Don't Starve: What This World Has to Offer

by Moonweaver50

"The Reign of Giants will come and go - Shipwrecked will he, we'll never know - When finally, the end of lives - Begins with the fall of five" A world fraying apart from the seams would do anything to save itself. The Host, The Young Heir, The Martyr, The Sister, and the One True Heir. Don't be afraid. This is what is meant to happen. This is what you're meant to be.

78. Chapter 78 Tenacity - Part 4

Chapter 2 of 5

The Game is Afoot

The world was cold and deadly, and that was something that didn't take any special attention to notice. It was something you could tell simply by existing in its space. Stand in one place for too long and numbness starts to creep up your legs, engulf your hands. There was no doubt that frostbite would come easily in a world like this without a source of warmth.

But beneath that, something a bit harder to see, was that the world was also beautiful.

Every inch of every tree was crystallized in the sun, shimmering brightly and winking in the light. Thick-pelted bunnies and chubby birds with matching bluish white coats roamed the landscape, expertly digging into the snow to uncover food after what was likely years of adaptations to surviving in a wintery landscape. True, that left the poor saps without those adaptations floundering for a hold, but not everyone could win. After all, they were the intruders here. Breaking apart the perfect snow and frost with their clumsy footsteps.

It was beautiful enough that Winona couldn't help but mourn the ruined snow that traced her footsteps. She let out a long sigh that puffed into the air and shook out her hands, frowning deeply at the ground behind her.

"Do you see something?" Wilbur asked from her shoulder. The prime ape- he had corrected that real fast- acted as a sort of buffer for the wind. His fur was thin, made to keep cool in tropical heat rather than to keep warm in freezing temperatures, but he did seem to run rather warm, and it was surprisingly helpful to keep her ears from freezing.

To be honest, Winona and Wilson had long since come to the conclusion that Wilbur knew English and refused to speak it. He had given a couple of words before, debunking his previous claim that he was incapable of speaking it at all, but his stubbornness kept a language barrier between them nonetheless. He still seemed uneasy speaking to her, but he was making progress. As it was, his English was surprisingly fluent and his accent- some peculiar thing with inflections on certain consonants and soft rolls on certain vowels- made him sound refined, sophisticated almost.

(She had heard it before. She refused to admit it. She didn't want to think about the way that accent mirrored the vestigial accent that clung to Tyler's words in moments when something else seemed to speak through him. It was separate from his own accent, only the tiniest degree of British pronunciation on certain words, and certainly different from the rough hiss of the spider's voice. It was different, and strange, and exactly like Wilbur's accent.)

Winona shook her head and sighed. Wilbur's tail flicked out, brushing against her face. "Sorry. I've been doing what I can but..."

"I'm not getting anything better," Wilbur muttered. "It's getting late..." She felt the ape shift on her shoulders, looking up at the sky. "It's been days, Winona. I'm really worried."

"He's stronger than he looks," Winona said gently.

"Assuming he even tries to take care of himself."

She couldn't even really argue with that.

It was obvious to anyone with eyes that Tyler was crumbling. Wilbur was doing everything in his power to keep him together, and Winona tried to step in to prevent any incidents with Wilson occurring, but it didn't seem to be helping. Without the support of his companions, Winona couldn't confidently say he would do anything to save himself.

She furiously shook her head. "We'll worry about that if it comes to that!" She proclaimed. "Tonight might be a failure, but that doesn't mean tomorrow will be. We'll find him, Wilbur."

"And then we can smother him in so much attention he'll realize he can't die without someone missing him."

"Exactly right."

With that, the duo turned back, rushing against the setting sun. Wilbur remained quiet, hopping down from her shoulders and bounding forward on his own feet. Winona set her face as she followed him. It had been about a week since they had been dropped here. A week with no sign of their youngest companion or the mysterious hunter William spoke about.

(A mysterious hunter that Wilbur would hear no theories about, especially since the best theories Winona and Wilson had come up with somehow came down to Tyler... or more accurately, Webber. With every conversation, though, Winona saw the desperation grow on Wilbur's face. The confidence started to fade, the fear seemed to rise, and he seemed to be trying to convince himself more than anyone else that neither Tyler nor Webber would actively hunt them.)

They timed their return rather well, as it was only a few minutes before total night. Wilson stayed back to tend to the camp whenever the duo would go out. Wilbur and Winona never invited him due to a fear that if they did find Tyler, he would be too scared of the scientist to come with them, and Wilson never asked to join. It was smarter that way, but Winona couldn't help but be annoyed that Wilson didn't seem concerned.

