Darkness.

It was all he remembered at the start.

Darkness, and long corridors, and a red liquid dripping out of his mouth and eyes with every step he took. Where… was he?

He finally came out of the corridors, into rooms. Rooms filled with odd contraptions. They reminded him of logic puzzles he used to play in his youth. Nothing drastically complex, thankfully, but, he still had to hold his sides while he did them, as though he would fall apart were he to let go.

Ugh, he was so tired.

Why in hell were these puzzles even here? And why, dare he enquire, did half of them involve falling down holes!? In his state, he was rewarded by the first of these by a horrid crack from his lower left leg, and white hot pain that spread across his whole body. Walking certainly became interesting after that.

Finally though, finally he made it to the end. It had taken him what felt like hours to navigate the infuriatingly simple puzzles, being as he had to lean on the left wall of every chamber to support his leg.

This place was baffling. After all those puzzles that were clearly meant to stop dull witted intruders, presumably so they would become impaled on spikes, fall down a slightly too long drop or just get stuck and starve to death... after all that, to see… what was essentially a regular house. Of course, it was abandoned, it would have been out of place had it been fully furnished and occupied, but, it was a nice change. And, Powers Bless, nary a puzzle to be seen. Which meant he could take his time exploring it.

He could have easily just stayed put, but, he wasn't especially put at ease by the abandoned home. No, no, he needed to continue. He wasn't sure where he was going, and he wasn't sure where he had been, but he did not want to stay here.

And instead of going back through the puzzles, in the basement, he found a large door with a symbol proudly engraved upon it. A new corridor? A backdoor, perhaps?

With a weak hand, he pushed the door open, and stepped through.

On the other side though, there was no left wall for him to use as a prop, and he promptly fell face first at the ground, a fresh burst of pain coming from his leg. But his mind became distracted from that, by the burst of cold hitting his face, as he toppled into a thick blanket of soft, fresh snow.

With weak arms, he pushed himself into a sitting position in the snow, looking at the red stains on it from the red liquid that was still oozing out of his face.

[Snow?] He wondered out loud, looking at the crystalised water.
It was certainly not what he had been expecting. The room on the other side of the door hadn't been the slightest bit cold.

Speaking of the door, he turned his head at a low scraping sound, and watched helplessly as the large stone door slid shut. He didn't even raise a hand in protest. He was too tired to.

THUD.

He sat there in the snow, staring at the closed door for a long while. It wasn't until the area around him started to lighten that he mustered the energy to look at this new place he found himself in.

It was a redwood forest. Thousands of tall, sturdy trees spread out around him, every single one with thick clumps of snow clinging to their branches. From the state of the snow before him as well, this had only fallen perhaps an hour before he had come through the door- it was pristine, and glistening.

A shiver went up his back, and he decided it was about time to keep moving. He certainly didn't want to freeze to death, after all that! So, putting as much weight onto his better leg (he couldn't go so far as to say 'good leg') as he could, he trudged forwards through the trees, his dragging strides carving trenches in the snow, tinted red around the edges.

After what felt like an eternity, he heard voices. Voices meant one of two things. Either, he was losing his battle to not spiral into madness, or, there were people nearby.

Desperately clinging to the hope that the answer was the latter, he focused his energy into heading towards the sound.

It was a massive wave of relief in his soul when he found them.

They, admittedly, were children, who were currently having a snowball fight in a clearing, and, frankly, were the weirdest looking creatures that he had ever seen, but, regardless! They were people! He pulled himself against a tree on the edge of the clearing, and opened his mouth to ask for help, when one of them spotted him.

Her scream made his voice die in his throat.

Suddenly all the children were looking at him, and a second later, were either making for the proverbial hills with shrieks of fright, or, if they were a little braver, pelting their snowballs at him! He was sure that someone with massive injuries wasn't very pleasant to look at, but, that response seemed remarkably uncalled for!

One snowball was right on target, hitting him in his right eye. He tumbled backwards at the shock of it, the cold from the wet snow feeling like it was cutting right through him and hitting inside of his skull.

Perhaps this is what is meant by brain freeze? He fell backwards, and another burst of cold fogged his mind.

As his vision swam and started to blot out, he heard voices, in a language he didn't know, yet, could understand.

"...is going on…?"

"...Oh my…"

"...-ave you all done?"

"...what…. is he…?"

Darkness.