10 Rumbling
When Kai felt the rumbling, he tightened his hold on Asha as his first thought went straight toward earthquake.
"Ah! What's happening?" The sudden shaking startled Asha as she frantically looked around.
The rumbling wasn't too strong, but it was enough to cause loose rocks to fall from the cave ceiling.
Seeing the falling debris, Kai became worried about a cave-in. Once that thought passed through his mind, he immediately leapt into action fearing for the worst.
"Quick, grab all your clothes! We need to get out of here now!" Kai commanded Asha as he hurried to grab his things.
Hearing the intensity in his voice, Asha didn't hesitate to grab her fur cloak, fur leg wraps, and foot wraps.
Kai rushed around piling some dried meat, stone hatchet, stone knife, waterskin, and his fur clothing in a large hide that he wrapped up to carry.
The rumbling never ceased as Kai tore down the makeshift wall blocking the entrance to clear a way out.
Right when Asha picked up her bundle, Kai grabbed her hand and led her out of the cave.
They had to immediately cover their eyes because the bright glare from the field of snow reflected the sunlight, threatening to blind them.
However, Kai knew the surroundings well and pulled Asha through the knee-deep snow to the nearest small clearing.
"Quickly, get dressed before you freeze." Kai instructed as he also started donning his fur cloths.
"Ah yes, it's really cold." Asha's teeth clattered as she needed no reminder to dress warmly.
While dressing, Kai's eyes quickly adjusted to the brightness of daylight and noticed smoke rising from a neighboring mountain.
"What? Is there a fire?" Kai thought to himself.
However, he didn't see any flames. In fact, the smoke seems to be rising from the top of the mountain.
Suddenly, the ground shook fiercely causing them to lose their footing.
They looked up to see hundreds of birds escape from trees flying desperately away from the source of the smoke.
Kai was able to notice that many of the trees in the distance were shaking as all the snow lodged on their branches came tumbling down in a flurry.
"Fuck." Kai had a pretty good idea of what was happening and he was far from pleased.
"W-what's going on Kai?" Asha was anxious seeing her son acting so solemn.
"I think that mountain is a volcano and it's about to erupt." Kai pointed toward the mountain that was spewing out even more smoke as the shaking caused the packed snow to turn into an avalanche.
Asha didn't know what to say as she has never heard of, let alone seen a volcano, but just from witnessing the huge amount of smoke coming from the mountain peak, she instinctively knew something was not right.
"Not only that, because of the imminent eruption, all the hibernating creatures are fleeing toward our direction." Kai's expression contorted to a grimace as he finished dressing himself in beast hide wrappings.
Asha also just finished dressing when she was shocked by Kai's prediction. "Then what should we do? Hide in the cave?"
Kai's eyes narrowed as he quickly processed the situation and came to a decision.
"I'm afraid if we stay in the cave, it could potentially collapse and trap us inside. I think the best thing we can do right now is get as far away as possible and head for high ground." Kai gripped the handle of his stone axe.
Asha stared resolutely into his eyes. "I will follow you."
"Un. Stay close behind me." Kai wrapped the chunk of dried meat in the leather hide and tied it next to the waterskin on his waist before setting forth.
They were both bundled in a leather tunic, tanned hide wraps on the arms, legs, and feet with a thick fur hooded cloak draped their body.
Kai took the lead running as he forged a path in the snow for Asha to follow.
He planned to circle to the back of the mountain hoping that by facing away from the eruption it can minimize the danger.
However, the mountain was big and with the snow, uneven terrain, and uphill trek, they were certain to slow them down so unsure if they could make it in time.
In addition, he felt his nerves being tested when he heard the roars and cries of many beasts behind him approaching.
He wanted to pick up the pace, but Asha couldn't run through the snow as fast as he could.
At this rate, the beasts would catch up before they were even halfway there.
Suddenly, Kai stopped and turned around, causing Asha to bump into him.
"Hold on tight." Before she could react, Kai picked her up into a bridal carry and bolted away.
Asha wrapped her arms around his chest for support as she stared at her son's face that was hardened in concentration.
Her heart palpitated and she even momentarily forgot the serious situation they were in as her thoughts were preoccupied with one thought. "So strong!"
However, her thoughts were interrupted when a thunderous crack split the air as the volcano erupted.
The loud shockwave forced Kai to stop as he lost his balance.
The bang left Asha reeling as she could only hear ringing in her ears.
When they turned to look, they saw the peak of the mountain explode, sending flaming rocks flying through the sky.
Thick black smoke ballooned into a gargantuan cloudy beast devouring the sky.
It was an apocalyptic scene.
"No way!" Asha gasped, her eyes wide in horror at the sight of a natural disaster.
Kai paid special attention to the flying rocks heading in their direction as he resumed his running.
The thunderous eruption really scared the beasts as they redoubled their efforts, sprinting away in a frenzy.
The faster ones consisting of beasts that looked like wolves and leopards were catching up to Kai, much to his dismay.
As he ran, he made sure to use the trees as cover to avoid confronting the fleeing beasts passing him.
Luckily, the beasts were too busy escaping to go out of their way to attack Kai.
As he maneuvered through the snowy forest, he noticed a shadow quickly approaching out of the corner of his eye and instinctively leapt away.
*BOOOOM*
Snow, dirt, and fire exploded sending nearby animals flying, the ones closer to the impact smashed into unrecognizable pieces of flesh.
Kai and Asha were sent flying from the shockwave that was caused by the impact of one of the falling flaming rocks.
Asha screamed as Kai hugged her protectively as they tumbled through the snow which helped soften the impact.
Reeling and slightly dizzy, Kai quickly collected himself as he only suffered some bruises and scratches.
Asha was still dazed from the fall and as Kai was about to lift her up, he noticed a huge, green-furred bear-like beast triple his size charging in his direction.
With his mother behind him, Kai couldn't dodge so he mustered his courage in face of the charging bear.
He only had a stone hatchet in hand, he decided to charge at the bear to keep it as far away from his mother as possible.
"Mom! Get up and move!" Kai roared as he sprinted at the charging bear.
Asha's ears perked up from his shout, prompting her to watch as her son was about to face a raging beast many times his size.
She felt her heart leap into her throat as she tried to stand, but the sudden fear crippled her legs.
As Kai was just about to confront the bear, he remembered that this green bear had a sensitive nose, so he made that his target.
He timed it just right when he swung the hatchet with full force to smash into the center of its face.
*HOOOOOWL*
The giant bear howled in pain as the sudden strike caused the bear to lose its footing and it crashed into Kai.
Kai felt like a truck just collided into him, but he kept a firm hold of the bear as he flexed all his muscles to divert the course of the bear's momentum.
He succeeded in changing the angle that the bear was sliding and missed Asha by a small margin.
As they slid to a stop, Kai scanned the vicinity and upon seeing his mother unharmed, he sighed in relief in being able to protect her.
"Kai! Watch out!"
Asha's sudden warning alerted Kai in time as he dodged out of the way of a claw swipe from the enraged bear.
He quickly made some distance from the bear as he prepared to engage, but he instinctively looked up and changed his mind.
"Mom! Run!"
He immediately ran and pulled Asha up, ignoring the bear. The huge bear didn't expect its attacker to flee so quickly, enraging it even more.
However, Kai had no time to worry about the bear because more falling rocks were plummeting from the sky.
*BOOOOOOOOM!!!*
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