World of Women - World of Women – V5 – Chapter 20
“They should be here somewhere.”
I awoke to the sound of chatter. My eyes opened, but I remained frozen where I was, making sure not to move. My body was aching all over, and I felt like I had been hit with a brick, but I was still alive. The previous night, we had collapsed in this cave. That meant that the people outside might be looking for us. By all accounts, I should immediately call out to them.
However, I had been in countless dangerous situations in my youth. I had been kidnapped, molested by women, and threatened by murderers. Until I understood the situation I was in, I didn’t want to bring notice to myself. Instead, I carefully glanced around the cave. It was dimly lit by light making it through the surface, but that surface appeared to be covered in a layer of snow. At some point during the night, the snow had collapsed and covered the entrance. It wasn’t deep though, as light could still reach through.
This meant that the people searching for us probably wouldn’t be able to find us unless I called out to them. Yet, before I spoke, my eyes went to my daughter. Raven was curled up with her head between her knees, shivering. It was very cold still. Thankfully, I had recovered a bit of my magic over the night. Creating a heat spell in my head, I began to warm up the cavern. As I did so, I listened in on the conversation, using a spell to make their voices clearer.
“Do you think they’re dead?”
“I hope so. That makes the job easier.” I leaned forward, frowning a bit at those words.
If a rescue squad was coming to save me, I didn’t expect them to say such cruel words. I didn’t want to be a nuisance, but maybe I’d need to talk to someone’s manager later.
“What about that little girl, Raven? I heard that she ended up falling for our trap too.”
“The illusion spell worked as predicted. By the time she arrived, the correct path was already visible again. She skied right past all of the dead-end warning signs, the idiot. I just don’t understand how Clyburn fell for the first illusion, but didn’t ski right off the edge of the cliff for the second illusion.”
“You heard the other search team. Their bodies weren’t at the bottom of the ravine. We also found the skis before the fall.”
“I know! They still should be dead after staying a night out here. If that damn snow didn’t cover up their footprints, we’d already have found their bodies.”
“What happens if they’re still alive?”
“We kill them both.”
“Shouldn’t we try to save the girl? She’s the one who helped us!”
“She’s just a foolish little girl with daddy issues like most of these kids joining the WRA these days. She didn’t even ask why we wanted his itinerary. She thought we just wanted to protest her father under the pretense of feminism. Once she reported they were going skiing, it was all too easy to lure him to his death, and no one would know the wiser. They think he just skied down the wrong path.”
“Ah…” A voice let out right next to me.
I turned to see Raven staring at me with wide eyes, shock, and fear on her face. I lifted my gloved hand to my mouth and put a finger to my lips. This explained a lot. This was an assassination attempt on my life. First, they put up an illusion forcing me to go down the wrong path. Then, they put another illusion hiding the sudden drop.
I had felt something strange, but I didn’t know what it was at the time. There was no way I would have sensed an illusion while skiing for the first time. I was moving too fast and my focus had been completely on the task at hand. Had I not aborted early, I would have skied right off the ledge where Raven barely kept her life.
Even then, the WRA had managed to intercept the search and rescue, delaying until morning so that we’d freeze to death. Come morning, they could find our dead bodies, or finish us off if we were still breathing. It was the perfect plan, and it would have worked if I hadn’t gotten off the skied, used my magic to keep us warm, and went to this particular cave, which then got covered by snow, hiding the entrance.
Now that I knew the truth, we had to survive. Raven was still injured, and I couldn’t launch a signal or I would risk attracting WRA assassins. We had to get off the mountain on our own instead. I was no longer at full strength though. The only advantage we had was that we knew what they were planning, while they had no clue if we were even alive.
“Are you okay?” I asked in the lowest whisper I could manage.
She looked at me for a second, her eyes watery, and then she nodded silently.
“We’re going to wait a few hours. Try to get warm. Once they’re gone, we’re going to have to get down the mountain on our own.” I stood up and walked toward the entrance, but a hand whipped out and grabbed me.
I looked back at Raven in surprise.
“A-are you going to leave me?” She asked, her voice stiff and her lips moving with difficulty.
I frowned, turning back. “No… honey, I’m not going to leave you.”
“I-I’m hurt. It would be easier on your own.” She spoke, her body shaking.
“I’m your father. I would never abandon you like that.” I reached out and touched the back of her hand. “Honey, you’re freezing.”
I got down and put my arm around her. She tried to pull away, but I pulled her closer to me, using my body to warm her. She suddenly broke into tears.
