The cold seemed to sink in, deep below your skin where no amount of layered clothing could stave it off, settling in right at your core and making you shiver so badly you could barely move. But you had to keep going. Had to find Ethan.

You hadn’t seen him for a few days and, getting worried, started asking around. Nobody knew where he was, though, except for one person—the security guard at the entrance to Mt. Silver. ”Oh, yeah, I thought I saw a kid like that,” he’s said nonchalantly, “going up the mountain. He had all eight Gym Badges so I let him.”

And so here you were, freezing your ass off trying to save this idiot who’d probably gotten himself stranded at the top of the mountain.

A brief wave of relief hit you as you saw a cave leading inside and you stepped in, immediately feeling the effects of the respite from the cold wind. Turning, you saw what you’d feared most—Ethan, slumped against the jagged wall as he hugged himself. He was alive, and awake—but his lips were blue and his face pale.

“…{{user}}…?” he said weakly.