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Stumbling along, still getting used to this place. This world. A place of dreams and nightmare alike come true. Monsters, special powers, danger. Dahlia didn’t want to be here. The world before was terrifying enough. Now the woman walked through the snow, overly bundled up and looking like something of a tank. She looked every which way while noting the things that fell here and there in the distance. Something pattered nearby but not with the plodding of a wayward present, but as steps in the snow.

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“...Hello? Is someone there?” Call, no response. Dahlia shuddered, bundled as she was. She carried on, through hills and toward the mountain. No intention of getting too close, of course. Wouldn’t do to get taken by an avalanche, as Dahlia was likely to scream at any time. There was the pitter patter of steps again accompanied by… a dragging sound. Something heavy. Someone collecting the gifts? Or just the creation of a sleep-deprived mind.

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Closer to the mountain still. She would need a sled to gather all of these gifts, but didn’t feel safe trying to do so. Not yet while the footsteps still dogged her so. Not that Dahlia ever quite felt safe. But then over a small hill and past a couple of freshly sprouted northern pines, another person standing among the snow, crimson splotched on the ground.

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“Oh no….” Dahlia assumed the worst, but pressed on. The silhouette seemed vaguely familiar.

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Dahlia realized they were watching something else, as she moved a bit closer. She couldn't help but move slow, cautious, eyes darting every which way. Doubly so because the sun was not so much setting as very nearly set- it would be quite dark, quite soon, and Dahlia didn't have her usual extra-durable solar-powered tungsten reinforced flashlight anymore, since it had been in her luggage that was stolen. She mourned it all over again as she produced a cheap plastic flashlight with half-used batteries. Then she heard something...

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A yell? No, too deep, closer to a growl, bestial. Closer to 'very real' recordings of chupacabra or the Jersey Devil. It startled Dahlia more than most things did and shook her to her core, causing her to shake and rattle physically as she instinctively clicked the flashlight on and pivoted toward the noise, feet readying to sprint at a moment's notice. Instead she saw something hurtling away from her, legs splayed in a way they shouldn't be, the vague outline of antlers just above where she presumed the head was. It made almost no noise as it sprinted through the snow and out of sight the way a bug scurries away. Dahlia's face matched the snow, a stark pale. Her eyes were wide but still scanning, making certain that the thing wasn't doubling back somehow. It had been far to begin with, and regardless of how inhumanly quick it was would give at least a vague warning of it's approach. Hopefully.

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Dahlia was terrified either way. She'd rooted to the spot, pivoting around in half circles while scanning the area, trying to hum a favorite movie score but the sounds coming out as loud whimpers. She was rather conspicuous. So when another noise dared to ring out over the low howl of the night winds, she yelped. "That was definitely another person! They sounded hurt. Oh no oh no oh no-"

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The sound of an actual voice carried itself to Dahlia's ears and she fully screamed, bringing an arm above and behind her with the flashlight but having trouble seeing her intended target. Her eyes grew damp, making her cold face even more cold. "Are- are you- who-" Shaking and stuttering Dahlia pointed the flashlight instead of readying a throw, and felt the tiniest bit of relief. "...Uesugi-san?" Dahlia's shoulders unclenched ever so slightly but tears flowed even more; she sniffled and struggled to maintain eye contact, in part due to watching for the creature from before. "Yes, please!" Dahlia's desperation was palpable.

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Dahlia flinched when the invitation popped up but accepted it and let herself be led away from the area, still on the verge of a full meltdown. It didn't help that through what little remained of the light they seemed to only be moving closer to the mountain. Closer to certain death under an avalanche of snow. Well, that is if they didn't freeze to death or get torn apart by a reindeer-shaped hellspawn. Before the utterance of 'I don't mean to disturb you- further' Dahlia was already sensing the shift in tone, the general vibe of dire circumstance. So she was in fact disturbed further, but did not blame Umeko for such.

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"Oh no oh no..." They moved closer to that horrible mountain. "Oh no oh no-" Cooler heads or not, and Dahlia's head was already too cool for it's own good, she wasn't sure they would prevail. Wasn't sure they could prevail against something so horrible, so fast. Dahlia specifically remembered watching a movie about a bunch of people in an arctic research base and thinking she would definitely die in that scenario.

