Hera suddenly felt cold. The disparity from the warm glow of the transfer was like jumping into the ocean right after a hot bath. Before anything, she looked back, trying to see if Blue came along. The controller was still there, just as she was before the transfer. Passed out, but still alive. Right now, even the heat coming from her body had vanished. Hera understood she was in yet another cave with a quick glance, but pale sunlight came from a corner.

Hera crouched on the ground to avoid hurting Blue, leaning her friend against the cave wall before taking off the string that wrapped them both together. Now that she had a moment, Hera examined Blue once more. She had some bruises around her arms and an open wound on her forehead. Applying some first aid using the kit Hera had on the inner side of her metal skirt, she cleaned the wound and made a small bandage. There wasn't much else she could do with an unconscious patient. The last thing to do was to put Blue on the floor so she could rest properly. If she ended up moving and falling down, there was a chance to worsen her injuries.

Now, nothing else could be done until Blue woke up. Or at least, there was nothing Hera could do. To make herself busy, she looked around the cave. The doorway was on the very back of it and walking towards the sunlight, one could easily find the exit, but it was too bright to see outside. Glancing towards Blue, Hera confirmed she hadn't moved and stepped outside the cave.

She closed her eyes while entering the open area due to the bright sunlight. After opening them, Hera was greeted by a large expanse filled with snow-covered mountains. Even with the sun, it was cold enough to keep the snow intact. It seemed like they were very high up, but there was no issue with the air even at such height. Looking up, she confirmed that they were far away from the top, with large snowbanks looming from above. She had to be very careful not to make too much noise and end up causing an avalanche. There was a large path in front of the cave, big enough for a carriage, entirely covered in fresh snow. Hera pulled her handaxe and used the handle to measure how deep it was, but her worries were for naught. The handle barely sunk 3 centimeters before hitting solid ground.

A small part of her wanted to play around in the snow. It's been a long time since she saw such a pretty place, but she knew it wasn't the right moment for that. Now that the adrenaline ran out and her body was cooling off, she noticed how cold the place was. Leaving Blue to recover in that temperature was a recipe for disaster. With a quick look around, Hera saw the top of what looked like a pine tree. She slowly moved down the path and towards a small clump of saplings. Breaking a few branches, she gathered enough wood for a fire and climbed back towards the cave. Making campfires was something she knew well. When she arrived, the doorway had stopped glowing. The structure was still there, but the white light was gone. She tried touching it, but there was no response. Thinking for a moment, it made some sort of sense. The doorways could never lead someone to a dangerous place, or at least not to a place where the environment could kill them just by being there. If the lava had already covered the entire room where the doorway was, it would take someone incredibly strong to survive the heat, and if the magma covered the whole cave, it would burn anyone there. If they survived all that by some miracle, it was likely that they would suffocate before finding the exit.

Focusing back on the campfire, she started working. Less than five minutes after she returned, there was already a small setup ready. All she had to do was light it. Some people would say that using a spell to start the fire was cheating. Then again, this wasn't a competition.

Hera heated herself up by the flames while trying to send some texts through her tablet, but there was no connection there. All the messages and emails were stuck in her outbox, and any page or app requiring the internet was unusable. With a sigh, she turned her attention back to Blue. How long would it take for her to wake up? Even if they did get thrown around, Blue wouldn't be out for days, would she?

Now that any imminent danger seemed to be gone, Hera could think more clearly. In hindsight, maybe she could have carried Blue towards the Wolves' army and screamed for help. Ferreira was around that area, and by his size, he probably could sweep in and carry them both to safety. Still, the kobold sisters told her she had only one chance, so maybe that was the right move. After about twenty minutes of staring at the flames while thinking about what she could have done differently, Hera finally snapped out of it. She walked outside, grabbed some snow, and shoved it in her face, hoping that the shock would pump her up.

"Focus, Hera. What is done is done. Think about how to survive now," going back to Blue, she rummaged through her armor and started making an inventory of all they had. There was her first aid kit, with some bandages, painkillers, and other basic meds and needs. She had her water bottle with a filter, while Blue had one without it. They could melt the snow and filter out the water, so that wasn't much of an issue. Her main concern was food. Together, they had 3 protein bars and a pouch with a few berries from lunch. Realistically, that wasn't enough for a single meal, much less for the two to share, but there was a forest here, or at least some trees. Maybe there was some food. Hera couldn't remember if pinecones were edible, but she could use her [Observe] to check.

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She got up, ready to scavenge, but stopped before even taking a step. If Blue woke up alone and called for help, things could go wrong very fast. Hera placed the painkillers on the ground and carved a message on the wall, directly in front of Blue.

