Don't Look Back! [C]

[Asclas Papadios]

I'll destroy you in the most beautiful way. Past Date: March 22nd, 2304 Location: The Rings: Torrentem Cliffs "Breath in, breath out. Don't hold your breath or you stop thinking. If you stop thinking you die. You need to run, if you stop running you die. If you trip you die." Those where the words told to Asclas by his Scout Test Initiator earlier during the day. Now they seemed to be the only words he was capable of thinking about as he was running. His breathing was harsh and withered he was reaching the end of what little stamina he had. Every gasp for air he took felt like he was eating fire. His lungs burned and ached more than his legs did. Though considering the amount of snow in the air that was natural. "Move it, or die!!!" Those were the only words he heard from the man about 10 feet in front of him - there were 4 other men as well - 2 on each side, all running in a sort of arrow head formation. It was disorganized due to everyone running for their life, but somehow they still maintained the formation. The man had this expression on his face - an expression that showed seriousness, delight, malice, insanity - most liked to refer to it as madness. The man was dressed in a black body suit, a black hood draped over his head. Over top of the body suit he was dressed in padding, a vest, arm and leg guards that sported a dirty camouflage pattern. Across his hand he had three claw marks - besides Asclas, everyone else had them too. The thundering sound of hooves could be heard getting closer - a cluster of booming stomps heard in the distance - gradually getting closer. It was freighting but Asclas didn't have the time to fully dwell on it - he was too busy avoiding slipping on slaps of ice, tripping over vines, and hopping over large tree branches... and skeletons. Some human, most animals that unfortunately weren't fast enough to avoid what was now chasing Asclas and the others. "It's just up ahead, we're almost there! Don't get trampled!" said one of the men to the left. With that not so rousing notion everyone began to pick up their pace, besides Asclas who was too tired to even barely run at the speed he was now. Adrenaline, fight or flight, the coffee his Test Initiator let him drink that morning. He wasn't sure what was keeping him going, just that he was going and he had no intention of letting himself get trampled. Though considering the guys in front of him had moved another 7 feet in front of him - and the thundering sound and snow got louder and thicker - it seemed like being trampled was the only option. The mountain was as dangerous as it came, in terms of a place to take a test, other than a live volcano. He prayed he would never have to be tested in one of those, if there were ever to be any. The Keepers add stuff all the time, he wouldn't put that past them. They had a sort of ubiety with these things - often adding increasingly more terrifying things. The last thing was the Viruses.

[Asclas Papadios]

I'll destroy you in the most beautiful way. The snow had gotten so thick around his eyes that he could barely see. All the other men wore handkerchiefs around their mouth to keep the snow from getting in. Asclas didn't have one, his Initiator forgot to give him one. Half the air he managed to suck in was accompanied by snow. That grainy taste of dirt mixed in with some of it was something he'd never be able to forget. Through the snow he could see the figures of the adults jumping and climbing what seemed to be black ropes, he couldn't quite make it out, but they were shimming up them as fast as they could. They got up about 9 feet off the ground before Asclas managed to reach them himself - he could barely see them but he reached out and grabbed whatever he could. He didn't have time to tug them to check to see if it was strong enough - he didn't care - if he didn't climb as soon as possible he'd die. Asclas began to climb the rope as fast he could, one hand over the other, wrapping his ankles close together his knee's neck to each other between the thick vine, his elbows and arms made a sort of triangle shape. He began to think of a worm inching up a piece a wall, if it fell it could be squished by those walking past. That's what he imagined if he would've fallen, that he'd be squished. Even for a child his age Asclas was strong, stronger than he thought. To run nearly a 2 miles with little to no breaks, and still be able to climb. Though at this time he still thought he was incredibly weak - and he was compared to the trained Scouts who nearly reached the halfway mark up the veins. Asclas had just made it 12 feet of the ground, before looking back. He didn't stop climbing as he knew, stopping meant death, according to the others. He could make out figures in the snow, large beast with horns, he had never seen what was chasing them up close and he wished he never would at this point. They were large beast, fast ones, and they were tall and heading right for him. They had to be heavy for them to be able to run the way they did, surrounded by piles of snow that the mountain had during this time. The large winds would blow every now and then, causing everyone to have to stop momentarily and brace themselves via the trees, and pray they didn't get blown away. Climbing the vines left them vulnerable to get thrown in mid air - how those vines were still there baffled Asclas.

[Asclas Papadios]

I'll destroy you in the most beautiful way. He shimmied up the rope faster. "Here they come! Move it and brace yourselves if you can!" yelled one of the men to the right. "Pull up your vines!" Yelled one of the men on the left. Asclas had just reached a point were his arm scrapped against something, after climbing nearly 17 feet in the air he could feel a stone wall, finally something more than air. He climbed higher till he could get his feet on it, he braced his feet against it and climbed more. He forgot to do something important though - he forgot to pull up his vine. By time he remembered it was almost too late, the horns had gotten closer - much closer. One of the men to the right forgot to raise his vine too. The heard of animals had gotten closer, and Asclas climbed more. The snow that was clouded around him began to thin out, he could actually see what he was doing. He could see all the scouts in front of him climbing, this stone archway, leading into a cave, he could see ledges. The initiator had just made it to the top of the ledge not even looking back to see if the others made it. Asclas guess was that he either trusted that they'd make it, or he didn't care if they did. One of the men on the left had slid down unexpectedly, he didn't have on gloves. His hands were blistered and bleeding. Luckily Asclas's initiator remembered to give him a temporary pair of those at least. Then the thought struck Asclas, he forgot to lift his vine. He began to wine up his vine, sticking his feet into the groves in the rocks for support. Pulling it up with one arm while the other held tightly to his vine. The rocks were covered in wet snow, which made it increasingly harder for them to be climbed. The cold air didn't help either, Asclas was pretty cold blooded in his opinion. He HATED the cold, especially snow. His whole body shivered, his muscles tensed up, and he had spasms of pain throughout his body. The man to the left scrambled to get back up the vine but neglected to pick up the vine with him. That's when a voice boomed "here they come!!!" it yelled not in a freighting tone but in an excited one. The horns got closer, so did all the figures of the herding animals. Bison.

