"I can't believe that you just did this, Mara," Xavier's voice echoed through the valley. His words sharp in disbelief and filled with anger. His body twisted and turned in midair, the wind howling around him like a wolf, cold and unforgiving as it whipped passed him.

  The Earth below was nothing more than a distance, a black hole, looming blur. Shiny rocks around him seems like an ancient beast, a dragon ready to devour him alive. His hands trembling with desperation, tried to claw the empty air, searching for anything___anything at all__that might slow his fall, break his descent and offer him a last chance to survive. But there was nothing. No edge catch him. No branch hold him that could give him another breathe.

  Time seemed to stretch, each second seems like an eternity. His heart raced in his ribs, not just from terror of falling, but the shock of betrayal that happened just few moments ago.

  'She pushed me__?'

  The words echoed in his mind over and over___as his body continued feeling the air and imagining the depth. 'Mara'__the woman he loved and cherished, who he trusted his life with had pushed him through the cliff.

  Few seconds ago he was happy and laughing with her on their success and now everything shattered. All promises, the adventure and the laughs. It all had been a lie.

  'Why__?'

  'How__?'

  'How had we come to this__?

  It hadn't always been this way. Once they were a team. The team of three. The shadows__Xavier Blackwell, Kieran Hale and Mara Wexley. They had adventured together, seeking ancient artifacts, exploring forgotten ruins, battling the hurdles. Their bond had been strong and unbreakable.

  But that was before the amulet.

  The amulet of the dragon King. A relic of unimaginable power, rumored to grant its owner the strength to control this world___ maybe the universe or something else because its all in the stories. No one truly had this amulet before. They had tracked its location for months, spent sleepless nights decoding maps, sneaking through traps and tunnels, and crossing dangerous landscapes. It was supposed to be one of their greatest adventure.

  But then it had torn them apart.

  "You don't understand Xavier," Mara's voice had been frantic, filled with a fierce energy that only came from greed, "This is everything__This amulet___its our future, our fortune. We can sell it. Imagine the money, the power we could have. The future we promise each other. We can live like a royalty, forget about all these struggles, these adventures. No more hiding from police. No more running from problems."

  Xavier took a deep breath, his heart heavy with the realization. His hands clenched into fists as he glared at her. "Mara___this isn't us___this isn't you. We are adventurers who loves to explore the world which hid somewhere under the dust of time. Not for some money or power."

  Mara stared at him as if he was speaking a different language or from another universe where money didn't matter. Her face was flushed with an excitement, her eyes wide with the hope of better future. "This is bigger than us, Xavier!! We've spent out lives barely scraping by. We deserve this. We can have everything. Just think about it. We'll never have to struggle again. You promised me the best future and I think this is our chance Xavier."

  Kieran, standing a few feet away, had looked on with a hint of concern, though his hands were stuffed into his pant pockets. His eyes darted between them, a sly smile playing at his lips. "You're just upset we beat you to it, Vee. You've always been good one, always thinking about the right thing, the moral and values. But you can't deny it__this amulet is worth a fortune. Hell!! we could retire after this."

  Xavier's heart had sunk into his stomach, the realization punched him like a brick to the chest. "Retire?" he whispered. "Is that all you guys care about? Money? Power? You've come this far only to steal? How can you forget why we've started this. We did this because we wanted to learn, discover and____" His voice cracked, words were not enough to describe the pain. "And because we were a family. The Shadows, and you're willing to throw that all away because of this 'amulet'?

  Kieran rolled his eyes as if he had not interested in this mess. "Xavier, your words cannot change our minds. We have made our choice. Now it's up to you to support us or break the team."

  "No," Xaviar said firmly. "You're wrong, both of you. It's_ it's not just a treasure hunt anymore. It's about 'who we are.' If you're willing to destroy everything for a quick payday, fine. But I don't want to be a part of it."

  Mara's tone changed in an instant. The fire in her eyes had dulled to something colder, something more calculating. "You don't understand. You don't have what it takes, Xavier. You're stuck in your little dream world where everything makes sense. Where everything is about the next great discovery. But wake up, this Dragon King's amulet is the key to everything."

  "Mara, please, listen to me with a calm mind," Xavier begged her, taking a step forward. "We can leave. We can get away with it. We can go back to how we were before. If we did this theft today, the police would catch us and we'd spend the rest of our lives either running from the police or going to jail." He paused. “I__I promise Mara, I will work hard and earn enough money for us."

  Her lips pressed together in a fine line, and for a moment Xavier saw something in her eyes, a hope___ or perhaps regret for her actions. But then it was gone, replaced by something icy that shielded her emotions.

  "No," she shook her head. "You should've thought about that before you tried to stop us."

  "What? Mara, no___please_____"

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  But before he could finish speaking, she pushed him. It was not something he had expected. It was not a mere nudge, a push in jest. No, this was deliberate, powerful, and it was as if she wanted him to fall.

  His body had flailed, trying to catch its balance, but the earth beneath his feet had given way. The world had tilted violently, and in the next heartbeat, he had been falling.

  "Mara," the cry escaped his lips, strangled shout. His hands reached out for anything, but the cliff side was smooth and unyielding. His body twisted in midair, he feels like the ground rushing towards him. Ready to embrace him into its depth as if he was a part of it. The thought came to his mind in that moment, sharp and painful, "I'm going to die."

  Memories flashed before his eyes like a fading dream. And then, in an instant, the reality hit him hard. 'She did this.' She had chosen power and money over him. Over everything they had shared. He closed his eyes, bracing for the end. His final thought was a single question, hanging in the darkness: 'WHY____?"

  ━???━???━

  Xavier's head thumped, a dull, relentless pain that ripped its way through his skills. His limbs were stiffed and heavy, his senses were numb. Slowly he regained his consciousness and the first thing he noticed was silence. There was no wind. No distant sound of the outside world.