“All fathers abandon their daughters. That’s expected.” She sobbed. “Why are you like this?”
“I’m not like other men,” I responded, not sure what else to see. “You should know this.”
“You’ll just abandon me when I get older and am no longer pretty.”
“Then I guess I can never abandon you, because you’ll never be less than beautiful to me.”
“You… even if you’re not like other men, you’re not some hero either!” She declared passionately.
“I know.” I looked down at my knees. “I’m… sorry that I had so many children.”
“Huh?”
“I can’t possibly give all the women in my life the attention they deserve, let alone my children,” I admitted. “Part of the reason I founded Reliant was because I wanted a place where you could all live in peace. I never wanted to be part of some movement. I’m no hero as the stories say. I don’t care about male rights. I just wanted to have a family, but I mucked it all up.”
“What are you saying?”
“At the time, the decisions you make always seem right. You can only really see your foolishness in hindsight. I had always just wanted a simple family. A beautiful wife, and a few kids. We’d live in a house with an orchard. We’d go pick fruit and have picnics. The next thing I know, I’m the face of some movement. Some women idolize me, while others only want to tear me down. I was encouraged to have more and more children, to pass on my good genes. Even now, some people believe my ratio of male to female children is made up.”
“How can that be made up… I can see my brothers any time…” She mumbled.
“The girls all went their separate ways. They moved on with their lives. I wasn’t able to marry them in some grand ceremony. Such a thing would only make them political targets, queens to be used as ammo against a king. Then, there were my kids. Thankfully, in this world, most women believe as you, that men don’t care about their kids. If I showed too much affection in public, then people like the WRA would target you all too. The price of all of this was that I couldn’t be in your lives as much as I wanted to be. Maybe if I had fewer children… maybe if I was a bit less selfish, things would have worked out better.”
“I see… ah! Y-you admit you are selfish.” She spoke sleepily.
I chuckled. “How could having multiple lovers not make me a bit selfish? I just wanted everyone to be happy. When I was in my teens, it all seemed so easy. I thought I had it all figured out. The older I get, the more I realize I don’t have any of it figured out. All the girls around me have their own business, their past traumas they’re dealing with. I try to be there for them, and they try to be there for me. I don’t know, maybe I was just expecting some happily ever after in the end.”
“What do you mean?” She yawned.
“This world would have been a fantasy for other men. Every guy is a celebrity. They’re desired by every woman, can make money with ease, and have no expectations put on them. I had thought that was the life. Just because a world seems desirable, doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t have its problems. I shed my responsibility in my youth, and that responsibility weighs more on me than ever. It’s not even something I can share with my lovers. It’s a responsibility only I can bear.”
“Pa…. mmm…”
I looked down to see that Raven had fallen asleep. It looked like she hadn’t gotten to sleep much the previous night. The increasing warmth in the cavern along with her resting against my arm, and she finally fell asleep. A small, sad smile touched my lips, and I leaned back, allowing her to sleep against my chest even when it put me in a less comfortable position.
The heat was enough in the cavern that the snow was starting to melt. The layer of snow covering the entrance became a sheet of ice, and as droplets of water ran down it, it caused it to become somewhat transparent. It wasn’t enough to see outside, but it created a strange kind of beauty. The entire cave started to come to life as icicles dripped and the rocks warmed up.
It was hard to say how much time passed like that. It was early dawn when I had been woken by voices, and it was likely around noon-time. I carefully reached into our bags and pulled out a granola bar. As I was eating it, Raven finally woke. When she lifted her head, a string of drool remained on my coat. She quickly wiped her lips, sitting up straight and then wincing because of the pain. A second later, her stomach rumbled.
“You hungry?” I held out the candy bar to her.
She took it and turned away, opening it quickly and then chewing on it while not looking in my direction. I finally used the opportunity to stand and go to the entrance. I was looking to see if the women had left. I hadn’t heard any voices in some time. There appeared to be no movement outside. By the time I glanced back, Raven had finished her meal and was watching me carefully, like she was afraid I might suddenly run away.
“Do you need me to carry you, or can you walk?” I asked.
Her face flushed. “I can walk.”
I nodded and then lifted my hand. A few moments later, the ice started to melt even faster. A hole appeared in front of my hand and then quickly spread. Streams of water came sliding down in a light trickly.
“How are you casting so many spells?” Raven asked hesitantly.
I could only sigh. “I told you, I make them up as I go. I’m going to stop with this. We’ll have to crawl through, but it’s better if I don’t cause my snow to collapse over the entrance. Then we’ll be trapped.”