[Asclas Papadios]

I'll destroy you in the most beautiful way. The man next to Asclas had made it just to the point Asclas did, his vine still laid below him, that's when it happened the ground below them started shaking due to the sheer amount of Bison running. The snow clouds shot up getting thicker by the second, an avalanche was happening, thanks to the gusting winds. Some Bison stopped and began to get trampled by the others. They were unforgiving even with their own kind. Asclas couldn't began to imagine what would happen if one of them were to fall prey to them. A scream could be heard as Asclas looked to the left, the vine the man was on got tangled in one of the Bison horns. The force from the Bison pulling the vine, and the men's weight made it cut clean from above him. The snow got thicker and Asclas could hear the man scream as he fell along with the broken vine. He could see the black silhouette of the man get trampled by hundreds of creatures. That's when the rocks on above him started to crumble and rumble - falling. Asclas shimmied up the rope as fast he could, not wishing to be like the man that just fell to his death. The snow was thick again, he could hardly breathe or see, the sound of the Bison made it so he couldn't hear anything but a large ringing in his ears. Then it happened, his vine snapped. He could fell himself no longer being supported by anything - falling. He didn't have time to think, so he didn't - his mind was blank. So he relied on instinct - he pushed off to the side with his feet, scrapping his legs, tearing off pieces of his black pants, as he leaped he felt another vine, touching his fingertips he wrapped his hands around it - pulling himself closer - wrapping his body around it as it swung him like a pendulum. He didn't have time to rest, so he moved up the vine, inch by inch. Then he could see the snow clearing slightly, he could feel himself actually being able to breathe better. Then he felt an edge, he lifted his body over it, slowly lifting himself up over the shaking cliff with what little strength he had left. He had made it - crawling and cut up, but he had made it. He was stronger than even he know, he had begun training with the Carna when he first joined and it was nice to see it paid off. He wished it also paid of in appearance seeing as he was still a bit on the chunky side. He chuckled at that thought.

[Asclas Papadios]

I'll destroy you in the most beautiful way. He coughed and heaved and his stomach lurched making him vomit. Most of which was snow and particles of dirt from consuming so much of it - the other part was due to over working himself. He took big gulps of air every breath of which made him feel like someone released a shrapnel bomb inside his lungs. He turned over on his side, trying to catch his breath, then he saw a small hazy figure. It squirmed and wiggled as if it wasn't sure what form to take, gradually becoming more humanoid. His brown eyes glazed over it before they shut. After a while he felt a sharp pain in his side. His eyes shot up to see a boot embedded in his gut, he coughed hard - spit and snow flew out his mouth on the other boot that wasn't embedded in him. He looked up to see a man looming over him, the one with scratches on his hand. "You didn't die." The man looked down on him - his eyes almost as dark as night, cold, unforgiving, full of insanity - he tossed a piece of bread down to Asclas. "Eat." He said. Asclas was a lover of food, you didn't have to tell him twice. He eat it, hardly chewing it. Now if only had some coffee to go with it - something anything warm actually. The man moved over towards the cave, it had a tarp over it, the blaring winds, smacked against the rock cliff causing a sort of howl to sound around them. It also caused Asclas to be covered in snow, he shook himself free of the cursed cold blanket he was in and gradually moved towards the cave entrance. It was freezing. He hated this, but he wanted this. He wanted to find his place in the Carna. Being a scout seemed the way to go, but he never knew it would be such a exhausting task. This was something he didn't expect, even as long as he's been in this place. It was a new, place, a new home, a new start. It was torture, and he hated it. Though oddly enough he found himself to be contradicting in emotion - because he also loved it.

[Asclas Papadios]

I'll destroy you in the most beautiful way. His Scout threw down a bandanna. It was black with a skull and crossbones in red drawn over it. Every one of the scouts had one over their face, it was the one his Scout forgot to give him earlier."Congratulations you passed the first part. We're camping here for the evening, you can borrow that till we're back" said his initiator. His eyes began to sink a little, almost red. He looked so unforgiving but it also looked as if he had been crying, it was strange. "Pity we lost Greg in the process." That was the type of test this was. Even if you passed already and you were requested to come along, doing this all over again was always a risk. "We have to meet up with others later to finish the other half we'll leave in the night." Just like the man - Greg, earlier you could still be killed. It was the type of world he lived in it. Survival of the fittest on mistake, a mistake you didn't even have time to think about or realize until it was to late - could kill you. It was terrifying, Asclas found himself wishing he wasn't a shifter. Though he loved being one, though he always embraced it, he wished things could be easier. They weren't however, if anything things only looked like they were going to get worse. So he wasn't going to pity himself, cry, be depressed about - he decided that he was going to live as hard as possible, and hopefully then things would get easier and if not... Well at least he lived. However long that'll be. Life expectancy in this place was ever changing. Asclas put on his bandanna. Even in the howling winds he could still hear the heard of Bison which seemed to take forever for it to actually die down. There were thousands of them all trying to squeeze through this tunnel into a new pasture. As they annually did, which happened to be the same time this group did their initiation rituals. Basically running in front of them with a large head start, trying not to die at the home stretch. Even people who had already been recruited and passed initiation still died when recruiting others. Most recruits didn't even make it. He made his way into the cave.