I woke to freezing cold, which was weird. Even in the winter I kept my bedroom even in the winter. Even if I had my air conditioning, and fan on with my window, it still wouldn't account for this cold. I'd just washed my bedsheets and blanket so I had switched my blanket for a bigger one. With me certainly not being small the blanket could keep me warm in freezing temperatures.
The second I opened my eyes I realized why I was so cold. I was not in my room at all. I was in fact outside in snow with the sky covered in thick snow clouds. I stood from the snow and brushed the bit that'd stuck to me away while looking around. I was in a polar area. Everything was white. All around was ice, snow, and glaciers. In the distance was a thin blob of black.
I took a step to go towards the blob before I froze to death but I stumbled and face planted. I could feel it very well now through the cold pain on my face. I was small. I had thin scraps of clothing on my seemingly tiny frame. I stood my tiny self back up and began my walk to the black blob in the distance. I seemed to have some luck with whatever the hell was going on as the snow of wherever I was wasn't thick.
Eventually my body got past cold. My chattering teeth were slowing down as I attempted to keep moving. The thin boots on my feet barely kept me dry as my body heat slowly leaked out. As the blob in the distance got slightly bigger I heard a soft crunch of soft ice behind me, and suddenly I was in the air with a mouth full of fangs on my left bicep. The pain of my arm breaking and fangs sinking into my cold flesh shot through me and blinded me.
When I hit the ice and looked up I found a gigantic dog muzzle covered in my blood falling onto me. In a desperate attempt to defend myself I threw my tiny hand up at its throat. Instead of its neck slamming into my hand and its jaws clamping onto me a blast of light and heat leapt from me at the massive dog. The flame that left my palm exploded on the bloody fur of the beast and I was immediately hit by the smell of burnt hair and blood.
I rolled over my broken arm with a scream of pain and lashed out with the feeling of heat that had shot through me. A small wave of fire curved away from my waving hand and slammed into the dogs face. A bone shaking howl of pain ripped through me as it reared up. I heard the sickening pop of one of its eyes as gore leaked from the burned and bloody hole.
The beast shook the ground as it fell then turned and ran. That right, that thing was definitely an animal. Most predators would only attack if they deemed the hunt worth it. My worth had become danger when I'd started throwing fire at it. As the bloodied animal fled and disappeared, I looked down at my mangled arm. It wasn't as bad as it looked. Sure I was in debilitating pain with muscle and flesh shredded, and my arm broken but I could now use fire somehow.
I know what I have to do but I don't know if I have the strength to do it. Throwing away my whatever inhibition I had and grabbed onto my injured arm. A flash of pain made me puke in the snow as I tried to do what needed to be done. I pulled on that heat I'd felt go through me and it trickled out of me. I flinched and clamped my hand down on my arm as my hand lit with flame and seared my flesh.
I ran my flaming hand up and down my bicep, covering it in blackening burn scars. As soon as I let go I slumped into the ice and snow, my burned arm in a snow patch that was now steaming. I lay there for a bit before my body jolted from an instinctive pull on that heat. I pushed myself up and grabbed some snow. I began my trek towards the black blob as my vision swayed between blurry, unfocused, and fixated.
I continuously picked up ice for my blackened scars to turn to steam as water trickled down to my hand. I don't know how long it took as my body fueled itself with flames. I finally caught a better look at the black blob in the sky. The snow of the blob was black and gray. It fell like normal snow but the snow was stained by ash. I could taste the ash slightly as it flowed through the air.
As I continued walking I could feel my body shutting down again. My heat wasn't working anymore. As I stumbled through an ice field nearing the blob I noticed a large black jagged thing inside lots of jagged ice. I dragged myself towards it hoping it was some kind of salvation. I stumbled into it and found it was metal, cold as the towering spikes of ice around it.
My failing vision caught one of the ice spikes impaling the metal. I pulled on the last of my heat and carved a small hole through the ice and into the metal. The crawl through was more like me flopping into the hole and sliding in on the ice and water. I found boxes upon boxes, stacked around and above me. Lots of them were trashed or simply broken. I slowly crawled around on the ice cold metal collecting the scraps of boxes. I tossed them in front of a box without a lid and on its side. I spotted a box shattered in the ground and pulled lots of fabric from the debris. I slowly laid then in the box and curled up on them with another bit of fabric.
