He continued the exercises even after his arm felt better again, and pushed himself into a workout that soon had him sweating a bit before he stopped, not wanting to play with his core body temperature. OK. Those things are dangerous! Even if you take them out… wow. Talk about revenge from the grave.

Once he was done, he spent some time inspecting his arm, putting it through its paces and it seemed to have returned to normal, no unusual numbness or weakness. Joe sighed with some relief from this, but still was disconcerted with how easily he’d been hurt. I can’t afford to be hurt!

Joe looked up to see the three kids looking on with some concern, worry plain in Garnedell’s eyes.

“Hey. I’m fine. What’s wrong with you guys?”

“Are you… OK?”

“I’m fine, Garnedell. Don’t worry.”

“The snow… did not possess you?”

“What? No. Why do you think that?”

“You were doing… strange movements.”

“No, no, no. I’m fine. Just needed to warm myself up. The snow froze my left arm up pretty good.”

“Those movements help you resist the cold?”

“Well, they warm you up, but … it costs you lots of calories. It won’t keep you warm long.”

“So. You are truly OK?”

Joe looked up towards Kilniara at this and smiled, “Really. I’m fine.”

Kilniara looked to Garnedell, a small hint of worry still apparent in her tense turn towards Garnedell, “You must test him. We do not know him well enough.”

Garnedell quickly nodded and looked towards Joe but soon seemed to stop with some uncertainty. Joe cocked his head with some confusion as he watched their antics, and just waited, continuing his stretches. Kilniara waited a bit before she impatiently bumped Garnedell’s side with an elbow and he flickered an annoyed glance towards her before nodding firmly.

“Master. I apologize, but where did I sleep before I met you?”

Joe cocked his head with some confusion before responding, “You sure you want me to say where in front of them buddy? I don’t want… anyway… why are you asking me this?”

The three kids looked at each other, tension rapidly ratcheting up as all three took a step back and seemed to settle into a fight or flight response.

“Woah. Woah. Woah. What’s going on? Why are you …” Joe stopped, eyebrows rising when he saw all three pull out their weapons. Joe looked to Garnedell, seeing the deadly seriousness and he replied, without the normal humor or flippancy.

“You were sleeping under the bridge in the little village back before we came here.”

Kilniara and Zilnek glanced to Garnedell quickly and then relaxed when he nodded, “It’s OK. It’s master.”

Joe let the master comment go, more concerned with their reaction and he looked to the three, “So. What’s going on? Why were you all ready to kill me?”

“We couldn’t have killed you. You are too strong.”

Joe let the comment slide once again and focused on their reaction, “But why were you so worried?”

“We were worried that you were possessed, master.”

“Possessed? Wait. You mean these monsters can really … possession is real? They can take over your bodies?”

“Some can, yes. Especially the stronger boss monsters seeking to escape dungeons.”

Joe opened his mouth to respond before closing it and simply sitting there, taking the news in. Well… seriously? One more crazy thing to be worried about here on this insane planet?

Joe didn’t reply and simply sighed before he went back to his stretches and a couple more core exercises whenever he felt himself starting to shiver again.

The three waited silently for him, although Zilnek grew more and more impatient until he finally couldn’t wait anymore.

“So, master. Those movements truly help protect against cold?”

“Hmm? Oh. Yeah. They’ll heat you up, but not really … well… you’ll tire out and get hungry pretty fast. Don’t expect to be able to last through winter or a snow storm with only this. You’ll still die without proper preparation. But, yeah… they can help against the cold,” Joe smiled up at the three before he rolled over and started some pushups again.

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The three kids seemed eager at hearing this, looking towards Joe with a restrained impatience although Joe did not notice as he’d turned away to do his pushups.

Zilnek broke first, “Will you teach us?”

“These? Sure,” Joe shrugged, unconcerned.

The three looked at each other, a brilliant smile on all three faces, although the two Acokzau seemed most excited.

Joe took another twenty minutes or so to finally feel back almost to one hundred percent and Joe took the time to teach the three the exercises while explaining their purposes. As he explained more and more about the results they could get from exercise, the three kids became even more excited although Joe warned them that these results were from hard work over a long period of time; months and years. But the kids seemed unconcerned by the amount of time needed and only threw themselves into the effort more. They spent more time in their exercise and Zilnek and Kilniara soon remarked excitedly that they felt warm. Joe smiled at the comment. Really must be cold blooded, huh. He had to cut their exercise short as he saw them pushing themselves to exhaustion and the still had quite a bit more of the labyrinth to traverse as well as the end boss fight.