'Hi, a lot of things happened. DO NOT SCREAM; IT COULD CAUSE AN AVALANCHE. I'll be back soon, H.'

For some reason, she didn't want to write down her full name. What if someone complained about how she marked a place like this, or people in this room would find this offensive. In reality, those were just excuses. She was just tired, and carving a message in stone wasn't exactly easy, even with a handaxe that was supposed to be good for mining.

Hera left the cave and headed down the path towards the small group of trees. In the first group, there was nothing that could be food. Even the tree leaves seemed inedible, or at least very dangerous to eat. It has some barb-like protrusions that were abrasive even when rubbing against the skin. Just thinking about how it would feel to swallow one of those things gave Hera chills.

It's been only ten minutes since she left Blue. Confident that it wasn't long enough to be an issue, Hera went for another group of trees further down the path. She made a few markings on the mountain as she walked to be sure not to lose where the cave was. This was also something that most survival books talked about. When you found a safe place, you should always keep track of how to return to that location. The only situation where that wasn't a good idea was when intelligent monsters or other creatures were a part of the equation, but there were no signs of people walking around.

After another fifteen minutes, Hera arrived at the next batch of trees. She started looking around, but the area was dark, despite the sun still being high in the sky. She finally found a few pinecones using the dancing lights spell. Quickly confirming that they were edible using her [Inspect], Hera began climbing the trees, grabbing as many of the seeds as possible. When she finally got what seemed to be enough, Hera left the small forest. She had spent almost a full hour climbing trees. Worried about Blue, Hera rushed back towards the cave. Inside, Blue was sitting down, leaning against the wall.

"Blue! Are you ok?"

"Don't yell. My head is killing me," Blue replied.

"Sorry, how are you feeling?"

"Sore, cold, and hungry. I thought I had a power bar with me, but I must have lost it somewhere."

"You did have one. I picked it up and forgot to leave it here. My bad," Hera took the power bar out of her bag and gave it to Blue.

"Thanks! Do you have some water?"

"Sure, here," Hera passed her bottle of water towards Blue.

After downing the bottle, Blue gasped and looked around, "Also, where is here?"

Hera took a deep breath and explained where they were. She made sure not to talk about the guides while explaining everything.

"So, how do we get back?"

"I don't know," Hera replied.

"You don't? So what? We are stuck here?"

"In this room, yeah, but not the cave. We are high up in a mountain, and there is a path heading up or down. We can follow it when you feel better."

"How did you find this place?" Blue asked.

"I got lucky."

"Bullshit, you had to go through a literal labyrinth while carrying me and running from lava, and you want me to believe that you got that on the first try? Tell me how the hell did you find this place."

"I can't," Hera looked away.

"Why not?"

"I can't say that either. I have a way of finding things, and that's all I can tell you."

"And you expect me to accept that? You got us stuck in some random place and can't even tell me how?"

"I had to do something to save you. I could have run away alone and saved my ass just fine, but you were unconscious, and this was the only way."

"How can you tell this was the only way?" Blue yelled, trying to move her body but flinching in pain.

"The same way I knew the path to take, and no, I can't tell you anything else about that. I mean, I saved your life here. You could be a little more grateful."

"I am grateful, I really am, but how can I be happy knowing I'm stuck in a room with no way out?" Blue sighed.

"Ok, you are the only one talking about being stuck. The doorway is still here, and you know that every room has at least two connections. I'm betting temporary ones don't even count. We just have to find another one."

Blue shook her head, "Yeah, you are right. Sorry, it's just the idea of getting stuck somewhere where I can't contact my family. I'm getting no signal on the tablet."

"I get that… in a way. But can you wait to yell at me untill we figure out if we are stuck or not?"

Blue nodded, "Sure."

"Ok then, can you walk?"

"Not very well. I tried to get up but couldn't hold my weight. I think my foot is broken."

"Well, there are some trees around. I can try to make a sled or something to drag you along the snow. The problem is knowing if we need to go up or down," Hera said.

"Can't you do whatever you did to find the path here?"

Hera nodded, "Yeah, I can. But it's a one-off thing. If I do it now, I can't do it again."

"Never?"

"Not here, and let's leave it at that," Hera replied.

"So do it."

"Ok, I'll be right back. I have to be alone to do it."

Blue squinted, "The more you talk about that, the shadier this gets, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know. I'll be right back."

Hera left the cave, making sure to fill up her water bottle with snow before anything else. She stared at both paths and decided to head up. Since she was going to use the Guide skill once more, she might as well have a great view on the way.