The Evernight fought to kill me. My fur lined boots and outdated, winterized battle suit did the bare minimum of keeping the cold from my bones, the red miasma in the sunless sky casting a pale, red glow across the frozen waste. I wrapped my tattered cloak around myself, and rubbed my numb, gloved fingers as I waded through the recent snowfall. My visor fogged with each breath. Five days since I’d last eaten, and hunger clawed at my stomach now that Saya was on the tail of prey.

The dire wolf’s white tufted ears shot up, and she paused at the top of the hill. I crouched and ruffled Saya’s chest fur. "What do we have here, girl?"

She licked the side of my helmet, and my cracked lips pulled back into a grin.

A gaunt family of Elk had their noses deep in the snow pack below, nibbling for frozen sprouts. They looked even worse off than we were, but I’d take what I could get. Once my mouth stopped watering, I let out two low whistles, and Saya took off left down the hill.

I loosed my rifle from under my cloak and over my shoulder, checking to make sure nothing was frozen or jammed. Getting down and inching forward on my elbows, I put the stag leader in my red dot sight. Saya would circle from behind and lead them in for three consecutive shots. If all went well, we’d be sitting fed for at least a month.

Saya was taking longer than usual. It was difficult to spot her with a steady wind gusting powder up from the tundra and the dark of the Evernight, but I imagined I’d notice her closing the gap by now.

Where are you, Saya?

The stag leader’s antlers shot up, black, bulbous eyes scanning their surroundings.

My arm prickled with bumps. Shit. Did he see me? Saya? I looked up, moving my scope along the stag’s sight line. Something white was moving, separating from its environment, but it wasn’t Saya. It was coming from the right. I zoomed in, and saw saber teeth jabbing out from within a snarled mouth. Scanning over a few feet, another. Two, star damned, saber toothed snow leopards. I swallowed. Just my luck.

The leopards skulked in on the trio of elk, and Saya howled warning in the distance.

It was a little late for the that, girl.

Adrenaline thrummed underneath my skin. There was no time to think. It was do or starve. I snapped back my gun barrel on the stag and readied to pull the trigger. My forearm seized, the curse of my sun blood, once again, coming to bite me in the ass. I took my shot. The rifle recoiled in my palm, gun shell whistling in the air, and powder plumed yards away from my mark. The elk fled, a snow leopard nearly managing to get a pounce on one of them, but faltering at the sound of gun fire.

In an act of desperation, I cocked the barrel and re-aimed. If I couldn’t put one of them down, there was no telling how long it be till our next meal. I pulled the trigger and the gun jammed.

They were well over the next snow mound now.

I crested my forehead against the sight, seething. Peering up, I was surprised to find the saber toothed assholes staring up at me, not having ran away. Even in the pale red of the Evernight, their eyes glowed orange.

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My heart tripped.They’re corrupted.

I pounded on the rifle and tried to loose the chamber, my blood beating in my ears, but it was futile, I’d had it out in the cold too long. I shot to my feet, whistling as hard and long as my cracked lips could.

Saya appeared from the white nothingness beyond at a run, but the sabers were already sprinting up the hill, foam at their teeth. No time. I planted my feet and went to grab my sheathed knife.

What was I doing? I was about to try and take on two corrupted, charging snow leopards with a knife. Useless. Idiotic. There was another option, another way out, but I feared I couldn’t pay the price. The corruption that comes with using my sun blood had already taken a toll on my veins from years of use in the Last War. It felt permanently thick and burning in my limbs, creeping into my torso and towards my heart. I stomped the pack under my feet and was rewarded by a hollow thud. Beneath me was nothing my layers of ice and snow. It would hurt, a lot, but with luck it would work.

Pain, I reminded myself, was for the living.

I yanked my glove from my right hand. Needles of cold pierced my skin, frost bite imminent, but I waited until the saber tooth leopards got close. I plunged my hand into the snow and ignited my blood. Heat surged from my chest down through the corrupted veins in my arm, agony ripping all the way up to my shoulder blade.

I screamed through gritted teeth.

A cloud of steam exploded with a hiss, thunderous cracks thronged off into the distance, piercing my ears. The sabers growled and whined, and I lost my footing as the ice shelf carried me, and them, down the frozen hill in a miniature avalanche. I tumbled end over end, my beat to suns suit keeping me from being shredded by shattered ice.

And as quick as it had happened, I was under the snow pack, breath fogging my visor. Upside down, or upside right, I had no clue

I heard the ice re-crystaling. I thrashed my limbs in all directions, my right arm still throbbing warm with pain until I felt it break through and flexed my fingers. Jaws clenched onto my armored forearm and pulled until I broke the surface. Saya tugged and I squirmed, and with one last push, I collapsed onto my back, heaving air, looking up at the cursed, dying red sky.

Saya barked.

I laughed, relief flooding me to see her in one piece. “We’re okay, Saya. We're okay.” Food on the other hand, would have to wait.

She barked again.

I hefted myself to my feet, plugging my glove back on.

A snow leopard had made it out of the avalanche, staggering to catch it’s balance. It dripped with sparkling, orange blood from several gashes.

Saya’s fur stood on edge, and my heart leapt into my throat. “Saya, no!” I reached to grab her with my right arm without thinking, and pain racked me, my corruption scorching hot.

She bolted, the leopard readying to pounce. They met in the air in a gnashing of teeth and claws, separating and coming back again.

I slid my knife from my sheath and ran.

It was too late.

The leopard slid it’s saber tooth into Saya’s side. The dire wolf yelped.

“No!” Anger swelled in my chest. Before the Saber could snap at Saya’s neck, I slammed into him with my full weight, toppling the white cat to the waste. I saddled the corrupted bastard and thrust my knife over and over again, chipping bone and stabbing flesh, orange blood flecking my suit. Finished, I shook, watching the glow leave it’s slitted pupils.

“Saya!” I clamored over to where my last friend in this frozen hell lay bleeding and whining. “Hold on, girl. Don’t move. Let me see.” I laid my trembling, good hand around the wound and bit my lip. It didn’t appear to have pierced any vital organs, but it was deep enough that I wouldn’t be able to simply cut away the corrupted flesh. We’d need an antidote. Unlike me, Saya didn't have sunblood running through her veins, didn't have the ability to harness corruption and use it.

I relaxed a little, and clenched my eyes shut knowing what I had to do. My feet still had to carry us back to camp, and I wasn’t privy on having no good hands at my disposal. I slipped my glove off again, wincing, and slumped my palm over the wound. Saya’s blood was already beginning to freeze.

“It’ll be over in a flash.” I smiled, and Saya groaned.

Surrounded by shattered ice and a failed hunt, I ignited my sunblood and cauterized the wound, wailing even louder than Saya