They returned to the wall and settled against it while Joe rested a bit more and the three kids also seemed to need rest as well after the excited bout of exercise. Joe had settled next to his bag with Garnedell on the other side of his bag; the two Acokzau rested on the other side of Joe still talking excitedly about the ‘magic’ of the exercise to make them warm.. Joe rested his left arm on the bag, still feeling a weird tingling numbness which worried him, but didn’t seem to impede his actions as each time Joe felt it, he was easily able to move his arm and control it. Soon, the tingling faded, coming to an end and Joe dropped his head with relief, letting it rest on his left shoulder and bag. His eyes looked down to his bag, and he noticed the pouch of his core bag resting wide open. Huh… did I leave that open? Joe cocked his head, crunching his eyebrows down over his nose as he reviewed his memories of when he’d last messed with the pouch. Maybe Garnedell? I let him manage things a lot?

Joe reached a hand across and flicked Garnedell on the shoulder before he guided Garnedell’s eyes downwards to the bag by flickering his own eyes meaningfully towards the pouch. Garnedell seemed confused by Joe’s request but when he looked down and back up, Garnedell had a look of panic in his eyes. Joe’s question turned to hurt. Did he try to steal?

“Did you…?” Joe asked quietly.

“No master! No… I… I promise I carefully tied up your pouch. I do not know why it is left open like this.”

Huh… worried about not taking care of it properly… OK.

“Kid. Relax. You’ve never left it open, or stolen from me, that I remember.”

At the mention of theft, Garnedell’s face paled, his throat visibly gulping. Joe reached a hand across and grasp his shoulder.

“Kid. Calm. Down! Even if you took it, you had a good reason to. I’m not angry. We’re partners, friends. Remember? I just… it would be nice to know, but you don’t have to freak out. Right?”

Garnedell calmed then shook his head, “I’m sorry, master. I failed you.”

Joe smirked, but barked roughly, “Stop calling me master!”

Garnedell looked up and saw Joe’s smile before relief flooded his body, relaxing limbs and torso while he also smiled back, “Sorry, master,” Garnedell snarked back.

Joe barked a laugh and shook his head, “So. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, Joe. It was closed.”

“Yeah. I thought so, too. Did you open it?”

“No.”

“Me, neither,” Joe turned to the two Acokzau, now both silent and watching Joe’s and Garnedell’s exchange, “Did you guys mess with the pouch?”

Kilniara seemed a bit worried, although confused and shook her head quickly. Joe looked to Zilnek and found the boy seemed to be panicking a bit more than he should. Zilnek also shook his head rapidly, but a bit too quickly and Joe accepted it without pushing for details. Something’s going on…

Joe decided to drop it, and simply turned away from the two Acokzau to stand and struggle into his pack with an oddly discombobulated left arm. He looked meaningfully at Garnedell, but said nothing and the two took off down the last hallway to pick up the snow medallion, which turned out to be exactly what he’d expected it to be. The medallion was identical to the other medallions although with a snow icon on the one side.

Joe turned and showed the medallion to the three.

“Hey. Nice! We got the next one. Almost done,” Joe smiled as he showed the medallion to the other three.

Garnedell grinned hugely, while grabbing the coin Joe passed to him before passing it on to Kilniara and Zilnek. Joe kept an eye on Zilnek out of the corner of eye and found the tailor’s apprentice fidgeting conspicuously. Garnedell and Kilniara babbled excitedly over the coin, but Zilnek seemed nervously reticent and Garnedell seemed to pick up on it as well and zeroed in on Zilnek. Kilniara was simply excited to stare at the medallion before handing it back to Joe.

Joe kept his smile, focusing on the win as he looked at the three. He nodded on down the hallway and beckoned all to head out again.

“Right. Let’s get going!” Joe exclaimed with a bit of excitement.

Kilniara turned excitedly, talking to Zilnek who also turned to walk beside his sister with a bit more reserve and the four took off back into the labyrinth. Joe glanced to Garnedell, catching his attention before nodding towards Zilnek, the mouthed quietly, “Watch him, please.”

Garnedell nodded and then jumped forward to join the other three and began to talk with them as well, joining in easily with their conversation. Joe smiled, laughing at Garnedell’s enthusiasm and then shook his head. Several times, Zilnek looked back as they walked back to where he’d fought the snow and on into the hallway beyond. If that’s not a guilty face, I don’t know what is! Feeling certain about what had happened, Joe took the lead and began leading the way towards the next part of the unexplored labyrinth.

Joe listened to the excited conversation of the apprentices but then an unusually sharp pang of numbness erupted through his left arm, all the way up to his shoulder and he grimaced as he stretched his arm and massaged it with the other. His mind turned to his arm and the injury he’d sustained and Joe spent most of the time in deep thought except when he needed to carefully study the map. His mind returned to the fight with the snow and a deep worry settled, radiating deep in his mind. This was the first time he’d been injured badly, or at least put into a bad place in a fight where he’d been worried about actually surviving. The past half a year had been tedious but reliably safe. He couldn’t take any crazy chances. The time he had wouldn’t allow for it, and the safe but tedious growth was enough for now.

He spent his time thinking carefully and realized that while he really wanted to get his cudgel up, another day or two for it wouldn’t destroy him while a month or two in recovery would. That was stupid. I should have used the shield… maybe spear and shield. Joe felt his heart settle with that resolution. I can afford it! Relax.