He looked up at them as their footsteps became audible, but only spoke when they were close enough to speak without raising his voice. "Nothing?"

"Absolutely nothing," Winona sighed, collapsing to her knees in front of the fire. She stretched her arms out towards the warmth, allowing the fire to sooth at least some of her worries. Wilson was roasting something over it, one of the meats William had dropped them when he had appeared a few days ago. "There's only so far we can look in a day, and we've gone just about every direction now. There's no sign of him at all."

Wilbur added his own words to the conversation, but they were nothing more than babbled animal speech to their ears. He wouldn't speak English in front of Wilson still.

"Well..." Wilson said after a moment. "That... could be a good thing?"

Wilbur's glare was so intense Winona was surprised he didn't immediately lunge at the scientist. Wilson held his hands up innocently.

"Don't look at me like that! I'm just saying, if we're being hunted down by a mad angry spider, I'd rather stay far away from it as long as possible!"

"Drop it, Wilson." Winona waved one of her hands out and shot him a look. He smartly clapped his mouth shut and focused back on the fire. "There's nothing more on that front and you're just going to make Wilbur angry if you keep talking about it, so let's switch our focus on how we plan on advancing."

"Oh! I've thought about that extensively!" Wilson noticeably perked up. "See, so it was like there was a key last time, right? Not a physical key, but... you know." He waved his hands in a vague motion, as if trying to express his thoughts through interpretive dance instead of words.

"An emotional one," Winona filled in.

"Yeah! It sort of clicked into place when Webber- er, Tyler-" He eyed Wilbur wearily. "Said something about learning integrity and how it helped turn him into a king. If this world is anything like the last one, that means there's a similar key here, too!"

"One that we need Tyler for," Winona concluded with a grimace. Wilson's face immediately fell into a thoughtful frown.

"Mm, possibly true. Nobody said it had to be unlocked through him though."

"I feel like it was implied."

"Unless there's something for each of us to unlock."

"I don't think that's likely," Winona said. "I feel the rest of our roles are just things that describe either us or something that happened to us."

Wilbur made an affirmative noise.

"He's the only one that still has something to live up to. Something to... learn I guess? Listen, Wilson, even if that wasn't the case and it's something related to each of us, we still need to find Tyler. We're not leaving him behind."

"Nooo," Wilson said after a moment, dragging the word out. "But if we had to-"

"What happened to you?" Winona interrupted as Wilbur bared his teeth. "When I first met you, you were a lot more caring to him than you are now. Now you can't seem to decide whether or not you even like Tyler. What happened between you two to make you even think about leaving him behind?"

Something fell over Wilson's face. A strange mixture of resignation and anger, like he felt both horribly guilty about something and absolutely enraged by that same thing.

"You seem to forget," Wilson said in a deathly quiet voice. "Who cut his eye out."

Winona had to lurch forward to grab Wilbur's shoulders as the prime ape lunged. She pulled him back before he could actually attack Wilson, but the wild cries of rage erupting from his chest got the point across well enough. Wilson didn't even seem phased. He simply watched Wilbur with a sort of empty look in his eye.

"I know what happened," Winona huffed, breathless after the minor scramble. "But you always said-"

"Then think about it for a moment!" He shouted. The scientist jumped to his feet and Winona rose to meet him. He thumped one hand against his chest. "I am the Host. The. Host. Do you expect someone who is the Host of Nightmare to be able to care about the one Nightmare wants to kill?"

"So you're just a slave to Nightmare now?"

"No!" He protested. "I- gah!" He threw his hands up in frustration. "I don't know, okay!? Maybe I am! But what makes me any different from Webber in that aspect? You can't feel bad for him and be angry at me for the same reason!"

"You're a grown man, Wilson! Have you forgotten that Tyler is a child? You were already an adult before he was even alive."

"It doesn't matter what he is physically. I'm surprised you can look at the way he acts and still think of him as just a child. He is all but an adult at this point."

"Every kid tries to act like they're older than they really are! It doesn't matter! He. Is. A. Child!"

For a moment, Wilson was silent. Then, laughter bubbled up in his chest. Winona gritted her teeth as the scientist started to laugh hysterically, clutching his stomach as if struggling to catch his breath. "He was right! You two are delusional!"

