What happens when we die?

Paradise in the Golden City?

Eternal Hunt in the Gray Forest?

Torment in the Black Depths?

Or something else?

The last thing she remembered was an intense heat ripping her body apart. She was thrown into a roaring maelstrom and tossed around violently before being spat into one of the Eleven Rivers. Then she felt cold, colder than cold, her blood began to freeze. The skies were hidden by a haunting murky mist, the ground was under a similar fog. She floated along the river until falling over the edge and into The Void. A vast emptiness of nothingness without shape or form. She floated for so long the rivers disappeared and darkness consumed everything she saw.

"Death…" a voice gurgled from the emptiness, "Is not your destiny today…"

Chapter 1: Lazarus Rising

Leafless trees were scattered across the Great Snow Sea. He had uncovered a couple patches of grass in hopes of luring a Metal Stag out of hiding.

Thane wore fur lined boiled black leather, a mask over his mouth and nose, and a hooded white fur cloak. He knelt in the snow and felt some small indents in the snow.

"Tracks." he whispered.

He whistled and a three-headed pup came to his side. He tapped his foot three times next to the tracks, the Cerberus sniffed and took off.

He wrapped the cloak around himself and hid beside a boulder. His bow was as white as the snow with red points on each end. He pulled back the arrow and held his position. A thin layer of snow fell upon him, completing his disguise.

A sharp snap from the forest alerted him. His irises flickered white and his arrow was coated with a matching flame. He focused on the barking, then he saw the metal antlers, and he let his arrow fly.

"Nice work, hunter." Thane fished a handful of treats from a pouch under his cloak. He threw the handful into the air and the three heads began catching them midair.

He put his thumb and index finger in his mouth and let out a sharp whistle that echoed across the forest. Soon enough a tall ebony steed with a fiery red mane joined them. Strapped to the saddle were ten dead rabbits.

He went right for the stag, he had to gut it before it started to bloat. First, he exposed the pelvic bone, then from the neck down he cut the hide all the way to the exposed bone. Second was cutting the abdominal wall without piercing the stomach, with two fingers under the thin membrane, he lifted and began to gingerly cut until the internals were revealed. He broke the pelvis making a clean path for the organs to slide out. Next was cutting the sternum in half and pulled out the sack containing the heart. Placing it aside he continued the process. Lastly was cutting the windpipe and diaphragm.

Now it was just a matter of pulling the guts clean out of the carcass. Gripping the windpipe, he slowly pulled everything out at once. He cut off the liver and kidneys and stored them with the heart.

"Now." Thane told Hunter, and he dove for the pile of meat discarded. He pulled three linen sheets from the saddle bags, wrapped up the organs he put aside, then tied the carcass by the legs to the back of the saddle.

"Hey, hey, hey!" He scolded as he returned to see left and right eating but pushing middle out of the way. "Let middle in there! Middle doesn't eat, no one eats." They understood that, and all three of them began eating. "That's better."

"Hunter." He looked down at the Cerberus licking the snow with blood stains. "Time to go home."

Hunter stood up and stretched then barked; Thane turned to see all three heads pointing at the sky. Thane looked up and saw his falcon flying in circles.

"Interesting." He watched his bird, "Come on." He hefted himself onto the saddle, "Let's go see what Fenix has found."

Hunter took off immediately while Thane followed behind. The three stopped just before the clearing. He tried to get them moving but they refused. He looked up and Fenix came to his arm. He brushed the snow on his hood and tried to get him to enter the clearing. Instead Fenix jumped on the saddle.

Thane dismounted and entered the clearing. He could see now why they refused to enter. The trees were laid down, uprooted even, as if they were blown back. The snow on the ground was evenly flat the only disturbance were his own footsteps, no animals nor wind disturbances. He continued forward and found a woman?

He dashed to her side and made a shocking discovery, she was naked! Her hair was as long as her body, sprawled onto the ground, and dark as blood. Thane was fooled for a second and thought she was lying in a pool of her own blood. Her skin was paler than the snow, except her hands and feet. They were as black as his steed.

