"The road will possibly take at least 7 days to travel. Can you hold on until then?" Blank asked.

The light of the sun came eventually as they stepped out of the cave. Joan was indeed sitting around the circle of fire with poor Ahanu, and she brandished her torch like a sword towards the hungry winter cannibals.

When they sensed daylight, they made their shrieks again and rushed off to their 'homes'. Perhaps it was in another, much larger cave. Perhaps it was somewhere where the Sasquatch lived, somewhere unreachable by the sun.

She turned when she heard footsteps. "What the hell is in your mouth?"

"Safety measures." Harker answered plainly. "How is Ahanu?"

"Slept through the whole thing." She said. "He's still pretty pale."historical

"He can have my coat, I don't feel cold anymore." Harker said. "I do want to take a bath somewhere and wear something though. You know, for decency."

Blank nodded. "There is a river that is only partially frozen nearby. You said you don't feel cold anymore so you can wash your wounds there and then wear some clothes."

The boys went on and left, with Joan only now registering that she's seeing her student buck naked for the first time. She reddened, but shook her head since there were other more serious matters she should be thinking about.

Like his welfare. Would Harker be really alright? She can't help but worry since she still doesn't know much about this shapeshifting power of his.

Harker still doesn't know much either. He plans to see the Wendigo ability later at night, and ask some more questions to Yan.

But for now, there's the trouble of taking a bath while tied up like this. Should he try to summon another set of wendigo hands to do it for him? But then that defeats the purpose of tying him up altogether, since they really need to make sure he doesn't touch or attack anything.

Blank seemed to read his mind as they approached the unfrozen part of the river. The small stream flowed sluggishly over the rocks, just like the calm and steady tone of this man.

"Just go on there, I will wash you." He said.

Harker blinked. "What?"

"I will wash your bloody back for you. I wash my brother all the time, I am used to washing others." He said.

He pulled Harker towards the river, and pushed him there without hesitation. Harker did grow more tolerance towards pain and the cold, but he could still feel it as he took a bath on a river at a negative temperature.

"Hey! I could have gone here myself, man!" He exclaimed.

"Of course you could. Never said you couldn't." Blank took off his own coat, and set it down by the rocks.

Harker's eyes widened. "Wait, you're also taking a bath? With a literal wendigo?"

"Yes." Blank said, fully undressing and joining in the cold waters.

Harker thought this guy was really an insane one. Not only did he easily approach him after seeing him in that bloody state, he was also comfortable to go skinny dipping in a cold river with him.

From the start, it's already crazy how he could just go find him in the middle of the mountains just because Joan said so and push his broken rib like nobody's business.

"I wish I was able to see a wendigo get killed by you." Blank suddenly said, leaning on the shore with his elbows as if he was just leaning on a sauna. "I heard the sounds, and I had to stop myself from taking a look."

Harker scoffed. "It's better that you didn't, or else you'd be way less comfortable taking a bath with me right now."

"There are scarier people to take a bath with. Like my Science teacher back in Indian school." He recalled. "He was a large man, just like you. Very menacing. Also killed a few of us already with his bare hands."

"You serious?"

"Of course. I saw it myself." Blank's expression went dark. "How he would wrap his fingers around their necks and just wring the life out of them behind closed doors...'

He went to touch his own neck. "I wondered what it would feel like, and if I would be the next victim. Every single day. His wife teached at the girls' school, and they said he gets really mad when he can't see her much. That's why he released that anger to us boys instead."

Harker nodded. "I see. But at least that meant your 'beloved' would be safe from him, right?"

Blank gave him an amused look.

Instead of answering that, he just replied with a question."Tell me something, Harker. Do you believe there is any place safe in this world?"

Harker pressed his lips together, feeling like he was being ridiculed by that look and tone. "I do know there's danger everywhere. You can choke on air itself, or die in your own bed from a heart attack caused by a nightmare. But there's still places relatively safer than the rest."

"That is true. We stay in our homes believing it is safer than the rest of the world. We stay in the caves because it is safer there to hide from the wendigos." Blank said. "But how long will it stay that way? Until Death arrives on our doorsteps?"

He chuckled without mirth. "And so.. What is more foolish? To give yourself this sense of 'safety' and 'security' when you know well it is just an illusion? Or to face Death and look him in the eye instead?"

His amber eyes stared directly into Harker's dark brown ones as if taunting him. It wasn't just bravery, but rather a challenge. A plea.

A death wish.

"I have never been to a place where I felt safe, not even in Ahanu's side. I felt comforted, loved, appreciated... But he is a child. He won't be able to protect me, I'll be the one protecting him. For all my life. Always burdened by the thought that someday, I would fail." He said.

Water splashed as he quickly moved towards Harker's side.

"Which is why I want to ask you..."

His finger traced the muzzle on his mouth as he taunts him with this rhetoric:

"Do you think that by acquiring this curse, you'd be our protector now? Or have you not considered that you just gave me the burden of protecting everyone from you... including yourself? Making me the one responsible for your lives if I fail?"

Harker doesn't know what to say from this. As Blank went closer, he stayed frozen there....

While he takes off the muzzle he made with his own hands.

"What..." Harker was stunned by this sudden development. "What do you want?"

"It's not what I want that matters. I'm giving you a choice. I won't force you to do anything."

Blank smiled, placing his finger to the tip of Harker's canine tooth. "But Death is just part of the journey, not the end. We just choose what to consume before we reach the spirit world... and what consumes us."

He pricked his own finger with those teeth and blood dripped down from Harker's chin and into the stream.

"So would you be the one to consume me?"