39

It's just you and Zhu now, a decidedly diminished group from yesterday. As you struggle on through the snowflake blitzkrieg, you try your best not to think of Stevo lying cold and alone back there, freezing to death, the life leaching out of those puppyish eyes. Leaving him was the sensible thing to do—better one person die than three. But still the image gnaws at you, like the screaming wind that tears through your clothes and freezes you into one endless, numb ache.

After a while, the pass widens again, and you are fully exposed to the elements once more. The wind howls with less fury today, but the snowfall is even more dense. The cold flakes freeze your face and sting your eyes as you press on through the unyielding white.

You look forward to the breaks in the struggle and the monotony when you and Zhu pause to investigate some opening in the valley wall. You scour shallow caves and hollows, always emerging again some time later with nothing achieved.

Are you really going to die up here? It feels increasingly likely as you struggle on, the elements warring against you at every moment. What a way to go! Up here on the roof of the world, chasing the goal of the increasingly unstable Zhu: his madman's chimera, a magic stone from an old legend that may very well not even exist.

Next

You and Zhu come into the warmth of the cave. You march straight up to the soldier who called out to you, who you guess is the officer.

"Welcome, friends!" he says, getting to his feet. And then you chin him, and he falls back down again, motionless.

The other two soldiers jump to their feet, instantly alert. Zhu squares up to the one on the left while you tackle the one on the right.

The soldier is no match for you. He attacks furiously, and you tire him out with a few blocks and dodges. When you see him starting to flag, you go on the attack yourself, pummeling his face with heavy punches. In short order, he crumples to the ground, falling at almost the same moment that Zhu's opponent takes a tumble.

You and Zhu swiftly and efficiently rifle through their belongings. They have a great deal of food; you are able to transfer much of it into your packs, greatly boosting your available supplies.

"A profitable misadventure," notes Zhu. You heft your packs up again and head out once more into the screaming blizzard.

Next

Soon the warm and homey cave the soldiers are occupying is a distant memory, as is their raging fire. You start to feel delirious that afternoon as you slog on with your exhausting task, pushing on through the biting cold. Though you scour crevices, cracks, hollows, and caves, you continue to come up empty-handed.

The sun sets on your fourth day in the pass. Once again you set up camp, this time in the shelter of a rock outcropping close to the right-hand edge of the valley.

Your camp is a cheerless place tonight. You struggle with Zhu to get your tent set up, then prepare your bedroll and sit wordlessly within the shelter, staring at your meager nightly ration of cured meat.