A Light in the Dark Forest

The sound of shuffling and mindless grunts could be heard as the walking, rotting corpses made their way towards the treeline. They came into view, dragging themselves along. It appeared as if a few of their numbers had thinned, not just from Alistair's previous attack but as well as some of them apparently giving up. Alistair took a few steps backwards and shrugged. "I suppose if they see you as the closer target, they'll go after you instead. Just watch yourself on the ice, and certainly avoid the middle as best as possible. If you get them to stay piled together in a small area, you should have no issue with them not only falling over themselves but breaking the ice and falling in as well." With that he departed for the other side of the lake.

At the other side of the lake, which wasn't very far considering the lake was rather small, Alistair made his way to the treeline and leaned against one of the trees. He made sure to keep an eye on Nakata in the distance. He would need to be ready in case something unexpected happened.

He could tell that Nakata had been well trained. It was not very common for humans of worlds that were in this era of time to be so skilled at melee combat. The skill that Nakata possessed would have been less noteworthy hundreds of years past, but in this time period it was barring on super-human. It seemed all of the zombies that had decided to follow them had fallen for Nakata's tactic - which wasn't surprising, of course - and even after Nakata plunged into the water any that were still left on shore were silly enough to try walking onto the ice, only to slip and fall repeatedly or to plunge themselves into the icey depths.

Such incidents weren't enough to kill such creatures. Undead needed neither oxygen or warmth to survive. In fact, they made excellent soldiers in arctic areas. As horrible as it was for undead beings to even exist, he had to admit that much was true. Alistair made his way to shore as closest as possible to where Nakata had fallen in. He could not see the young man - it was likely he had fallen under the ice, unable to be seen. He was hesitant to break up too much of the ice, because that could cause any zombie stuck under it to actually have a chance at resurfacing before spring.

Although the situation was rather dire, he remained calm as if it wasn't a big deal at all. Slowly he made his way out onto the ice. He kept himself perfectly balanced, at best only making hairline cracks. He periodically tapped the ice with the bottom of his makeshift staff. Once he had made his way to the hole that Nakata had fallen through, he slowly made his way back taking the likely course his body would have traveled. Considering it was only a lake without any sort of current, he couldn't have gone far. However, the zombies falling in certainly did make the water a tad restless. A few more taps caused him to realize that these noises were slightly different from the sounds caused by his taps from every other time. This meant something was below him. Since human bodies float, it was most likely Nakata's body. A zombie would walk or crawl along the bottom of the lake, instead of float to the top.

He knelt down, keeping perfect balance, but raised his staff as high as possible. The ice seemed fairly thick here, meaning it was more likely for him to break his staff rather than the ice upon impact. However, he had a way around that. His eyes and the staff began to glow gold, and he slammed the bottom of his staff into the ice. The staff plunged downwards into the water below, causing cracks to form in an outward direction. Alistair slowly crept back to prevent the ice from caving in. Then, he prodded at the cracked ice causing it to break apart.

In only about two minutes time, he had managed to remove the ice that kept Nakata's body from appearing on the surface.

If Nakata kept unconscious for the entirety of the time, it was likely he would find himself waking up in a cave by a warm fire. Alistair would have freed him from the water and brought him to the nearby cave he had known about.

"In a cave to the northwest of the lake. If you were a normal human, it is likely you would have passed on from this world by now." Up until now, it was impossible to have seen him. He walked in from the back of the cave which the light from the fire had been unable to illuminate. It was impossible to see the entrance of the cave from their position, and from the looks of it the cave went down fairly deep, as well. Alistair had merely taken a position that wasn't too far in but was far enough from the outside wind.

"It has been roughly an hour since you fell into the lake and lost consciousness. It is about midday, as well." I was about to secure food for the both of us via hunting when you awoke. I would normally recommend resting for one who had been through such a situation, but considering you are not precisely normal I suppose I will leave that decision up to you." He had sensed some abnormal emotions coming from Nakata while he was sleeping, but he decided not to push the subject further.

This question caught him slightly off guard, but it was not necessarily unexpected. Considering the alternative to unleashing his Mantras was the possibility of death - not just himself but others as well - he figured he had made the correct choice. However, now he had to tread carefully on grounds concerning those abilities. "Very well. Suffice it to say I am much more... experienced, than I appear to be. I have inherited many techniques that are nearly impossible for humans to typically acquire. I am afraid, though, that I have a reason of great importance that prevents me from explaining further. A reason that must hold true despite what your opinion of me becomes." He smiled at Nakata then walked past him as he made his way for the cave exit.

"Considering the cold, it will be difficult to find a meal worthy of a feast." Considering the area they were in, he may very well end up becoming the feast!" "However, do you have any preferences?"

"Very well, I shall retrieve as much of the bear as I can bring back, and we can cook it for a meal. Rest yourself here until I return, I only ask that you do your best to keep the fire going. Do not strain yourself, however." He figured that last line was rather unneeded considering Nakata's regeneration, but he found himself unable to help but be kind. It was simply in his nature.

The first thing he needed, as Nakata had pointed out, was a knife. This was going to be rather difficult. Normally, he could take a stone and grind it down to be sharp. But that took a lot of time. Bears were not easy things to skin even with actual knives. However, he felt wasteful allowing the body of a bear to go unused. It took him the better part of an hour - and already he felt his stomach rumbling in horrendous hunger - but he managed to find a stone with a good size and shape. This wasn't the first time he had created a makeshift knife, and he certainly knew how to do it.

By the time he had managed to create a knife that he deemed worthy enough, it had already been nearly two hours. He was rather surprised when he didn't encounter anything dangerous for the entirety of his foraging adventure, but decided not to question good occurrences. A short while over two hours after he had left, Alistair would return to the cave with the bear hide as well as some flanks of meat. It was rather difficult to carry the meat, hide, and his staff - he managed to put the makeshift knife in his pocket - and he practically collapsed when he finally found his way back. He apparently knew just how to skin the beast, for he took the best quality meat back with him. Clearly, he had done this before. However, the hide and meat itself was damaged somewhat considering the poor quality of his knife.