If the stars could talk, do you think they’d judge us? I think they would be more apathetic than anything else. It’s funny, the places your mind goes when the only thing you have to do is walk… for twelve hours. “I should have stolen a horse,” I said, kicking myself while sitting in the shade of a Larch Tree. I glanced around the frozen field of ice and snow I was in while waiting for the sun to lower a bit before I continued. I don’t know why, but at noon I start to feel slower, not tired, but more like I have iron in my shoes. Even if I’m not in the sunlight, it still happens. I feel just as good as I did before noon, but something inside of me tells me to wait, and let the sun go down a bit. Even, like now, when there were clouds in the sky.

As I was looking around, I spotted something moving underneath the snow an arm’s length away from me. I slammed my hand into it, killing it instantly, and pulled it out… only to see a lemming. Its leg twitched in my hand, but I couldn’t hear its heartbeat; I’d probably broken its neck. “Better than nothing.” I said, and had my snack. It didn’t last long, and it certainly was not filling, but it tasted good, and it helped pass a moment. I held its drained body in my hands, and examined it. “Were you out hunting too little one?” I opened its mount and looked at its teeth. “No, you eat plants, I think.” I tossed the body of the lemming out of the tree’s shade, and watched its shadow as it hit the ground. “Finally,” I said and stood up to leave.

Shortly after I started walking, it started to snow again. It had been doing so off and on for most of my journey. I didn’t mind, as long as it was cloudy there wouldn’t be as much sun. I saw smoke in the distance, and marched towards it. Once I was close enough, I saw that it was a small platoon of Imperial Russian Forces. I waited in a snow-covered tree for one of them to break off from the rest, which took an hour. Bounding from treetop to treetop, I stalked him until we were out of earshot of the rest of his platoon. He was unbuttoning his trousers as I dropped behind him and slammed him into the ground.

“Gde nakhoditsya Fort Osovets?” I asked. (Where is Fort Osowiec?) “Naskol'ko eto daleko?” (How far is it?)

“Vy nemetskiy shpion? Sgnit' v-“ He spat, and I slammed his head into the ice. (Are you a German spy? Go rot in a-)

“YA ne shpion i ne vash vrag, no moye terpeniye na iskhode. Otvet' na moy vopros, ili ya tebya zastavlyu.” (I am not a spy or your enemy, but I am running out of patience. Answer my question, or I will make you.) I lifted his head out of the ice, only to notice I had accidentally knocked him unconscious. I sighed, and picked him up. I carried him close enough to his platoon that he would be discovered quickly, and left the area.

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I could have stayed and use magic, or force, to get the answer from another soldier, but that made me realize something, I was starving. At the moment, it wasn’t safe for me to be around friendly soldiers, so I went looking for some Germans. Unfortunately, this far from the border, I knew I wasn’t going to find any. Settling for the next best thing, I hunted for an hour before I found something that looked good. Over 1,500 Ibs (650kg), and 9 feet tall on it hind legs, I found a Kamchatskiy buryy medved'. (A Kamchatka brown bear.)

I dropped behind it, not bothering to remain silent. As I landed, for a moment, it was the year 800, and I was just a young man in the woods again. And much like last time… I was hungry. I listened to the bear’s heartbeat. One beat, another… the bear roared… I lunged. A third beat, a fourth… the bear swung a paw at me… I ripped it off. A fourth beat, a sixth; it tried to run… it failed. There was no seventh beat.

It took me a full minute to drain a beast this massive, but I enjoyed every moment. Just in case, I ripped its heart out. I did not want to accidentally discover whether or not animals could become undead monsters like what I had seen in the German camp, and the morgue. I tossed its large heart into the snow, and turned to leave. Only to see a man holding a hunting rifle watching me in horror. Our eyes locked for a moment, which surely felt twice as long for him as it did for me. He was not a soldier, just a man out hunting. I looked down at the bear, then over to him.

“Ty mozhesh' s"yest' medvedya, no ya by na tvoyem meste yego ne yel.” I said to the man, who then ran away quickly. (You can have the bear, but I wouldn’t eat it if I were you.) “Do svidaniya.” I called out, before realizing he might know where Fort Osowiec was, and chased after him. “Vernis'! U menya vopros k vam!” (Come back! I have a question for you!)

I caught up with him quickly, and got in front of him to cut him off. I held out my hands by my face and put myself several feet away from him, just to make him more comfortable. “Derzhi drug! YA ne sobirayus' prichinyat' tebe bol'.” I said in a calm voice. (Hold friend! I’m not going to hurt you.)

“Pozhaluysta, pozhaluysta... YA nikomu ne skazhu, chto ya videl! Pozhaluysta, ne ubivay menya, demon.” He begged. (Please, please... I won't tell anyone what I saw! Please do not kill me, demon.)

“YA ne sobirayus' prichinyat' tebe bol'. YA ishchu fort Osovets. Ty znayesh' gde eto? Dazhe prosto napravleniye pomoglo by mne.” (I’m not going to hurt you. I’m looking for Fort Osowiec. Do you know where it is? Even just a direction would help me.)

“Eto na sever. Pyat' dney puti otsyuda. Pozhaluysta, u menya yest' sem'ya.” He said, holding his rifle tightly, but not daring to aim it at me. (It is to the north. Five days travel from here. Please, I have a family.) I nodded without another word, and left him. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw him running towards a cabin in the distance.