  He tried to get up but his muscles refused to obey him. His eyes fluttered open, and the blur of light slowly entered into his eyes and shaped itself, trying to show him the icy world.

  "Where am I?" he grumbled.

  The cold had seeped into his bones, but it wasn't cliff side cold. No, it was something different. The warmth of a nearby fire reached him, a welcome contrast to the bitter cold that had consumed him on the mountain.

  Xavier's eyes blinked slowly around the small cave. He can felt the hard and cold ground beneath him. The air was heavy with the smell of damp earth and smoke. A fire flared up in front of him, a small flame surrounded by woods to contain it. A grey blanket was wrapped over him nearby, soft and surprisingly comforting against this harsh cold. A small gift in this chaos.

  He shook his head gently to clear his thoughts. Then he saw someone____a person___woman. She was kneeling beside the fire, rubbing her hands together in a rhythmic motion, as if trying to control her coldness. She sat with her back to him, but her presence___her silhouette____ was mesmerising.

  She was medium, with long dark hair fell as careless waves over her shoulder. Her actions were graceful and deliberate, but something about her seemed so distant____so unreal as if she was a part of this landscape, this cave. He can see the cold beauty within her just like this mountain.

  "Don't Xavier, focus____just focus on yourself first," he whispered. "But sometimes it's nice to ask for help." He thought, looking at her again. He cleared his throat and tried to speak in his weak and hoarse voice. "Hey___do you____by any chance___?"

  But she didn't seem to hear her. Too focused on rubbing her hands together____or maybe searching for something. Her eyes darted around the cave with quick and nervous movements, scanning the dark corners bright in dim light. Xavier shifted slightly under the blanket, trying to push himself up again or maybe make a sound so she could see him. But his ribs screamed in protest, too stiff to move, yet he forced himself up, ignoring his pain. He reached out in his pocket, wiping his hand with small packet of cake left in his pocket. He pulled it out and clear the burning plastic.

  "Food__I think she is looking for something to eat," he thought and his own stomach growled in agreement.

  He hesitated for a moment and looked at her, "Maybe I'm wrong....Should I call her? What if she thinks I'm a prevert or a jerk? Perhaps she care less as we are both stuck in the same situation." But the intensity with which she was looking for is undeniable. As if nothing else mattered.

  Finally, he cleared his throat, a sound that was almost out of his ears. "Hey," he said but this time louder. "Have this."

  She didn't turn immediately, but Xavier saw her hands stopped its movements, just for a few seconds, he wondered if she had even heard him. He sighed and placed the pack of cake beside her and lightly tap on it to make a sound so she can react. And it worked. She turned her head right and looked at it. He saw her brown eyes in firelight, burning like a yellow sun in the white clouds____intense but filled with something which he couldn't replace right away. Perhaps hunger or the coldness or something unreadable. She raised her eyes and looked at him. For a brief moment their eyes locked, and Xavier felt a strange pull, as if the flame is the only thing keeping them connected.

  A weak smiled played on his lips, trying to overcome this strange tension between them. "Don't look at me like this, I know when people stuck in a situation like this and desperately looking for something then its just a 'food'. You can take it as a token to save my life."

  She studied him for a few moments before shifted her focus again on the pack of cake. Her lips twisted slightly, and without saying anything she took the pack. Her fingers brushed over it as she opened it and continued to eat the cake quietly, her hunger silent.

  "I didn't save your life, but Marcus did," she spoke for the first time in a while.

  "Marcus__?" Xavier muttered his name under his breath and looked around for him but found no one. "Oh....okay.....thank him."

  She didn't answer right away. She chewed slowly, as if enjoying the taste with her eyes fixed somewhere in the shadowed corners of the cave. Xavier didn't want to press her more even though the words stuck in his throat. He looked at her silently, wondering what had brought her here, to this mountain,to this coldness and isolated place.

  He felt the awkward silence between them but he shook his head and wrapped the blanket around him tightly to control as much cold as he can. His mind was racing, wanting to ask so many questions. He wanted to know where they were, what is place was, how to get out of here, what had happened when he was unconscious and above all where they found him___no actually where Marcus found him, where was Mara and Kieran? Had an avalanche buried everything around them?

  Suddenly, the sound of boots crunching in the snow broke the chain of his thoughts, and their eyes shifted to the cave's entrance. A man entered, his silhouette cast by the faint light from outside. He was tall, broad shouldered, and the seriousness on his face shows the years of exposure to his harsh life. It seems like he had seen it all____yet survived.

  Even his thick gray beard was failed to concealed the scar on his face, stretched from his cheek to his jaw. A reminder of someone who had fought battles___both inside and out. His amber eyes were sharp and calculating, scanning the cave before resting on Xavier.

  "Now, it's time to move," Marcus said in his serous and authoritative tone.

  "Time to move__?" Xavier shivered even at the thought to leave the cave in this heavy snowfall. But he has to if he want to go somewhere safe. He looked at the black heavy jacket, the man was wearing.

  "You're lucky you're alive, man," Marcus said, as if his gaze read his mind. "The avalanche buried everything around. We need to move before another one comes down. The path to the summit is dangerous, but there's a hotel and we have to reach their before sunset. We'll be safer there."

  Xavier looked at the woman before nodding slowly. His body aching too much to argue, he noticed the woman was already on her feet, brushing off the snow and the dust from her pants, ready to go. The man turned to her and nodded.

  "Let's go," Marcus ordered, leaving no room for debate.

  Xavier looked at the fire one last time, picked his bag up before leaving. The warmth still creeping through his bones. But he had no other choice. If he don't want to freeze here to death, he had to leave. There was no room for hesitation in the mountains.

  He had no choice—not yet.