Winter #5

"Emily!" the young man exclaimed, causing an echo.

She tossed the game to the ground, her gaze wary as Ethan scanned every corner of the cave. Ever since he first arrived there, the cave's lip had been wide open and the barrier rattan seemed to have slammed into the center. The campfire was dead and there was no sign of having been used during his hunt in the forest.

The young man sat himself down first. He took a sip of the water stored in the small jug, while the bacon intended for Emily was gone when he checked. Ethan blamed himself when he remembered not telling Emily to stay in the cave while he hunted. But Ethan was also upset when he remembered that the girl should have known the weather outside was so bad and she should have stayed in the cave and waited for him to come home.

There was a strange silence that appeared between his raging thoughts. He had never felt this lonely in life, even though Ethan had previously inhabited the cave alone, but Emily's departure made a strange hole appear in his feelings.

Ethan lit a fire to warm himself, slowly his numb hands began to feel warm. He tried to stop thinking about Emily for a moment and started thinking about his stomach that was rebelling to be filled. He began to roast a slice of red venison on the coals and the young man devoured it in silence. The aroma of the fresh meat of his meal this time was really delicious, the doe was sweet even in all kinds of limitations in the processing.

Ethan snorted when he realized there was a strange smell besides the damp smell of the cave and venison. Staying with Emily for a few hours and sleeping next to the girl made Ethan memorize the scent of her body. But, really, the scent he inhaled that second was completely new and unfamiliar in his memory. The young man began to feel that something was wrong, there must be someone who entered this cave besides him and Emily!

His nose continued to sniff at the strange odor. He wondered why the smell had just appeared, and not when he arrived from hunting? Could the extreme weather have made his sense of smell less sensitive? Ethan tried to concentrate his mind to focus on the unfamiliar smell. He dismissed the smell of snow, the smell of fire, the smell of wet earth, and his lingering body odor.

The young man reflexively stepped his feet to the lip of the cave as if guided by the scent. His eyes still closed, he inhaled the scent deeply. The dusting of snow that landed on his eyelashes made Ethan realize that he was already outside the cave. Shaking off the snow on his face, Ethan turned his body to go back inside the cave to put out the fire and bring his bow. The dark-haired youth had no idea what lay ahead, and his crossbow had to stay in his hand no matter what.

The moon hung over the gloomy dark sky. Any sane person would choose to stay in front of the fireplace at this time of year when the snow was falling with a bone-chilling chill. But Ethan with his determination could brave any storm. The scent carried him far to the North, no matter how many times the young man almost slipped on the slippery ice among the branches and stones along the way. His faith told him that Emily was brought there by someone.

The farther to the North, the thicker the pine forest became, the more difficult Ethan's steps became. The sticking roots and falling branches of the trees often snagged his boots. The lantern he carried was no longer enough to illuminate the path ahead. However, as he entered the forest, the scent he smelled became sharper and sharper. The young man leaned against a fallen branch, his breath steaming, his heart beating frantically. Ethan remembered the plague Emily had talked about last night, the one that was inhaled with the air. Would he die as his lungs inhaled deeply all the air there was to follow the trail of his scent? His mind was restless.

The young man pondered in the dimness and biting cold. The air swirled in between, then the faintest whiff of Emily's scent. Ethan locked the memory of Emily's scent in his head harder. His focus was no longer on the unfamiliar scent that brought his trail to the middle of this forest, now it was Emily's scent that would guide him on his way.

His steps stopped in front of a strangely large tree. The tree was towering and perhaps as wide as the arms of ten adults. Miraculously, the tree seemed to be covered by a curtain of snow-covered vines. Slowly, Ethan removed the vines with his hands, the snow that clung to it caused a sensation like being bitten by a snake when the young man's hands touched it.

There was a small space in the center of the large tree and Emily's scent was getting stronger from there. How could it be, Ethan thought. His nose was assaulted by the scent of moss and wet wood, but his focus remained on Emily's scent. The young man crept into the narrow opening in the tree's hollow. It wasn't cold but it was stuffy. He looked around the walls of the tree and didn't see anything suspicious or instructive. Ethan might have experienced inhabiting narrow caves during his wanderings, but being in this crevice in the tree caused a strange sensation of frustration.

The young man couldn't bear to stay there and thought about getting out, but his boots again tripped over something. Ethan realized that the ground inside this crevice was uneven, his flashlight provided illumination and it was now clear that there was something square that could be lifted.

Ethan put down his flashlight and began to lift a slab of iron that was quite heavy. The cold from the iron was bone chilling, it probably weighed as much as the deer he had carried a few hours ago and Ethan needed more strength to lift it. Once the iron slab was lifted, Emily's scent hit his sense of smell even harder.

There are stone steps that seem to be the way to the basement, the young man thought. The darkness down there made Ethan have to take his lantern with him and carefully trace the damp steps one by one. The young man counted the number of steps and they totaled no less than 27. It seemed quite deep for an underground room.

It wasn't wrong when Emily's scent led him to touch this place, the young man was perfect as a mouse that went for every smell. When he reached the last step, Ethan anxiously scanned the surroundings.

A dungeon! Who had brought Emily to a place like this?