By this point, it has become apparent that my update schedule is full of holes. Sadly, that seems unlikely to change for a little while. I apologize to everyone who is reading, but things are unlikely to improve in the near future. Especially at the end of August since I'm going to be moving during that time. I just wanted to give fair warning that my update schedule is going to have to be changed from Thursday/Friday to 'whenever I can' and to ensure that, even if I don't update for a while, I have no intention of dropping this story. I have everything planned out so I'm going to see it through to the end.

Disclaimer: That aside, I still don't own Don't Starve or any of the characters

Head spinning, body aching, and stomach threatening to spill over, Wendy groaned in discomfort. The flooring beneath her was painfully bumpy, feeling suspiciously like a pile of rocks. And by suspiciously, she meant exactly. A blast of jagged wind whipped across her face, prompting her to force one eye open.

A dusty barren landscape lay in front of her. The ground was largely stone with a few dustings of soil being blown around by the wind. In addition to that, it was sickeningly hot out. The first world they'd been forced to run through had been humid, but this one was sweltering. The sun beat down on her head with merciless consistency and stole away every drop of condensation.

It was strange though. She didn't recall them having traveled to another world. The last thing she remembered was being surrounded by snow and running. She'd been frightened of something. Vague shapes of glowering eyes and towering figures danced at the edges of her mind. There was running… a cliff… and something else.

Cold.

Realization hit Wendy so hard that her head started spinning. Darting upright, a surge of borderline panic raced through her system.

She'd been lost in the freezing weather, at the mercy of the landscape in the dead of the night. Just thinking back, she was able to recall the dread which had steadily given way to a kind of chilling emptiness as the frigid air seeped into her being.

But how had she gotten here? Her mind was distantly aware of having taken shelter in a cave at some point, but there was nothing beyond that. Was this some other trick of Maxwell's twisted worlds?

A sudden echoing voice snapped her out of her questioning state. Before she'd had time to register where the noise had come from Abigail was swirling around her at dizzying speed, her spectral eyes alight with both worry and relief.

Coming to a halt in front of Wendy, she paused long enough to wrap two incorporeal limbs around the surprised blonde's shoulders.

"It's all right Abigail…" She assured, unconsciously returning the gesture in an awkward manor due to being unable to hug anything physical. "I'm fine, see? Please, hold on for a moment. Where are we? What happened?"

"Wendy!"

For the second time in as many minutes, the girl was caught off guard by an unexpected voice. She turned in time to see Willow rush to her side and wrap her in another, significantly more suffocating, embrace.

"Thank god you're all right!" She exclaimed, not seeming to notice the way Wendy tried to wriggle out of her grasp. "Do you have any idea how worried we were!? What were you thinking!? When we found you and Wilson we thought…"

With a final twist, Wendy managed to escape from the invasive gesture. She coughed lightly, taking a moment to regain her composure before facing the concerned fire starter. When she did it was with an expression of sincere apology.

"I'm sorry if I frightened you." She offered. In truth, she hadn't been thinking enough at the time to even really register what the others might think about her actions. "But… I had to do something to stop that… that thing before someone else got hurt. I- wait, did you say Wilson? What happened to Wilson?"

Looking over the young woman's shoulder, she caught a glimpse of the others. Wolfgang was working to help the scientist to his feet. He looked just as dazed as she felt, blinking vacantly while observing everything with a slackened look on his face. At least, until he saw her.

"Wendy!"

Without pausing to properly get his bearings, he darted over to her side with obvious intent.

"That's enough!" She hastily shouted, sounding far shriller than she'd intended. The threat of having her personal space violated so many times in such short order did little to help her mood. "Will someone please tell me what's going on?"

"It's not that hard to figure out if you'd bother to pay attention."

With a start, all five pairs of eyes all spun around to face the uninvited guest. Maxwell, regal as ever, stood a short distance away. His gaze fixed them all on the spot as a sharp frown cut across his features. The coat he'd worn earlier was gone, but his pique was even stronger than before.

"You should be very pleased with yourself little girl." He offered, making a sarcastic bow. "Very few people live past an encounter with the deerclops, much less kill one. Though in all fairness I suppose gravity did most of the work."

Before any of them could remark on his comment, he turned and jabbed an accusing finger towards Wilson causing him to jump at the attention.

"As for you." Maxwell snarled, glaring daggers. "I ought to have your limbs removed for what you did to Charlie! If you want to start making fancy blades that's your time, but don't you dare start using them against her!"

The sight of genuine anger on their normally condescending host caused the group to lapse into silence. The puppet master drew himself up after a moment, taking a breath to calm his nerves as patted down the wrinkles in his clothing. Before anyone could think to ask him to clarify what a 'Charlie' was, he went on.

"Well, if nothing else you lot have managed to survive another world." He commented, taking on an expression of mild disinterest. "No need to worry about the lingering effects of hypothermic shock. The rules prevent things like that from carrying over. However, this little test should be a nice change of pace from what you're used to."

