The Edge of Siberia

Predatory Instinct

Shadows of silent trees cascaded up onto the rocky paths below us; their leaves agreeably grazing against eachother in the wind. They extended for miles, occasionally masked by glistening sheaths of untouched snow. As the sun began to lower itself below the horizon, black shadows elongated, travelling further across the land. In the dead of the winter's evening, nothing could be heard for miles apart from the breaking of a leaf from a nearby tree. I peeked over and watched it float away to rest on ground, painting the mud with its striking blood red body.

Crunch.

I jaunted and steadied myself in terror, as my daydream was replaced by a reptilian, leather-skinned foot. It's grotesque claws grazed themselves into the dirt, crunching their weight down onto the leaf. The greying path was tainted with a newfound huddle of shadows until the sun dipped its head into oblivion and all light was gone, causing every shadow to grow at an unfathomable pace until all of the land became darkness.

I scrambled in the dark to find my sister's hands and caught some of the moonlight reflecting from the whites of her wide eyes. We were not prepared mentally or physically for what was heading our way. Her hands were dark blue and I looked up to watch her matching blue lips part before her teeth chattered. We began to shuffle into the bushes further away, dashing from one to the next with our eyes locked on the group headed towards us. They hadn't yet caught sight of our movement.

We stopped to inhale the fresh mountaintop air and heavily exhaled again in relief. As the weather settled, nothing could be heard other than the cooing of the birds that welcomed our presence. A few minutes later, it sounded as though they were in conversation with something. Nevertheless, I threw my back to the ground and stretched out my achy muscles, then rolled to the edge of the cliff and hung my head over like a shifty rodent peeking from its burrow. I began scanning the ground meticulously and locked my senses onto their figures, still a blip in the gravel. I managed a quiet chuckle to myself and drew myself closer to the edge in anxious curiosity, causing small rocks to scramble beneath me. All of a sudden, my elbow slipped and my heart dropped when my shoulder fell from its perch. Rocks went tumbling down the steep slope, loudly crashing and smashing their way down. It wasn't even a second before the orcs withdrew from their casual escapade and their eyes darted directly into mine. Oops. At this point, the adrenaline stealing through my blood kicked my twenty-twenty vision into action. The pupils in their eyes violently expanded almost wide enough to swallow me whole. Predatory instinct.

Of course, our nemesis was onto us like hounds tearing their way through the snow. Exhausted and panicked, we watched our deaths ascend, denying ourselves the fighting chance of an escape. I whimpered and helplessly waited. I watched them meet a particularly steep avenue of snow, which they completely ravaged in fury-fueled excitement. I couldn't tell whether I was shivering in complete horror or if it was just freezing. Snow spattered everywhere as they pressed on through, their swords ripping new holes in the scenery. The wintry blanket became the orcs' battlefield. They were getting excruciatingly close to a single clean pathway that led towards us. They were laughing aggressively at our faces, waving their swords at us, throwing rocks in our direction, until time dripped, leaked, and eventually poured.

A thousand years of peaceful snow churned wrathfully in the mountains. With the orcs ripping away at its feet, the snow had been awoken and began to shift in a rage that could not be undone. All of a sudden and all at once, the vast white face below us dropped from the mountain like the undoing of a mask and went crashing down, crushing and suffocating the orcs as it closed in on them. I threw an expression of shock at Hetti and noticed that behind her, was a row of eagles lining the ridge beside us, calmly watching the chaos below. It's like they had been already waiting for what had just happened, almost as if they... knew.