The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 53 - Snow (Patreon)

                                                                                               Alexander North

Is that… no… it can’t be. Unless it is?

I can’t help but furrow my brows and stop in place at the sound during the duration of the howl. But no longer than a second after the howl finishes, I tell the others, “Be right back,” and begin running down the hall, splitting off at a branch and rushing straight towards the howl.

Snow has been my dog for nearly three years now, and she’s never been able to break out of her little habit of howling over and over again. So I am very familiar with her howl by now, and so are plenty of other soldiers on this base, much to my chagrin. She is a breed of dog that comes from a much colder planet than this, so her fur is thicker than it probably should be for a tropical planet. And from what I remember, her breed of dog is called a husky.

I very much doubt it’s her, but hearing a howl that sounds just like hers makes my chest tighten up in a way that I absolutely hate. So I would rather be safe than sorry.

The others shout after me, but I ignore them as I run in the direction that the howl repeats itself again from. And eventually, I find myself stopping outside of a door with my fists clenched.

Please be her…

I close my eyes for a second before opening them again and then opening the door, revealing another door wide open on the other side of a large office room. And in the center of the room is a large wolf. One that looks just like Snow, except with quite a few changes.

She has pure white fur with the texture of ice, but with the same pink eyes that she had before due to her albinism. She even has the same large scar going down the side of her muzzle, which surprisingly hasn’t healed from her mutation.

A tear builds up in my eye, but I quickly wipe it away while slowly walking into the room, making Snow’s hear jerk in my direction before she lets out a whimper of both fear and what looks like pain, considering the wound on her leg.

I raise both of my hands in a placating gesture, but it doesn’t really seem to help much as she starts to growl when I get closer.

By the looks of it, she has a broken leg. Although how she got up onto this floor in the first place is beyond me.

“Terminal, is there any way I can heal her?” I ask quietly while still slowly lowering myself to the ground with my hand held out with my palm facing upwards.

A few seconds pass with the only noise being that of Snow’s whimpering before the terminal answers.

/ Notice \

Possible Answer to User’s Query – Touch the wounded Frozen One and inject some of your Energy inside of it.

\End of Notice/

My brows raise slightly at the part specifying it as a possible answer and not a certain one before I shake my head and slowly continue reaching out for Snow. Once I get close enough, she snaps at my hand, but I simply ignore it, letting her fangs enter my fingers a little bit. Although not anywhere near as deeply as you’d expect from a dog, now wolf, her size.

Likely due to my own changes and how strong I’ve gotten.

I ignore the light pain to reach out with my other hand and rub the side of her muzzle like I always do before lowering my head and placing my forehead on her own.

Please work. Please recognize me…

After several seconds, she doesn’t show any signs of recognizing me. In fact, she even seems to try tightening her grip on my hand with her teeth.

So in a last attempt, I feel for that energy that I had felt earlier, searching desperately for even the smallest shred of it. And after nearly three entire minutes of searching with her fangs still lightly buried in my hand, I find it and pull. I pull it in the direction of my hand, making a faint blue glow light up on the surface of my skin beneath the damaged armor and clothes.

Once the light reaches my hand, it begins to enter the wolf as if on instinct, and I find my eyes widening in shock.

“Grand mother terminal…” I can’t help but mutter in exclamation as I watch the energy enter Snow before diffusing through her body, making her wound begin to heal up and surprisingly, a hint of intelligence begin to enter her eyes. Then more intelligence, and finally what I can only hope is a sense of recognition on her face as she lets up a little on her bite.

Is this… actually working?!

Seconds turn into minutes, and eventually Snow finally lets go of my hand before simply staring at me. Then at her leg. Then at me again.

A few more seconds pass.

My eyes suddenly widen as she reaches her head forward and licks my hand where the wound is already closing.

I feel tears tickling at the corner of my eyes as I apprehensively ask, “…Snow? Are you in there?”

As if responding to her name being stated, Snow lets out a huff and rubs her head against my hand.

“Snow!” I shout while scooting forward and hugging her rather large head. And she lets out a short huff at that before howling into my chest.

I can’t help but laugh at that, still somehow recognizing her howl strictly due to its odd wavy tone. Still not sure why she does that. Just undulates her howl raising and lowering the volume.

It was the reason why I thought it might’ve been her in the first place.

It’s also surprising that she’s still doing that, even with her mind having been clouded by the mutation. Which I appear to have unclouded a bit? Maybe?

Does that mean I can do that for everyone? Or just the ones I’m close to? Or maybe there are other conditions?

“Terminal, do you know what I just did?” I ask the terminal, deciding to not just stew in my head about the questions.

/ Notice \

Possible Answer to User’s Query – User transferred some of the user’s personal energy into the subject, temporarily restoring the Frozen One’s intelligence to what it was prior to the mutation.

\End of Notice/

Temporarily?

“What do you mean by temporarily?” I ask with a bit of trepidation in my voice as I rub Snow’s head.

/ Notice \

Possible Answer to User’s Query – The energy inserted into the Frozen One will stay there and not be regenerated until you call it back.

\End of Notice/

I let out a light sigh of relief at that before checking my current energy level, just to find it having dropped by about 0.1. Which isn’t a bad price to pay to have Snow back. Although it’s too high to pay for anyone else. At least while I only have this amount of energy.

Anyways, I continue rubbing Snow’s head as she pants in happiness for a few seconds before climbing to my feet and walking out of the room with Snow following behind me.

I wonder how the others will respond to this?

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