A small, almost predatory smile fixed itself on his face as he gestured to the nearly-barren wasteland around them.

"I'm quite proud of this one actually." Maxwell remarked. "The first two were nice, don't get me wrong, but this one has an actual twist to it. Previously, you're only goal was to survive and follow that little noise box of yours. Speaking of which, you might want to look down."

Too off balance to do anything else, Wilson obeyed the suggestion and turned his gaze to the ground. Lying between himself and Wolfgang was the divining rod which had been left behind after their camp had been attacked.

"You'll want to keep a hold of that. Consider it an unfair advantage." Maxwell said with a conspiratorial wink. "As I was saying, this place is a bit different. You're on a clock. If you look around, you'll find next to no natural resources whatsoever. That isn't merely an unfortunate starting position. There are little pickings to be had. Since you've just come from somewhere with very little food, the rules dictate that you need to be given some supplies. But when those are gone you're out of luck."

"Is rules now?" Wolfgang questioned, scratching the side of his crown in confusion. "I not see rulebook anywhere. How is supposed to follow them?"

Maxwell chuckled, shaking his head at the simplicity of the question.

"No need to worry, you don't have to bother learning the rules." He said. "That's for me to concern myself with. All you need to focus on is getting through this one as quickly as possible. Not that it's that simple of course…"

At this point, he turned his back to the group and his image began to fade.

"You stand at the entrance to the gauntlet. It's a good thing that the lot of you have picked up some new toys along the way, because you're going to need every bit of muscle you can muster."

"I has ALL muscle!" Wolfgang shouted as he disappeared into thin air like he had so many times before. "I is pure muscle! Little world cannot stand before amount of muscle I have! You wait tiny man, I give many punches when I find you!"

Aside from the strongman's continued declarations of might, no sound came from the survivors. Wendy didn't know what to think. She'd been sure that there would be no more hope of escaping after the bitter cold had begun seeping into her body. How the others had managed to not only find her, but find the exit in time as well was something she hadn't thought to be possible on such short notice.

She started to move forwards in order to retrieve the divining rod only to draw back when her foot hit something. Looking down, she was surprised to find that three large chests had appeared from seemingly nowhere in their midst. Each one was filled to the brim with all manner of foodstuffs.

For several moments, none of them spoke. It was Willow who eventually broke the silence.

"Well, I still have enough supplies with me from earlier to get us a decent fire." She said. "How about we cook some of this up and fill each other in on what happened back there. I'm still missing some details and I can imagine you are also."

A chorus of affirmative noises, or in Wolfgang's case the sound of drooling, answered her suggestion.

"Those didn't last long, did they?" Willow asked, peering down at the remaining food items from their initial piles. The boxes had looked like they'd be enough to keep the group going days on end, but looks had been deceiving. Of the three chests, only a third of the last one still held anything edible. Her fire had already burned down to embers, having served its purpose admirably by cooking up the best meal they'd had since entering the door for the second time.

Wolfgang let out an obnoxiously loud belch before leaning back with a massive grin on his face.

"Is more like it!" He declared, using a fingernail to pick out leftovers from between his teeth.

In a startling, and highly disturbing, turn of events, the strongman had regained an absurd amount of mass during the feast. The only thing that kept the others from being perturbed by his growth was their engrossment in hearing each other's stories. By the time they'd all finished eating, everything from Wendy's flight in the night and Wilson's possessed knife and duel with the monster had been shared.

Willow had the less glorious story of dragging around a half-conscious Wolfgang who had decided that reciting poorly pronounced limericks was the best way to help things along.

Wilson stared up at the sky silently. He hadn't said much other than to explain what had happened on his end since they'd started talking. Deciding that she'd had enough of his distant presence, Willow elbowed him in the side.

"So when do you plan on catching up to the rest of us?" She joked, trying to make light of the situation. "Wolfgang took on an army of pig-men, Wendy brought down a giant, and you guys keep telling me about how I burned down a bunch of angry trees. What monstrous hoard do you plan on facing?"

The scientist grimaced as though he'd bitten into something foul.

"It isn't funny you know." He said somberly, casting a sidelong glance at Wendy who was in turn whispering something to her spectral sister. "That was far too close. If things had gone even slightly different, we might have…"

Pursing her lips, the fire starter gave him another shove.

"You say it like we've never almost died before." She said, still trying her best to raise his spirits. "Besides, Wendy's a tough kid. Tougher than she looks for sure. She was surviving for a fair bit before we even met her, remember?"

Her words seemed to have the opposite effect, causing him to shudder.

"That's not the point." Wilson stated, shaking his head. "We got lucky Willow. Extremely lucky. I stumbled across the cave she was hiding in by accident, and it just so happened to contain the doorway. That kind of thing doesn't happen more than once. If we end up in a situation like that again…"

She was silent for a little while after that. There was really nothing to say to it. He was right. The odds of them happening across the door by accident were astronomically small. Even so, she wasn't about to let it kill what morale they had left.