She made a face but nodded at my words. I decided to go first, crawling out onto white powder. As I pulled myself from the cave, I could see the snow had buried us about three feet. If it had been any worse, I might not have been able to make a hole. Thankfully, heat spells weren’t like fires, because there probably wasn’t a whole lot of ventilation in there and a fire might have smoked us out.
As soon as I stood up, I was struck with an icy wind. Thankfully, we were wearing our ski gear and were equipped for the weather. After warming up for a few hours, I felt particularly refreshed, especially since it was a bright and sunny day on the edge of a mountain. I could see a fair distance down the mountain now that it was light and clear. In the distance was the resort we were staying at. It was hard to identify more than that at this distance, such as a clear pathway down.
We were currently moving along rocky outcroppings, and if we tried to move down a slope this steep, we’d be at a high risk of falling. We’d need to continue to head in the direction we started and go around.
“Ah!” As I was figuring out my plans, I heard an alarmed cry from Raven.
She was crawling through, but that must have exasperated her injury. I quickly reached out and helped her up. As she was getting up, I had a sudden feeling of impending crisis.
“Watch out!”
I pulled her to the right just as a fireball slammed into the area we had just been standing. Raven let out a cry of pain as she hit the snow. It was soft, but the attack immediately caused the snow around us to start sliding down.
“I told you I sensed someone using magic!” An excited voice came over us.
“You idiot! Do you think no one would see a fireball exploding on the side of the mountain?” The other snapped.
“I’m sorry, it’s the only spell I have on me!”
I couldn’t focus on the two women though. That was because more and more snow was falling. I was trying to walk through it to get to Raven, but it was like walking through a raging river, except the force of the snow was many times worse. I lunged at her, managing just to grab her as I lost my footing and started getting dragged down the mountain.
“Daddy!” Raven cried with fear in her voice as we began to slide.
The sliding stopped suddenly, and I hastily grabbed Raven and half ran, half swam to a nearby boulder.
“Fuck, they made it!” One of the assassins above us cried out.
“No spells!” The other shot back. “We need to make it look like an acc- uh oh…”
As she was speaking, a deep rumble started to shake the ground. It sounded like some kind of ancient beast was awakening. As I looked up, I finally got a look at the two women. They were wearing all white, with ski masks covering their faces. They looked like normal skiers at a glance, except they were wearing snow shoes and not skis. However, just above them was a wave of white. It was coming down very quickly.
“Avalanche!” It was Raven who screamed it out.
The two women looked at each other and then broke into a run. I thought about getting back to the cave, but we had already fallen too far downhill. Never mind the avalanche, even if I had an hour, I might not be able to return to that cave.
“Daddy, it’s coming!” Raven grabbed my arm fearfully as the two women above disappeared into falling ice.
“Fuck it!’ I cursed. “I guess I’m going all out.”
“We need to run!” Raven cried out, pulling on my jacket.
“No, it’s too late.” I declared, my mind running a mile a minute.
“Daaaady!” She cried out as I lifted my hands.
My spell snapped into place, and I used more magic than I had in years. With my daughter beside me, I knew I absolutely could fail. As the snow struck, it split around the rock. I felt like the weight of a mountain had suddenly hit me, the barrier I created buckling slightly. I kept it as a wedge, putting most of the strength into the corner to split the snow around it.
There was no spell for such a barrier. Most barriers were flat. However, with the amount of snow coming at me, a flat barrier would have broken instantly. That’s why I created two barriers and a twenty-degree angle, only spread around far enough to send the snow around the pair of us. It still felt extremely jarring, and my mana was being rapidly depleted.
Feeling Raven hold me, I went far past the amount I could safely use. I felt blood rushing out of my nose, ears, and eyes. However, I just needed to last a little longer. I kept holding on. I couldn’t even see, but I kept holding the barrier.
“Dad! The snow has stopped! Dad!” The barrier shattered, and I fell.
I should have fallen off the boulder, hitting the ground far below, but my arms caught me and guided me down to the fresh snow which was now nearly as high as the boulder. At that moment, I could see Raven over me. She was crying and shouting, but she was alive. I couldn’t help but smile.
“You’re safe… that’s all that matters.”
Above us, I could see a helicopter flying over. I was pretty sure they were part of the real search and rescue team. Well, if the WRA could publicly take us down with a helicopter, we wouldn’t have a chance anyway.
“Daddy… please be okay… please…” Raven was holding me, but I had nothing to say.
Strangely, this was the happiest I’d been in a long time.