"Damn." Thane sighed and looked away from her, "Another victim of the frost."

She gasped and Thane jumped. He knelt to see if he was hallucinating, and he saw her chest rising and falling. She was alive! He quickly tore his cloak off and wrapped her in it. He picked her up and carried her over to his horse. The horse tried to back away.

"Hey!" Thane snapped, "She's alive and needs help!"

The horse refused to go near her. He grabbed the reins and yanked the horse closer; he laid the woman on the saddle and hauled himself up. He kept one hand on her back steadying her against the stubborn steed's bucks. He dug his heels into the horse's flank. "Hyha! Ride! The faster we get home, the faster she's off you!"

Thane's Home-Away-From-Home, five acres of land surrounded by ten feet high stone walls, and in the far-right corner was the two-story Hunting Lodge. The moment he passed through the gates, he hitched his horse, and lifted her off its back. The horse neighed the moment she was off its back.

"Oh, quiet you." Thane scoffed, "I'll get the rest off you later."

Thane laid the woman on a settee in front the cooking station over a fire pit. Now that he was home, he grabbed a proper blanked and pillow from the linen closet. As he was exchanging the cloak for the blanket, he noticed a rather disfiguring scar in the center of her chest, and a horrible burn on her right cheek. She didn't sound like she was in any pain; her chest rose and fell as if she were having a peaceful dream.

There wasn't much left he could do for her now. He went back outside and began to skin and clean today's haul. He placed the stag and seven rabbits in the ice house. The three he didn't store, he placed in the smoke house. He laid the meat down, returned outside, and started a fire in a small box. The box had an opening to feed the fire without letting snow in, and the roof of said box funneled the smoke directly into the shack.

Three hours had passed before Thane made it back inside the Hunting Lodge. The woman was still fast asleep on the settee. He set the meat on a nearby counter and began to prepare his supper. He smoked an extra rabbit in case she awoke.

He oiled a pan then added some shallots, turnips, garlic, and a little sugar. He crushed up some juniper berries, black pepper corn, and chopped some rosemary; then combined the three bowls into the cauldron over the fire.

Next was some red wine, chicken stock; as Thane walked to the cupboard he took another look at the woman still fast asleep. He grabbed some dark chocolate, broke it up, and mixed it all together. Lastly was some parsley, then he mixed them all up and began to stir the stew. He poured himself a bowl and took a seat across from the woman. He threw a log into the fire before he began to eat his supper. Before he took the first spoonful into his mouth, he saw her begin to stir.

"You're awake." He smiled, "How about that." She tried to sit up, but Thane rushed to her side, "Whoa, easy there. Easy. You've been out cold…moons know how long you've been in the forest."

"F-Forest?" she croaked.

"Here." Thane untied the waterskin on his belt and handed it to her, "Why don't you relax a second, get your bearings?"

She drank greedily until she coughed, "T-Thank you."

"You're welcome." He smiled, "Do you mind telling me why you're in the middle of the woods, during First Snow, naked as the day you were born?"

She lifted the blanket then tightly wrapped herself in it with a furious blush, "I-I don't know."

"Okay, how about those scars?"

She looked down and ran her fingers over the scar on her chest, then she stared in horror at her black hands. Her mouth opened and closed repeatedly but no sound came out.

"Okay…" Thane took her hand in his, "We don't have to talk about that. How about your name? Can you tell me your name?"

She shook her head, "I can't remember that either!"

"Really? That's troublesome. Let's focus on your recovery before we go back there?" Thane calmed her down seeing that she was on the verge of a full-on panic attack, "How about some food? I just made some stew."

"O-Okay…" She nodded.

Thane smiled and poured her a bowl. With shaky hands she got a spoonful in her mouth. He began eating his and sat back in his chair.

"What is this?" she asked.

"Rabbit. First Snow is the best time to hunt rabbit. I got lucky the other day found some Metal Stag tracks. Caught him and cleaned him today."

"You're a hunter?" she asked.

"Hunter, Cook, Animal Tamer, Warrior, Prince."

"Prince?" She tilted her head.