Wilbur tensed again, forcing Winona to tighten her grip on his shoulder to prevent him from moving.

"Winona, let me put this in a way that you'll understand." Wilson finally seemed to get a hold of his laughter, but little bursts of giggles still shook his chest from time to time. "The kid you know as Tyler is dead. He has been dead for years. What exists now is a hybridization of a human's mind- not necessarily a child's- and a predator. A predator."

"What makes you think that?" Winona growled.

"He told me himself." Wilson's eyes hardened, his previous amusement melting away like mist. "Do you know what else he told me? He told me that you and Wilbur have never seen him for who he really is. You don't think of Webber as just a child. You think of him as Charlie."

Winona stumbled back from the accusation. It cut deep, as if Wilson had thrown knives at her instead of words. An all-consuming ache suddenly constricted her chest at the thought of her little sister. How she'd done everything to protect her. How everything wasn't enough to save her. "What- I- no-"

"In fact, Wilbur is just as bad." He flung an accusing hand towards the prime ape. "But guess what? He's not your sister, Winona. And Wilbur, he's not your daughter."

"That's ENOUGH Wilson!" Winona shouted.

Wilbur was shaking now beneath Winona's hold, but the steely look in his eye betrayed the rage coursing through his veins. She squeezed her eyes shut and counted to ten in an attempt to force her muscles to relax. Emotions bubbled in her chest, but she had no clue whether it was sobs or laughter she was choking back. After a couple of deep breaths, she opened her eyes again to gaze upon the scientist.

"Fine," she said softly. "Believe what you want. Do what you want. I'm going to go find him. If you don't want any part in that, then good for you. But I would do anything for my family, no matter if we're related by blood or not."

"He's not your family," Wilson responded lowly. He was no longer shouting, but his voice carried well enough.

"He's not Charlie," Winona corrected as Wilbur jumped onto her shoulders. "And he's not Wilbur's daughter." She steadied herself and made sure that Wilbur wasn't about to fall before finishing her thought. "But that doesn't mean he's not our family."

Wilson didn't argue that point, but he seemed disappointed in the conclusion. He sighed and shook his head. For his own sake, it was a good thing he didn't argue the point any further.

It was still below freezing, dangerous territory for anyone to be out in, but Winona was warmed by her rage and the fuzzy prime ape settled on her shoulders. He said nothing for a long moment, even after they were a good distance away from camp, and when he did speak, his voice was small and hurt. "Do you think he had a point...?"

"Absolutely not," Winona responded immediately. "He's wrong about this, full stop."

"What if he's right, though? What if we're only so worried about Tyler because we... I dunno... we fill someone else into his position?" Winona didn't immediately respond, so Wilbur continued. "I would do anything for Elizabeth, Winona. I miss her so much I can barely stand it. And I'm so, so worried about her! Nightmare threatened to kill her. It said that if I didn't kill Tyler, it would kill her." He physically drooped, his weight shifting on the woman's shoulders. "I don't know if she's okay. I will never be able to know. What if I just feel like such a failure that I would trade her for anyone else, just so I don't feel like I'm failing my child? What if I really am that bad?"

"If you don't mind me asking... what happened to your daughter?"

"I'll answer that if you answer a question of mine."

Winona hesitated, but ultimately nodded.

"Why did you ask if we thought you were a bad person?"

The question was not one she was expecting, but the last she wanted to hear. She flushed slightly and looked down at her feet. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"The other day. You said that someone was always warning you that you would get yourself in trouble by chasing down the leads about Charlie, then you asked if we thought you were a bad person for it. I haven't been able to get it off my mind."

"You want the truth?" She hated the way her voice cracked when she asked the question. It was such a stupid thing.

"I would like the truth, yes."

She took a deep breath, then squared her shoulders defiantly. Fully prepared to face ridicule and disdain. Really, she had never said it out loud, and especially not to someone she didn't already know and deeply trust to keep her secret. "Back home," Winona started slowly. "I have a girlfriend."

Wilbur didn't say anything for a long moment. Every second he was quiet, she felt her resolve crumble more and more. Then, after a solid twenty seconds, he said: "And?"

"And?" She repeated incredulously. What?

"What about her? Did something happen between you two?"

She blinked several times. She expected the prime ape to find disgust in the notion, perhaps even anger or hatred. Instead, he acted as if she was simply talking about the weather. "I- what?"

