Ooga Booga woke up from a dream the next day, fully believing reality was stranger than fiction.
He had dreamt of a completely normal home, but it was a bitter sweet thing, having had the old memories blend with the new mind.
It left his memories feeling weak, with the emotions it brought up disconnected from the enhanced understanding he now had. When his friends and family communicate, it was hard to feel part of the same group anymore.
Hopefully seeing them in person would have a better reaction, the nature of dreams tend to heighten some emotions while dampening others anyway.
What Ooga Booga also felt, was that his left foot was still exposed to the air, and it was a lot colder than before.
He had to cover the foot in cloth and use the shoe to keep it in place, but he didn't want to sacrifice a part of his mammoth hide, knowing how a single hole could compromise its effectiveness.
His eyes wonder over to the relic, perfectly normal gold colour even after cooking over it with a very bloody rabbit. Its what was laying next to the relic that he needed, the rabbit fur, being the perfect size for wrapping a foot in.
He would have to endure an unwashed but much needed warmer shoe.
The blizzard was calming down already, but still too dangerous to go outside. Ooga Booga estimates later in the afternoon to be safe enough to escape.
So he had some time to kill, and he knew exactly what to do with it.
Ooga Booga got back to cutting out some dust from the glacier, knowing that alone in the wilderness and his emotions being all over the place, he would be a prime target for both Grimm and 'fellow' tribes.
He stored all fire dust he could inside the relic and any other type in his empty hunting pouches, even getting to say good morning to Jinn briefly when opening the lamp.
The time flew by, with Ooga Booga taking stock of rations, even doing some maintenance on his clothes and weapons.
~0~
Peeking out the cave with the relic replacing the rabbit on his hip, he got harsh sunlight reflecting over all the fresh snow directly into his eyes.
Blocking out the worst of it with a hand and escaping to freedom resulted in a much easier to look at landscape, one where he could see the surrounding mountains with a new white coat.
It was pretty apparent that he was thoroughly lost, being surrounded with an unfamiliar mountain range and no recognizable landmarks in sight.
The snow had obviously covered his tracks during the blizzard, so no amount of extra tracking knowledge gained from Jinn would be useful.
Climbing the highest point was his best bet, he couldn't have gone far off from his original hunting grounds.
Using the butt of his spear as a walking stick and extra leverage on slopes, Ooga Booga got to work planning out the path of least resistance as he climbed up the mountain.
His journey started well enough, but later his breath was visible in the cold air as he panted his way up the increasingly steep mountainside.
Reaching a resting point he had set out for himself, a boulder poking out the snow half way up, Ooga Booga takes a moment to catch his breath.
Turning around to lean against the smooth rock was the only reason he saw the Grimm.
Over on the other side of the valley, scurrying down the opposing mountain, was a pack of Stoat grimm with the purest of white fur.
They averaged out with more body mass than an Ursa, but had low and long agile bodies with short legs, a long heavy tail for balance control as well. Making for an almost comical length.
They weren't the fastest grimm out there but were hard to fight, being able to scrunch up and twist the long body whenever you tried to extend a spear. This usually means you over extend and leave yourself wide open for them to dart forward again.
It didn't help that they traveled in packs of around five, and that packs weren't adverse to teaming up either.
Giving Ooga Booga a solid nine opponents that he would honestly prefer never going one on one with, it was possible sure, but it was a lot easier when you had a second spear to keep you safe while taking risky attacks.
Nine of them was out the question, they wouldn't even need to surround him but no doubt would use the cunning pack tactics anyway, just to be overkill.
Time to run.
His best bet would be reaching the top of this mountain before they reached the bottom of the same slope, allowing him to duck down the other side and take evasive maneuvers when out of sight.
Maybe throw them off he was lucky.
Grabbing his spear Ooga Booga got back to climbing immediately.
Every minute he would look back just to be surprised at how much more aggressively they were hunting him. Some were sliding on their stomach and reaching the valley floor stupidly fast.
