Abigal ran within the snow that was about to her knees. The only thing that kept her hidden was the darkness of the night, trees, and snow. Wolves were notorious for having poor eyesight and that was what she was relying on to get away from Sous.
She dipped behind a large tree and looked up. Her pants were soaked; she was going to need find a place to stay for the night. After she purposely fell off from Sous' shoulders, the goal was simply get away from Sous.
Sous stood in the snow, her wings steady and folded on her back. She couldn't see the medium, but she could hear her and her antennas allowed her to see the medium's body heat.
She knew why the medium jumped and why the medium was running away but Sous couldn't help it. She had the strongest, most primal desire to mate. She swallowed, breathing heavily. Her own body heat was so high, the snow around her feet had melted. The ground was able to be seen.
"ABIGAL! IT'LL BE QUICK!" Sous yelled. Abigal heard the Alpha, and knew a rut was three days and not quick, and with several instances of being stuck together.
Abigal shook her head and waved her hands. A light blue portal opened in front of her. She stepped through it, not making time to check to see which and what dimension she was entering to. From a distance, Sous saw the light and she quickly flicked her wings.
Her antennas twitched as she saw the portal disappear. Sous growled and ran towards where the portal appeared. She slammed her fist against the tree trunk, splitting the bark to shreds. She looked at the sky and yelled out. The snow melted faster as her body heated up. "Fuck!" She said.
Sous looked around the snow. She saw Abigal's footprints leading away. She followed them. Sous scanned the area with her antennas, hoping to see any trace of Abigal. She saw nothing; she growled again. She was so close to catching Abigal.
This was how much pain she was in, this was how strong the desire to mate was. All ration and all logic, gone.
Flap, flap!
Her wings slowly lifted her upward to the sky to get a better view. Her ears turning, trying to catch anything when it came to sound, but nothing.
The cold air brushed against Sous' heated skin, a stark contrast to the fire burning within her. Her antennas swept the snowy landscape below, painting ghostly outlines of trees and rocks in thermal hues, but no trace of Abigal's warm silhouette remained. The silence was absolute, broken only by the frantic beating of her own heart and the soft rush of wind through her feathers.
She circled higher, scanning the endless white expanse, each pass tightening the knot of desperation in her chest. The world felt vast and empty, mocking her with its indifference to her primal need. Snowflakes melted instantly against her fevered body, vanishing into steam that curled upward like lost prayers.
Abigal landed on a boulder peak and looked out to the horizon. The sky was a burnt red and orange, the mounds were black and brown like ant hills with holes in them. Demons roamed the lands and the sky, their wings spreading far and wide. Their screeches ear piercing, Abigal had to cover her ears.
"Where am I?" She whispered to herself. She looked around, not sure where to start. Well, first she needed to get out of sight. She stepped down the peak and got into a crouched. She made herself small, looking for a hole or something to hide in.
Three days, that was all she needed, to just hide out for three days. She jumped down into a small hole. Abigal saw quicky the hole was actually a tunnel. She looked up, unsure if she was able to get out the hole. She jumped a couple of times. She was stuck.
She took a deep breath and told herself if things got bad then she could open another portal. There was a problem though. She didn't know where she was still. Getting back was easy because all she had to do was calculate the coordinates of her previous location. But...Sous could still be looking for her.
The medium continued down the tunnel until she came to an opening. It was as if she entered into the main room, like the living room of the demon hill.
"So this is where they come from," she said to herself, still keeping her body low. "Is this hell?" She shook her head. "I don't see any spirits but...that doesn't mean anything. It could be some type of after life-"
Sccrreeeeeech!
Abigal knelt down and covered her ears. Her ear drums pounded, like they were going to burst. She even felt the tears about to come streaming down her face.
She struggled to breathe, her lungs burning. Her eyes darted around the cavern, trying to see the source of the screech. Her heart hammered against her ribs, threatening to burst out of her chest.
She pressed herself against the rough, damp wall of the tunnel, making herself as small as possible. Her soaked pants clung to her legs, cold and heavy, adding to the chill that crept through her bones despite the hellish heat radiating from the cavern beyond.
She crawled in the tunnel trying to get away from the screeching. Her brain felt like it was going to melt and spill from her ears onto the ground. Her knees crawled as fast as they could carry her body.
Screeeeeccchhh!!
She fell onto the ground in a fetal position, holding her head. The noise wasn't stopping.
The screech tore through her, vibrating her teeth, rattling her skull against the tunnel floor. Tears streamed freely down her face, mixing with sweat and grime. Her fingers pressed hard against her ears, whiteness, desperate to create some barrier against the sound that felt like knives stabbing into her brain.
The damp earth beneath her soaked through her clothes, adding a clammy chill to the agony. Above, the cavern echoed with flapping wings and scraping claws, the sound was moving circling closer. She squeezed her eyes shut, praying the darkness would swallow her whole before whatever made that sound found her.
And then...it was done.
The silence rushed in, thick and sudden as a slammed door, leaving only the frantic drumming of Abigal's own pulse. She lay curled on the damp tunnel floor, her breath shallow and ragged, the phantom echo of that horrific screech still buzzing in her bones.
Slowly, cautiously, she cracked open her eyes. The cavern yawned before her, vast and dimly lit by a sickly phosphorescence crawling along the jagged walls. Shapes moved in the gloom, hunched, leathery forms shuffling past jagged stalagmites, their enormous, membranous wings folded tight against their backs like grotesque capes. None seemed to notice her crumpled form near the tunnel entrance. The air hung heavy, thick with the scent of ozone and something metallic, like old blood left to dry.
Finally, she was able to stand on her two feet- the demons gone, like it was a lunch break.
"What is going on?"