I kept moving without stopping. My footsteps crunched against the snow beneath my boots, leaving behind a line of footprints that disappeared into the white horizon.
Strangely, the sun hadn't set. It hung there, suspended in the sky like a golden eye watching me without blinking. It didn't move normally; its path was semicircular, barely dipping before rising again. In short, it never set. It was always day.
It felt like Antarctica, I thought. Though honestly, I had already lost all sense of time. I didn't know how many hours, days, or weeks I had been walking. My stomach growled, hollow, and a burning sensation rose up my throat — hunger... and thirst.
"Hunger... I'm so hungry..." I thought, staring at the endless white desert stretching before me.
After what felt like an eternity, I saw something different — a shape moving in the snow. At first, I thought it was an illusion, a reflection of the sun... but no. It was an animal. Small.
A rabbit!
Yes, what stood before me was a rabbit — though not like the ones I remembered. It was the size of a small dog, its fur a milky white that made it almost invisible against the snow. From its forehead grew two sharp, ice-like horns, as thin and deadly as knives.
The rabbit was crouched, using its front paws to dig into the snow.
"Is it looking for roots to eat?" I wondered, watching it closely. The wind struck my face, hopefully masking my scent.
The creature hadn't noticed me yet, but there was no way I could approach without making noise. Small or not, those horns clearly weren't for decoration.
Then, the rabbit lifted its head. For an instant, our eyes met.
Time seemed to stop.
The rabbit froze — and so did I. My heart began pounding in my chest.
Shit! Shit! Shit!
What do I do now?
A few seconds passed — or maybe an eternity — before either of us moved. Then, as if something inside it suddenly switched on, the rabbit lunged toward me.
The bastard was fast.
In just seconds, it had closed half the distance between us.
Then it jumped. Its body turned into a white projectile, almost invisible except for the glint of its horns.
Instinct took over. I threw myself to the side. I felt the air slice past my cheek as the rabbit flew by and crashed into the snow, its horns buried deep in the ice.
I didn't hesitate. Taking advantage of the moment, I leapt forward, grabbed its neck with both hands, and squeezed with everything I had.
Crack!
The sharp sound of bone snapping echoed in my ears. The rabbit's body convulsed for a few seconds, then went limp and still.
I stayed there, panting, staring at my trembling hands, covered in snow and blood.
Then, a voice echoed inside my head — cold and emotionless:
[You have slain a dormant beast: Scavenger Rabbit]
---
I let myself collapse onto the ground, gasping for air. My lungs burned, and the vapor from my breath vanished into the freezing air. I looked down at the limp body of the scavenger rabbit, still warm against the bloodstained snow.
"Well... now I have food," I muttered, more to convince myself than out of relief.
I grabbed the carcass with both hands and started walking. The snow kept falling, slow but steady, and in the distance, gray clouds gathered. A storm was coming — I could feel it in the air.
I passed by the spot where the rabbit had been digging before the attack. Driven by curiosity — or maybe instinct — I brushed away the snow. What I found made my blood run cold.
"What the hell...? Are those... bones?"
In front of me, half-buried in a shallow pit, was a pile of white bones. They were long, belonging to wild animals — and among them, I recognized something that froze me in place: the skull of the bear I had killed days ago.
A chill ran down my spine.
Now I understood the creature's name.
"Scavenger rabbit..."
It didn't eat plants.
It ate flesh.
I swallowed hard, turned away, and quickened my pace. In this place, anything could kill you — and the worst part was never knowing when or how. I had to stay alert.
---
After a long trek, I finally found a cave deep enough to take shelter from the approaching storm. On the way, I had gathered some dry branches — as valuable as gold in this frozen world.
I checked the inside carefully. It was empty. With a sigh of relief, I tossed the branches onto the icy floor. Sitting beside the rabbit's corpse, I examined its horns more closely. They were made of a strange material, like bone but tinted with a faint blue glow. Measuring them, I saw each was about twenty centimeters long — almost half the length of the rabbit's body.
I cut them off carefully. The bone was sturdy enough to serve as a blade or spear. If I used the rabbit's hide as a grip, I could craft a decent weapon — later, though.
I took one of the horns and used it to sever the head from the body. The sharp edge sliced through the flesh with ease.
"If I hadn't dodged that attack... I'd have died pathetically," I muttered, looking away.
Shaking off the thought, I focused on the task at hand. I skinned the carcass, cleaned out the organs, and dug a small hole in the snow to bury them. Then I looked at the raw red meat, wondering how the hell I was going to cook it.
"Let's see... If I really have the fire attribute, I should be able to make at least a spark," I said under my breath, recalling the strange message that still echoed in my mind.
I closed my eyes and focused. I searched for something within me — something that wasn't blood or breath. And then I felt it.
A warm current flowed through my body, like an invisible river pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat.
"Is this... mana?" I whispered.
I focused harder, imagining a small flame in the palm of my hand. At first, nothing happened. But then, a spark flickered into existence.
A tiny flame danced on my palm — warm and alive.
I smiled. For the first time in days, I felt hope.
I brought the flame to the dry branches, and within seconds, the fire caught. The flames grew slowly, painting the cave walls in shades of orange and gold.
I skewered the rabbit meat on a branch and set it over the fire. The smell of roasting meat filled the air, mingling with the smoke.
"Thank God they convinced me to take those survival classes... otherwise, I'd already be dead," I muttered, glancing at the storm raging outside.
---
I didn't do much for the next few hours. I just waited, ate, and kept the fire alive. The meat was tough, with a metallic taste, but it felt like a feast.
When I finished, I leaned back against the cold cave wall and looked at my work: the two horns turned into crude knives, and the rabbit's hide, now dried and stretched by the fire, ready to use as a makeshift handle.
It wasn't much — but it was a start.
Now I had food, weapons, and a bit of clothing. With that, I could survive... at least for a while.
I looked toward the cave entrance. The storm was still raging, burying the world outside beneath a sea of white.
"Once this ends... I'll keep moving," I whispered, letting exhaustion take over.
I didn't know where my steps would lead me — but in this frozen world, stopping meant dying.
I closed my eyes, letting the crackle of the fire be the last thing I heard before drifting into sleep.