It was his turn to be surprised, "Yeah? I'm Prince Thane Stormheart?" She continued to stare at him, "My father is Stanley Stormheart? King of the Metallands?" She shook her head, "Wow, that's some serious amnesia, Carmine."

"Carmine?"

"Well, you need a name, don't you? I can't just call you Lady or girl, can I?"

"Okay, but why Carmine?"

"Your hair of course." Thane pointed with his spoon, "I don't even think my sisters have that shade of red."

'Carmine' looked at her crimson locks, "I guess it'll do until I remember my real name." She grabbed the ladle in the cauldron and refilled her bowl, "So, if you're a Prince, where's your castle?"

"Technically it's my family's castle." He clarified, "And it's about a week that-a-way." Thane pointed at the wall behind her. "That's before First Snow; if we tried to leave now it would probably take two weeks? Maybe more, I never tried going back with this much snow on the ground."

"So, what do you do?"

"I hunt." He shrugged, "I leave Stormhaven right when First Snow begins, and I leave when the trails clear. When I do, I load up my carriage with all I've gathered, and I store them in Stormhaven's larders. Since you're going to be here a while, why not come with?"

"What?"

"Well, what else are you going to do?"

"Try to find out who I am."

"How do you propose to do that?"

Carmine looked at her stew hoping he wouldn't press. When she glanced up, he was still staring.

"How about this?" Thane proposed, "My little sisters are witches. You help me with my hunts, and I'll take you to them, see if they can do anything about your missing memories. Deal?"

"I don't really have much of a choice, do I?"

"You always have a choice." he answered, then stood up, "The days are shorter after First Snow. You can finish the stew if you'd like. Get some rest, or more rest, we'll head out at sunrise."

Carmine nodded and got comfortable on the settee.

"Uh…" Thane raised a finger to the stairs, "I have a spare bedroom, and some nightwear. They're mine, so, they might be a little big on you. But at least it's something."

"Thank you, Thane." Carmine wrapped the blanket around her and followed him up the stairs. He opened the door revealing a small single feather bed. He rummaged through a nearby wardrobe and gave her a cotton shirt and pants.

"The pants don't fit." Carmine handed them back to him, "But the shirt's long enough to cover the important bits."

Thane opened his eyes, "Well, I suppose that's what counts. Shall I wake you?"

"With food like earlier? Of course."

"Nice to know you have a sense of humor. Goodnight Carmine."

"Goodnight Thane." Carmine closed the door and crawled into bed. It didn't take her long to fall asleep again.

Morning came in an instant.

Carmine had hoped a dream would give her a hint of her past. Her hopes were rewarded with a dreamless sleep.

She stretched until her joints and spine popped, then kicked her feet over the side. She stared at her black feet and wiggled her toes. She could feel the stone floor's scratchy textures on each toe. She reached down and caressed the stones, she could feel everything she touched, but why did she look…dead?

Carmine came downstairs and saw Thane looking over an assortment of armors. She looked on the table nearby and saw a steaming bowl of stew and an empty bowl next to it.

"Venison this time." Thane said, "That metal stag I caught yesterday smoked to perfection. If I do say so myself."

Carmine grabbed her breakfast and went to his side, "So, what's all this?"

"I brought all my leather armors when I built the lodge." Thane explained, "I should have something that'll fit you. Even if they are a little big, they all have fur sewn into the lining, giving you an extra layer."

Carmine tried on a pair of pants that were loose. She did a practice kick and rotated her hips before taking them off. One pair was too tight, she couldn't get her leg into the air. Finally, she settled on a pair that was tight enough to not get caught on anything and loose enough to give her full movement.

Thane's curiosity had been piqued, he went to the storage closest and grabbed a bow, "Heads up." He threw it at her, and she caught it without looking, "My dear Carmine, you had my curiosity, now you have my attention."

"What do you…?" Carmine realized she had the bow in her hand, "Whoa."

"Your memories may be gone." Thane handed her a quiver of arrows with steel heads, "But your muscles haven't forgotten."

"How does that make any sense?"

