The need to struggle back to warmth was so great, and so
immediate, that his mind had no time for despair, or the full
realization of his plight. He shivered, and sucked his aching teeth and
thought of nothing. At length he slept, though fitfully and full of
dark dream.
He woke to find his worst fears come true. He was weak and ill, trapped
in Winter, physically unable to fight for his survival. There was
little food, and now no chance of getting more. The woman-child he
loved, and the pup whose life was now his responsibility, would perish
alongside him. All was ended. He had failed.
But all was not ended. That would have been too simple and absolute.
They still had the reserves, though tapping into them so soon went
against all his instincts, and roused the already powerful voices of
fear inside him. And though to one who has never had to survive,
literally, day to day, these emotions may seem mere words, to Kalus they
were as powerful and menacing as the physical threat of a lion. How
much more of this could his spirit endure? To rise, again and again,
from the decimations of this world, to go on without hope for so long,
never seeing the end of the tunnel.
Because a man who finds the tight-rope of his existence drawn so fine,
the abyss below him so deep and terrifying, can never see the natural
and benevolent forces that may (or may not) come to his aid.
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