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"Killing people in droves?!" She was being way too loud. Dahlia clasped a hand over her own mouth and fought the urge to talk through it. "I'm definitely dead. I'm going to die. I'm going to die.." She stumbled over something in the snow and yelped, training her flashlight on it immediately- it was just a small red-wrapped gift with a little blue bow. Dahlia leaned down and stowed it before nodding, unsure if Umeko could even see her confirmation before quickly placing her back to the taller woman's. The sound of the creature in the distance only further heightened her heart rate.

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As did what came next. Another yell followed by a terrible creaking and groaning noise, the sound of wood splintering and branches being ripped away. "Oh God in heaven please don't-" Then a scream cut short. Dahlia's eyes were wide enough they felt like they might just leap out of her skull, but she still struggled to see through the quickening snowfall. She turned her head to be better heard over the blizzard and started to shuffle against Ume's back. "Please don't let it eat me."

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"O-o-okay." It was hard to even speak to agree to Ume's simple command. It was so cold and the storm was occluding so much of the noise, Dahlia had to speak at least three times as loud as she usually mumbled just to be vaguely heard. More than either the storm or her chattering teeth though was the fear, the pure terror Dahlia was grappling with all this time. She'd seen plenty of movies and had to hide under the covers, been afraid to walk down a street even in broad daylight, worried about airplanes and being in the waiting room of a doctor- or worse, a dentist. But the horrors of post Earth-chan's earth were becoming all too real, too fast. Dahlia found her eyes darting every which way, afraid to so much as blink but unable to stop herself from doing so as the tiniest snow flurried about. Tree branches were swaying with the wind, and the shadows seemed to move. She moved the flashlight around as quickly as she could to cover as much of the darkness as possible, but it worsened her peripheral. Then she felt Ume's hand.

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It was so damned quiet when it moved. Dahlia was already on alert from the warning and what might have been worry from the usually level-headed Ume, but more worrying was the blood of her companion that Dahlia noticed as she panned herself and the flashlight around to check on what Ume had been warning of. Of course, most worrying was where the blood came from, or more specifically the bodily weapon, spiked protrusion from where the creature's hoof and forearm should have been. It loomed over the two, taller than even the tall shogi player. Dahlia felt her body locking up, her eyes freezing in that wide-eyed look of terror she was so known for. It stung to hold eyes so wide in the middle of a blizzard, which only brought more tears. She'd let go of Ume's hand and felt herself moving before she'd actually willed it, jumping backwards a step and throwing her flashlight as hard as she could.

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The monster was gone at about the same time as the improvised weapon left her hand, the beam of light arcing over and disappearing into the snow beyond. Dahlia was almost the most terrified she'd ever been but she dug deep, squinting now and glancing around for their assailant before sighing and trying to steady her trembling hands. She continued to cry but moved regardless and pulled the present she'd collected earlier. Tearing it apart was a simple task but she made a point to keep the tinsel tie in tact and pulled off one of her many layers. "Oh no oh no-" Dahlia gave up talking to herself and stripped off another layer, one of two turtlenecks she had donned earlier and wrapped it around Ume's new wound; Dahlia had taken a harrowing first aid course in college and at least knew to apply pressure and staunch bleeding. "I'm sorry!" It was almost certainly agonizing. She tied the sleeves as best she could, as quickly as she could. They were in too many ways exposed out here, and she needed Umeko to not bleed out across the snow as much for either of their sake. Dahlia finished her rush job with an extra knot of tinsel.

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"What do we do?!" She was growing delirious and found herself screaming- last night's sleep had been sparse and fraught with a night terror involving a depiction of Krampus. Probably due in part to having watched a film the day before about, well, Krampus. Dahlia was keeping eyes on her injured companion but shifting around constantly, trying to keep eyes on the perimeter, anxiously awaiting another attack.

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A moment could change so much, alter the trajectory of life and death. A moment could mean love and chaos, ruin or success. This moment felt like it went on forever. Ume had eked out her warning and Dahlia had tensed, but the world shifted. In a moment all was blizzard and hail, the slight crunch of hooves in the snow barreling towards the pair, and in another moment the weather was almost idyllic, still cold and a little breezy but clear. The moon shone bright above them, illuminating a wide frozen lake that our cast stood upon now.

