"Mr. Ronan Kendrick fired two shots—BANG! BANG!—and took a musk ox down with a headshot. The whole thing took less than three minutes. He killed all five of them."

"And Joy Ford! Any musk ox that wasn’t completely dead, she quickly finished off with another shot. Before I even had time to react, they were already done."

"Peter Owens, you could be a storyteller. You’ve got a real knack for it." Quincy clapped Peter on the shoulder. Peter grinned sheepishly.

"Right now, I just want to be a Hunter—the kind who can take down prey with a single headshot."

"That’s a lofty goal. Keep at it."

To celebrate the rare musk ox hunt, Taylor Vance and Zion Lowell, who were on cooking duty, steamed a large pot of rice.

After cleaning up the kitchen, they set up a dining table right next to the fire pit. With the beef and rice ready, Wendy had everyone wash their hands with hot water to prepare for dinner.

"Should we go hunting again tomorrow? Today’s haul was huge. Maybe we should go check again?" Miles Vaughn asked eagerly. He hadn’t managed to bag anything today and was still feeling pretty down about it.

"Sounds good. We’re snowed in by this blizzard for the next few days anyway, so we can use the time to hunt more. Once the snow stops, we have to get moving."

"If I see that lynx tomorrow, I definitely won’t miss again."

They all chatted as they ate. Once they had eaten their fill and fed the animals, they returned to the house to sleep. It was so cold now that no one bothered washing their faces, simply using a bit of snow to clean their teeth.

The next day, the blizzard still showed no signs of stopping. Miles Vaughn and Peter Owens were up early, preparing to go hunting. Evelyn Ford wasn’t going today; Ronan Kendrick was taking them.

The five musk oxen had been butchered. After the cellar was cleaned out, the meat was stored there for the time being.

Taylor Vance and Zion Lowell were busy processing the musk ox hides. The material was thick and incredibly warm; five hides could probably yield ten leather coats.

"Evelyn, when do you think this blizzard will finally stop?"

Evelyn Ford shook her head. "It’s hard to say. Could be a few days, could be a month or two. As hard as this extreme cold is to endure, it’s safer than earthquakes or the oceans flooding inland."

The temperature had already dropped to sixty-five degrees below zero. Evelyn Ford knew. ’The Little Ice Age is here.’

"I’m so glad we’re all together. That time with the Savage Tribe... my life was a living hell. I thought about killing myself every single day."

Fear still flickered in Wyatt Vaughn’s eyes at the memory. "Those savages... they were beasts. No, they were worse than beasts. They drank blood and ate raw flesh. They slaughtered so many people... and they ate them."

"That’s all in the past now. All of those savages are dead." Evelyn patted Wyatt’s shoulder.

Wyatt Vaughn wiped away her tears, forcing a smile. "Thank goodness for you all. Now that we’re together, I’m not afraid, even in a blizzard like this."

"I’ll protect you too, Wyatt!" Wendy came over to flex her bicep. But bundled up in her thick, padded jacket, she was so round she looked like a little cocoon and could barely lift her arm.

Wyatt Vaughn smiled and patted Wendy’s head. "Thank you, Wendy."

Everyone worked from morning until evening to finish processing the offal, heads, and hides. The hunting party returned around then, and judging by the smiles on their faces, the day had been a great success.

"We found a herd of argali sheep! Come look! They’re all alive, and there are dozens of them!"

Quincy’s voice carried from a great distance. Everyone rushed out of the courtyard to see the hunters herding a massive flock of sheep home.

"Evelyn, am I seeing things?"

Wyatt Vaughn was so overcome with shock and joy that she almost lost her footing.

Evelyn caught her. "You’re not seeing things. They’re really argali. It looks like they rounded up every last one in the entire mountain range."

There were even tiny lambs among them, all trailing behind Ronan Kendrick, bleating, "BAA, BAA," as they walked.

It was a surprisingly heartwarming sight, and Evelyn couldn’t help but smile.

"Ronan Kendrick is really something else. He never comes back from a hunt empty-handed."

"With so many sheep, should we slaughter them or raise them? Raising them won’t be easy, though. Everything’s covered in ice and snow, and we don’t have any hay. We’d have to feed them leaves from the trees."

Evelyn actually had plenty of hay in her space—the Four Seasons Green she had harvested back at the safe zone. ’But since leaves are still an option, I won’t bring it out yet.’

Evelyn was suddenly very grateful for her hoarding tendencies. ’Things I used to think were useless are turning out to be so important now.’ 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Let’s raise them," Taylor Vance said, his face flush with excitement. "There are too many to slaughter at once, and we couldn’t eat them all anyway. It’ll be more work, but we can take the flock with us when we leave. If we herd them into the woods, they can even forage for themselves." He looked at Ronan Kendrick as if gazing upon a mountain of gold.

"Evelyn, Ronan Kendrick is incredible! Not only can he hunt, but he can also tame all sorts of creatures."

Evelyn smiled, not disagreeing.

’And who could argue with that?’

They herded the flock into the courtyard. The horses and mammoths paid them no mind, but the two elk seemed to think they’d found relatives. They trotted over to join the flock, only to be sent scurrying back by a chorus of bleats.

"Ronan Kendrick led us across three mountains! We were starting to think the day was a bust. Then, who would’ve guessed it, we saw a mountainside teeming with argali. It’s a hollow over there, so there wasn’t much snow, and that’s where the flock was living," Quincy said, practically bursting with excitement, as if he’d found the sheep himself, his face beaming with vicarious pride.

"That’s right. We were just going to try and catch one each, but Ronan Kendrick said he had a way to tame them, so we herded the entire flock back instead."

Zion Lowell asked curiously, "Then why did you kill all the musk oxen?"

Ronan Kendrick walked over to Evelyn and brushed the snow from her shoulders before answering Zion’s question.

"Even if I tamed them, musk oxen are savage and vengeful by nature. They would have harmed others when I’m not around."

Understanding dawned on everyone.

The argali were bleating nonstop. The courtyard was large, but they still weren’t sure where to build a pen for them.

"We can build a lean-to against the wall and cover the top with branches. Let’s keep them there for now."

"Alright, we’ll go cut some more wood and branches then."

"Let’s eat first. It’s getting late, and we can go chopping after dinner," Evelyn said. "Now that we have all these argali, we won’t need to go hunting in the mountains for a while. We have enough firewood, so for the next few days, let’s focus on cutting more branches. I’m guessing this blizzard could last another month or two."

"Take the mammoths with you. They can haul the branches back; they can carry a lot in a single trip."

Quincy sighed. "Thank goodness for the mammoths. These two big fellas are incredibly useful. It’s a shame they’re both males, so they can’t have any calves."

"Alright, everyone, warm your hands by the fire first. We’ll eat once you’ve thawed out. We made steamed buns today, so eat as much as you like." After speaking, Evelyn pulled Ronan Kendrick into the kitchen. His hands, she noted, were still fairly warm.

"Here, drink some hot water to warm up from the inside."

Ronan Kendrick smiled at her. "I’m not cold."

"Drink it anyway. We made several dishes today, all of them your favorites."

Ronan Kendrick’s eyes lit up. "In that case, I’ll eat extra today."