Rather than answer, Thane drew a dagger and thrust it at Carmine. Her response was to drop the bow. Her right-hand blocked Thane's wrist, and her left slapped it out of his hand and sent it across the room.

"How did I do that?" Carmine stared at her hands.

"You have a warrior's training." Thane rotated his wrist, "It's not a complete answer but it's a clue as to who you are."

"How did you know?" she asked grabbing the bow.

"I watched you trying on the armors. The ones you picked allow for full motion and won't snag on anything. I wonder what you'll pick when we get to a proper forge. Another piece of the puzzle."

"Oh?"

"You really hate bows."

"What?" Carmine was surprised to hear that. Thane pointed at her hand, and when she opened her palm the wood was splintered and it snapped in half, "Interesting."

"Oh?" It was Thane's turn to be surprised.

"I think it was what killed me." Carmine stared at the bow.

"That's a bold proclamation."

Carmine's hand hovered over the scar on her chest, "I can feel it…a bow did this to me…"

"Okay." He grabbed the bow, "Perhaps we shouldn't work on the bow…"

"No." Carmine shook her head, "I'm going to find whoever did this and do the same to her."

Thane flicked her forehead, "That is the dumbest thing I've heard. This person killed you and you want to kill them in some twisted sense of poetic justice?"

"I can't just let who ever did this get away with killing me!"

"How far do you honestly think you'll get? They've already killed you once, do you really think they won't hesitate to kill you again?" He paused and sighed, Carmine grit her teeth, and begrudgingly nodded, "You need a clearer head and a better form. Come on, we'll start your trining now."

"What about hunting?"

"We'll do that tomorrow." He grabbed a different bow from the shed, "I can't have you hunting with a form like that."

"What's wrong with my form?"

"You have the basics." Thane acknowledged, "But your form is saying that you learned the basics then moved on to another weapon style. On the one hand, we have an extensive armory in Stormhaven, perfect place to find your personal weapon. On the other hand, the basics won't get you far enough."

"So, you know every weapon in the armory I take it?" She asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"Aye. My days were spent in the training yard, my evenings in the library. All royalty must know how to defend themselves. First, give me that bow."

Carmine tossed the remains to Thane and he tossed them into the fire pit. He tossed a different bow at her, this one had a knuckle duster in the middle, the wood was sturdier, leather reinforcing the wood, and the string practically hummed with anticipation.

"Alright, show me what you can do." Thane stood next to her a pointed at a bale of hay with a red circle in the middle.

Carmine readied an arrow.

"Relax your grip. Allow the bow to rest in your palm."

Carmine fired the arrow and it hit the outer rim of the target.

"Try again. This time lay the arrow on the other side. It'll save you a second on the reload. Fire."

This time Carmine hit the red ring. Thane tapped her quiver and she hit the red ring again. Carmine growled and fired a second arrow hitting the inner yellow ring. She grit her teeth and fired again hitting the red center, but not the direct center. With her sixth shot she finally hit the dead center.

"Yes!" Carmine cheered.

"Someone's competitive." Thane pulled the arrows out of the target, "I know archers who'd give their eye for a score like that."

Thane went to the supply shed and came out with a metal pole with a pulley attached to it. At the end of the pulley was a large metal bowl. He dumped a long-rusted iron chain into the bowl and motioned for Carmine to join him.

"What's this?" She asked.

"This will strengthen your firing arm. Hold onto the pole with your bow arm and pull the rope in the same motion as if you were firing an arrow."

Carmine did as instructed.

"Perfect." Thane nodded, "I am going to go hunt. Keep doing this until I return." He had expected some defiance in his statement, he was genuinely surprised when she began pulling the rope.

He was surprised when he left, when he returned several hours later and saw Carmine still pulling the rope all previous expectations had been shattered.

"Time to clean the rabbits." he announced.

Carmine dropped the bucket and walked over to the cleaning station. Thane noticed her arm barely move. No sign of fatigue in the slightest, almost as if she'd done rigorous training before. This only solidified his first assumption.

"Do you know how to clean a rabbit?" He asked handing her an apron. Carmine looked at him with a playful glare, "Oh yeah. Just watch and imitate."

