He wiped the tear from his face, feeling as the streak froze on his skin. Propping himself up on his elbows, he looked around. The water in the hole at his feet was completely still, it had been a bit since he got out of the water so his disruption of it was gone at this point. He got on his knees and crawled to it, looking down into the pit. His eyes darted around slightly, seeing the small crystals that formed from the edges slowly.
His curiosity was cut short by the chills that ran down his spine as the breeze hit him every time. He stood up again, shivering. He had lost the path that he had originally walked on, now unsure of the direction he was going, the only way was forward. He thought about reaching into the pit with his prosthesis, but that would only realistically lead to trouble with whatever would lie beneath.
His gaze was now fixed on the path ahead. At some point, the snow stopped getting higher up his body, now only reaching about halfway up his thighs. His toes felt numb, his head slightly fuzzy as the cold took over him. There were two spots that were unaffected by the sheer temperature, his left hand and the purple patch spread across the right side of his stomach. He extended the warmth by pressing his hand over the worst of the cold.
The one spot he could not reach was his feet. Even if he were able to kneel down and wrap his hand around them, just stopping would hurt the rest of his joints that were barely kept bearable by his own movement.
He could not tell how long he had been walking for, just the slightly wobbly path that laid behind him when he turned his head to see if anything behind him changed. Every few minutes he would place his prosthesis over his own mouth and spread the air over his face to keep it somewhat warm, It was not very helpful as aside from his torso, it was the part that received the brunt of the air.
It looked endless, he tried adjusting his vision forward to see if he could see past the star lined horizon ahead, not one hill or change of elevation in sight. Gritting his teeth he pushed forward.
It was not long until he felt like he hit his limit. Totally doused, the somewhat smooth trek turned into what felt like grinding glass shards within his joints. His lungs struggled to expand and contract as the air he breathed made them firmer. Short coughs escaped his body. He could no longer keep his vision high, instead, resorting to hiding as much of his face with his somewhat long hair. It was of little use, the frozen strands instead whipping softly against his already cold skin. His shins and the top of his feet burnt with the cold.
Warmth suddenly overcame him, like a heatwave right above his head that travelled down his body. A slight smile spread across his body, his eyes opening up a little more to take the view beneath him. He lifted his eyes.
A large beast stood before him. Only an inch from him, he could only see it's wide belly and gigantic paws. He fell over backwards into the path he carved, finally getting a good look at the creature. It was a giant cat, one with no facial features. Totally black, outside of it's belly which was a deep dark gray. The warm breeze turned out to be the thing's breathing after it appeared directly overhead.
He raised his right hand, summoning his gun and preparing to fire. From above the cat's head climbed out a silhouette. It was a person, vaulting over the thing's head and dropkicking towards him. He closed his eyes as he pulled the trigger, feeling as they kicked the gun out of his hand. Landing with the other foot on his throat, his head was pushed further into floor as something pointy jabbed him in the cheek.
He opened his eyes, the side of his head was pressed against the floor as he looked up with the one eye that wasn't covered by snow. A fairly tall person, completely covered from head to toe in snow gear. A longsword that they held with one hand, pointing down at him with their other hand. They spoke with a thundering voice.
"Who are you?" the ground trembled around them as they talked. Marco gripped their ankle in an attempt to push them off. With a strong twist of the ankle, his face was now smushed against the crystal floor down below, seeing the same darkness from when he began his walk. The ice crackled.
"I repeat, who are you?" It was in a slightly softer tone this one, still the air shook. The tip of the blade slid across his cheek, making a paper thin cut along as they released the pressure on his throat. The tip of the blade jammed into his mouth, placing the cold metal between his gritted teeth. "Speak, or this goes through the back of your head."
He had little fight left in him, he could only hoarsely whisper through the pain on his neck. "Marco."
The ground below him ruptured slightly, in a similar fashion to before. The person lifted the sword from him, crouching down and lifting him over their shoulders. With his body draped over them, he could see and hear as the floor began to break apart again.
"Why didn't you say so beforehand?!" They tossed the sword into the giant cat's belly. It disappeared into the gray mass. Right after it came them, Marco looked down as they jumped, avoiding the collapsing floor below them by an instant as they dived into the animal.