"Now come the bandages, make sure they're on properly. We should let the ointment work for a bit, but we don't have time.” Lyaria makes an effort to suppress a grimace of pain and sits giving her back to Ezer while adjusting her hair giving an image difficult to forget.

If he wanted the bandages to do their job, Ezer had to wrap them around her back, chest, and part of her abdomen, making sure they were tight but didn't restrict movement. With prompting from Lyaria and a bit of embarrassment on both sides, the more serious injuries were treated with time being all she needed now.

"I can do the rest myself." Lyaria slips a soft cloth over her cold, bruised skin.

"No, I'll finish it." Ezer faces forward and repeats the same steps holding Lyaria's hand gently. The flames of the campfire, lit inside a newly dug pit to avoid attracting attention, were just bright enough to work comfortably at night.

Lyaria didn't know where to look, feeling more embarrassed than she expected now that Ezer was in front of her, while he had the perfect excuse to focus on healing her. However, they both feel the strange atmosphere that lasts until Ezer finishes treating both arms.

"We should... We should go, we've wasted enough time already." Lyaria clears her throat after not saying a word in a long time.

" Yes... yes, of course." Ezer rushes over and grabs his equipment, as well as hers.

The night was far advanced and it would not be long before the sun would rise, but the sudden clouds added to the high peaks that were already beginning to surround them delayed this. Ezer walks at a slow pace while Lyaria seems to follow easily, although he knew she didn't have it as easy as it seemed.

"Get on my back." Ezer finds a way to fit a backpack on his chest by putting most of the stuff that have the one in his back into the front one, leaving room to carry Lyaria.

“I can walk alone, it's not that serious.” It was true, each step meant pain, but she could bear it.

“I know, but working hard now means you'll recover slower. I'm sure that will happen no matter how fast you heal.” His words made sense and Lyaria can find no reason to deny it. She ends up giving in, using Ezer's strength again for the second time and this was what weighed her down, at some point the roles were changed and she was the one who depended on Ezer.

It took two days for Lyaria to recover enough to walk and be able to recognize a familiar place allowing her to decide the best way to the west, taking the short cut was an advantage as well as a disadvantage since Nielmar did not have time to give them more information before he die.

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"The snow and the wind are getting stronger and stronger! Are you sure we can cross the mountains before the passes close!?” Ezer has to yell even though Lyaria was less than a meter away from him because of the strong gusts of wind channeling through the mountain walls.

"If the storm continues, we won't make it!"

“What!?” He can't hear her and leans in to make it better.

“We won’t! Not at this rate!”

“So what will we do!?” Ezer had an idea, but he asks to make sure.

“Let's cross the mountain range to the south and then go west! I know there's a chance they're still looking for you, but we can't get to the sea over the mountains in a winter this early!”

"Okay, you know this place better than me, if you say we won't make it... then let's go with the other plan!" Ezer was not stupid, he had already crossed the mountains once in a good season and even so it almost cost him his life, doing it in winter would be suicide. However, he still had a fear embedded in his mind about returning to the lands he had worked so hard to leave.

"Let's find a cave until the storm stops!" They are both at the base of one of the mountains, one wrong move and it could be fatal.

"Look for anything, a big rock or fissure in the mountain, anything to keep us out of the wind!"

Easier said than done, two hours go by without finding anything useful, having moved a few hundred meters with greatly diminished vision. However, during all this time, Ezer cannot focus on the task, feeling a great pressure in his chest.

“Lyaria!” He has no more doubts about it and decides to act.

“Yes, it seems that I also learned to sense it!” Lyaria looks back, imagining what was following in their footsteps.

“If we run into the bear in this place we are dead, we have no room to move freely.” To their left is the stone wall of the mountain and to their right, a little less than two steps, a drop whose bottom one couldn't see because of the strong blizzard that hid everything with the white of the snow.

“Moving on is not a good option either.” With those words Ezer seals his only escape.

“Why!?”

"I sense something as dangerous as what is after us. No, maybe it's worse.” Ezer rarely had the same feeling during his journey through the mountains alone. It was as if something was watching you, being able to notice every weakness to take advantage of it and eliminate you with ease, but for some reason it was just the bear that decided to attack him on its own.

“There are some beings that inhabit these places that are beyond our comprehension, they are not necessarily hostile, maybe if we don't bother them they will let us pass without problems. Perhaps the bear will catch his attention more and hold him for us.”

"Or maybe the opposite is true... But you're right, it's better than waiting for the beast to catch up with us. If we go forward at least we have a chance.” Ezer accepts Lyaria's proposal, though he's sure that whatever lurks ahead gives him a sense of even greater danger than the white bear. For some reason, he sensed this much more clearly than Lyaria did.

The blizzard did not abate no matter how much time passed, both felt how the cold cut their faces and even penetrated through their thick fur coats. Neither says it out loud, but they both know that continuing like this into the night would assure them of freezing to death before the bear even reaches them.