Thane took a pinch of fur in his fingers and cut a notch at the base of the neck. From there he inserted two fingers and peeled off the lower half of fur like a glove. Flipping it over he removed the rest of the fur off the body. Carmine grabbed her own rabbit and did the same.

"Usually the tail stays on, but you just got to…" he ripped the tail off and tossed it into a nearby bucket. He popped the joints in each leg and tossed the severed feet into the same bucket. "If you can't snap the feet off, there's a spare knife over there. Then comes the head." With one swift motion he twisted the head clean off and then tossed that into the same bucket. Carmine twisted but her head didn't come off, she grabbed the spare and decapitated the rabbit.

He grabbed a small knife and cut at the base of the sternum and began to cut. He used his index and middle finger to lift the loose skin and cut away. "Here's a nice little trick when you're cleaning rabbit or any animal for that matter. When you get to the bottom, so, you don't snip the bladder or intestines, use your fingers to pull everything up. Then use your knife to split the pelvis." Thane lifted the carcass into the air, "After that, just pull everything out. Grab the heart, and peel everything away. They'll go right down the path you made when you cut open the pelvis."

Carmine was unflinching as she did exactly what Thane did. She had the carcass in her hand, she grabbed the heart and ripped out everything.

"Good. Next time don't rip everything out, you might rupture one of the organs and spoil the meat. Gently peel everything out."

"But it's faster if I just yank everything out."

"There's the fast way, and there's the right way. There's a reason it's called: "First Snow", the later ones are deadly. It gets so cold men and animals freeze and die in their own homes, winds tear your skin faster than any sword, the suns vanish for weeks without end. Animals flee for their lives, food becomes scarce, one screw up could result in days or weeks without food. There's the fast way, and there's the right way."

Carmine stared at her rabbit, "I'm sorry."

Thane shook his head, "I went a little overboard. My father once said: "Being a king is like being a parent, only you have thousands of children." I can't protect them all, I know…I just…I don't know…I don't want them to starve."

Carmine grabbed Thane's shoulder, and flashed him a reassuring smile, "We won't let them. Now, what's next?"

Thane nodded then showed the empty body to Carmine, "This is why First Snow is the best time to hunt rabbit. They still have plenty of fat on them. This next part I can't stress enough, use your knife to examine the liver, don't touch it with your bare hands."

"What am I looking for?" Carmine asked running her knife over the rabbit's liver.

"Rabbit Fever." Thane examined his rabbit's guts, "It can kill a grown man. The way to find it is to check the liver for white spots."

Carmine examined the liver, flipped it over and kept going, "I don't see any."

"Then your rabbit is clean. As is mine. Now to cut away the meat."

Thane grabbed a different knife and cut off the hind legs, shoulders, and the saddle.

"I like to cook it on the bone. You can take the bones out, but to me you lose more meat that way."

He threw the guts into a different bucket and the meat he took to a shack right next to the Cleaning Station.

"Two down." Thane returned to the Cleaning Station, "Eight to go."

After Thane and Carmine smoked the two they first cleaned, they packed the rest in the ice-house. Thane grabbed the bucket of heads and feet and went to the walls. He began throwing them over the edge and waited. He smiled when he saw the wolves come out of the shadows and begin eating the scraps.

"Why did you do that?" Carmine asked.

"Never use the head." He said, "Besides if I feed the wolves, then they aren't out hunting when we are."

"That works?"

"It has so far." Thane knocked on the bucket before grabbing the one full of guts.

"More?"

"No, these are for the falcons." Thane led her to the Falconry Mews, "They're trained to one eat the rabbit during the hunt, so we feed them after we cleaned them."

He held the meat in the palm of his hand and slowly extended it to the falcons. There were seven unmoving falcons staring at them from their posts. Carmine laid down seven piles of meat then shut the cage, there was a sharp whistle from Thane and they flew down simultaneously and began to eat.

"Their synchronization is incredible."

"Wait till you see Stormhaven's Beastmaster." Thane chuckled as they returned to the lodge, "Haven't met a creature she can't tame."

