Everlast

Chapter 2; When swimming in a lake goes very, VERY wrong.

Ajay screamed.

Or, at least he tried to, but that was rather difficult seeing as he was still under water.

He swam as fast as he could, sensing the creature on his heels, and broke through the surface of the water, blindly making his was toward the shore as fast as his body would take him. 

Scrambling onto shore, his bare feet burning against the sharp cold of the snow, Ajay sprinted from the lake and began running toward the treeline, hearing the creature emerge from the water and start to chase him on land.

The cold wind bit at his bare skin, but he barely felt it as he heard the creature gain on him. He practically could feel it reaching for him, getting closer, closer... Suddenly, there was a whoosh, like an arrow being let free of a bow, and a howl split through the air as whatever it was found its mark.

Whipping around, Ajay saw the monster laying in the snow, black blood dribbling like sludge from a wound in its heart. Now that it was still and not trying to eat him, Ajay could see all the hideous details of it; its thin, skeletal body, all covered in paper white skin. The spines along its back. Its webbed hands and feet. 

Shivering, Ajay looked beyond the heap of the fallen monster and saw a figure standing not a hundred yards away, bow in hand. Approaching slowly, Ajay could make out little about the figure other than it was wearing a thick woolen cloak in a deep purple. A soft, warm woolen cloak.

It was only then that Ajay realized how cold he was, seeing as he was wearing nothing but his swimming trunks, which were already freezing to his legs. He shook uncontrollably, his teeth chattering in his skull. But as much as he wanted that cloak, the man still had a rather frightening bow in his hand-- and even the most common of folk know that you do not simply approach someone who could turn you into a human pincushion. 

Thankfully, the figure did not immediately spear Ajay with the tip of an arrow and instead, he approached almost cautiously and removed the cloak from his shoulders.

Neither of them spoke, and it was as if a hush came over the wood as the two stared at one another. Neither daring to breath. And while Ajay was sure the figure stared because he thought Ajay was positively mad, walking around in the middle of winter half-naked, Ajay was staring for a different reason.

The figure before him, looking to be a boy of his own age, was much taller than Ajay-- nearly seven feet-- and upon his head were a pair of glorious antlers that shone like polished ivory. Other than that, he looked mostly human, looking to be of Korean descent. 

The boy's ears were like those of a deer and were perched more on the top of his head. His hair was a warm chocolate brown shining with flecks of gold whenever the light hit it. And his eyes, a deep brown like rich summer earth. At least, one of them was; the other was surrounded by ugly scar tissue and Ajay wondered if the creature could even see out of that eye. Still, he was undeniably handsome, if not otherworldly. And Ajay nearly forgot to take the cloak he was offering when he thought he caught a glimpse of a tail flicking behind the stranger.

Ajay looked at the boy's face. Then the tail. Then back to the boy's face.

This wasn't real. This couldn't be real. No, he was rational, he was an adult. This was merely a dream or a joke or something that logic could explain. He was an adult!

He was also very cold.

Taking the cloak, he wrapped it around his shoulders and continued to stare at the stranger, who stared back unwavering.

"Atras nae teandas?" the creature finally said, breaking the silence.

Ajay blinked. "What was that?"