Snow crunched quietly behind the spirit.

Behind, of course, being used as a relative concept due to it not technically having a ‘front’ or ‘back’. As it was, the spirit existed as a mass of being with omnidirectional senses.

Regardless of this fact, the crunching of snow came from the direction opposite the formation of stars it had been inspecting. It swiveled its attention toward the sound of more rhythmic crunching. It couldn’t quite be sure, but it sounded like… footsteps?

A person stood, frozen mid-step as the spirit took them in.

They did not look like any person it had seen before, but the spirit only really had one such person to base these claims on. Compared to the person buried deep in the snow below, this individual was large. Likely more than twice the size in every aspect. A heavy set of shining silver armor covered much of their frame. Complete, aside from a missing helmet.

The spirit imagined that they did have a helmet somewhere, but had chosen to remove it for some reason.

It wondered how it could have expectations of armor when it couldn't recall ever seeing it before, but the thought was quickly dispelled.

The stranger crouched down to appear less threatening as if they were approaching a scared animal of some sort. The spirit was not afraid. It was merely curious about the new arrival. It was very content to simply watch them scoot closer, leaving behind a trail of footsteps in the snow.

The spirit noted that the trail of footprints cut off abruptly when it tried to trace them backward, but was amused to find the aforementioned helmet sitting on top of a brightly colored red cloak beside where the footprints had begun.

Without it, the spirit could see their steely gray eyes and silvery hair. The rest of the features could only be described as... strong. The kind of face that had surely seen many fights.

The person stopped, though they were quite close. If they managed to tip forward– as their awkward posture indicated they might– then they would likely faceplant directly on top of the spirit.

The person warbled something completely unintelligible to it and reached out a hand.

The spirit began to extend a thin portion of its existence toward the hand but hesitated before touching the stranger. Surely the familiar face wouldn’t mind, right? They didn’t seem the jealous type, but the spirit definitely didn’t want to disappoint them when they awoke.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

It would probably be fine. The spirit was sure they would understand, it was just so exciting to finally be seeing someone else!

Probing gently at the hand with tentative pokes, the spirit quickly made up its mind. It wrapped a large portion of itself around the hand and applied a firm handshake, as that was what it thought it should do.

The person and spirit stared at one another for a few moments before a flood of thoughts and memories rushed through their mind with a roar. Emotions floated past in pieces, before being swept away with the rest, flying far into the night sky to hide among the stars.

He- The spirit paused in confusion. It stopped moving entirely for a few minutes as it attempted to understand what it had just seen.

A full lifetime had just flashed in its mind, making itself known for the briefest of seconds before being strewn across countless years of a single starry sky.

Countless thoughts fought for dominance in its mind before a single inconsequential piece floated to the surface.

It now appeared obvious to the spirit that itself and the familiar face were one and the same. Apparently, it had been waiting all this time for no reason. Or rather he had been waiting for no reason. That was alright, really. What was more irritating was the fact that he couldn’t seem to catch his name in any of his memories.

He shivered. Worse than all of that, he was cold again. He would have shouted profanities if he could remember any good ones. Instead, he had a lot of new questions.

He turned to face the armored individual, reveling in the novel sensation of having limbs once more. He still wasn’t sure at what point he had shifted back into a humanoid form, but he already missed being able to look in every direction at once.

“Who are you?” He asked the decidedly male figure before him. He was quite sure people were supposed to have names.

“I am Arx, a god from a different universe,” Arx said.

Wonderful. That raised many more questions than it answered. He decided to tackle those after.

“And who am I?”

“I don’t know. I am a god from a different universe.”

“Of course.” He stopped for a second, shivering as he tried to organize another question. He had been rather dependent on Arx, the god from a different universe knowing his name for him.

Arx rose from his crouched position and began to walk back the way he had come.

“Hold on! Please, don’t go!” He stood and began following the man. He didn't really know the man, but he hadn't had any human contact for far too long. His years alone had left him feeling a little deprived of attention.

Now that they were both standing, it was hard to miss the fact that Arx really was more than twice his height and built like some Spartan warrior. The mental image Arx evoked from his memory caused him to stumble. It didn’t help that he could barely feel his feet; something that brought up another set of memories. This one being of his own death in the cold. The fear and anxiety soaked into the memory really did cause him to fall this time.

Arx caught him before he had even managed to hit the ground and wrapped him up in his thick cloak.

"Thank you," he muttered reflexively.

Taking a deep freezing breath, he relaxed.

“So,” He began at last, “What brings you here?”