"Thane?" Carmine asked as they prepared their dinner, "Earlier…you sounded angry…"

"There was a winter many years ago, was the worst anyone had seen in their lives. First Snow trapped us in, the wind was so cold it froze any who were caught in it no matter how many layers they had, and the suns vanished until Spring. So many people starved. Many more died trying to find food. Parents killed their children so they wouldn't see that fate…"

Carmine gasped.

"I was too young to do anything." Thane shook his head, "I know I can't control the weather…I just…I just know that when the real winter comes, the more packed the larders, the better chance we have of everybody coming out alive. I know it's foolish to think I can protect everyone."

"Protecting someone is not foolish." Carmine sharply answered.

Thane was surprised at her answer. He smiled and resumed his dinner, his smiling never fading.

"Can I hunt tomorrow?" She asked.

"If that's what you desire."

"What I desire is to know who the hell I am." Carmine mocked, "But hunting will do till then."

Thane and Carmine trekked through the woods bows in hand. Carmine took point and kept her eyes glued to the ground. She raised her fist and Thane stopped immediately.

"What did you find?" Thane asked.

"Tracks." Carmine pulled out a leather-bound journal he had given her. She flipped through the pages of different paw and hoof prints, "Same size as deer, but the pattern's different. Boar?"

"Maybe." He examined the tracks, "What do we do next?"

"Find it, hunt it, and kill it."

"Was that a question?"

Carmine nodded and readied her bow; Thane followed close behind. He looked up and saw his falcon diving. He really needed to send Stormheaven's BeastMaster a fruit basket, for training his falcons to hunt smaller animals while he hunted the bigger game. She even trained them to drop the smaller carcasses onto the hooks built into his steed's saddle.

A twig snapped alerting the two of them almost immediately. They slammed their backs together and drew an arrow. There was more snapping and in rapid succession too. Suddenly, bursting through the tree line was a bear. Black as night and taller than the two of them standing on each other's shoulders.

"Oh! You're a big boy aren't you!" Thane guffawed, He opened his palm and without a second passing, a great sword wider than his hand and almost as tall as him was in his hand.

"Oh, because that's fair." Carmine scoffed gesturing at her bow.

He chuckled and the two of them took formation. Thane swung his sword and Carmine jumped back and fired an arrow. The arrow gained the bear's attention and began toward Carmine.

He grit his teeth and gripped the handle with both hands setting the blade aflame with white fire. He began waving it around in the hopes of distracting the bear. Carmine gulped, what she was about to do was asinine to say the least, she jumped into the air, and with the bow's knuckle duster, she punched the bear to look at him.

With a new target the bar began toward him. With a smile plastered on his face he waited for the incoming attack. Carmine couldn't help but copy his infectious smile. She pulled back an arrow and her eyes became dry.

Soon enough her eyes began to sting and throb so much Carmine was afraid her eyes were going to burst from her skull. She closed her eyes and tried to rub the pain away, when that didn't work, she grabbed a handful of snow and rubbed that in.

When she opened her eyes, she wasn't in the same woods. These trees were in full bloom with blood red leaves. The bear was covered in white bone armor, with bone spikes protruding from its hide. Then she looked at Thane. He was a foot shorter? Was his hair always blonde? He wasn't wearing armor when he left, was he?

Thane gripped his sword tighter and began to feed white lightning into the flames. The bear stood on its hind legs and roared, it readied its claws and prepared to strike. With a roar of his own Thane surged forward and swung with all his might and severed the bear's head.

With that final act, Carmine's delusion was over. The bear began to fall over, but with that, she remembered something…

"Haha!" Thane cheered as he caught the head.

Carmine rocked back and forth before falling into the snow.

"Carmine!" He rushed to her side and lifted her head off the ground.

"Pyrrha." She could barely keep her eyes open, "My name…it's Pyrrha." She passed out in his arms.

Thane shook her but she was out cold, "Shit."

A/N: This story is under comic construction!
Please go to the Genital WarThunder P/a/treon to support the illustrator and I.