.
She searched everywhere till reaching her final destination, a rural underground shelter.
Which had been transformed into a place where one could buy slaves from to dig out the cavern. Human trafficking in other words.
Of course, that was in the far nonexistent past.
Now reduced to a place for animals to sleep safely for a short while.
Entering it. The ceiling collapsed on her, her instincts kicked in and allowed her to survive.
But it was made abundantly clear to her at that moment.
Her son must have or might have been in the brunt of it all.
She bit her lower lip fiercely before stopping completely at her destination.
"....."
A cabin, built from spruce and gray brick flew into view, the blizzard wind whistled, sounding awfully close to how a young child would whistle.
Within the cabin, light spilled, the back of a young boy hopping around painted and finished the scene.