Do as the animals do. Survive.

  - UWO Staff Sergeant Henley -

  Bitterly cold wind whips me as my boots trudge through thick snow. My body is shivering, which is a good sign. It means hypothermia hasn’t set in yet. I’m definitely regretting not wearing more clothes out this morning. Torrents of wind strike me in random patterns of torment, pushing me back and forth. Everywhere looks the same, barely any elevation changes. They train us for scenarios like this, in cold environments. In SERE training. It’s mandatory given the varying climates of the gates. Survival, Evasion, Resistance. and Escape… yeah, but they didn’t really cover what to do in this situation. What to do when cosmic forces chuck you into a frozen wasteland. Speaking of cosmic assholes, the red and gold text entities, they’re still fighting. At this point, I’d take some survival supplies for a reward.

  One of my instructor’s words ring in my head, from when he went over basic survival skills. Do as the animals do. Survive. At the time, we were on the ocean, so it didn’t really make sense. But thinking on it now, lots of animals on Earth burrow to avoid snow storms. Looking up at the skies, I see the sun has a blue hue through the thick clouds that drape the landscape. This isn’t Earth, but maybe the same logic applies.

  My eyes trace in front of me, there’s nothing here though. No animal signs, no dips, or valleys that I can see to get out of this bullshit wind. Pretty soon, my body will stop shivering, then it’s just a matter of time. How does the system expect me to survive with no gear? Not to mention the fact that none of my skills… wait. Wiping my brow of snow, what if I used it for that? I’ve never thought to use it like that before. It’s always been to help me manage wounded. But it lets me see auras. If I can see auras, maybe I can find people or animals surviving the cold. It’s the only skill that I have left that uses mana, so I don’t have to worry about burning through it. Its activation cost isn’t crazy anyway.

  “Activate skill… Triage.”

  Time slows to a crawl, my eyes dilating, the snow falling slowly now. Even the sound of the wind is more clear. Spinning around, I see something in the distance. Something flickering like it’s dying, but it’s there, maybe two miles out. Time flows back to normal. The snow’s fury returning to normal speed. Fuck this sucks. But I have a goal now. Reach that light before I freeze to death.

  It's grueling, but I run, I need to create friction in my body to increase heat. Hopefully it helps. It’s so tiring though, so cold, I just want to lay down and sleep. Each step saps more energy from me. Focus on the goal. Survive.

  By the time I reach it, I’m barely shivering. There are large icicles dangling from the mouth of some kind of cave. It’s nestled in the base of a steep cliff, I can’t see the top, but it has to be really tall. Large indents in the snow are coming and going from the entrance. Big animal prints. Blood, lots of blood. Blue blood. Though it’s hard to really tell with the deep blue hue of everything.

  “Triage…” I say quietly.

  I can see the glowing light from before. It’s faint, threading in and out. Strangely there’s a second light inside the first, or maybe it’s a smaller creature. Whatever the larger one is though, it’s heavily wounded. I can feel the depth of injury, but I need to directly see it to get a better idea of what’s wrong with it.

  Cornered and dying animals aren’t the best things to creep up on though. The wind gusts harder, pushing me to the cave. If I stay outside, I’m dead. If I go in, it’s uncertain. Taking a step inside, I’m hit with warmth almost immediately. It’s damp in here. The ceilings are curved, higher than the entrance. It’s dark, really dark. Better than freezing to death though.

  Moving deeper in, it smells, not foul, but like something lives here. I can hear labored breathing, wheezing like a rib is sticking into something it shouldn’t. Based on the aura I saw before, I was pretty sure it was dying. Hearing it though, it sounds miserable. A whimpering sound, one that cuts at you.

  “Triage.”

  My eyes dilate taking in the low light. The aura is weaker now, less pronounced, barely a whisper. Yet, seeing them directly, I know what’s wrong with them. The areas that are wounded highlight, and I can feel the injuries as though they’re an extension of my body. Punctured lung. An organ that looks like a spleen is seeping blood. Long gashes on its side are what’s causing most of the bleeding though. It's not what's directly killing it. Internal bleeding is. She’s dying. I can tell as much from her insides. My breath halts in my throat as I see the smaller light, now realizing what it is. Swallowing hard, I release the skill.

  With healing skill, I could have done something. Not that I should help a wild animal from another planet that looks like it could eat me, but I could have. Now, there’s nothing I can do about it.

  The large creature turns its head toward me weakly, its icy blue eyes narrowing in the low light. There’s a strange glow to them. It has long fur and four legs. It looks just like a fox from Earth, but it’s far too big to be that. Plus, last time I checked, foxes on Earth had one tail, eyeing the bushy tails, not three. Cortez was right, I need to read more. What species is it? White fur, blue blood, I don’t know. It’s big though. More than three times my size. Which is interesting considering the size of the little fox tucked in its fur.

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  She lowers her head to rest on her paws, watching me. Her eyes feel intelligent.

  “I can’t help you, I’m sorry.”

  She blinks, but she doesn’t move other than that.

  “Guess I shouldn’t be feeling sorry for myself,” I say, looking over her injuries, “You’ve had a worse day I’d wager.”

  Her eyes look me up and down. It reminds me of how Staff Sergeant Mwangi measures people, appraising their worth. When she finishes, she closes her eyes. She looks tired, she doesn’t have long.

