The cave fell silent except for the howling wind outside and the distant wailing of the Mist Singers. I watched as Zo's hand found her axe handle, fingers tightening around the worn grip. Sadie's spear was already pointed at Mabel's pale, segmented form extending from my collar.

  "What the actual fuck is that?" Zo hissed, her body tensing.

  Mabel swayed dramatically, extending to her full length, her bone-white segments catching the firelight. "Excuse me? That? I am not a that, thank you very much. I am a fully sentient being of considerable sophistication and—"

  "It's talking," Sadie said, her voice flat but her spear unwavering. "The worm is talking."

  I raised my hands slowly, palms out. "Guys, it's okay. She's with me."

  "WITH you?" Zo's eyes narrowed. "It's coming OUT of your neck, Fish."

  "Yes, and you're being terribly rude about it," Mabel sniffed, coiling slightly to form what she insisted was a dignified posture. "After I've spent days guiding this disaster of a human through the wilderness, saving his life multiple times, I might add—"

  "Mabel," I cut in. "That isn't helping."

  Zo looked between me and the worm, her expression a mix of disgust and fascination. "Mabel? You named the parasite?"

  "I named MYSELF, thank you," Mabel huffed, segments clicking together in irritation. "Unlike some people here, I possess self-awareness and excellent taste."

  Sadie hadn't moved, her spear still aimed directly at Mabel. Her eyes were focused, reading every twitch of my face, searching for signs I wasn't... me anymore.

  "She's part of my Origin," I explained quickly. "She's been with me since my trial. She's not controlling me or anything. She's just... loud."

  "LOUD?" Mabel's front segments flattened in outrage. "WELL I NEVER!"

  Zo didn't lower her axe. "I knew your origin was worms, but I had no idea they could talk."

  "Just the one, thankfully," I said.

  "I am UNIQUE," Mabel corrected. "The others are just drones. Mindless little worker worms. I, however, am clearly the evolutionary pinnacle of—"

  "Fish," Sadie interrupted, her voice quiet but firm. "What happened to you?"

  I took a deep breath. The fire crackled between us, casting long shadows against the cave walls. Outside, the Mist Singers' wailing grew louder.

  "It's a long story," I said. "But I'm still me. I swear it."

  "Prove it," Zo challenged. "Tell me something only Fish would know."

  I thought for a moment. "The first day on the Bridge, you told me I had the survival instincts of a suicidal lemming, and if I broke formation again, you'd feed my balls to a goblin."

  A smile twitched at the corner of Zo's mouth. "And?"

  "And I said I'd rather keep my balls, but I'd consider donating yours if they ever grew back after that cockatrice nearly took them off."

  Zo barked a laugh, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. She didn't lower her axe completely, but the white-knuckled grip relaxed.

  "That sounds like Fish," she admitted.

  "The worm, though," Sadie said, her spear still steady. "Explain, it."

  Mabel swayed indignantly. "I don't need to be explained. I am perfectly capable of—"

  "Mabel," I said firmly. "Let me handle this."

  She huffed but retracted slightly, coiling closer to my neck in what I recognized as her sulking position.

  "My Origin is called Vermis Incarnate," I said. "The worms... they're part of me now. Most of them just do what I tell them. But Mabel, she's different. She's got her own consciousness."

  "And impeccable style," Mabel muttered against my collar.

  "And she's annoying as hell," I added. "But she's helped me survive. She can sense things I can't. She doesn't sleep, so she watches while I rest."

  Sadie's eyes narrowed. "And what does she eat?"

  "The same things I do," I said carefully. "She's part of me. If I feed, she feeds."

  "And what exactly do you feed on, Fish?" Zo asked, her voice suddenly very quiet.

  I met her eyes. "Whatever I have to."

  The cave fell silent except for the howling of the wind and the distant wailing of the Mist Singers. The fire popped, sending sparks dancing through the air.

  "I'll tell you everything," I promised. "But first... can we maybe lower the weapons? It's been a really long few days."

  Sadie and Zo exchanged a look. Something passed between them, some silent communication born from surviving together in this frozen hell.

