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I stared down at my paws, sitting up as one them started to twitch. A nagging feeling coming up at the very back of my head. I swallowed hard, trying to ignore it.

"Tiny-Half, you do not look well. Are you sure you-" Jóhan expresses, but I immediately blow him off with a scoff. "We're going. I'm fine."

He raises a brow, looking down at me. "You shake as if you are cold."

"Not cold." I state, looking up to him. "Do you have any water?" He nods and turns around, my voice sounding a bit dry. He came back with a small little cup, which I gratefully took. He expected me to down it right away, instead I reached a paw into my pocket. Pulling out two tiny white pills, which I took then followed by the water.

"Is that why you shake?" He asks curiously.

"It's for a condition."

He looked puzzled at me for a moment, tail twitching as he didn't understand. "What is this.. condition?" He asks me, throwing together a pack of food and supplies for a like hike. Hearing everything rustle around as he talked. "Shaking does not seem right."

"Its none of your business." I tell him bluntly, finishing off everything including the water. With a scoff he heads to the mantle. Pushing down the fire to keep it low and slow burning, smoke billowing from the coals. Above he takes a dark orange-colored fish, looking to me with a newfound smile. "Smoked trout, it is good! We will have it for our walk."

I nod, getting off the bed and recounting my items. My rifle, smooth and sleek as always. Check. Energy bars, dull and tasteless as ever? Also check. Jóhan finished up his preparations and we headed out into the cold morning.

A cold glacier breeze swept through my fur, Jóhan put his paws on his hips and breathed in deeply. Puffing out his bare chest. "Ah! beautiful morning, no?"

I looked around, the sun has barely even risen, just a slight glow on the horizon to signal its return. "I guess so, now show me the way to this ruin. I'm eager to finish this."

Jóhan laughs as we start our trek, motioning a paw to follow him. "Patience Tiny-Half! Patience, enjoy this beautiful land and its offers!"

I didn't know what he meant by this, and I wasnt interested in spending too much time here. "Jóhan, I do have to be paid for this you know. And get to other things." I protest, waving my tail behind me in irritation.

He blows me off as our paws carried us over dirt and grass. We must've been quiet for at least half an hour, enough time for the sun to start poking through. Up and over a grassy hill, to a wonderful view of a blissfully dark grey beach. A small lake reflecting the scenery around it, as the sun bounced off its ripples.

"Here we are, it is time for morning eats!" The leopard gracefully bounced down the hill to the beach, heading toward what was a shovel left there. I had to admit, I was curious about this. So I bite his bait and followed him down.

"You come from a place of volcanos, yes?" He asks me, grabbing the wooden shaft of the shovel, sticking it into a mound of sand. This sand felt odd beneath my paws. Warm and almost bubbling, in definitive contrast to the cold and hard dirt on the way here.

"Yes, Venus is covered in them. Why do you ask?"

"Because my home, Iceland, as you see is also volcano. Our land is warm and beautiful!"

I had a hard time believing the 'warm' part of that. It was summer and I was reconsidering bringing a jacket.

"Some of these sands you see carry that warmth. Warmth of an oven!" He tells me, digging away at the sand. I watched carefully, a rifle still in my paws. He lifted sand upon sand, water filling the holes he created. To my amazement this water was bubbling and steaming! I could feel that very heat from here!

"Earth is a giant oven here, ripe for cooking!" His shovel thunks against what sounds like metal. Carefully he goes a bit lower, upon popping the shovel out. A whole metal pot came out with it, the warm smell of bread with it? No that can't be right, as delicious as it smelt.

"It is time to eat, come sit, sit with me!" He grabs the me

tal handle with his bare paws walking back to the grassy hill. Intrigued by this, I followed. Sitting down, he opened the pot. The smell of bread was even stronger now, and sure enough there was bread! Cooked from the heat of the sand!

"Amazing." I remark, eying it closely.

"Ah but wait till you see how it tastes friend, come sit. Eat with me!"

Still amazed by this, I did just that. I sat down with him and enjoyed a breakfast of bread with the trout on top. Cut thinly to not over power each other. I had to admit it was a nice diversion from the usual instant noodles I would usually eat. Doing all this as the sun rose above this island.

