S'haar looked to Angela, her eyes wide with fear. "How long do we have before the cold hits?

Angela was still looking off into empty space. It was as though she was listening to a distant conversation. "Well, it looks like it's going to hit in two waves. This evening the temperature will drop about ten degrees further than we've seen recently and then plateau and stay steady through the night. Then a second cold front will hit roughly around noon, the temperature will continue falling the rest of the day and well into the night. What's worse is the fact that I'm not sure how long this is going to last. I'd need some sort of weather satellite to give a reasonable estimate, and that's simply beyond our grasp at the moment."

S'haar's ears pulled back slightly as she bared her teeth at the prospect. "It's a deep freeze then. We haven't seen one of those in years. I need to go speak to the workers immediately. Em'brel, you and Angela work out a plan for what to do if it gets too cold or lasts too long, and we have to bring the workers inside the caves or even into our home."

Em'brel's expression had been starting to shift to a look of panic, but S'haar's quick assessment and decisions were enough to refocus her mind and bring her back to the here and now. "Uh, yes. We'll need sleeping arrangements and something to keep people's minds off trouble or boredom. The last thing we'd need is some kind of fight breaking out because of high stress..."

Em'brel was off in her own little world, thinking as she walked out of the room. S'haar gave Jack's hands one last squeeze. "I've got to go take care of some things. I'll be back." Then she stood up and brushed herself off as she thought while walking.

Angela looked uncharacteristically stoic as she floated beside S'haar. "So you've encountered events like this before? How long do they usually last?"

"If we're lucky days." S'haar's expression made it clear she wasn't feeling particularly lucky.

The AI seemed almost too afraid to probe further but persisted regardless. "And if we're not lucky?"

S'haar stopped and thought back to the last deep freeze she'd encountered while in the guard. They'd lost more than one in ten villagers to the cold that year. She still remembered the pile of bodies they had to burn after the freeze passed. The smell was one she had hoped never to experience again. "Weeks."

S'haar closed her eyes and visibly calmed herself a moment before turning and speaking to Angela. "Do we have a fresh supply of heating packs ready? If what you say is accurate, we're going to need to do some preparation work before the real cold hits tomorrow, and it's already going to be dangerously cold tonight while we work."

Angela nodded. "I've always got a backup batch primed in case of an emergency. Now seems like just the occasion I've been preparing for!'

-

After loading up the sled with a fresh batch of packs, S'haar was on her way to the worker's billet. As she approached the mouth of the cave, the wind cut at her face like knives. The heating packs in her coat kept her temperature high enough that she wasn't in any immediate danger of shutting down due to cold, but she knew that long enough exposure would result in frost damage to her extremities.

As she barged into the billet, S'haar saw most of the workers had already headed off to their rooms to get some rest for the next day. The only two left sitting by the campfire were Lon'thul and Tel'ron. They seemed to be playing a popular tavern game involving bone dice, but it was now forgotten as they looked up in surprise at the intrusion.

Lon'thul was just opening his mouth to say something when S'haar cut him off. "We've got a deep freeze coming. It's going to get cold tonight and colder tomorrow. Get everyone up. We need to get some preparations completed before it gets too cold to work!"

Lon'thul froze in shock for just a moment, but Tel'ron started moving as soon as the words 'deep freeze' had left S'haars mouth. Lon'thul's surprise didn't last long, and he was on his feet right behind the other argu'n. The two of them were pounding on the other workers' doors while S'haar unloaded the fresh heating packs into the common area.

At first, everyone had been in various stages of wakefulness, muttering a variety of uncomplimentary phrases directed at those responsible for waking them. However, the sleepiness was rapidly replaced by alertness as S'haar explained the situation.

Fea'en was quick to begin issuing orders to the other workers. "Alright, we've got a stockpile of wood out there. We need to get it cut up into firewood immediately. We have to gather any supplies we'll need and store them in the billet with us. That includes food, water, extra hides, and tools to clear snow." As she listed each item, she pointed to a different worker. As they were picked out, they each got their coats on and ran around in the kind of chaotic order that can only exist when each person knows their task and is highly motivated to get it done as quickly as possible.

