Cities Of The Shifters ( Book Cover Done And Credit Goes To @MeowSniper Thanks)

A Rapture of Glacier Island

"Hm," Winston mused as he climbed from his bed and examined his surroundings. He was not dreaming, that much he was sure of. He didn't sleep often enough to recall most of his dreams. And the few that he could he could easily differentiate from reality. This was what it was, reality, it was as simple as that. It just wasn't possible.

At first he thought that he had been somewhere in the northern lands, but he immediately dismissed that possibility. There were no familiar landmarks in the area and the mountains that bordered northern Argeana were nowhere near as massive as the ones surrounding him. He didn't know where he was, but he certainly wasn't in Argeana anymore. Winston shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. There was no point in being exasperated. Not when he was exposed to subzero temperatures and was wearing nothing more than his sleeping garments.

Fortunately Winston had not been the only thing brought into this strange land. He didn't know why but for some reason his bed and a few other belongings had been transported to this new land as well. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the trunk he kept under the bed had also come along. Within a few minutes Winston had slipped into a heavy winter coat, trousers, and water resistant boots. Even better still was the tent, knives, crossbow, and hatchet in the trunk. It had been some time since his outdoor survival lessons with his father, but Winston's memory had always been fairly adept. He hoped that extended to realms outside of academics.

Apparently it had. In a few minutes Winston had been able to clear off the snow from a light area and set up the tent. Like his clothing the tent was made of white bear fur and blended in with the surroundings and kept the heat trapped inside. Next Winston stripped the bedding and pillows from the bed and shoved them inside. Next he went to hacking the frame of the bed to bits with his hatchet. Given how cold it was and how heavy the snow around him was he doubted that he'd find any other wood dry enough for kindling.

Shelter was taken care of, Winston checked the list off silently in his mind. Water wouldn't be an issue, not with so much snow and ice around. That only left food. While he was a capable marksman with his crossbow it took too long to reload and he disliked employing its use on his own. Better to be with another archer to cover him while he reloaded. Just as there was no point in being exasperated though there was also no point in wishing for something that couldn't be. He pulled the hood over his head and entered into the frozen forest not far from his position.

He had been hunting for an hour or so following the tracks of a wolf. Frankly Winston did not relish the idea of hunting a wolf but he found no tracks of smaller prey. However he paused when he saw another set of tracks and realized that the wolf was also hunting. There were human tracks that the wolf's now followed. Human tracks that seemed ill equipped for the weather. Swearing he lifted his legs and rushed forward along the trail as fast as he could and hoped that he would be in time.

Paranoia was getting to her. When she first awoke in this frozen wasteland, she could only assume it had to be a dream, for what other explanation could there have been? But the cold quickly gripped her and no matter how hard she begged to wake up, it didn't happen. She was but in a sleeping gown and it was so cold outside she never could have even imagined such cold before this point. It didn't take her long to start moving, she had no choice, she had to move because she was so cold, but moving did close to nothing in helping against the cold. All she saw around her were frozen trees and nothing else. She didn't know how to start a fire and she was too afraid to try and call for help. Where was she?! The dream theory was long gone, but she couldn't think of anything else...until the cold got to her. She started to slow down and she couldn't feel her feet anymore...or her legs...or her hands or any part of her face. She grew tired and although she knew she needed to keep going, to try and find help, she found her body sinking into the snow. That's when the paranoia sunk in. She started to think her father had did this. Somehow he had her kidnapped and taken to this foreign place to kill her slowly. It had to be him, it made perfect sense...at least, perfect sense in her failing mind.