  Sadie lowered her spear first. "I want the whole story. From the beginning."

  Zo followed, though her hand remained near her axe. "Everything, Fish. No bullshit."

  I nodded, relief washing through me. "No bullshit. I promise."

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  "Good," Zo said, settling back onto her bedroll.

  The fire had burned down to embers by the time I finished telling them about the tear separating us, about landing alone in the Hearthlands, about Cedric the dying Dragoon. I described consuming him to gain his memories and knowledge, watching their faces for disgust or horror.

  I found neither. Just the hard eyes of survivors who understood what it meant to do terrible things to stay alive.

  "So you... ate him?" Zo asked, her voice carefully neutral.

  "Well technically my worms did," I said. "They break down organic matter and absorb it."

  "Well that’s convenient," Sadie murmured.

  "It's not like I asked for this," I said, a defensive edge creeping into my voice. "I didn't exactly get to pick my Origin."

  "None of us did," Zo said, her eyes distant.

  I continued with the rest, the tomb, the Mist Singers, the drake that had shared my shelter. I told them about the wyrm that had nearly killed me, showing them my left arm where the flesh was newer, still knitting together from near-catastrophic damage.

  "You fought a wyrm?" Zo's eyebrows shot up. "Alone?"

  "Not very well," I admitted. "It nearly tore my arm off. Would have killed me if..."

  "If what?" Sadie prompted when I hesitated.

  I took a deep breath. "If I hadn't let it bite me. I needed to get close enough to release the worms inside its body."

  "You let it bite you," Zo repeated slowly. "Like… on purpose."

  "It was the only way to get past its armor," I said. "The worms... they ate it from the inside out."

  Zo shook her head, but there was something like reluctant respect in her eyes. "You're both insane."

  "Sanity is overrated when you're fighting monsters," I said.

  "Fair point." Zo tossed another small branch onto the fire. "So you killed the wyrm. Then what?"

  I told them about finding their tracks, following them through the Greywood, realizing the initials carved in the trees were breadcrumbs they'd left for each other.

  "Z.S.," I said. "Zo and Sadie. Smart. If you got separated, you'd have a way to find each other again."

  Zo nodded. "That was Sadie's idea. The Greywood's like a fucking maze if you don't know it. We almost got lost a dozen times before we figured it out."

  By the time I finished, the Mist Singers' wailing had faded to a distant chorus, the worst of the Long Dark passing as we talked.

  "Your turn," I said finally. "What happened to you two after the tear?"

  Zo and Sadie exchanged a look. Then Zo took the lead, as she always did.

  "We got lucky," she said simply. "We landed together."

  "By pure chance," Zo continued, prodding the embers with a stick. "We hit frozen ground hard enough to knock the wind out of us, but we were alive. And we weren't alone."

  "The first day was..." She paused, searching for the right word. "Confusing. We didn't know where we were. Didn't recognize anything. Just empty tundra stretching in all directions, and mountains on the horizon."

  "We started walking," Sadie added. "Thought we'd find people, or at least shelter."

  "We found neither," Zo said grimly. "And then night came."

  Her voice grew heavy as she described their first Long Dark. The terror of the Mist Singers' wailing. The shapes moving through the fog. They had no shelter, no knowledge of what was happening, no way to defend themselves.

  "We were going to die," Zo said flatly. "Then... someone found us."

  I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature. "Someone?"

  Zo nodded. "A figure in the mist. Just a shadow, really. We couldn't see its face. It led us to a rocky outcropping—like this one, actually—and showed us how to block the entrance."

  "Showed you how?" I asked.

  "It just... moved the rocks," Sadie said. "It gestured for us to help, so we piled stones across the entrance, blocking out the mist."

  "When morning came, it was gone," Zo finished. "Like a ghost."

  My blood ran cold. I remembered the eyes watching me through the mist last night. The boot prints in the snow this morning.

  "I think I saw it too," I said quietly. "Last night, in the cave where I found shelter. Someone was watching me through the mist."

  "Did it approach you?" Sadie asked sharply.

  I shook my head. "It just watched me. Then it disappeared."

  "It's never tried to talk to us… it just helped us."

