Walking back to took quite some time. The starting blizzard season was not helping at all. But the fact that there is enough meat in my stomach for the travel fills me with a bit of hope. Not enough to smile, but more than needed to continue moving my legs.

If only snow wasn't so deep…

…

Hiding in cave saved me from the night blizzard and death by freezing. Snow bear, the current resident of the cave didn't like my presence, so it became solo apartment quite quick. Also more meat is never extra. And I have time to learn a bit more about anatomy while I am at it.

I just really hope I would not get any gut worms from the amount of raw meat I am eating. At the start I was like “Nope, Nope. Never. It's raw.”. But hunger has quite interesting power to quickly change anyones opinion.

I reach my base the next days evening.

If it can be called a base. A small hut around endless sea of mountains. There aren't even trees around, maybe they could help against the winds.

I open the door and sigh in relief. I am tired and want a bath. First thing I do is take of the torn clothes and start fire in fireplace. I find an old rusty bucket and fill it with snow from outside. After that I put it on the logs in fireplace. While the snow is melting I take off what is left of my clothes and quickly check the state of all cuts and injuries I received during last “mission”. Nothing critical, but it's still better to clean every small cut. When there is nothing except snow you need to get creative, antiseptic it is then. I sigh as I clean the wounds with snow. No basic health-care can make any small cut into the final one…

This should have been the last mission. Only 3 weeks left. 3 weeks.

It takes some time but eventually snow melts into water. I look around the shack that I call base for a clean cloth, and by the time I come back the water is warm enough.

I start wiping my body with cloth. It has been quite some time since I had normal bath. After cleaning myself to the stage where I don't reek like fermented balls of goblin I go to bed.

The corner of the room with few furs is what I call bed. How quick the standards of human fall down…

…

I wake next morning to sun under which millions of lowlifes, assholes and scums live. I dress in whatever I find lying around that doesn't smell like zombie vomit and start moving down the trail to the outpost with one simple goal, report the results to “mayor”.

Oh how I wish my ass had as many hair as the number of every living being in radius of 20 kilometers around this post. Maybe then wiping my ass would be easier.

I was never the heart of party but having a small talk with someone once a week would be great. Loneliness for years can get under skin even for a total loner as me.

Even if I call it a trail it is just a snow covered thin road down the mountain, with barely anything to hold for. One wrong step and down you go. At least some leftover wolf meat will make sure I won't die from hunger on the way there.

…

It's already noon. And I still haven't reached even 1/3 of path. Fucking snow. It takes much more time than it should. Looking down the slope I find a much faster path.

3 weeks. No need to risk.

[But will you survive the night?]

The blizzard will end in a week. But by then, I am already a snow statue. I sigh again. There is no other choice, or at least no other comes to my mind.

Bracing myself for what awaits me, I jump of the cliff. I try to curl into a ball, but at the same time relax my muscles. I start circulating my mana to stop the increasing nausea. But fucking hell, this is not rolling, this shit is closer to basketball. The slope looked so smooth… There is at least 2 meters of snow on top of mountain, so why the HELL does it feel like I am a ping-pong ball in game between two titans. God damn it.

After few minutes I finally start slowing down. Getting up took few attempts, instinctual desire to empty my stomach was stopped by pure willpower alone. That food is mine! And I will not waste energy used to digest my food just because of urge to make Picasso painting on snow.

Looking around I am happy to find that less than quarter of path is left. One leg after another, my ass must be there before the dawn.

...

I finally reach the outpost only because the light in the main hall can be seen from afar, though only because the blizzard is just starting. 30 minutes more and I am not what would have been my fate.

“Couple” of starved wolves halter my travel for quite a bit, fucking scouts. How the hell can they fuck up like that constantly. Wolves few kilometers from outpost. Unbelievable.

Open wooden gates greet me in utter silence. I sigh. I should have gotten used to reliability of people here, but open gates with no guards is a new low.

Outlines of houses are barely visible. Dark clouds block the light even from the biggest of 4 moons. Anyone would have thought that the outpost is empty, but people are inside, most are sleeping, but some are having “fun”.

Main hall light is the only thing that guides me through the dark road. I open the door with small creaking.

Alive, at least for now.