"Then we won't let it happen again." She declared, earning a questioning glance from him. "We'll stick together and do things right. Now get up. We're burning daylight, and not the good kind of burning."

Not bothering to wait for any sign of acceptance, she reached down and grabbed him by the front of his red vest. One forceful yank was enough to pull him up to his feet. He stumbled at the sudden movement, letting out a startled noise.

"What are you doing?" He demanded, watching as she did the same thing with both Wendy and Wolfgang.

"Maxwell said we're on a clock didn't he?" She asked. "He also said we had something hunting us in the last world and everyone knows how that turned out. I'm starting to think that his warnings might be more than just an attempt to scare us. I vote that we get underway as soon as possible so that we won't have to deal with any nasty surprises this time around."

She wasn't about to let him get bogged down in worry. If he wasn't going to lead them forwards, then she'd do it herself. Wilson looked as though he were about to protest, but she cut him off with a wave of her hand.

"I wasn't asking for your opinion." She stated. "I happen to run a dictatorship, not a democracy. When I'm in charge, what I say goes. You got it?"

Once again, she didn't wait for any reply before turning on her heel and striding forwards without hesitation. The others all exchanged looks.

"Uh… Willow…?" The scientist called, causing her to pause. "Shouldn't we pack up the remaining food first?"

She was thankful that she was facing the opposite direction so that nobody could see the red that had encompassed her face.

"Fine." She said curtly, tapping her foot as though he were pointing out something unimportant and inconvenient. "But be quick about it. Once everything's packed up, we're heading out. No excuses."

No less than thirty minutes later the group was under way and moving. Willow kept them going at a brisk walk. Enough for them to get a bit winded, but not enough for them to need a rest any time soon.

For the most part, the landscape changed very little. Rocks and dirt on the left. Barren wastes on the right. Nothing of any particular note stuck out to them until they'd been walking for a little over an hour.

"Why is world get smaller?" Wolfgang questioned suddenly, peering off into the distance. Willow, who'd been paying more attention to the low droning of the divining rod than the surroundings, looked up momentarily to see what had caught his eye. What she saw stopped her dead in her tracks.

While his question hadn't been phrased very well, it had been accurate in its intent. The world was in fact getting smaller.

No less than ten minutes earlier, she'd been able to look in either direction and see the dry desert-like area as far as the horizon. Now, to the left and right the land stretched outwards for a long while until turning sharply downwards into a murky ocean. The others also looked up in surprise, having just now noticed the phenomenon.

"We're being herded…" Wendy remarked, looking slowly from side to side. "Our path is narrowing into a single direction."

Wilson put his hand up to his mouth, staring intently at their problem.

"I don't like this." He said. "Something doesn't feel right. What did Maxwell call this? A gauntlet? If the way forwards is being limited, then it probably isn't by accident."

Willow nodded, distantly aware of the hairs standing up on the back of her neck. For now, they had no other choice but to push forwards. She only prayed that they'd find somewhere more agreeable before nightfall. She hadn't thought to break down the chests for wood and there were no trees in sight to start a fire with from what she could see.

Another hour of walking and their situation hadn't improved in the slightest. The slight change in pitch from the divining rod assured them that they were going the right way, but the land itself had shrunk drastically. They were now walking along a strip of dirt and rock that expanded for about half a mile on either side. Nobody could tell if it was continuing to close in or not.

"Look! Up ahead!"

Wendy's warning alerted them to a rather drastic change in the layout of the landscape. Up until this point, they'd been striding across a mostly flat area which had only sometimes been interrupted by the odd hill. In the distance however, their path looked very different.

Rocks, boulders, and all manner of rising hills dotted the ground, interspersed with jagged stone outcroppings rising straight up in the air like some kind of ancient monoliths. Even from so far away, the whole thing looked thoroughly uninviting.

As if that wasn't enough, massive dark shapes could occasionally be seen striding between the towering mineral deposits. Every once in a while, a kind of echoing shriek would sound from the quarry, causing each of them to flinch at the harshness of the sound.

All eyes turned to Willow, who'd been the leader of the trek so far.

"Well…" She said, cringing inwardly at the thought of moving through what looked to be a minefield of monsters. "This should be fun…"

Deep in the bowls of his shrouded domain, Maxwell looked down upon his chessboard. All four pawns were located together as expected. Little by little they were moving along several tiles that were each marked with different numbers. He'd been watching their progress with interest for a long while now.

One development in particular was running through his mind.

Shifting slightly upon his massive throne, he let out a weary sigh. The image of Wilson's knife turning into… whatever the heck it had turned into kept playing out in his head.

"Amateurish to need a catalyst." He remarked to nobody in particular. "But you get points for trying. Haven't seen anyone pull out a shadow set since… well… me."

There was no doubt about it now. He'd chosen correctly. Now all he needed to do was ensure that his plan remained hidden.

Both from his victims, and from them.