"So Tiny-Half, we will continue to the glacier but I must warn you. We will pass through a old town. It has been untouched for hundreds of years." He turns to me, a seriousness on his face I had never seen from him. "Do not enter those buildings, they are cursed from the útrýmingu."

My face twisted, "The what now?" I ask him.

"I do not know the english word, but long time ago the world shook. Creating monsters and us alike. Do you not know this?"

I huffed, I did know this. Everyone was taught this from elementary school. The apocalypse that destroyed civilization as we knew it over six hundred years ago.

"I do, I'll be careful in it. I expect you to lead the way." He nods understanding his part.

"Good, you may have gun but these things do not bend to your weapon." I wasnt going to argue, I've heard terrible things about the past. I suppose some areas like here in Iceland are still affected by these... anomalies.

We continued onward after breakfast. Passing over hills, marshlands, using old forgotten roads to travel. All the while Jóhan enjoyed the cool weather.

Though come mid afternoon, after I was told we were getting close. His demeanor changed, the once strong and head held high snow leopard now looked anxious. Checking around, nervously looking to the top of the hills.

His uneasiness felt contagious, knowing something was around that could scare this cat was unsettling. I had my rifle though, let something test us. Soon enough however, I knew what was making him this way. At the bottom of a small hill stood a dilapidated town.

Buildings that hardly stood made up a small maze of old roads. Crumbling from the harsh weather, bits of asphalt sticking between my toes. Windows almost nonexistent here as the glass been broken and smoothed out by the years of neglect.

"BB?" I asked silently so Jóhan couldn't hear me.

"Vex, you havent talked all day. Do tell me you're not being eaten."

"I'm not, I'm in a small destroyed town. It looks like a war was fought here." I whispered anxiously, feeling a growing unease. "Are you seeing this?"

"Off your feed yes." He says confirming my question.

"Tell me, how old are these."

A brief silence was heard before he told me. "These buildings predate the apocalypse, being built either late nineteen nineties, or early two thousands. Making them a touch over seven hundred years old."

This blew my mind, how could such buildings stay standing for being so old? Almost none had a roof, but still for even the foundations to still be there.

"Seven hundred." I whispered to myself in awe, walking through ancient history practically. My thoughts were quickly off by a sound of what was like steel collapsing on itself. Mine and Jóhan's fur sticking up from the sudden shock.

"BB I have to go!" I say in a rush, cutting him off and readying my rifle before the AI could talk back.

Stepping up to Jóhan, he walked slowly eyeing every building we passed. "I do not like it here Tiny-Half."

I agreed staying close to him. "Neither do I."

As we edged near the town, a thick fog rolled in. Covering and hiding these buildings, as they started to say their whispers to us. Dead languages I couldn't understand, things moving in the distance I could not see! A dread feeling struck my heart, I could not stay here.

"Tiny-Half we must go, please no more here!" Jóhan says in a panic, his pace turnin

g from slow to a jog. I picked it up as well, my paws pounding the ground below, kicking up debris.

Human figured danced in the fog, trying to coax us in, into the basements of the building. Whispering a doom I did not wish. I started to run, wanting out of this personal Hell. The dead will not call me, as Jóhan shared similar thoughts. The two of us running, panting and feeling this feeling of encroaching death!

The whispers were louder, almost yelling for us! Fog creeping in, trying to choke our lungs out! What has Earth done for this to happen!

I coughed while running, no more of this please! My legs carried my up as fast as they could, up and up with the leopard beside me.

The further up I went, the cleaner things became! The fog was lifting! Freedom from a dead town! I started to smile, feeling a heavy feeling off my shoulders as the day was now clear. No more was the fog there to snare us.

Looking back from my position, I could see no fog. Only the town, left as we entered. A shiver ran down my spine, wanting nothing to do with that place anymore. Jóhan's face said it all, fear of that place.

Neither one of use said a word, the further we moved away the better. I wanted nothing else with it. We had to have been miles away at this point, as the air felt clear once more. And colder.

"We are close Tiny-Half, the glacier will show soon." I nod, eager to get off this island. I wished to find these ruins, and leave nothing else.