Kashi woke up to the faint smell of ashes and blood. By now most of his wounds had closed. Groggily he rubbed his eyes. The campfire before him had burned into a pile of ashes encircled by stones plucked from the cavern walls. He thought of getting up but nothing would lift him from his bed of moss. It was just too comfortable. He tried to fall asleep again, but a ray of light glared through his eyelids. He yawned and rolled over. An earwig crawled into his mouth. Panicking, he flailed around and spat it out, break off a stalagmite that hit him on the head.

He sat up. His stomach growled as he watched the earwig crawl away.

Kashi turned towards the entrance. As he stepped into the cold, snow breaking underfoot, he felt the blizzard almost knock him over. He staggered back into the cave and fell back on his bed. The wind outside was cold. Colder than the snowman disguise he'd made.

"What the-?!" he thought. He concentrated his mind and barely felt the currents of vital energy moving through him. The currents were slow, the energy faint. Kashi sighed. Until he had enough chi going through his system he'd be just as vulnerable as anyone else. Right now he was weak, tired, and hungry. If he couldn't get anything to eat he may as well move. If he was going to die it wouldn't be here of all places. Facing the storm would mean certain death. Exploring the cave would mean uncertain death. It didn't take long for him to make a decision.

So began his climb. The stones were wet and slippery. The cave was pitch black. He could hear his labored breaths reverberating on the walls. It didn't take long for him to imagine a hundred awful things potentially happening to him. He could get stuck in a narrow gap and slowly die of asphyxiation. He could slip and fall and break his back. He could tumble into a crevasse and starve to death. But for some strange reason he felt oddly safe.

The heat of his own body exerting himself kept him from shivering and all he could hear was the sound of his breathing and his feet on the rocks. Everything felt still, with him as the only source of sound and motion anywhere. Soon he felt a rhythm to the monotony. It felt as if he was playing a single instrument, maybe a triangle or a zither, in the darkest room at home with nobody else in the building.

Hours passed and he felt no hungrier or more tired than as had been since he began. Time lost all meaning. All that mattered was his single-minded desire to move.

Back home he'd practiced a secret ninja technique for weeks on end. It was perhaps the most complicated one yet. To master it, one must mimic the instinct of a bat. So every night he'd go into his cellar and set up furniture all over the place. Once he was done he'd turn off the lights and take a beeline to computer in his living room where he'd play a few rounds of his favorite tower defense game so he wouldn't remember where the furniture was.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Then he'd go back in blindfolded and try to walk to the end of his cellar. All the while he'd click his tongue every second in an attempt make out where everything was by the vibrations in the air that bounced back to him. And every time he'd fail miserably and he'd go back to bed with a stinging pain in his shin.

But this time he tried it. And for some inexplicable reason he felt certain there were animals of some kind prowling up ahead.

...

"Brothers and sisters, we are not alone!" Father Isaac boomed. "While praying last night an angel came down to me in a vision. She told me that these strange people you see are not demons at all, but mortal men like you and me. Have no fear of them, for they are foreign merchants come to trade."

His congregation took this news in more ways than he could could. Some were frightened. Others were excited. But the majority of them were outright confused. They didn't even know how to process this. For most of their lives, if not their entire lives, there was nothing beyond the village but trees and mountains and snow.

As far as they were concerned that's how it was and that's how it would be for the rest of eternity. Until now.

A gloved hand rose up from the congregation.

"Yes?" said Father Isaac. "Horace?"

"We were poor as dirt before the Vanishing. So what do we have to offer them?" Horace said.

Several voices in the congregation started to murmur. They got louder until another voice rang out over them.

Carter stood up. "I've read the histories. We're just a single village. If we have nothing with us and we can't fight back, then the only use we have for them is as-"

"Ahem!" went Father Isaac, clearing his throat as loudly as he could. The whole church fell silent.

"Nonsense!" he began. "They do not practice slavery, nor do they have any need to. Just as we have come to worship the one true God unlike our rock-banging pagan ancestors centuries past, the foreigners have had several more centuries to become as pious and civilized as we have."

The priest gestured towards himself. "I have spoken with their emissary. They are wealthy beyond imagination. All they want from us is lodging, which we have no shortage of."

He threw his hands up into the air, waving them around as if he was casting a spell. "They fly on birds of silver and live in towers of steel. In every house there is a well that produces as much hot water as they so desire. On top of that they get to eat all kinds of meat every single day. Think of it. If they take those things for granted, just imagine how much they will give us in return!"

Nobody could argue with that. An air of frenzied excitement filled the church. Lots of people started to chatter and babble, an otherworldly sound for such a despondent village.

Father Isaac stabbed his finger towards the sky as his voice reached a crescendo. "From this day on we will no longer hunger. We will no longer starve! From this day onwards, we will prosper!"

...

Far away an obnoxious blue jeep tore through the snow. A white plume trailed behind it as it neared the village. Annoying pop music blasted in all directions. Mice and squirrels scattered off. Birds took to the skies. One of the windows lowered and a girl in a kigurumi stuck her head out. Her eyes sparkled with wonder.