Pickaxe

Chapter 9-A decision

The wind whistled as it flew through the treetops grey clouds hung in the sky covering the Sun in a silky veil

Lyell looked over his shoulder to see their little cabin far off in the distance. It looked sad and lonely, sitting by itself in a vast clearing surrounded by trees

"Just let it be, Lyell." Oleo said, hand on his shoulder just turn around and don't look back at it I'll do it with you

Lyell took in a deep breath and slowly turned around. The moment the morning late and entered the cabin and the crew packed the bare minimum of what they needed. He recalled the moment they stepped out of the cabin thousands of large footprints were imprinted in the snow, boulders scattered all around the cabin and a trail of dry blood leading into the woods

"We've probably left hundreds of marks worth of Merch stone and equipment." he thought "all those memories, everything we have built, left to those monsters."

"We should take the path leading past the RoughMan canyon." Edward announced to the group. "Its not a very used path but it's the fastest."

"Alright, let's go then." Lyell said, tightening his head band. With a nod from the rest of the group, they began their journey. They traveled as quiet and as fast as possible. Snow began to gently fall from the sky, dancing on the light breeze.

It was around mid-noon when they reached the RoughMan canyon. "We should reach one of the towns by nightfall."Paul said.

"Good." Edward said. "Here, Lyell, hold my crossbow. I need to take a drink of water."

Lyell took the crossbow as Edward pulled out a flask of water. Lyell observed the landscape, the canyon was exceptionally large for a canyon, it stretched a far was 2 miles. Its walls were a grey colour that looked almost white in the dull light.

Sudden movement in the corner of his eye caused him to turn his head from the canyon. He felt his heart skip a beat when he saw what made the movement.

Standing about eighty feet away, near the edge of the canyon stood a ape man. It stood upright, its body was covering in long black hair, it appeared to have beard and long hair running down its head. It tilted its head to the left as if it were observing them curiously.

"Look who came."Lyell said, raising the crossbow.

Harmon, Oleo and Edward drew their swords while Paul took out a small hatchet. Each ready for the ape to charge towards them. Yet it just stood there, staring at them.

"Kill it, Lyell." Paul said.

Lyell hesitated as he fixed his gaze on the creature."Just kill it."he thought."It took everything away from you, your home, your life, everything. Think of the dead wolf, tases creatures don't deserve to live." The ape man only looked at Lyell, cocking tis head to the right again. "But it's not hurting us, it might have not been one of the ones attacking us last night. "Lyell lowered the crossbow. "Revenge is never worth it."

The creature let out a grunt and then run off."Why didn't you kill it?" Paul demanded."You had a clear shot."

"Revenge doesn't even the score, Paul."It ties both the injured and the unsure to a river of pain, both stuck in the river as long as the parity is demanded and the river never stops."

"Revenge proves its own executioner."Harmon agreed.

Lyell handed Edward back the crossbow and without a word, the group continued leaving nothing but trail of footprints behind them.