A Warmth in the Snow

"This is the strangest place I've ever seen!", Lubbock exclaimed as we walked down an empty road following the woman.

Unlike him, my focus was solely on the slender figure that walked in front of me. I even forgot all about my aching body and walked behind her like I wasn't just about to get frozen to death. There was no snow or fog inside Agartha, yet it seemed even colder. There wasn't a single soul around, the only sound was the tip-top of our feet marching towards wherever it was she was leading us.

On both sides of the road, tall stone houses stood erect, evidently vacant. I couldn't help thinking what a waste it was that no one dwelled in such homely looking houses anymore. Still, there wasn't much signs of an invasion in this area. I supposed not all of Agartha was a victim, the residents may just have left of their own accord.

As my eyes began wandering around, taking in the emptiness of that city, I felt the cold wind piercing every pore of my skin, I felt my bones shiver. I wondered how Lubbock seemed to be taking it as if he was walking in his own yard. My feet were numb, my boots having been ripped thin for the most part. I sucked it up and kept walking, as I just wanted to get to a warmer place as soon as possible. My feet decided otherwise and gave way. I was about to hit the ground when her shoulder caught my fall. I, who was unable to make sense of my surroundings, looked up to find her face peering at mine with a slight disinterest.

"Hey, aren't you cold like this?", then she looked over at Lubbock, who still wasn't done with admiring the place, "Hey pal, you mind giving your mate a hand?"

It felt awful to be imposing on her like this. For some reason, I felt crushed by this embarrassing display of my weakness. I didn't care if it was my demon blood acting up, I just didn't want to look this pathetic to her. Yet, try as I might, I was running on empty. Lubbock certainly didn't want to be restricted by shouldering me, but apparently, he had no choice.

We walked the rest of the way slower than before. I could just tell she was being considerate of me, and that killed me even more. She would look over her shoulder to make sure we were still following her. At long last, we had finally made it to what looked like an inn. I was surprised to find the light of a lamp flickering in one of the windows. I wondered if she was living in this place. But I was proved wrong, for when we walked in, we found that it wasn't her abode. It was a real functioning inn. Surprised as I was to find that out, Lubbock plopped me into one of the chairs.

"Ah, welcome to your last wish!", a cheerful young maiden popped out of somewhere to greet us.

Her morbid greeting caught us off guard, and we stared her way cluelessly.

"Ah!", realizing her mistake, she corrected herself bashfully, "I meant, welcome to The Last Wish!"

To be honest, that did little to change the mood.

"The Last...Wish?", Lubbock asked.

"Yes!", she then called to someone that was inside the kitchen, "Isn't that what we're going with today?!"

The response was something that I couldn't make out, other than that it was a pretty angry reply. She smiled widely, looking at us, completely ignoring whatever remark she had received.

"Is that the name of this inn?", Lubbock asked again.

"Yes! Well, we lost the front board that had the real name of the tavern on it, so we go with a new one everyday. Ah, could it be?! Would you prefer some other name?"

Anything would have been better than something so grim sounding but I wasn't one to complain. The tavern didn't seem to be theirs in the first place, I for one was just content being in that warm place.

"Ah! You brought guests, Miss Traveler!", our host girl apparently had pretty slow gears.

"Yeah, I found them outside the gate. This one's pretty roughed up, could you look after him a bit, Serena?", the 'Miss Traveler' replied to the girl.

"Yes, anything you ask, Miss Traveler!", the barmaid, who was apparently named Serena, seemed to be fond of Miss Traveler.

"Oi, Sangmu!", an old skinny man appeared from the kitchen, wearing a scowl on his face.

"Yes!", Serena answered.

"How many times have I told you to-!", he then noticed us, "We have guests? Travelers, are you?"

"Nope! We're here to-", before Lubbock spilled unnecessary beans, I interrupted him.

"We used to live here", I answered, "Left when we were pretty young. We just came back to find our house."

"Eh? That so? Well, you're sure gonna have a hell of it if that's what you're looking for", he replied, shaking his head, "Well, want me to fix you up for the night?"

"Please do", I answered shortly before finding Miss Traveler's eyes that were looking at me in what I thought a rather inquiring way. She said nothing though and looked away as soon as I caught her.

"Old man, can you get them some food as well", she asked the owner, "I'm sorry, I didn't find much to hunt."

"No, it's fine, you don't have to go out of your way for us. For now, we'll make do. Oi, Sangmu! You darned idiot! What do you thinking you're doing wasting medicine like that?!"

Serena, who had begun treating me, seemed to have spilled a bottle of disinfectant which earned her the owner's lashing. She seemed completely indifferent to it.

"Ah, I'll clean it up right away, Gramps!", she left my treatment in the middle and strode off to find some cleaning supplies.

I sure wasn't getting help from that klutz of a girl. Lubbock, on the other hand, seemed to be poking around into anything and everything he could find.

I rested my head, a little, as uncomfortable as I was in that small wooden chair, it was better than what I'd been living in for the past week or so. Still, I was all out of energy and my only hope was waiting for whatever the old man was about to bring to table.

Just then, as I was resting my head with my eyes cold, I felt a warm touch on my arm. Miss Traveler was finishing up Serena's work. I was a little flustered, having relied on her too much already.

"Uh...thank you for...this", I was sort of lost for words.

"Don't mention it. This is all I can do to help out. As you see, money doesn't bring much around here."

That was true, these people were living as if it was the apocalypse. I wondered if there were more like that here. Why hadn't they all left already? My head was too heavy to find all those answers, and Lubbock had started knocking stuff around, doing some weird rattling behind my back. I hated how much of a kid he was gradually turning into. Serena still hadn't come back, and I could hear she was making a whole lot of racket in the kitchen. The old man had begun yelling. And all of a sudden, as I was slipping into an inexorable sleep, I felt that this ghost town was beginning to come back to life in that small inn. And that filled me with a warmth I couldn't put into words, as if all the snow on that mountain had melted away.