  "And you have no idea what it is?" I asked.

  "None," Zo admitted. "Could be another survivor. Could be something native to this place. Whatever it is, it hasn't tried to kill us… yet."

  She continued their story. They'd spent days learning the land, figuring out how to hunt the small game that scurried across the tundra, finding shelter before each Long Dark descended. They discovered the edge of the Greywood and made camp, hoping to spot any sign of the others.

  "The fire you saw two nights ago," Zo said. "That was us. A signal, in case anyone was looking."

  "It worked," I said.

  Zo smiled, it was a genuine expression that transformed her pretty face. "Yeah. It did."

  Sadie leaned forward. "You mentioned the initials. Z.S. We carved them everywhere we went. Breadcrumbs, like you said. In case we got separated, or..."

  "Or in case anyone else made it through," I finished.

  She nodded, her eyes meeting mine. "We didn't know if anyone else survived. You, Rafe, Sophie... we had no way to know."

  "Rafe and Sophie," I said, the names catching in my throat. "Have you seen any sign of them?"

  Zo's expression darkened. "No but that doesn't mean they're not out there. This place is huge, and we've only explored a small part of it."

  "If they made it through the tear, they could have landed anywhere," Sadie added.

  I nodded, trying to ignore the hollow feeling in my chest. Rafe and Sophie were resourceful. If anyone could survive being dropped into this frozen hell unprepared, it was them. I had to believe that.

  "So what now?" I asked.

  "We have a plan," Zo said. "There's a place west of here…"

  "Its about a day's travel, if we move fast," Sadie said. "We were heading there when you found us."

  I nodded. "That sounds like Horn’s Rest, we will make it there… together"

  Outside, the wind had died down. The Mist Singers' wailing had faded to nothing. Dawn was approaching, the Long Dark retreating for another day.

  Zo looked at me, then at Mabel, who had coiled into a loose spiral on my shoulder. "You sure that thing isn't going to cause problems?"

  "I am RIGHT HERE," Mabel huffed. "And I have a name, thank you very much."

  Zo snorted. "Your worm's got attitude, Fish."

  "You have NO idea," I muttered.

  Sadie was watching Mabel through the side of her eye. "Can it—she—fight?"

  "Can I FIGHT?" Mabel's segments rippled with indignation.

  "She helps," I cut in. "...though I have never actually tested her in battle.."

  "And she's really part of you?" Zo asked. "Not some... I don't know, parasite that's taken over?"

  "I'm as much a parasite as your delightful personality is," Mabel snipped. "We're completely integrated. A partnership of equals, although I contribute significantly more to the intellectual side of—"

  "Yes, she's part of me," I interrupted before Mabel could really get going.

  Sadie's mouth twitched in what might have been the ghost of a smile. "This is going to be interesting."

  "That's one word for it," Zo muttered.

  Another night survived. Another day to face whatever this world threw at us.

  But this time, I wasn't facing it alone.

  I had found my friends. And together, we would find the others… Rafe and Sophie were out there somewhere. I had to believe that, and Horn's Rest was the first step toward finding them.

  "We should get some rest," Zo said, settling back onto her bedroll. "A few hours of sleep, then we head out."

  I nodded, suddenly aware of the exhaustion weighing me down.

  "I'll take the first watch," Sadie offered, moving toward the cave entrance.

  "No need," I said. "Mabel doesn't sleep. She can wake us if anything approaches."

  Sadie hesitated, then nodded.

  "That's me," Mabel preened. "Endlessly useful. A paragon of vigilance. A sentinel of—"

  "Mabel," I groaned.

  "Fine, fine," she huffed. "Rest your fragile human bodies. I'll guard your slumber with unwavering attention."

  Zo snorted as she pulled a rough blanket over herself.

  I settled onto the spare bedroll Sadie had pulled from their supplies, my body practically melting into it after days of sleeping on frozen ground or stone. Despite the hard surface beneath me, it felt like luxury.

  As sleep began to claim me, I heard Mabel's voice, quieter than usual, almost gentle.

  "Rest now, my host," she murmured. "I will watch over you. All of you."