Journey to Somewhere New (Sun Wukong x reader)

Chap. 18 - "I feel warm."

"Are you sure you don't wanna take a break?" Monkey asked as he and (Y/n) have reached the mountain range and were now on their way to the top so that they could see how much more they needed to travel.
(Y/n), walking in front, was clearly struggling on this uphill slope, hunched over and making slow and heavy step. Monkey was behind her, in case she falls backwards he could catch her. She slowly inhaled.
"Nah I'm good." she exhaled.
"You're clearly not."
"If we're...If we're gonna take a break, I want it to be on a nice...flat surface." she panted.
"If you say so." he shrugged, smiling and trying not to giggle.

At some point, it began to snow, (Y/n) didn't seem to mind, if anything, having some fresh snow was good for her exhausted self. But though it was common for really tall mountains to have snow on top of them. Monkey knew they weren't *that* high. This snow wasn't natural but as far as he knew, it was still just snow, so he didn't say anything. Oh, how wrong he was. And he realized he was wrong once they reached the lowest top on the mountain range. The whole place was covered in snow, and despite the cold wind, the sky was covered by grey clouds and so they couldn't see the horizon. The snow what now going up their ankles.
"This isn't normal right?" (Y/n) asked as she searched inside her bag. "I mean, we're in the middle of summer."
"Right," his eyes narrowed slightly. "and it can't be the dragons' doing. They're always so strict about the weather."
"Maybe they'll come by and fix it then."
"They better, even I will have trouble navigating in this mess."

He looked at her and saw she's covered herself in a blanket.
"What? It's cold." she said when she noticed his gaze. "Aren't you cold?"
"I have fur, and I'm Sun Wukong. I'll be fine." he looked back at the scenery. "Ah, there's a village down there." he pointed.
(Y/n) looked down. Between two mountains was a little village built on a stone platform and with houses made of stone. She frowned slightly.
"I'm not an expert, but I don't think stone is the best material for this kind of weather."
"Well snow probably isn't their typical weather anyway. Come on." he said as he began to walk towards it.
She followed him. The more they approached the village, the denser the snow became. It would snow in her village during winter, but she's never seen this much before. And because it was summer, she didn't bring a coat. She shivered from the cold, the snow now going up to her calves.

(Y/n) almost slipped on the iced stone as soon as she took a step on the platform.
"Need a hand?" Monkey offered his arm.
"I'll be fine." she smiled, shaking the snow off her boot. "Back in my village, we'd slide along the frozen river in winter.."
"Alright. But if you fall then it won't be my fault."
"Heh, sure."
The two of them began exploring the small village. There was a single plaza surrounded by a dozen of houses, with one bigger and fancier-looking than the others. They checked the normal ones, they were furnished, but they were all empty. No food, and no warmer clothes.
"Ghost village."
"Don't."
"Definitely ghost village." he nodded.
"It's not a ghost village! Shut up!"
(Y/n) tugged on her blanket, he noticed she was shaking and laughed.
"I still can't believe that with everything that happened, you're scared of ghosts!"
"I'm not scared! I-It's just cold in here."
"Of course, of course." he walked away, ignoring her glare.
She followed him to the bigger house and changed the subject.
"This abandoned village, think it has something to do with the snow?"
"Probably not. This place seems to have been like this for..." he thought for a moment. "I'd say a century at least."
"Woah..." she said under her breath.

They opened the big doors of the biggest house, and (Y/n) gasped when she saw the dozens upon hundreds of skeletons, human and demons, scattered around a large entry hall. Of all sizes, some had clothes on, some didn't. Monkey, now with a graver expression, walked in. (Y/n) hesitated but still followed him inside.
"None of the bones are broken." he said, inspecting the demon skeletons. "That's not really helping on how they died." he clicked his tongue.
"It...It wasn't in a brutal way, that at least we know." she said as she went to check on the human ones on the other side of the room.
"But then it could've been anything." he held his chin as he thought, frowning. "Poisoning, locked in here to starve to death, some evil powers draining their life form." he clicked his tongue and kept looking for clues. "The list goes on."
"The humans however...s-some of them are in pieces."
(Y/n) crouched down to a skeleton that was sitting against the wall. The clothes they were wearing were worn out. She reached to touch their skull, but she frowned when she did. She pressed, making the head turn to the side and fall over. Her eyebrow furrowed and she looked at her hand. As she made the tip of her thumb touch the tip of her fingers, she realized they've gone numb.
"(Y/n) please don't destroy the evidence!" she heard Monkey exclaim.
In normal circumstances, she'd say a sharp line back, but she just blew hot air on her hand and brought it under her blanket. Looking to the back of the room, she noticed something.
"Monkey," she said as she walked closer to it. "one of them's different."
"How so?" he asked, following her.
"Something's carved on their forehead."