Find the runes.

Well, easier said than done, with the damn earth breaking out from underneath and biting cold trying to steal your toes, nose, and tail-tip.

Nate forewent sleep as often as he could, and had all but entirely stopped eating. What food they had, the others needed more. A waking dread had begun to bloom in his heart, though he kept the deepening roots of premonition secret.

His focus outward was entirely on the well-being of the others. Nate smiled. Laughed. Led.

Their comfort he strove for, tending their hurts and reinforcing their shelters. Their spirits he bolstered, as much as he could. Promised them miracles, because if the world really was going to end, their last days might as well be spent fighting the good fight instead of languishing in despair. And if the Voice singing out in the dark was right, and they could still stop this... then they had to stop it.

It was simple, when you got right down to it.

He missed Ko-Ga. The crow had not come with the others South. He worried for Mithwyth, too — were the two of them safe? Would he ever see them again? Grief, he had to bury for now. He told himself they had found Nat, and were themselves staying safe all together. Nate had to look out for the living at hand.

And so he had invited Elk Charm to help him search. For anything and everything, which he'd surmised to be a particular skill of hers. Food and skins would keep them on their feet and free of frostbite a little longer. Runes would stave off vengeful plague. And her company would remind him that no matter how badly he wished to, he could not curl up in the cold and fail to live up to his own preaching.

Have you seen that big tree out on the Lake? Nate asked, striving for normalcy in small-talk as he put nose to the frosted ground.