Wilbur leaned forward and squinted at her from the side of his eyes. "You've totally lost me."

"You're... not upset about that?"

"Not really. Good for you. Takes some people four thousand years to find their mate. You're doing better than I was at your age."

The sheer nonchalance was a very welcome surprise. She had never experienced someone taking that news with such calm detachment. People like her had to hide themselves in plain sight just to live a decent life. People like her were disowned from families and friend groups, called insults and slurs, and Wilbur didn't seem bothered at all?

"Whoa, hey, are you crying? Did I say something wrong?" Wilbur shifted so much that Winona nearly toppled under his weight. She rubbed furiously at her eyes and laughed roughly. Who would've thought that Wilbur would be the most understanding individual about this sort of thing? Was it because he was a native? She almost wished Scarlet would've been able to meet the prime ape now. They probably would've made friends incredibly quickly.

"No, not at all. I just wasn't expecting your reaction. Where I'm from, a lot of people see that as... an issue."

"Dumb." He shook his head. "Well, you're in our territory now, and my law states that females are pretty and no criticism is allowed."

"What about your daughter?" Winona asked. "You said you'd tell me about her if I explained that."

"Oh. Hmm." He settled again, his tail hanging limply from her shoulders. "Gonna be honest, I'm about to tell you this story in the most brief way possible because I'd like to not start crying if that's alright." Winona winced as his claws dug into her skin a little. "I used to be one of the bad guys. Found out I didn't like it very much, Nightmare got mad, killed my mate and hid my daughter away when she was only a few months old."

Winona frowned, suddenly feeling quite out of her league. He said it in a single breath as if unwilling to linger on any of the thoughts, so she wasn't exactly sure how to respond to it. "I'm... I'm really sorry to hear that," she settled on. Understatement of the century.

"It's been many years," Wilbur responded with a sigh. "She's an adult now. I... I thought I met her again at some point, but I can't... remember." He frowned. "I just... I really feel like I failed her. I failed her and Roselyn."

"That is far from failing anyone," Winona argued. "Nightmare did all of that. Not you. You nothing wrong."

He twitched at that, but didn't respond. She couldn't help but wonder if he simply didn't believe her or if there was still more to the story than he was sharing. Either way, it was clear the prime ape had deeply loved his family and couldn't have done anything about their fates.

By now, Winona realized, it was starting to get dark. Snowflakes were beginning to fall from the sky, wavering in the air for a moment before settling on her hair and Wilbur's fur. He winced as one landed on the bare skin of his face. There wasn't any real discussion between the two about it, no real moment where they decided to camp out for the night. Wilbur simply jumped off of her shoulder at one point, nodding towards a thick patch of brush with a hollow center.

"That looks like the best shelter I've seen in months," she said wryly. He puffed an amused snort through his nose and started work on building up a fire. It was honestly entrancing watching him work, surprisingly nimble and quick for what you would expect from an animal. His years of practice was clear to see, and before Winona even had the chance to argue against lighting a fire in such dense foliage he already had embers working their way through dry needles and leaves.

He must have noticed her expression, though, because he quirked his tail one way and explained: "It's too wet for it to catch on anything else. We'll be fine."

It was easy to take his word for it, although that was probably because the warmth of the flames he was creating was enough to dispel any doubts. She reached towards the flames, letting the soft heat thaw her frozen fingers.

"What was her name?" Wilbur asked after a bit. The brush around them blocked almost all of the frigid wind and held some of the heat from the flames. Winona hadn't felt so warm in ages.

"Huh? Oh, um. Scarlet." She didn't need to ask who he was talking about.

He bobbed his head thoughtfully. "How did you two meet?"

"On the assembly line. She worked right next to me. I heard her talking to her machine one day, just absolutely furious, like 'Dangit, Annabelle, what on Earth are you doing!?' We didn't work with anyone named that, so I had to ask her if that was what she named her machine. I've never seen anyone look so stubborn in my life. She told me 'Yup, and there's nothing you can do about it.' Told her I didn't plan on doing anything about it. I told her about my own machine, Sasha." Winona leaned back and tilted her head up, gazing at the sky through leafless foliage. "It's silly. I don't know. It just kind of evolved from there."

Wilbur chuckled and shook his head. When Winona looked back at him, he caught her gaze.

