“I think I feel something. It’s cold where Andrew is.” Andy had been meditating for several hours. He had been nearly ready to give up when he finally saw a small thread leading from himself out into the air. When he touched it, he felt a sense of Andrew and frigid coldness.
“Grab the string tightly and push some of your mana into it. I’m going to use what I took from the nightmare to tear a path for you. I will hold the path open once you are across, but I cannot do it forever, so return with your friend as quickly as you are able.” Zoz said.
“Got it. Charging it with mana now.” Andy watched the deer bow down as he said that and felt his reality rip into pieces, only for it to be pieced back together moments later much colder.
Behind him remained a hole in the air that let him see back through the cavern he had left. Zoz had his antlers in the opening, quite literally holding it open. Andy saw the deer try to mouth something that he thought was the word “Hurry.”
“DREW, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!” He screamed into the arctic winds that now pelted his face. Their cold scraping against him was the only response. He was not remotely in the right gear for this, but he had no choice but to push on. He figured if nothing else changed, he could last a few hours, at least in the extreme colds, and frankly, if he could find Andrew by then, he would assume the man had died anyway. He wasn’t even sure how the hell he possibly could be alive in this environment.
Determined to do his best, he trudged forward through the icy blasts until the pain gave way to numbness. He was reaching the end of how far he could go when he heard yelling in the distance.
“NO, THESE ARE MY FRIENDS AND YOU WILL BACK AWAY.” The yelling was followed by the sound of something crunching hard into something else.
He thought the voice sounded like Andrew and pushed what little energy he had left into a quick sprint over the next hill. He had been right. It was Andrew, and he was fighting some sort of polar bear in defense of what looked to be penguins. He had a large branch and was clubbing the beast in the head. It didn’t look very effective.
He channeled one of his signature black balls directly over the bear and reversed gravity, flinging it high into the sky. It came back down with a crunch. The bear climbed back to its feet, still alive and further enraged. Andy had used the moments before the resumed clash to get between Andrew and the bear before it charged again.
“Good to see you’re alive, Drew. Who are your friends?” Andy asked his older self.
“They are the reason I’m alive. They pulled me out of the freezing water I somehow found myself in and have kept me warm these last several weeks, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let one polar bear kill their new chick. With what I’ve seen you all tackle, how bad can a single bear be?” He answered.
Stolen story; please report.
“Well, considering we are somewhere in the abyss, I would guess a lot stronger than a normal bear that said, I don’t think you can even take a normal one, but hey, it’s good to see you try. Now, keep the penguins safe while I handle this.” Andy increased the pressure directly between himself and the bear.
It caused the animal to scream in pain. Andy followed up by dramatically increasing the gravity, locking the bear in place. “Bear, I know you can understand me. Leave these penguins alone, and you get to live. Don’t force me to kill you!”
To both men’s surprise, the bear nodded its head. Andy released his hold on the gravity around it, and the bear stood up and walked into the arctic winds away from them all. It limped as it went.
The penguins began jumping up and down in merriment with loud squawking to match their moods.
“Yes, it’s okay now. You’re all safe, but I think I have to leave with Andy here. Thank you all for helping me stay alive.” Andrew leaned down and patted several of the penguins. Andy could swear he saw a frozen tear in the man’s eye as he said his goodbyes.
One of the two penguins guarding the baby squawked loudly and passed something to Andrew. Andy watched him take it happily.
“Thank you.” He leaned down and ruffled the small chick's head as well.
“What did they give you?” Andy asked.
“Hrm, quite nosy, aren’t you? It was part of the eggshell of the young penguin. Now, how do we get out of here?” Andrew had slipped back into his usual tone.
“We use what little mana I’ve got left to fling us both back towards the rip Zoz is holding open.” Andy immediately changed the gravity around Andrew, throwing him back towards the rip as he screamed back at his younger self.
“What is a Zoz?!” Andy ignored the question and threw himself after him.
“I suppose I can’t argue with the speed of our travel,” Andrew said after he emerged from the nearby snowbank he had crashed into.
“Considering I nearly froze to death finding you, I wasn’t sure I had the energy to make it back otherwise. I know our mana channels have made it easier to handle some of the environmental hazards, but it isn’t helping at all here. See that weird rip with the deer in it over there. Go hop through it, and I’ll follow behind you.” Andy instructed.
“Got it. It looks warm over there. Is that Zoz.” Andrew asked before climbing through without waiting for answers. Andy followed after him.
Zoz removed his head from the opening, and it closed with a loud popping sound. “Welcome back.”
“Thank you. I really hope Bill is somewhere warmer. I need to sleep for a bit before I get back to meditating, though. I’m nearly spent after that trip.” Andy said.
“I understand. Both of you rest. I will go acquire you some nutrition.” Zoz said.
They both listened.