After brushing his teeth and washing up, Isac was about to head out to scavenge for supplies — and was stopped on his way out by Yukinoshita Yukino.
“Put these two on.” Yukinoshita Yukino pointed at what had served as their blanket the night before — a sweater and Isac’s windbreaker jacket.
Isac hesitated a little, and Yukinoshita Yukino, catching the hesitation, took it on herself to explain: “With these two on, you’ll be able to stay out moving around longer — saves you from burning energy running back and forth.
Besides, I’ve got the fire here for warmth.
I don’t need much on.”
Hearing Yukinoshita Yukino’s explanation, Isac figured she had a point, and didn’t get precious about it.
He pulled on the sweater and the windbreaker.
He couldn’t be sure whether it was because Yukinoshita Yukino had been bundled up in them for so long, but as he put them on, he could swear he caught the faintest hint of girlish fragrance.
— Of course, most of what he smelled was still just himself.
At least there was no stink of sweat about it.
In this weather, breaking a sweat would be an achievement in itself.
“I’m heading out.” Isac cinched up the collar, cuffs, and every other spot prone to letting wind in, then turned back to Yukinoshita Yukino, who was sitting propped against the cabin wall behind him.
“Mm.
Be careful.” Yukinoshita Yukino quietly watched Isac leave, like a sickbed-bound wife watching her husband head off to work.
Isac first made his way back to the same stand of woods he had been to yesterday and picked up some of the drier firewood, stacking it on the route he’d have to take back.
Then he combed the surrounding clearings for scattered supplies.
After a night of wind and snow, much of the salvage had been pressed flat beneath the drifts — harder to spot than yesterday — but with patient observation, there were always finds to be had.
Near the woods, Isac found a women’s handbag still in fairly decent shape.
Inside, alongside the cosmetics, was an unopened six-pack of Sofy Ultra-Thin pads!
Brand new — factory-sealed!
You have to understand — out in the wild, sanitary pads were basically a hidden survival cheat code!
Whether to serve as tinder or to clamp down on heavy bleeding in a hurry, they were a top-tier material.
In a pinch, they could also filter water clean, or double as insoles.
Counted as scoring a rare drop.
The cosmetics in the handbag were good stuff too.
Lip balm could keep your lips from cracking in the cold, face cream could keep your skin from drying out, and even an eyebrow pencil could be smeared along both sides of the nose to cut down on glare reflection and prevent snow blindness — though a pinch of wood ash dabbed on would do roughly the same trick. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
Counted as a stack of epic loot.
This container known as the “women’s handbag” was downright fat — earning its place on the must-search list of snow-survival containers.
Right now, in Isac’s mental rankings, probably the only thing that could still edge it out was Lord Suitcase himself.
A bit more poking around netted Isac a small haul of bagged snacks, plus a few cartons of juice and airline meals frozen into solid bricks.
Truly worthy of being the top-secret crash site for which he and Yukinoshita Yukino had used their lives as the cost of admission — the supplies really were plentiful.
Lugging an awkward armload of firewood, Isac made it back to the makeshift wreckage shelter.
He split the wood into two batches: the thinner, faster-burning pieces he took into the cabin first for Yukinoshita Yukino to use for keeping the temperature up during the day, while the thicker batch he set aside in the area near the cabin’s outer edge, saving it for nighttime use.
The reason he handed the fast-burning wood off to Yukinoshita Yukino wasn’t because Isac was mistreating or bullying Yukinoshita — he just wanted to give her something to do.
In this kind of environment, having work to do beat sitting idle and letting your mind spin.
Feeding a fire was actually a fine little craft.
Watching the flames burn had a real way of taking the edge off the emotions.
During the stretch right after his parents had passed away, Isac had liked to hop on his e-scooter alone and ride out to the wilderness to camp and play around with a campfire.
“Keep the flames from getting too big.
If it’s burning too fast, sprinkle a little water in.
And if anything comes up you can’t handle, just shout my name as loud as you can — I’ll be in the area.” Isac reminded her.
After a moment’s thought, Isac also set the snacks he’d just picked up within easy reach of Yukinoshita Yukino.
He said: “If you really get bored, you can munch on something.”
Snacks weren’t anywhere near filling, but they could nudge a person’s mood up — and right now, what Isac was most worried about was Yukinoshita Yukino’s mental state.
She wasn’t like him, already long used to being on her own.
She came from a perfectly decent family — well, at minimum, her parents were both still alive and clearly loved her.
The biggest setback she’d run into in this life was probably grade-school bullying, and compared with what they were facing now, schoolyard bullying really didn’t amount to much.
The crux of it was: if Yukinoshita Yukino died, Isac couldn’t be sure how long he’d hold out alone in this snowfield.
Humans, at the end of the day, were still social creatures.
Yukinoshita Yukino glanced at the snacks, then at Isac — who wasn’t all that much older than she was.
A faint warmth bloomed in her chest, accompanied at the same time by a vague sense of being underestimated.
In his eyes, did she really look that fragile?
Every portion of food is precious in our current situation — it should go to whoever can create the most value for the team, not to one person’s appetite.
I… only need to keep up the bare minimum to stay alive.”
Seeing this, Isac didn’t push it further.
The fact that Yukinoshita Yukino could come out with words like that was proof enough he didn’t need to worry about her mental state in the short term.
It seemed tiger parenting wasn’t entirely a bad thing — at the very least, Yukinoshita Yukino’s resilience under pressure was way ahead of her peers.
“This afternoon I’m planning to scout the area for signs of human activity — roads, buildings, that sort of thing.” Isac briefly outlined the next part of the plan.
Yukinoshita Yukino listened, thought for a moment, then added: “You should take a weapon for self-defense.”
The middle of nowhere — there could well be wild animals about.
“I get that, but it’s not like I’ve been able to find anything.” Isac sounded a touch helpless.
Planes didn’t let you bring controlled items — knives, clubs, anything like that was out of the question — and the chunks of scattered wreckage were all on the bulky side, with nothing that fit comfortably in the hand.
The weapon he was carrying for self-defense at the moment was a relatively sharp thin sheet of metal — barely passable was the best you could say.
If he really did run into a wild animal, it might honestly turn out less useful than going at it bare-fisted.
Yukinoshita Yukino mulled that over for a beat, then said to Isac: “Could you find me a wooden stick — something a bit on the longer side?”
Isac had no idea why Yukinoshita Yukino wanted a stick, but he went over to the outer firewood pile anyway and picked out the one that looked straightest.
Yukinoshita Yukino took the stick, sized it up briefly, then began slow-roasting one end of it at low heat beside the fire.
Isac sort of caught on.
He said: “You’re trying to dry the stick out to give me as a weapon?”
But that brought up another question.
“But I’m pretty sure wood goes brittle once it dries out, doesn’t it?”
“Which is why it can only be roasted at a low temperature — letting the wood fibers contract slowly.
That way you significantly boost the staff’s hardness and rigidity, and at the same time preserve as much toughness as possible, so it isn’t easy to snap.” Yukinoshita Yukino explained.
This particular bit of knowledge was actually something she had picked up incidentally back when she was studying kyudo.
All in all, crafting a good staff required plenty of patience and time — which was exactly the right fit for the Yukinoshita Yukino of the moment.
“You go on and gather supplies for now.
By tomorrow, I’ll have a usable weapon ready for you.”