As the sun crested the horizon, everyone was struggling to stay on their feet. They'd already done a full day's labor before they'd gotten the news of the deep freeze, and things were further complicated by the icy winds preceding the cold front. Still, this kind of heads up was more than they'd usually get, so they were all determined to make every moment they count.

Even with their heated coats, the workers had to periodically gather around the fire to warm their extremities. As S'haar predicted, the coats prevented their metabolic systems from shutting down due to cold, but no one wanted to lose a limb to frostbite if it could be avoided. At some point in the night, Em'brel showed up to cook a large batch of a hearty stew, and the warming breaks quickly tuned into late-night meal breaks as well.

Eventually, they adopted a rotation where the pair finishing their food would wake and replace the two who'd come in before them to briefly fall asleep sitting by the fire. The two now 'refreshed' workers would find the next pair who'd been out the longest and send them in to get food. It was always easy to spot the pair who'd been out the longest between warming breaks because they were often nearly frozen in place, lethargically staring off into the distance.

The workers had elected to temporarily surrender their rooms for storage, filling them with food, wood, and any other supplies they needed. The area around the cooking fire had been turned into a general living space filled with furs and blankets so everyone could stay as close to the fire as possible. It wasn't the most comfortable or enjoyable of living conditions, but the increased safety of all concerned was more than enough to put an end to any complaints before they began.

Soon enough, everything that could be done had been done, and they'd finished before the second drop in temperature. S'haar gathered all the workers into the common area to speak to them one last time before they all collapsed into slumber for the next day or two.

Looking around at everyone present, S'haar could tell they were all at their limit, so she decided to keep everything brief. "Ok, you all know how bad this can get, but thanks to the early warning the dragon was able to give us, the heated coats that let us work through the night, and the hard work you all put in, we're better prepared for this than we've ever been. We've done all we can. Now we just have to ride it out. If, for some reason, this lasts too long or gets too cold, we can always have everyone fall back into the caves. For now, Em'brel and I will return to rest and speak with the dragon and see what else we can do to ensure everyone's safety, but for once, I think that we'll get through this without any loss of life or limb."

The workers' cheer was surprisingly hearty, given that most of them looked ready to collapse where they stood. Unsurprisingly, Lon'thul cheered the loudest, and everyone took a little encouragement at the exuberance of his youth. When S'haar left them, she noticed how this was the first time she could recall that a deep freeze was met with hope rather than despair.

As S'haar and Em'brel walked back through the cold to the cave, she realized the wind had changed from painful to nearly unbearable. The air felt as if it cut at her lungs, and she resolved to ask Angela what else they could do to make the journey from the cave to the billet less dangerous if it should come to that.

-

Once Angela had detected her two argu'n returning to the ship, she'd bumped up the temperature in the ship. The looks on their faces and the sluggish halting nature of their movements made it apparent just how exhausted they were, and she kept her questions mercifully brief. "Is everyone safe? Were you able to finish your preparations? Is there anything else I can do to help right now?"

The answers came in the form of two assenting grunts and a vague nodding of the head in response to the first two questions. The third question was met with a slightly different grunt that Angela could only interpret as: "Not at the moment, thank you, we need some rest first. We'll talk later." Although she might have read a little more into the grunt than S'haar had actually intended to express.

Em'brel and S'haar both practically sleepwalked into Jack's room and seemed determined to check for themselves that there were no further developments with Jack. Content that Jack still seemed as safe as ever, Em'brel collapsed into S'haars sleeping pad beside the bed. S'haar looked at the girl briefly before shrugging and crawling into bed beside Jack. She didn't have the energy to worry about potential awkwardness, impropriety, or anyone else's opinions. In the blink of an eye, both women were dead to the world. Their dreams became a confusing mess involving Jack, the deep freeze, and an odd combination of regrets of the past and concerns about the future.