"Roselyn rescued me from a dragoon's lair in a volcano," he said. "I guess I wasn't the kind of prey they were looking for, so when they caught me, they put me in a cage and basically toyed with me. Nothing terrible, but it wasn't like they were feeding me. I probably would've starved to death or burned to death in that dang volcano, but then she appeared out of nowhere. Beat the absolute snot out of those jerks and freed me from the volcano. Made quite an impression." He winked.

"Hmm. Your story is a lot more impactful."

"On the contrary, bonding over your silly quirks is the most wholesome thing I've ever heard."

They both laughed, but Winona sobered up after only a moment. "You never told me how you knew Charlie."

"Partners in crime," he said with a smirk, although there was something sad in it. Or maybe more wistful? "I'm gonna be perfectly honest. If it weren't for her, there's a good chance I wouldn't be here today. She... tried to stop Nightmare when I betrayed them. She did everything she could. She's just not strong enough to fight it off. But even then, she was the only thing that stopped my self-destructive spiral. She has a good heart, Winona. And, from what it seems like, she's been taking pretty good care of Tyler's brother since..."

"WX-78," she agreed sadly. "I'm glad to hear that. I didn't know them for very long, but they had such a soft spot for Tyler."

Wilbur nodded in solemn agreement.

Their conversation mostly ended there, with anything added being nothing of consequence. The makeshift shelter was warm enough that eventually, Wilbur started to nod off. He seemed to be fighting it, sitting upright and keeping an eye on the fire, but it was clear it was an uphill battle.

Winona didn't have that luxury. In fact, she was wide awake. She couldn't stop fidgeting, even in the comforting warmth of the flames. She considered trying to get some sleep, but honestly, they didn't have too much room in their shelter, and the thought of accidentally rolling into the fire was enough to dissuade that thought.

So, after some time, she decided she needed to move. As she stirred, Wilbur snapped back into awareness from his drifting, blinking sleepily at her. "Whatcha doing?"

"Can't sit still. I just wanna do some scouting and make sure everything's good," she assured him. "I'll be back."

He hummed in acknowledgment and stretched out, easily filling in the space she was leaving behind. She fashioned a quick light source, something she was getting quite good at at this point, and struck back off into the cold.

After the heat of the fire, it seemed even colder than before. She involuntarily shivered, especially vulnerable since Wilbur wasn't acting as a blanket slung across her shoulders. Still, though, there was something eerily gorgeous about the nighttime like this. In the light of a torch, snow seemed to blink in and out of existence, glinting in the orange light before fading back into the darkness. Many of the trees and twigs were perfectly engulfed in ice.

She had always loved winter as a child. Her father used to make snow forts with her, passing down the ancient knowledge of snowball fights over the course of many years. Ancient knowledge that Winona was sure to pass down to Charlie the second her little sister was old enough to partake in such games. A sort of soft smile appeared on her face as she thought of Charlie as a small child, bundled head to toe in thick coats and scarves and gloves, concealing almost every inch of her except for her eyes. It had been a long time since she had even had something as simple as a coat, let alone the extreme lengths her parents would go through to keep their daughters warm.

Winona drifted on memories of the past, consumed in her own thoughts so deeply that she didn't see the obstacle in front of her until she nearly tripped on it. She stumbled back a few paces and squinted at the object projecting from the snow. It was, for all intents and purposes, a shapeless blob beneath the snowfall. Curiosity struck, and she bent down to brush the snow away to make it out better.

At first, she wasn't she what she was looking at. It was a gray stone slab, about a foot and a half tall, with an engraving on it, simply reading: "Quoth the Tall Bird, Nevermore." Underneath it, there looked to be what was once a name that had long since been scratched out- oh.

It was a gravestone.

The realization hit her like a punch.

That likely meant that all of the other shapeless blobs hidden beneath the snow nearby were also graves, and wow when you think you've found a bit of everything you accidentally stumble into a graveyard.

How many of these graves have bodies in them? Winona felt sick to her stomach. Where had these people come from? Who had dug the graves? Did that mean there was someone in this world who had to bury everyone they knew before dying themselves? Or was someone still alive?

The thoughts could've spiraled further, but they came to an abrupt halt when something caught her attention. The slightest crackle of ice. The faintest creak of weight pressing onto wet snow. Winona quickly took a step away from the grave and shoved the torch in front of her, brandishing it like a weapon. "Who's there?" She demanded into the darkness. The silence that followed was stifling.

