Dry and warm, the wooden cave remained unchanged. The crystal light still hung in the air, its brightness remained unrivaled, and the wall remained as it was, with one side badly mutilated. My body lay sprawled on the ground, with one arm still fused and weaponized. Forcing myself up was impossible; my body was exhausted as if all my blood had been drained out of me. A quick check found nothing wrong, no punctures or wounds, yet everything inside felt wrung out like a rag.
How much time had passed? The question that was subsided by another. What in the world did they do? For the first time, they actually did something rather than commenting from the sidelines. 'Leave this to the adults.' I was already one, and they were not even my parents to begin with. No one was. 'You'll know when you're ready.' I am already twenty-five and have traveled across the largest continent in Avos. What was there to prepare for?
"Oh." A young voice that made eyes snap wide open, dropping down to my legs. A small figure, swathed in snow-covered rags, with their hands and feet bare and shaking. "You're… the same." Their voice was youthful, yet their expression was devoid of it. "I hope you don't mind." They said and walked to the back, grabbing my cloak and turning it into a blanket as they sat down, with their knees close to their chest.
All previous questions were quickly swept away by two. "Who are you? And where did you come from?"
They stared at my eyes as if they had forgotten. "Yu'ri," They raised a hand and pointed to the cave's only opening. The blizzard was still present. "And I came from outside." Their tone, their expression, the way they move, and the look in their eyes, everything pointed to one thing. They were a mimic, and a young one at that. But how was this one so far up north, and where did they get their vessel? How did they even survive? How was it even possible?
More questions started to pile, and my eyes started to hurt from thinking about it. Every fiber of my being wanted to close, but doing it in front of someone so dangerous would be moronic; then again, they could kill me in my current state. That, or they did not know they could. They were not aggressive or showed any signs of bloodlust or hunger…
"Don't even think about doing anything," I said and closed my eyes. It should be fine to rest them for a while.
…
The silence felt odd, yet exhaustion won over me, and my body started to drift.
"Hey… Hey. Hey, hey, hey-"
"What!" My eyes snapped open, and my head turned to them. "I was only-"
"It stopped." They said, and my head turned to find that the blizzard had stopped, or so I hope the cave's opening had turned into a mound of snow.
"How long was I out?"
"I don't know."
My body felt well rested, and with my weaponized arm, killing them should be easy. And yet, as I stood up and pointed the tip down at their face. Yu'ri's expression remained pensive, almost lost, maybe even confused.
"Where did you come from?" Again, I asked, and they once again pointed to the cave's opening
"I came from outside."
"Where do you get that vessel?"
"From outside."
"Ahhh…" A heavy sigh left me, taking the crystal with me, my legs turned to the opening. Useless and pointless. As much as my curiosity wanted to know, it was a waste of time pursuing questions with no answers. Another thing to add to the ever-growing pile, and like the mound of snow that blocked the opening, I wished there was a simple way to get through it.
Taking a breath to think, letting the stale air travel through my body…
"HAHAHA…" An uncontrolled laugh ran through me. I was focused so much that I forgot to check. Taking deep breaths, letting my lungs fill with stale air, letting my gut expand along with my skin and muscles, then exhaling through a hundred newly created orifices. The drawbacks of assimilation had ended. A feeling I never thought I would enjoy, and yet the feeling of being one hundred percent in control of a body was too gratifying.
Filled with a sudden surge, and being trapped by a wall of snow. The soft wall looked like the perfect opportunity to release it. My eyes kept glancing at the wall to my weaponized arm. Turning it into a shovel would be the logical option, but it would be too time and energy-intensive. And with how heavy the snow was falling, who knows how deep I was buried.
'Needle.' With a thought, the bones in my arm turned soft, breaking and shattering in quiet crunches, and quickly, my arm turned into a long, slender, bone-scaled tentacle. Its pattern mimicked those of burrowing snakes, and I hoped it worked the same.
Coiling and releasing, it stabbed into the cold wall, bobbing and twisting like a screw, it started to burrow deeper into the wall. At the same time, I took deep breaths, sending the air through the tentacle, expanding it, and in turn causing the tunnel to expand.
It was not long until the tentacle's tip breached the surface, and judging from how far the tentacle stretched, I was roughly buried under ten to fifteen feet of snow. Reeling the tentacle back, and with a wet slurp, it quickly transformed back into my arms, the numbness and burning sensation that came with it was expected and yet not. With a hot breath escaping me, my head turned back to see. Yu'ri was still sitting and staring, like a forgotten doll.
They should last longer with my cloak. I thought and donned my gloves before exiting. Taking Yu'ri with me was absolutely not an option. They were a young mimic, dangerous and unpredictable, despite their current docile behavior. That was because they were still not hungry, and from personal experience, being near one while they are hungry would be a death sentence.