-

Jack's arms felt as though they were on fire, and the ledge above him that he was hoping to use as a resting point seemed impossibly far away. As he pulled himself up with his left hand, his grip slipped. There was a heart-wrenching moment where the world seemed to drop out from under him as his stomach jumped up into his throat. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Jack analyzed every surface in front of him. Not seeing anything he could save himself with, he closed his eyes and threw his hands forward in desperation as the distance between his chest and the rock wall turned into an inch, then a couple of inches, and far too quickly several inches.

His movent was suddenly arrested as he found a grip that he hadn't seen a moment ago. Opening his eyes slowly, he was surprised to see a perfect handhold that he could swear hadn't been there before. He closed his eyes and told himself to stop worrying about impossible handholds and instead to focus on getting to that ledge.

It was weird. Jack felt no heartbeat in this place, but he could still feel a surge of adrenaline following his near-death experience. Again not wanting to waste energy on unnecessary questions, Jack reached up to the next handhold and pulled himself up.

Before long, Jack was catching his breath on the ledge. A while ago he'd stopped wondering about needing to breathe even though he didn't have a heartbeat. He was starting to suspect it had something to do with his own established expectations. That thought led him to consider another thing that seemed off about this place. In hindsight, all his experiences seemed to have passed impossibly quickly, but time seemed to slow to a crawl while experiencing the moment. Throughout his journey, Jack had never stopped to eat, drink, or sleep. It was almost as if the rules of this place only half-heartedly followed the rules of reality. Or perhaps more accurately, Jack's reality.

Jack shrugged and put the concerns out of his mind. Whether this was a dream or a delusion, trying to understand this place would only be an effort in futility needlessly slowing him down.

As he looked up, Jack noticed the top of the mountain seemed just as far as it had appeared at the start of his climb hours ago. Or had it been days now? Shaking his head to keep himself from getting lost, contemplating the fuzzy nature of time here, Jack decided he needed to get an idea of how much progress he'd made so far.

Despite his better judgment, Jack carefully looked over the side of the ledge to see how far he'd climbed. Preparing himself for a dizzying drop into infinity, he was surprised when he saw the ground only about ten feet below him. Somehow, despite climbing from one ledge to another, over and over for hours and/or days, he'd made absolutely no progress.

Jack felt the last of his hope flush out of him. This was clearly impossible. He'd never reach the summit. He closed his eyes and rested his head against the mountain wall, and just stood there for a while, letting the despair wash over him.

Tears of frustration started to sting the corners of his eyes, and Jack screamed in defiance as he punched the wall. Over and over, he slammed his fist against the wall. In his fury, Jack began to tear at the wall. It crumbled under his hands as though it had been made of cheap plaster. He spent several minutes flinging chunks behind him as he attacked the wall in a rage, but when he opened his eyes, the wall was still whole and unblemished.

Looking around himself, Jack shouted into the empty space. "You think this is funny? Or do you expect me to just give up? Well, too bad! Apparently, I don't get hungry, and I don't feel thirst, so I can climb this stupid mountain for eternity if need be! So screw you and your stupid games! I'm going to reach the summit, and nothing and no one is going to stop me!"

Putting action to words, Jack grabbed the next handhold and lifted himself up. Maybe it was his rage fueling him, or perhaps it was the weird physics of this place, or just maybe, whatever had been playing games with him gave up. Whatever it was, Jack noticed his climb was now going much easier than it had before. He seemed lighter, all the pain was gone from his limbs, and hand and footholds seemed to appear wherever he places his limbs. When he reached the next ledge, Jack looked down again, but he appeared to be miles above the ground this time. With a satisfied grunt, Jack turned back to the mountain and resumed his climb.

-

S'haar woke in the middle of the night to hear Jack muttering to himself. "Hold on... ... I'm coming..."

She reached out and grabbed hold of Jack, drawing him into an embrace. She sleepily muttered in reply. "Well, hurry up, we're waiting for you...I'm waiting for you."

As S'haar fall back to sleep, she could have sworn to herself she saw Jack's mouth almost imperceptibly twitch into the slightest of smiles.