Tales Of The Underlands (jjba part 5 Wonderland AU)

A Cold White Blanket

You shivered in your sleep, it felt like the blood in your veins had frozen. Maybe you should get an extra blanket when you stopped at the village. It couldn't hurt to be a little bit warmer at night.

Looking at the entrance of the tent, you could see that it was still dark outside, the embers of the fire were still glowing. You sat up and noticed the even breathing of Formaggio and Illuso, with whom you shared a tent tonight.

Your throat felt slightly dry and you began to look for your satchel with the water in it. It should lay somewhere near the entrance.

In the shine of the embers you could see its form. As you reached for it you noticed a movement under the snow, it slightly looked like a mole was under the blanket of snow. Carefully you reached your hand out towards where you suspected the strange animal to be, but before you could a small head with big eyes looked right at you.

The thing had sharp teeth with a long body and a tiny horn on its forehead and you recognized it as the little creature you saw while collecting firewood. You just stared at it for a few seconds before you decided that it was harmless and instead reached for your satchel.

Right as you had the flask with water in your hand, the thing jumped out of the snow, right at your arm, showing multiple rows of sharp teeth, before they sunk into your flesh.

You let out a scream of pain as the creature dove back into the snow.

Your scream had alerted everyone at the camp and Illuso and Formaggio were quickly by your side, even if they weren't fully awake.

Your underarm was bleeding heavily and a good chunk of the flesh was missing. There was adrenaline rushing through your veins at the sight of your mangled limb. Otherwise you wouldve probably passed out.

Heavy sobs came out of your mouth and you felt like you couldn't breathe anymore.

"What the hell happened?"

Illuso was looking at you, while you tried to breathe in so that you could at least answer him, but it felt like something was closing up your throat.

You held your arm out to him and heard him gasp.

"Formaggio get some bandages." then he turned to you, "what attacked you? From where? How many were there?" there was a slight note of panic in his voice.

When you didn't answer immediately he shook you and repeated his questions.

Finally you found your voice again.
You pointed at the snow:" Some animal, it was like a worm with a horn on its head and it bit me. It came out of the snow."

Formaggio had returned with clean bandages and some strange ointment, which he applied to your wound before wrapping it up, whatever he used stopped the bleeding immediately and made the pain bearable. He also reached for your flask with water to lift it towards your mouth.

Meanwhile Illuso had called towards the others to be ready to defend themselves and to stay in their tents and away from the snow.

His hair and eyes seemed to glow in a lighter shade now, same went for Formaggio. It was clear that they were on edge.

You told them that the creature was slightly visible under the snow. It would make it easier to track its movements.

Just as you were trying to explain that you already saw that thing earlier today, you heard someone yell out in agony, the voice sounded like Pesci.

"Prosciutto, what's going on?" it was Risotto who called out to him.

The embers of the fire had gone out and now you couldn't see anything anymore, the moonless night and a sky hung with clouds didn't help. You were separated and trapped in the dark while facing an unknown enemy, who probably was at an advantage.

"There-There are maggots coming out of Pescis mouth. They seem to have hurt his tongue." Prosciutto answered.

"Di- Did he go near the snow?" you ask, your voice still a bit shaky.

"No." came the immediate answer, "We are probably being attacked by two people."

Pesci coughed after his words. He sounded strained, you could only imagine how painful it must be to have maggots feast on your own tongue. Feeling the wound on your arm, you feared what could happen if you wouldn't spot the enemy soon.

There was a shrill sound echoing of the mountains, before that worm like thing jumped out of the snow again in front of Melones and Ghiaccios tent.

Formaggio threw a knife at it, but it quickly dodged and dove back into the snow. This felt like a sadistic game of 'whac-A-Mole'. Waiting for that thing to pop up again so that you could attack it.

While you knew you couldn't do anything to help with a fight like this, you felt useless for not being able to do anything. You just got hurt and had to expect others to save you, like a damsel in distress. It felt frustrating.

Prosciutto told you he had removed the maggots from Pescis tongue and crushed them, that made it easier to focus on one enemy.

You looked up, it had snowed so much that even the ceiling of the tent was covered in it.

Wait-

The creature could only move trough snow.

"Do we have any meat left?" you asked Illuso.

"Yes in the bag, but why would you need any meat right now?"

With no time to explain you grabbed a sausage out of the bag and smeared some of your blood onto it. Then you stabbed a whole into the tent and put the sausage through it. You were sure that the thing didn't have good eyesight, so from afar with your smell on it, it should think that the sausage was your finger.

Waiting for that worm to show up made you nervous. What would you do if it wouldn't work? What if that thing was smarter than you thought it would be? Would you all be eaten alive by maggots and worms?

When there was a shadow near the hole with the sausage, you closed your eyes and thrusted your knife forward. As you heard a squeel you knew you had been successful.

A part of the tent was now soaked in blood and the lifeless creature fell onto the snow. Quickly you scrambled back to Formaggio and Illuso.

Illuso and Formaggio looked at you wide-eyed. You yourself didn't think you would be able to do that.

You wanted to step out of the tent, convinced that the attack was now over, but Formaggio pulled you back.

"We got their companions, but the real attackers are still out there somewhere close."

There was the noise of flapping wings, before the ground vibrated and something landed in the middle of the camp.

You could only see a faint outline, but it looked like the animals from the glowing forest, it's dim purple glow bringing some light into the camp.

"There are the corpses of two man in the mountains west of us. Apparently there is a dragonfly feeding on one of them. Other than that there is no one near us in a radius of a few miles." Melone spoke.

The butterfly, who you assumed was Baby Face, flew away.

"Looks like one of Bucciaratis men got to them first." Risotto said.

Prosciutto hummed in agreement. "Come on, we need to pack. There are probably more people after us."

There was no time to rest for any of you and from what you've heard earlier a possible ally was near.

Suppressing a yawn you began to pack your stuff.