rock wall that Cero had climbed down only a minutes past. Leaving the silent watcher to continue his vigil, he made for the cave. The tragic story was told in the supplies scattered about. Only a few items remained and none of them appeared to be enough to maintain life in a blizzard. A thin layer of snow had blown inside, but for the most part, the cave was clear and sheltered. A few sets of small game traps lay along one wall. A bundle of skins lay against the other wall. Oddly enough, clothes lay scatter through the cave as if in his last minutes, the man had shed everything he wore.
Cero realized that the man had been a trapper that had probably been caught in a storm high in the Garoche. There were ashes remaining from a small fire, but he hadn’t seen anything in the way of fuel since finding himself above ground. No doubt the man had frozen to death when his fire had died out. Urake had once mentioned having heard of people discarding their clothes as they froze to death. An odd quirk of nature as she cruelly mocked her intended victims.
It struck Cero that the solution to several of his problems were there before him. He couldn’t have stomached trying to remove clothes from the dead man, but here they were littering the ground. The furs were a little large, but once the dry snow was shaken out, they performed the function of their design. Digging through the bundles in the cave, he was unable to find anything edible. The meat had once been dried and cured but was now so burnt by the constant freezing temperatures that it was little more than leather. Chewing on one piece yielded nothing except a nasty taste and a worsened desire for actual food.
A howling at the cave entrance brought Cero out to see what was happening. The first snowflakes were already swirling to the ground. He remembered that it was supposed to be summer and hoped that the storm would be the milder for the season. When a gust of wind blew the snow in his face, he decided that it was wiser to stay inside the cave out of the wind. Taking one last look at the grisly sentry, he returned to the cave. The shadow of the mountain united with the thick storm clouds to strangle the last of the day’s light. The cave further reduced the light let inside so before much time had elapsed, Cero found himself in darkness. Pulling out the strange stone, he examined it with his fingers in the dark. It didn’t feel cold like the stone that surrounded him. It must have been warmed in his pocket, or so he thought. Feeling his way to the bundle of furs, he broke the twine and buried himself as best he could in them. Sleep came gradually although it was broken periodically by visions of the watcher sitting outside the cave. A name drifted beyond his grasp, a sense of who the man had been. A few of the dreams had him setting traps out in the perpetual snows. A couple glimpses of hands that weren’t his. Wearing the dead man’s clothes didn’t help the feelings of apprehension.
Chapter Three: Manipulation
Urake stood leaning against the cave entrance with his cloak pulled up warmly around his shoulders watching the cold rain fall outside. A thin curtain of water dripped off the cave roof. Water ran in thin rivulets inside and puddled on the floor in the indents packed into the earth. It had started a few hours ago and looked as if it meant to continue falling for the next few hours at least. The weather had interesting effects on the people he could see. Most were appareled in cured skins soaked in oils for waterproofing although the damp seeped through everything regardless. There was no escaping the water unless one went inside the cave, but even then, there were the spots that dripped and a pervasive damp musty smell was everywhere. In truth there was no real escape. Fortunately, the summer months meant that this weather was not the norm.
Urake really had no problem with the rain and did not share the melancholy spirits that seemed to seize the camp since the onset of the rain. He enjoyed the clean smell the air had after the rain had fallen. Watching the pure randomness of the droplets falling in a puddle