  Looking around the cave, there isn’t much to it. Except the dying oversized fox and… oh man, that’s rough. The little baby fox climbs out from under the plume of the larger fox’s chest. If I could heal, I would already be trying after looking at that cute little fox baby. Not sure how it’s going to survive on its own. I’m suddenly reminded of when my own mother… yeah, not a good thought.

  Another grim thought crosses my mind… this is what it will be like when my Platoon gets injured. Sure, I’m a great combat medic, no one’s going to say otherwise. But without healing… I’m not the same. What am I now?

  The large she fox turns and looks toward the cave entrance. A shadow forms at the mouth of the cave. My heart rate goes up. Standing quickly. A low growl rolls into the cave.

  Breathe, stay calm.

  Another, somehow larger white fox moves inside the cave. Eyes fixed on me. Backing away slowly with my hands raised, it glares, but it moves towards the dying she fox and the baby one. It has a jagged cut along its side. Like it was fighting whatever the one that’s dying did.

  As I watch the larger fox gently rubbing its head against the heavily wounded one, I realize something. Pain is a universal language, it’s something that the system doesn’t need to translate. This is hard to watch. My eyes fall lower, the little baby fox is still nuzzling its mother. It knows, it just knows. No child should ever have to see that.

  The largest fox suddenly shifts its head behind it. The heavily wounded one’s eyes are barely open, but they widen as though they see something coming.

  “Triage.”

  My eyes peer into the haze that stretches beyond the cave. A large deep red aura. Eight, maybe ten times the size of a man’s. Something’s off about it, it feels wounded. Releasing the skill, time edges back to its normal tempo.

  The larger fox growls. Looking back at its mate, then the child for a moment. I see the same look that my dad gave before he left. It turns and steps out of the cave into the light. Letting out a ferocious howl that tremors the small puddles of water in the cave. Suddenly a series of Red System text boxes show up.

  [ Bonus Alternate Quest: Defeat the Wyvern ]

  [ Accept? ]

  [ Yes, I’d love to be devoured, and then shit out a week later as indistinguishable biomatter / No, I have at minimum two functioning brain cells ]

  A Wyvern? Aren’t those two-legged dragons? That aura didn’t seem big enough for that. Dragons do vary in size though. At least that’s what I’ve heard. Never seen one. Looking at the boxes of text again… this Red text fucker is really getting on my nerves. Another text box appears below it. The golden letter one. The one I think might be somehow related to the woman… or Goddess, or whatever, Ulana.

  [ Note: Accepting this quest will remove the survive timer… and greatly increase the quest reward grade. ]

  She even added in the greatly bit. Question is, will I ever get anything from these alleged reward rolls? I’m still waiting on the last quest’s. Not sure why she’s telling me that, I can just hide out in this cave… can’t I? Or is Ulana implying that fighting a fucking Wyvern is a better alternative? Is there something else coming? Fuck. Now the gears are really spinning. So far, the gold text seems to be the better of the two entities. Ulana, the gold one, if it is actually her, she’s on my side, I’m pretty sure. Or at least sort of sure. Thinking about it further. Maybe the red one is just the system then. The dickhead version of it. Seeing as it warned me that I’m marked as a deviant or whatever. Yeah. Gold is Ulana, Red is the system. No, the DH System… I’ll work on that.

  The cave’s opening is too large for it to enter. That much I’m sure of. Looking over, my hand tightens as a shattering pang shoots through my heart. The wounded fox is dead. Eyes glassed over. The baby fox blinks at it. Putting its paw on the face. Whimpering. Suddenly I feel a surge of energy rolling up my spine. A strange sensation, and memories flashing in my head for a split second. They’re not my memories though.

  [ 1 x Wither Charge Gained ]

  My eyes blink at the notification… did I just, my eyes look over at the dead fox. Did I just absorb the mother fox into a charge? Is that what those memories were? An uneasy feeling hits me. Like I’ve just violated her memory.

  A Red System message shows up.

  [ Time to decide… Deviant ]

  [ Yes, fuck it / No, I wasn’t dropped on my head as a baby ]

  And what if I don’t choose either option? What if I just… a thunderous tremor hits the walls of the cave. Sending large ripples in the shallow pools of water. The little fox baby blinks hard at me, whimpering. The other fox is going to die now. I can feel it in my bones. The baby fox whimpers harder.

  Letting out a strained sigh, my jaw tenses, it seems like it evolved to elicit the maximum amount of guilt. Damn it. I have a Wither Charge, I can at least try to apply it.

  My head turns over to the dead fox. Then the whimpering baby. Fine… let’s do this. Trust gold, trust Ulana. Slapping the yes, fuck it option, the system does a strange little shiver on the screen before it sends a blue box.

  [ Quest Log Updated: New clear condition added. ]

  The timer in the corner of my vision disappears. At least there’s that. With Triage earlier, I could tell the Wyvern is wounded, how wounded, it’s hard to tell without seeing it directly. Moving past the lint in my pocket, I drag out my knife. An out of regulation switchblade. Guess I’m really doing this… am I really doing this? My legs freeze, not from the cold... I’ve died before. It’s not fun. I don’t know if Respec on Death will work again. I don’t know the conditions for it. For all I know I used my one-time reset. My teeth grind… what’s worse than dying though? Watching everyone you love die. I need to get stronger. I can’t get stronger if I don’t take risks. My eyes trace over to the baby one more time. This whimper. It’s one I can’t ignore. Not today.

  Deep breaths. Let’s go.