Winston looked up at the towering mountains as he dodged arrows. The mountains here were lower than the rest of the stone goliaths that encircled the camp. Still, there was a hundred yards of sheer cliff before the first ledge.

  Winston growled. He could do this. He leaped into the air, launching himself a dozen feet into the air with a single jump. Arrows and spells flew by him, but none hit. For once, his tiny body was working in his favor.

  Slowly but surely, Winston ascended. The higher he climbed, the lower his reserves became. He had to make it. As he neared the ledge, Winston cried out in pain as an arrow struck him in the shoulder. It had lost most of its momentum already, but it still tore into his flesh.

  Winston collapsed onto the stone ledge as he whimpered in pain. He needed to extract it, but his food energy had run dry. He could use [Consume], but he feared what would happen if he consumed it while it was still in his body.

  Letting out a whimper, he forced himself back onto his feet. It didn’t matter how much it hurt. He knew Thalysar would be coming after him, and Thalysar could fly. Winston looked into his spatial ring for something to consume. The only viable thing was the steak he’d stowed away over a week ago. Winston consumed it and looked around frantically for anything else. All he saw was stone.

  Activating [Consume], Winston took chunk after chunk out of the mountain. After a moment, he checked his stores.

  Food Energy: 92/550

  Winston growled and scanned the camp below him. A minuscule figure strode out of the main tent and rose into the air. He was out of time. He didn’t have much energy, but it would have to do.

  Winston leaped straight up, sending himself flying through the air. He meant to leap straight up, but veered to the side instead. Winston’s leg flared up in pain as he leaped, refusing to comply. As he reached the apex of his jump, platforms of golden energy formed beneath his paws. He was light, but for some reason, he had to reinforce the platforms several times so that they wouldn’t collapse under his weight.

  Winston launched himself again and again, heading for a ledge above and to his right. When he finally reached it, he took a moment to rest, trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder before continuing. As he went, he consumed chunks of stone from the mountain, keeping him fueled.

  Finally, he could go no longer. Winston collapsed and prepared to remove the arrow. Squeezing his eyes shut, Winston coiled tendrils of energy around the wooden shaft. Then, he pulled.

  Winston let out a yowl of pain as the arrow ripped from his shoulder, bringing with it a spurt of blood. Whimpering, Winston fell on his side. The pain was almost as bad as when he’d gotten his Soul Shard. After a moment of panic, Winston formed an orb of malleable energy and shoved it into the tear on his shoulder.

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  The bleeding had stopped, but the pain did not. Peeking his head over the cliff, he saw no sign of Thalysar. Winston relaxed, if only slightly. Pushing away from the ledge, he took in his surroundings. The sheer cliff had turned to a soft slope. Still, he was far from the peak of the mountain; he’d only reached a large shelf. It was a few hundred feet wide and half as long, with two small trees growing in the center.

  Winston looked around. He couldn’t stay here forever, but it was as good a place as any to rest.

  The cold from the stone below his paws seeped in as he walked towards the trees. The pines were frail, growing from small patches of dirt. Winston plopped down on the soil, whimpering as his injured shoulder brushed against the bark of the tree.

  Just as he began to close his eyes, he stopped. Would the plug of energy dissipate in his sleep? Would he bleed out? Winston didn’t want to know. Still, he couldn’t resist the call of sleep for long. After a moment of thought, he poured most of his remaining energy into the plug. Hopefully, it would last until he woke up.

  With that out of the way, Winston felt himself slipping away into the warm embrace of sleep.

  ?? ′?? ? ??` ??

  Winston woke, shivering. He couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or the nightmares. Or both. For the first time since he arrived in the Tower, he’d dreamed. And it wasn’t pleasant. Winston’s memory of them was faint; he was thankful for that. Even what little he remembered was enough to shake him.

  It was more fitting to call them “memories” than dreams. They replayed over and over in his head. When his family disappeared. Roderic and Renir’s deaths. There were more, but the memories were slipping through Winston's paws like water.

  Winston stayed curled up under the tree, whimpering. Trying to make the images in his mind go away. He’d been able to soldier through the Tower so far. He’d been able to suppress his emotions, his pent-up grief. Why was it all coming back now? Why couldn’t it wait? Winston cried out again, but there was no one around to hear.

  After a while, Winston stood back up. His face was passive, but inside was chaos. His facade of calm, his barricade against his emotions—it had shattered, and Winston didn’t know if he would ever be able to repair it.

  The energy he’d used as a plug in his shoulder was mostly gone. Still, it had worked, keeping the bleeding at bay while he slept. His shoulder was already healing, too. The flesh was still torn and raw, but it was better than before. Winston tilted his head. Was it because of his toughness stat?

  Shaking his whole body, Winston tried to expel the cold. While he slept, his food energy had returned about a quarter full. Turning, he prepared to consume the tiny trees beside him, but he stopped.

  Something about them reminded him of himself. He didn’t know why, but Winston felt a strange connection to them. They were just like him. Frail, just trying to survive in an environment designed to kill them, fighting against fate itself.

  Winston knew it was stupid. Illogical. Something he might’ve done before he entered the tower, when nothing truly mattered. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he began to consume the stone of the cliff. It was slower, but he didn’t care.

  An hour later, there was a huge divot in the stone, and Winston’s energy was mostly full. Looking up at the towering peaks, Winston took one last look at the two frail trees before leaping upwards.

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