Kaya was not dead.

In fact, she was in one piece. But then, the realization hit her. If she was alive, everyone else certainly was not.

Kaya scavenges through the snow looking for anything, anyone. The cold snow slides past her fingers like sand, empty. No sword, no Neo, no sight of where she is.

But as her visions begins clearing up, it dawns on her that she is in-fact not alone. Or maybe she is. Because all the body around her are dead.

“No! No please no” she gasps out loud, cupping her hands to her mouth to muffle her cries. She scans the snowy mountain where the pure white snow is stained with blood and death.

Neo. Her mind races to Neo. If Neo is alive, maybe they manages to ring the bell. Maybe their kingdom’s saved.

“NEO!” Kaya screams at the top of her lungs, losing her voice at the end.

“Neo, are you there.”

She pauses, and the whole mountain is silent, except for the wind.

“Den, Litchen, Rya? Chief?”

Silence.

Kaya gets up from the ground, and begins walking around the body’s. Every once in a while she falls to her knees, unable to keep the sobs in. She almost whisked she didn’t survive.

She keeps walking, until something catches her eye. A ring. An emerald engagement ring.

She inches closer and closer to the body, and brushes of the snow from the body’s face. Neo.

“Oh please no!” She cried out, her screams echoing. “I’m so sorry” she whispers, hugging his head. “I’m sorry.”

The mountain grows colder and colder, but she never leaves Neo’s side. Her arms are wrapped around his cold dead body as she silently cries. And the finally, when the sun begins to set, she lays stands up.

She’s not ready to face her kingdom. She’s not ready to come back to her home burned to ashes. So she walks around. Looks for something to give her hope. And then she finds it. She follows a trail of blood, up and up the mountain, until it ends at the alert bell.

And there, her chief lays, only inches away from the bell.

Kaya bends down to feel his heart beat, but is disappointed by the stillness of his chest.

His lips are blue and his eyes are frozen open. He’s dead.

She lets out another cry for her chief, before grabbing her cape and draping it over him.

He was so close. Inches away. If the bells had rung, maybe the people would have had a chance.