Steven’s boots thumped onto hard rock, and panic ripped through him.

He looked around. Where are they?

Margie, Micheal, Markus, none of them were with him.

Del and Kory were on his left, but that was it.

Not again!

His breaths rattled in his chest as his heart pounded.

They were separated again. He couldn’t help them, couldn’t protect them. They could die in this Scenario, and Steven wouldn’t even know.

His vision wavered, and his heart beat so loud it drowned everything else out.

“Steven!”

He blinked. Del was standing before him, holding his hands with concern written plain across her face.

Steven forced himself to take a deep, steadying breath. Her interruption had snapped him out of his spiral, but he was still unsteady.

“Just give me a second to catch my breath.”

She nodded and pulled away.

Get it together. You can’t break down like that! What if there were monsters here as soon as you landed?

While true, the thought didn’t help him.

The others were strong. And if he had been transported in a group, there was no reason to assume they hadn’t been as well.

They’d be okay.

And if they aren’t?

Steven shoved that thought down with prejudice, burying it under six feet of rock and stone.

He straightened, turning to the others with a nod. “Sorry about that. I’m good.”

Del shrugged. “It’s no problem.”

Kory studied him, her gaze wasn't hostile, but it was wary. “Are you going to do that in a fight?” The question wasn’t harsh. She wasn’t trying to offend him. She wanted to know if she could rely on him when shit went down.

If Steven had thin skin and too much pride, he wouldn’t realize that. Fortunately for him, he didn’t.

Or did he? Was thinking you weren’t prideful, prideful?

He shook his head, both at the thought and her question. “No. I’ve never frozen in a fight. I just…” he trailed off. What should he say?

Why not the truth? Are you ashamed to admit you’re worried about the others?

Huh. Good point me.

“I’m worried about my friends, and that overwhelmed me for a beat there.”

Kory nodded, a bit of sympathy bleeding into her expression. “No problem, but you don’t need to worry that much.”

She stretched. “I’m probably the weakest member of our group, besides James, but he’s a support, so it’s not a fair comparison. My point is my friends are strong. Even if your friends couldn’t protect themselves, which I’m guessing they can if they’ve made it this far, my friends can.”

The woman could just be overconfident, but her words did help.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Thanks, I…” Steven trailed off as he studied the room.

He hadn’t noticed, well, anything really, his mind too focused on his burgeoning panic attack.

They were at the entrance to a cave. Its gaping maw stood before them, smooth stone and smoother ice making Steven think of a throat.

Well, there’s a reason we use so many mouth analogies for caves.

The smell hit him next, minerals and musk, twisted together to make an unpleasant scent that stuck in his nose.

He looked behind them and found a featureless wall.

“So…we gotta go into the cave.”

Del pursed her lips. “Yeah.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

Without another word, they started for the cave, Del in the front with Kory in the middle and Steven bringing up the rear.

“So,” Kory started. “Hypothetically, if one of us were claustrophobic, that would be really unfortunate, wouldn’t it?”

Del swore as Steven laughed. “How claustrophobic are we talking here?” He asked.

She waggled her hand, her chain clinking with the motion. “Mildly? So long as we don’t have to crawl, I’ll be, well, not happy, but functional. If we do crawl…how much would I have to pay you two to drag me?”

“The fuck are we supposed to spend money on now?” Del chuckled.

“It’s nice to see the number on your bank account go up?” Kory tried.

Del inclined her head. “While you aren’t wrong, I don’t know if that’s enough motivation to drag your ass through here.”

“We won’t leave you,” Steven cut in. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

“Oh, come on!” Del groaned. “I could have gotten her to pay me, Steven!”

“You just said you couldn’t use the money.”

“Yeah! But I still wouldn’t say no to cash. We’ll need it if this ever blows over.”

Kory started to retort when the System spoke up.

Sometimes it felt like the thing waited to speak until it could cut someone else off.

“Lore is cool.”

Steven groaned.

“Oh, shut the fuck up. I haven’t even interjected that much in this Scenario! Now let me do my thing, dammit!”

The System went on before he could comment.

“They say there are no bad dogs, only bad owners. While that may or may not be true, we can’t know here. Since the Snow Lord was certainly a bad owner.”

Steven passed by a pile of bones. Human bones and they looked chewed.

The ground was marked, gouges and claw marks in the walls and floor. The rifts carved into the stone as easily as ice.

The scent of musk grew stronger as they descended. The light dimmed, settling on a gloomy illumination barely enough to let him make out the surroundings.

“Poor little Argor was disfigured at birth, but instead of throwing him out, the Snow Lord thought to keep him in the hopes that his terrible visage would grow into something that struck fear into her enemies…and subjects.”

“Her bet paid off, and the pup grew into something vicious. A right monster that an approaching mob of peasants would turn tail at the mere sight off. Unfortunately, while she was just fine at scheming and brutality, she didn’t know shit about how to raise a dog or dog-related thing in this case.”

The System trailed off as they passed a massive side chamber filled to the brim with bones.

Steven swallowed. He couldn’t even guess how many bodies it would take to fill a room like that.

“So she assigned the hound master to the task. And to his credit, the man did a fine job. He socialized Argor the best he could and treated the pup with kindness.”

“It was said around the keep that Argor only showed kindness to the hound master, but the truth of it is that Argor showed kindness to those who gave it to him first. And unfortunately for the keep, the hound master was the only one who bothered.”

Steven felt a creeping dread fill him as they rounded a corner. He knew where this was going.

“One day, the Snow Lord commanded the hound master to attack a village with Argor. The hound master hesitated, then refused. The Lord didn’t hesitate to take his head. Which was the worst mistake of her life.”

They rounded another bend, and the scent of musk was overpowering now, filling Steven’s nose like it was glued there.

“Argor, enraged at the death of his master and friend, began to kill. Sparing only those who had been kind to him…which didn’t include a soul in the county.”

“The Snow Lord survived, using her greatest creation to subdue the beast. But she is all that survived. Now nothing but snow golems dot her lands, carrying out the motions of her subjects as she watches from her icy throne. And Argor…Argor has waited. Hungry for blood. For vengeance.”

They stopped as the cave opened up, a round chamber with a towering pile of bones in the middle.

And on that pile laid a beast.

Words flashed over its head, and the System read them with gravitas.

“Argor, Scourge of The Snow Lord.”

”...Fuck.”