Falling through the pristine white snow and cursing his existence, Winter finally came to a stop as he hit the bottom of the snow, crashing into the ice under. He could hear the nauseating crunch of ice and... maybe even bones?
Winter let out a pained scream, which was immediately damped by the snow around him.
He did not feel too hurt, but refused to move out of fear that he would feel splintered bones brushing against each other.
Before being in the Soulrealm for longer than 2 minutes, he was already unable to move and trapped under layers of snow.
'This is gonna be awful...' He thought, now feeling around his body.
'I... feel fine so I guess I didn't break anything.'
Falling into the thick layer of snow had truly been a blessing; if he had fallen onto solid ground, he would be a pool of blood and mangled flesh by now. But also a curse.
'I can't breathe!'
He was currently buried under snow and severely disoriented, not being able to discern left from right and up and down; going in a diagonal line would make his chances of getting out alive slim.
Gasping for air, Winter did his best to hollow out some of the snow and make room for him to breathe, panting and gasping for sweet oxygen.
But there was none.
'Damn it!'
'Up!'
Ravaging through the snow at inhuman pace, it looked like he was swimming through the snow with ease...
'Was I always this fast?' he thought, a wicked grin appearing on his face.
'I guess the Curse does not build a new body for nothing.'
Swimming through the snow with the determination and resolve of a madman, he quickened his pace, burning through his stamina and any air left in his lungs.
Running on fumes, his body finally breached the snowy surface.
Lungs on fire and throat in shambles, he hoarsely took a deep breath and let out a deep sigh.
His chest was erratically moving up and down. He slowly turned to lay on his back.
He was once again, completely spent.
"ugh"
'Nothing ever changes, huh'
A wistful expression appeared on his exhausted face...
'I'm getting all nostalgic...'
***
A lone human figure was walking through the snow fields, ascending a tall hill, with a tree settled on top... the figure, with a taciturn and forlorn expression, was... naked?
"I hate this~"
Winter was completely undressed, revealing his private bits.
'At least I'm immune to cold.'
There were intricate snowflake patterns on his palms, and spreading throughout his fingers and rooting in his forearms...
After the Soul Curse had constructed a new body for him, the snowflake pattern had been restored, but now, it was located in his palms.
'I guess it has to do with my new ability, [Ice Conduit].'
He was still reluctant to try out his mystical ability, fearing that it would have side effects like depleting his stamina or whatever type of energy it consumed.
'I'll test it out after finding shelter.' He thought, trying to stay patient.
At the top of the hill, he stood in front of a tree with white bark; its trunk split in half by an unknown force. It was quite large and had a small opening in the middle, where it was split in half.
'Time to make camp.'
Winter looked around to check if anything had followed him, but there was nothing. In his short but turbulent time, he had not encountered any signs of life.
'Come on, I've done this countless times.'
He grabbed a few sticks scattered around and started to make the frame for his shelter. Placing them near the small opening in the tree, he got to work.
Masterfully building the stick hut, with surprising speed that you would only expect from a seasoned survivalist. After the frame was done, he scaled the tree to get some leaves and cover up the roof. He had perfected his art long ago; having to hunt so much in the wilderness was finally bearing fruit.
After the makeshift shelter was done, it looked quite cozy...
'A small entrance, room to sleep, and also to lay down straight; who needs more than that?'
Well, except for food and water.
Chasing away his hungry thoughts, he sighed and crawled inside. The sunset was almost over.
'Time to sleep.'
'Tomorrow, I'll really get started.'