Any previous semblance of peace left over from the graveyard discovery vanished in a blink. She didn't see any other light sources yet, so that meant that whatever was out there was either friends with the dark, or hidden well enough to prevent any light from sneaking through. She stood as still as possible, keeping her limbs rigid even as she started to feel colder and colder.

Think, Winona.

She had no doubt that this was the hunter William had 'warned' about. If she stayed still, she would be able to hear any more sounds that indicated someone was coming closer. She was also a sitting duck for whatever was watching her, and she physically couldn't stay still forever and would likely freeze to death before she could try.

If she moved, the sound of her footsteps would cover up anything other sounds, but she might be able to make it back to Wilbur and the fire before it could get her.

After another moment of silence, another moment of slowly growing colder, she decided she had to risk it.

The second Winona started to run, the creature shot towards her. It wasn't bothering to remain quiet anymore now that it knew it had been found out. Instead, it was rushing her, and only moments after moving, a flash of blue flickered in her vision as it lashed out.

Claws tore into her flesh, carving a gash from her elbow to her wrist with a single attack. Numb as she was from the cold, she barely felt it, but she felt the hot blood weeping from the wound just fine. When it approached again, Winona forced herself to stop on her heel and swing around to face it before it could land another blow.

It was wielding a weapon that glowed in the moonlight, but before she could even think about the implications she was having to defend again. She jumped away from its attack and tried to land her own attack with the torch. It hissed furiously at her, shying away from the light. Winona took an unsteady step back, keeping the torch in front of her, and it matched her step. A low growl rumbled in its throat. A growl that sounded...

Like a spider.

Winona lowered her guard immediately. "Tyler?"

She could see the faintest details of his fur in the glow of the sword, the glimmers of blue light reflecting in his eyes. He wasn't wearing his necklace, but she noted a soft yellow glow on the ground, not too far away. It must've fallen off in the scuffle. And yet, he didn't get any closer to her. Instead, he stayed an unsteady distance away, growling all the while.

Not Tyler, she mentally corrected. "Er... Webber?"

He moved faster than she could hope to fight back. Within the blink of an eye, he lashed out, with the sword this time, and knocked the torch out of her hand. A startled shout escaped Winona's mouth as it spiraled away from her. Any hope she had of retrieving it was gone as the head of the torch was snuffed out almost immediately in the snow.

Then, something smashed into her ribs, sending her sprawling to the ground in the darkness. Webber was standing over her now, his sword forming a line in the snow as it dragged behind him. Water began to seep into her clothing as her body heat melted the snow beneath her.

"Webber- Tyler- whoever it is, it's me! Wilbur and I have been worried sick! We've been looking everywhere for you!"

He didn't seem to care. He lifted the sword high above his head, staring down at Winona with a blank expression in his eyes. It was the light of the sword, however faint, that prevented either of them from being stranded in the dark, but that wasn't helpful when the same sword was about to be used to execute her.

"Let's just- let's ignore that this happened. Put the sword down and I can bring you to our fire and you'll get all the warmth you need. How does that sound? We can figure everything else out later, I just-" Winona's words cut off into a shriek as the sword came plummeting down towards her neck. She instinctively curled to protect her stomach and neck, but with enough force-

Thunk.

Icy slush splashed over her skin as the sword buried itself... into the ground. Only inches away. She remained curled up until she realized what had happened, that she wasn't about to be murdered by a child, but when she finally looked back up he had gone. She heard his footsteps cease only a few paces away, and she knew very well that he was still there. And yet, he wasn't attacking her. Simply watching her.

Winona had to take several deep breaths. Her heart seemed to have jumped into her throat, making the simple act of swallowing a bit of a chore. But she would take being terrified but alive any day over calm and dead.

With every inch of her body shaking in cold and fear, Winona dragged herself back onto her knees. She drew her arms around herself to try to regain body heat, but she was drenched in snowmelt after her fall and still without any other source of warmth. The sword by her side kept her shielded from the dark, but it gave off no heat.

Still, she tried to talk to the predator watching just a few feet away.

"I don't know what happened, or what's going on," she said. She couldn't help but notice that it was hard to speak with the way her jaw seemed frozen together with ice. Even the blood on her arm seemed to have turned cold. "But we can get through this, right? As a team. Just..." Her eyesight was blurring slightly at the edges, and tiredness seemed to cling to her limbs. "Just like we promised. As a family."

