Winston whimpered in his sleep, curled up under a small stone ledge. It’d been two days since he escaped from Thalysar. He’d only rested a few times, but each time, the dreams came back.

  Winston jerked awake, eyes darting around for a moment before relaxing. After resting for a moment, he picked up the glowing stone resting beside him. He’d purchased it for 100 credits. He could feed energy into the inscriptions on it, and it would produce heat.

  Winston stretched, blinking away the dreariness in his eyes. After a moment, he poked his head out from under the ledge, taking in his surroundings. Winston stumbled back in surprise. There was…snow? In his blearyness, he’d stuck his nose straight into the snowdrift.

  Shaking his whole body, Winston tried to wake himself up. After a moment, he looked once more. All the exits were blocked by snow. Channeling energy before him, he got to work clearing the snow, but after a moment, he dispelled it. Instead of using food energy, he opted to just use [Consume]. Chunk after chunk, the snow disappeared until he had a clear path out.

  Poking his head above the snow, Winston yipped in surprise. The sun reflected brilliantly off the snow, blinding him. Falling backwards, Winston crawled back under the ledge, blinking furiously.

  Pushing back out, Winston squinted his eyes, gradually opening them as they adjusted to the brightness. Finally, his eyes were fully adjusted, and he took a look around. He was about halfway up the mountain, hundreds of meters in the air. Looking at the grove of trees, he found that several feet of their trunks were covered in snow. Winston tilted his head. Had it snowed that much while he’d been asleep? It didn’t make sense.

  When he’d arrived on the small plateau he was resting on, there’d only been an inch of snow. Winston looked around, getting more confused by the second. How had it snowed? There weren’t any clouds around, and though he hadn’t looked closely, he hadn’t seen any during his time in the camp.

  As he wandered to the edge of the cliff, Winston checked his shoulder. It was almost healed, with just a scab remaining.

  Peeking down below, Winston watched the camp. Before, he’d been able to make out the minuscule shapes of Caltherans running about. Now, he could barely find the tents. Turning back around, he prepared to keep climbing.

  Using the tunnels in the camp and his boosted speed, he could get through the mountains in less than twenty minutes. But now, climbing over the mountains, it was taking ages. Winston no longer needed to climb straight up to reach the next ledge, as the slope was much softer than before. Still, he had to climb up the side of the mountain, making as much progress up as he made forward.

  As he marched up the slope, each step he took sank deep into the snow. After a while, he couldn’t take it anymore. The cold from the snow was far worse than just from the frigid stone; not only was he cold, but he was also wet. Shivering, he channeled energy, forming orbs of gold before him. He’d recently figured out how to make it malleable instead of rigid. Still, he wasn’t sure it would work.

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  Trying to emulate the foot covers his humans wore on rainy days—what did they call them? Shoes? Boots?—, he stuck a paw into one of the orbs. It melded around his paw and leg, forming a thin cover. One paw after another, he repeated the progress until he had four glowing legs.

  They didn’t provide much insulation, but they did wonders in keeping his paws dry and preventing them from directly touching the snow.

  With that done, Winston continued to trudge through the snow, climbing ever higher.

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  Winston walked mindlessly, climbing the never-ending slope. Earlier, he’d considered the view beautiful, but now he would do anything for a change. It was just a canvas of white dotted with trees in every direction. Nothing else. And his eyes. They burned from the brightness of the snow.

  Eventually, he made a desperate attempt to emulate the glasses he’d seen humans wear on their heads. After experimenting, he’d ended up with a slab of golden energy pressed against his eyes. Everything took on a yellow hue, but it softened the brightness.

  Winston was tired. He’d been climbing for hours upon hours, and even with his enhanced stats, his body was beginning to fail him. With every passing hour, he regretted not putting more of his free points into his physical stats.

  Winston looked around, but if there were any ledges for him to sleep under, they were buried beneath the snow. Instead, he began to consume the snow, forming a small cave for him to rest in. After he’d finished the cave, he climbed in and curled up, whimpering. The comfort that sleep had once offered him was gone, replaced by a fear of the dreams that kept returning.

  After what seemed like no time at all, Winston was jerked awake by the howl of a beast. Shivering, he poked his head out of the hole in the snow, searching for the source of the sound. Winston’s eyes widened as another howl came. And another. And another.

  Now wide awake, Winston clambered out of the hole. Winston looked around in wonder. Everything was different. Thousands of snowflakes drifted down from the sky above, obscuring his vision. Looking up, Winston found the sky covered in dark clouds. If he looked to the sides, he could see that there were no clouds outside of the mountains. Still, it was as if the light from outside couldn’t reach the mountains, giving the illusion of night.

  Winston was jerked out of his stupor by another howl. Closer this time. Far closer.

  Winston whipped around in alarm, but he couldn’t see anything through the snow. Winston began to flee, running in the opposite direction of the sounds, but the fresh snow crumbled as he ran. Winston felt his numb paws slip from under him as he fled.

  Growling, Winston got back up, dashing away. Behind him, the howls grew ever closer. Winston had no idea where he was going as he fled through the blizzard. What little natural light that reached him had to be filtered through the clouds above, barely providing enough to see.

  Winston stumbled, barely avoiding a tree that sprang into existence before him. He could barely see ten feet in front of himself.

  The snow whipped by him, framing the darkness that was all that he could see. As the howls grew closer and closer, Winston got desperate. Leaping up into the air, he formed platforms beneath his paws, launching again.

  Winston cried out in pain as he crashed into the top of a tree, sending him spiraling back to the ground. His breath was forced out of him as he hit the ground with a thump.

  Winston flailed, but his panic only got him stuck deeper in the snow. Finally, he calmed down and slowly extracted himself from the soft snow.

  He prepared to flee once more, but it was too late. All around him were wolves—dozens of them.