Something wasn't right, he was pretty sure his emotions weren't that far gone.
But it didn't matter right now, he needed a new plan, they were gaining on him way too fast.
Looking around desperately for some kind of advantage he could exploit resulted in no new ideas, only more distance being closed between him and the large pack of grimm.
Knowing that this wasn't getting him anywhere Ooga Booga pushes forward and up the last of the mountain, having to combat the worst of the very steep and slippery snow.
Just when he was about to reach the top, he had to side skirt around an outcropping of rock holding up some more snow. The terrain was in Ooga Booga's favor for once, it was the best bet for a defensible position if he had ever seen one.
Using some Aura to jump onto it was simple enough but a costly thing to do in such environments, with Aura being your most valuable resource and right before a fight no less.
But that was fine, he had a plan forming, hopefully he wouldn't need to fight them at all.
Carefully placing all his fire dust along a neat little semicircle and mirroring the curve of the outcropping, was his grand strategy.
There was a little hiccup, Ooga Booga couldn't safely trigger it. He needed some kind of delay or maybe a way to throw dust and trigger it once it landed in the soft snow.
His eyes wonder down to his spear, not liking where his train of thought was going... He could throw the spear and hit dust to trigger it, but it would mean losing the spear and then leave him with just a knife as a weapon.
Ooga Booga didn't like it, but that was better than fighting off the Grimm in a certain death scenario.
~0~
He ended up deciding on placing the single biggest electrical dust crystal he had between two of the biggest fire dust crystals, they were set out a few metres apart, hopefully triggering those would chain react to the smaller ones completing the set.
Now was just the part for Ooga Booga to time the defense and actually hit the relatively small target, and hopefully do it from a safe distance as well.
Running over to the outcropping edge and taking a peek at the grimm's progress told him all he needed: that he was taking his sweet time.
Ooga Booga hurried back up the rest of the mountain, it was a short trip, but felt way too long for his liking.
There was a Grimm already trying to separate from the pack and flank the outcropping and Ooga Booga didn't want a single survivor, he would then have to face it without his main weapon after all.
Taking a deep breath and holding it in to steady his aim was a technique passed down the family for generations.
His family was known for being skilled hunters, his grandfathers before him starting the clan they knew today. It technically made him next in line for chief, but that was a burden he didn't have to bare just yet, and a responsibility he wouldn't keep if he died here today.
Releasing built up tension in both aura and muscle made for a strait flight path, hitting true to Ooga Booga's electrical dust target.
It was a mess of explosions, with electricity arching over the nearby dust, performing exactly what he had wanted; The fire dust chain reacted on eachother as well, all to crack the rock under the layer of snow and start a localized avalanche.
Well, he had thought it would be smaller than... This...
A huge part of the mountain started to shift, the fresh snow sheet sliding with each other more easily than packed snow. Resulting in the Grimm not being able to dodge the rocks thanks to being half under snow almost instantly due to the nature of its shifting tide.
If it were only snow, a Grimm wouldn't suffocate nor freeze to death, its regeneration feeds its every organ purely by replacing it with fresh unfrozen flesh.
That was knowledge Ooga Booga partially gained from Jinn, everyone knew you had to hit them in certain spots, but Jinn helpfully supplied what those "cores" were called, and what they actually did that you needed to stop in order to actually kill the creatures.
Luckily, the jagged rocks would be perfect for piercing or even crushing the unarmored heads of these Stoats.
Once he knew for certain they weren't going to climb out the collected snow at the bottom of the mountain, Ooga Booga broke eye contact and looked around.
He was still lost. Somehow.
He had underestimated how far he could travel in a blizzard with Aura, and how a different angle would make mountains look completely different.
Didn't help that snow made it all look the same.
~0~
A/N; so yeah, planning on doing a shorter story apposed to a 1million word saga, because honestly, I want to share the other story ideas I have some time within the decade. XD