The sky was turning lighter. Not by much, but enough that her surroundings were starting to become more noticeable. She remained curled in on herself, speaking out loud to the boy that seemed to be waiting for something. "It's really cold, isn't it?" She breathed. "You've gotta be f-freezing. You're covered in snow and... nhg." Winona lowered her head, breath billowing out in clouds around her face. "Wilbur and I found a really great place for a fire. It's nice and warm. Let's just go back there and get out of this frozen wasteland, okay?" Even with the suggestion, she didn't move.

For the longest time, Tyler/Webber was silent. He simply stared at her, whiskers twitching ever-so-slightly.

He started talking.

At first, she wondered if her hearing had gone out, because she couldn't hear anything he was saying. She would later realize, though, that she couldn't hear him because he was rambling under his breath. A panicked, breathless stream of words that seemed to leave no room for inhales. She looked up at him for the smallest of moments, noting the tight coil of his limbs. He moved towards her, a single shaky step, before falling back again. He shook his head, buried his face in his hands, and growled lowly.

Winona closed her eyes tightly, waiting. There wasn't much else she could do at the moment. She was at his mercy.

Then, something strange happened.

It started as the strangest compulsion to stand. Winona gritted her teeth against it, trying to keep them from chattering, but at some point the pull became too much. She slowly unwrapped her frozen limbs from around herself and pulled herself into a standing position. Realistically, the cold should have been attacking her more fiercely, but it almost seemed to calm down as she moved.

"Fight back," she said calmly. She didn't mean to say it. At no point did she tell herself to say those words. And yet, they came out of her mouth anyway, in her own voice.

Tyler shook his head furiously, claws digging into the fur of his temples.

"Fight. Back," she said again. This time, it wasn't a suggestion. It was a demand.

One of his hands suddenly whipped towards his chest as loud, breathy wheezes escaped from his lungs. He seemed to be in a great deal of pain, which was quite the opposite of what Winona was feeling.

Something was now burning in her chest. Hot, but not uncomfortably so. Something pulsing deep inside her heart that breathed warmth throughout, unlocking her frozen limbs and soothing her shivers. She placed one hand against her chest, but her skin was just as cold as before.

"Don't-" Tyler gasped out. "Don't... want to..."

The ember flickered.

"What would a King do?" She asked quietly.

"I don't know!" He shouted back.

"What would a King do!?"
"I. Don't. KNOW!" Fat tears rose in his eye, rolling down his cheek and cutting a line through the grime that had settled itself in his fur. Winona took a step forward. She wanted to say a million things, to ask a million questions, but her voice didn't work at her command.

"A King would fight," Winona murmured without her direct consent.

He trembled at the sentence. His claws seem to dig further into his skin, his teeth clenching so hard that it looked like they were about to crack. "I..." He muttered. "I... have fought!" The words exploded forth with an energy of their own. He straightened himself and glared Winona in the eye, even as he visibly cried. The ember in her chest responded to his words, growing to a temperature so close to unbearable that she had to bite back a shout of pain.

He gripped his arm with the opposite hand. An orange glow seemed to seep from his chest, buried somewhere beneath the fur, and radiating from his scars. It bathed his face in the same way it had once before, outlining the shape of his pupil and highlighting the fury painted across his face.

"What have you fought for?"

"I've fought for life!" His voice was mean, angry. Driven by rage rather than the stoic calm that had enveloped him last time, but still laced with that familiar accent that reminded her of Wilbur's. "I've fought every second of every day against everything that says I shouldn't be here! I've fought for the right to be loved, the right to have family, the right to exist!"

"What have you fought for?"

"I've..." His momentum seemed to melt away. He lowered his head as if exhausted, his shoulders slumping and his body softening into something tired and weak. "I've fought for my Kingdom," he whispered. "I've fought for my subjects. I've fought for the ability to claim my Throne, because my subjects would not respect a King who has not fought for his place. I've... I've fought for my independence. For the ability to lead my Kingdom as myself, and no one else. Strength above all else." The tears seemed to have stopped, drying into ugly tracks across his face.

Winona moved towards him slowly. Tyler didn't move; he simply let her come right up to him. Swiping his necklace up from where it had fallen during the initial attack, she put it back around his neck and let it rest against his chest. She rested one hand on his shoulder and he leaned into the touch with a shaky sigh.

"What have you shown?" She asked gently.

He blinked up at her with a pained expression. The expression of someone who feels that they've lost no matter what. His answer was pitifully quiet, his voice gentle and young.

"I have shown Tenacity."