It took a few seconds of Will’s skin burning before he realized how cold it was. He slammed his helmet back on his head as fast as he could before taking stock of the white wasteland he was in. He was standing in a windswept plain of ice and snow with barely a ridge of ice to break up the sameness. Will stared as the wind buffeted him. The Arctic? Is that where he was? The place looked like what he saw in documentaries about Antarctica. For the first time in over a week he was happy about his black leather coat and pants, but even now he felt the cold starting to earth through.

Will turned around and was glad to find that the snowy plains gave way to mountains and dark evergreens. He quickly started to walk, hugging himself to maintain any warmth he could manage. And he walked. It wasn’t long before the steep incline of the ground led to the shelter of the trees. Will rested in the lee of a particularly large evergreen and looked around in stupefied confusion.

“Where the hell am I?” he asked, but the wind only answered with more howls. Suddenly text appeared in his vision. It wasn’t in a blue box this time, but rather looked like a chat message system in a heads up display.

Attempting to ascertain location…

Mapping Modules not found.

GPS Modules not found.

Attempting to ascertain location based on landmark data…

Approximate location determined

Timberline of Arctheal 30%, Timberline of Frostfell 25%, Timberline of Grinhold 2%, other 43%.

Please acquire additional modules for more accurate placement.

Will stared at the words. The timberline meant that he was either really far north or south, but not as far as he thought. But where on Earth Arctheal or Frostfell were, he had no clue. They sounded more like fantasy locations than somewhere in the real world. He would readily admit his geography wasn’t the best, but these names were odd. If he was lucky he would be somewhere in Alaska, and these were just the names of a couple weird towns. He would figure out how he made it there later.

Will pulled off his backpack, which he certainly hadn’t been wearing before he was apparently ‘teleported’. He rummaged through the food until he found a bag of jerky and stuffed it in his pockets. If he was going to survive he would have to eat on the go. He thought fondly of the beer, left behind stuck between the couch cushions. He had only been half finished.

Will got back to his feet and set off deeper in the woods. There was no sun, it was covered by clouds, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The large evergreens quickly blocked out the sky making the area beneath dark and gloomy. Will pulled out his keychain. He had a small flashlight attached there for emergencies, and it proved it’s worth now. It wasn’t great, made for small spaces like a room during a power outage, but it would have to do. Will made his way into the forest.

The first thing he noticed was how dead and still everything was. It was a bit of a relief, as the biting wind no longer tore at his heat, but it was still well below freezing, likely below zero. He needed to find help soon, or at the very least a place to bunk down and build a fire. Will walked through the forest, clambering over giant roots and falling into miniature valleys. He hadn’t spent even an hour walking before he started to wish for company. Any company to drive away the silence of the forest.

It was then that he fell into a particularly deep valley. He slid down the side of a root, stumbling a few steps when he hit the ground. He started when a deep rumbling growl rose up from the base of the tree to his left, and he immediately tripped, falling on his butt. Will turned slowly and saw, not ten feet away, a wolf of immense proportions. It was the size of a brown bear at least, and glared at him while baring fangs as long as his hand. Will froze and started to scoot away slowly. The thing’s jaws were big enough to take his head in a single bite. But it didn’t try to attack. Will saw blood dripping from the wolf's side, and a single wolf cub hiding behind.

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The situation was clear. The mother was injured, and from this angle laying on the ground he could clearly see it was female. She was also trying to protect her only cub. Her last cub if he had his guess. A wolf that size should have litters of thirty or more. It seemed that she was not willing to leave her protected spot in the shelter of a giant root. He could just leave.

For his own protection he pulled out the pocket knife his dad gave him. Not that it would do much against a creature of this magnitude. But instead of moving away he got closer, pulling out a piece of beef jerky and throwing it to the growling mother.

“I’m a friend.” He said in a soothing voice. “I am here to help.” He was encouraged when she snapped up the meat, and her growling started to subside the slightest bit. He continued to throw her bits of food as he got progressively closer. She looked wary, but she was barely growling. Will started to get excited. He lifted his left hand to touch the wolf, and that was his mistake. The mother wolf’s head snapped forward faster than he could comprehend, latching around his bicep, and crushing his upper arm. He felt the sickening snap of bone and was about to scream when he heard the wolf give a gurgling yelp. His right hand was buried up to his forearm in the fur of her neck. His right hand that had been holding the knife.

Blood poured like a river from the wound, splashing across Will’s body as the wolf staggered back toward her pup. But the blood loss was taking a quick toll on her functions. He imagined she had already lost a lot of blood from the previous wound, and this one was worse. Far worse. Will watched as the wolf fell on its side, and slowly died as its blood made a large puddle on the ground. The small wolf made short helpless howls at its mother as if begging her to get up. She didn’t get up. Will just stared, feeling hollow.

It took a minute for the adrenaline to go away and the pain to set in. Every movement sent fire through his limp arm. Will grabbed a stick and pulled out a spare shirt, his only one, before tearing the shirt and using the strips to tie a makeshift splint for his arm. He really needed to find help now.

Will stood to leave, but looked back at the whimpering pup. It was a vicious wolf, or would be in just a year. But he couldn’t leave it. If only to assuage his own loneliness. Will went over and picked up the unsuspecting pup. The pup immediately went ballistic, biting and clawing at him in an effort to be let go. Will refused and instead stuffed the pup inside his jacket. He then pushed a large piece of beef jerky in the face of the wolf pup, which it started to chew on immediately.

Will learned quickly that the pup remained well enough behaved as long as he kept something in its mouth. When the jerky ran out, he switched to a stick he whittled the bark off of. It seemed to work well enough. Which was good for Will’s sanity. But his sanity was not his primary concern. It was the cold.

In that respect, the pup was a blessing. It felt like a little fireball in his coat, giving Will the energy to go on. But even so, Will was pretty sure the temperatures were not just below freezing, but below zero. After about an hour and a half of walking, Will noticed a deep dugout beneath the large root of a tree. At first he was excited, thinking he had found decent shelter, until he found the massive white body of a wolf inside.

He had gone in a massive F***ing circle. It was getting late, and the air was getting colder, and so Will stopped trying to walk and instead gathered some wood for a fire. The problem was he had no clue how to start a fire. He had seen lots of videos, but try as he might, nothing seemed to work like he expected. After an hour of trying, he gave up. The only thing he could do was huddle up against the corpse of the mother wolf for any last shred of heat her body still held.

As night fell, the shivering set in to both him and the poor pup. But it wasn’t long before warm tiredness seemed to flood over him. The pup was still, and he was tired. He had heard that you were not supposed to sleep when it got this cold, but he couldn’t find it in him to care. He did care that the pup was going to die. But all he could do was be sad for the little pup, and the murdered mother who would have been able to keep her pup warm that night.

Concept formation detected.

Congratulations, you have gained a concept!

Concept: Desolate Heart of the Frozen North

Type: Cold

Subtype: Desolation

This is a mental concept.

Will couldn’t find it within himself to care.