The snows came in earnest after that.
Day after day, the sky dumped fresh powder on the village until the longhouses were buried to their windowsills. Paths had to be dug and re-dug every morning. The animals huddled in their shelters, grateful for the warmth of their own bodies. Children were forbidden from wandering more than a few steps from their doors.
Kaelan had never experienced a winter like this.
In his old life, winter meant turning up the thermostat, wearing an extra layer, complaining about the commute. Here, winter was a living thing—a predator that lurked at the edges of the firelight, waiting for the careless or the unlucky. People died in winters like this. The old, the weak, the unlucky. It was simply a fact of life.
But the Raven Clan was prepared. Stores of dried meat and fermented fish filled the underground cellars. Firewood was stacked high against every longhouse. The people moved through the cold with practiced efficiency, their bodies hardened by generations of survival.
Kaelan helped where he could. His immortal body didn't feel the cold, so he drew the hardest tasks—digging paths, hauling wood, checking the animal shelters for weak spots. The villagers watched him work with a mixture of awe and gratitude.
"He doesn't even shiver," one old woman whispered to another as Kaelan passed, carrying a log that would have taken two men to lift.
"God-touched," the other replied knowingly. "The Wolf keeps him warm."
Kaelan pretended not to hear.
---
His relationship with Sigrid deepened through the long winter nights.
They slept in the same longhouse now—not in the same bed, but close enough that Kaelan could hear her breathing, could sense her presence even in sleep. During the day, they worked together, hunted together, sat together by the fire. The other villagers had stopped whispering about it. It was simply accepted: the Wolf and the Hunter were a pair.
One night, when the wind howled outside and the fire crackled low, Sigrid asked him the question he had been dreading.
"Where do you really come from?"
They were alone in a corner of the longhouse, wrapped in furs, watching the flames. The others were asleep, or pretending to be.
Kaelan was silent for a long moment. Then: "You won't believe me."
"Try me."
He took a breath. "I come from the future. Three thousand years from now. A being—a trickster, a god, something—brought me here and gave me these powers. I don't know why. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I just know I have to survive, and thrive, and build something that will last."
Sigrid stared at him. The firelight flickered across her face, revealing nothing.
"That's insane," she said finally.
"I know."
"You expect me to believe you're from three thousand years in the future?"
"I expect you to believe I'm telling you the truth. Whether you believe the truth itself is up to you."
She was quiet for a long time. Kaelan waited, his heart pounding despite himself.
Then she laughed.
It was a quiet laugh, barely more than a breath, but it was real. "You know what? I believe you."
"You do?"
"You're too strange to be from anywhere else. Too different. The way you talk, the way you move, the things you know and don't know." She shook her head. "Three thousand years. That's... that's impossible. But so is everything else about you."
Kaelan felt something loosen in his chest. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For believing me."
She leaned against him, her head on his shoulder. "You saved my cousin's son. You talked to wolves instead of killing them. You look at me like I'm the most precious thing in the world." She paused. "If you say you're from the future, then you're from the future. I don't need to understand it. I just need to know you're real."
Kaelan put his arm around her, pulling her close.
"I'm real," he said. "More real than anything."
They sat like that, wrapped in furs and each other, while the winter storm raged outside.
---
The next morning, Kaelan woke to find Sigrid already gone.
He sat up, frowning. Her furs were cold—she had been gone for a while. He rose, pulled on his wolf-fur coat, and stepped outside.
The village was silent under a fresh blanket of snow. No one stirred. Even the animals were quiet.
Then he heard it. A faint sound, carried on the wind. A scream.
He ran.
---
He found Sigrid at the edge of the forest, her knife drawn, facing down a massive bear.
It was a cave bear—easily twelve feet tall on its hind legs, its fur matted with ice, its jaws wide and roaring. It had emerged from hibernation too early, confused and hungry, and it had found Sigrid.
She was holding her ground, but barely. The bear was too big, too strong. Her knife would barely scratch it.
Kaelan didn't think. He moved.
The Leviathan Axe was in his hand before he knew he'd summoned it. He threw himself between Sigrid and the bear, the axe raised, his eyes blazing gold.
The bear charged.
Kaelan met it head-on.
The Leviathan Axe bit deep into the bear's chest, but the beast was massive, and its momentum carried it forward. Kaelan was knocked backward, the bear's weight crushing him into the snow. Its jaws snapped inches from his face, its breath hot and foul.
And then—nothing.
The bear went limp. Kaelan pushed it off to find Sigrid standing over them, her knife buried in the bear's eye, her face pale but determined.
"Are you insane?" she gasped. "Charging a cave bear?"
"Are you?" he shot back. "Facing one alone?"
They stared at each other for a moment. Then, despite everything, they both started laughing.
---
They dragged the bear back to the village together.
It took hours, and by the end they were both exhausted, but they did it. The villagers gathered to stare at the massive corpse, their eyes wide.
"You killed a cave bear?" Bjorn asked, his voice faint.
"We killed a cave bear," Kaelan corrected, nodding at Sigrid. "She got the killing blow."
Bjorn looked at his daughter. Then at Kaelan. Then back at his daughter.
"I don't know whether to be proud or terrified," he admitted.
"Both," Sigrid said cheerfully. "Definitely both."
That night, they feasted on bear meat. And for the first time since arriving in this world, Kaelan felt like he truly belonged.
---