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Dahlia had been braced, and so Umeko's push had caught her off guard but she had righted regardless, gaining just a bit of air and instinctively pirouetting into a single salchow for a safe landing. The woman skidded along the ice and slid a ways, arms out to either side so as to maintain balance, but giving the maneuver a flair Dahlia hadn't known she was capable of. "This..." For the creature's part, it had been well in motion as the new terrain took over and lost it's footing, the thing sliding between the two and sailing past them. Dahlia sprung into action, tears finally halting as she scooped up an abandoned (or conjured?) ice skate and hurling it at the back of their attacker. It hit with a satisfying thud, but as it fell off the back of their enemy created a shatter in the ice and a geyser of frigid water to spray up, intensifying the assault and delaying the creature. It's impossible roars- somewhere between a combination of snarling pig and the screech of dozens of insects- rang out.

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"This is our chance!" Dahlia felt a rush as her fear didn't leave her so much as take a backseat to the need to survive. With tears still drying she slipped and slid, prioritizing speed over grace in her makeshift ice-skating technique. She sped toward Umeko and swept the larger woman up in her arms and held her in a bridal carry, continuing her skating toward the outer part of the lake as fast as she could manage. The deer? would be on them in no time, but Dahlia could hear splashing. It would need a moment to retrieve itself from the water, and Dahlia wasted none of that time in making haste toward the edge of the lake and one of her many nemeses- a cliff edge with a drop of indeterminate but likely deadly height. Dahlia slid to a stop barely ten feet from it with a slick about-face behind her and knelt with Ume, panting.

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"Have you ever seen Tremors, Umeko-san?" She set Ume down as best she could while getting under her slightly, to help support weight. Both of their clothes were stained crimson. "We'll use gravity." While not confident, Dahlia did her best to at least sound hopeful. [break][break]
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Dahlia used What a Tosser

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The woman stood, readied and tense, the only thing keeping her from shaking in fear a surge of confidence and adrenaline. It was still so cold there in the breeze, standing just next to a ledge that went far enough that, frankly, nothing should survive a drop from it. Somehow Ume's ability had cut away the elevation of the snowy mountain and revealed what may have formed a frozen waterfall. It was a beautiful scene, though hard to appreciate given the circumstances.

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The thing had transformed again amid a horrible screech or yell, loud enough to leave Dahlia's ears ringing. She involuntarily held her breath and had to force herself to manually take in air, shaky as it was. Her nerve was just about shot through, but her and Ume's life hinged on the success of their next maneuver. She had to focus. Dahlia stared down the creature with it's antler-legs, it's nose flayed and resembling a fleshy pink of a star-nosed mole, or an alien. It charged. Dahlia was still nervous, looking back to the ledge with a quick glance to ensure they were as close as needed, worrying that their assailant would stop itself before doing what needed to be done.

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But Umeko came in clutch, releasing a projectile that had created enough of a disruptive burst of the ice that the geyser had obscured it's vision just long enough. It swung for Ume and very nearly slammed into Dahlia, who had to throw herself to the ground in the opposite direction to avoid being taken over the ledge. Every antlered appendage grasped as the deer slid and hurtled, gravity taking hold and sending it over. One reaching limb snagged one of Dahlia's boots however, dragging her halfway off before loosening and taking it with it. She scrambled and crawled back from being waist-ways away from a certain death, but found the courage to spin herself around to lay face-forward and watch the ensuing fall.

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"Can you fly sucker?!" The quote was shouted with as much confidence and triumph as Dahlia had ever said anything- she only barely the line, somehow making it slightly less of a question and something closer to a statement. The thing fell far enough that she didn't even hear the impact but instead saw the poof of snow billowing out, hundreds and hundreds of feet down. It could not in fact fly. With that done, her general state of fear and anxiety set in, and she quickly scurried away from the ledge. Dahlia moved to Ume and gently drug her away from the ledge too, then fell backwards splayed out on the ice, exhaustion taking over. She looked to Umeko, bloodied and much worse off than she was.

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"Gathering presents is really, really scary."

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