With a bit of struggle I flicked some sparks into the box scraps and carefully blew on it and the wood. The small sparks bit into the wood and produced some smoke. I continued doing this till a small fire was lit and I curled tighter into my fabric and the box. I passed out hoping that I wouldn't wake to realize that I was dead halfway into the night.
Halfway through my exhausted sleep I woke as my fire was nearly embers. I crawled out with my scrap fabric held around me with my left hand clamped onto the two side. I slowly and painfully gathered more wood scraps and piled them onto my fire then looked around via the slightly increased light from my fire.
I found myself in a massive storage room of sorts. I looked through the boxes I could and found plenty more fabric and piled it into my box. I struggled with one box to get the small oven furnace thing I'd found and rolled/scraped it over to my fire. It had some tubing with it so I rolled it over as well as I didn't want to kill myself with smoke. I found lots of miscellaneous supplies but the best was some kind of preserves. A box of what looked like canned fish meat and some kind of fruit and vegetables. I continued to dig around until I found a long box with a latch.
Opening it revealed most of long, heavy blades without guards, handles, or any handle of any kind besides their tangs. I wrapped my cold fingers around the smallest blades tang and took it with me. While digging I finally found some clothing in the form of dark red and black clothing like an armored ninja. With the new blade I easily pried open every box I could reach. Lots of stuff later and plenty of cloth and fabric on my shelter, I sat down to eat something. I pulled my little oven thing up and started a fire inside. On top I opened some fish and while it was cooking I slowly set up the piping I found with it. I set the pipes end in the entrance hole and shoved some boxes in the way.
I sat down and carefully took the fish I'd 'cooked' and took one. It was slightly larger then a sardine, and had its head and innards removed. I took a bite and my mouth immediately filled with the taste of oily, salty, fish. I quickly finished the fish and opened up some beans and peas with lots of chili flakes. I scarfed down the beans and drank the liquid from it then lay down to get more rest.
I woke up some time later and ate some more fish and spicy beans. I pored the oily liquid from my two fish cans onto some fabrics and tossed more wood into my fire. I then wrapped the soaked cloth onto a long, conveniently shaped wood piece and lith the end. With the makeshift torch I and my new clothing I stayed warm as I went to the only door in this room.
I was forced to set my torch down to hang onto the doors spin wheel handle. I bounced with my full body weight while keeping my wrapped up arm still as best I could. I'd tighten the sleeve around my broken arm and then wrapped some fabric around my torso and arm to keep it all still. After some bouncing the door wheel creaked and turned. A lot more struggle and I finally got it open.
I slowly pushed the door open and found a dilapidated metal hall with some other doors and steps up a floor at the end. I didn't what to struggle with more doors so I ignored them and went up. I continued to go up despite many hallways and doors and everything found the sky. It was a snowy white with small bits of blue poking through.
The large black blob in the distance had thinned to a light grey with what I could guess was small fire smoke streaking into the sky. Looking around I found that I had stumbled into a large metal ship with black and red flags on it. I explored the ship some but found most rooms difficult to get in to or they were filled with obvious basic traps.
I returned to my, comparatively small, storage room and went through what I had. Sorting out the stuff in this room was difficult but I managed. I now had a stack of tarps, a box of weapons, some helmets and armor, food stuffs, and some miscellaneous items such as some board game. There were a few books but like the board game and some other stuff they were all in a different language.
It looked like Chinese but I'd never looked into that language or any others so I had no idea if I was close to correct or not. I quickly realized however that where ever I was had no modern technology. It was all cold steel and survival. With nothing to do I began going through the ship as best I could. Most doors were hard to open but I would eventually get inside. I quickly moved to a room near the deck and painfully dragged all my essentials up to it. I had looted most of this abandoned ship and had plenty of preserved food and fuel for heat. Without much else to do I began messing with my fire.
Over the tediously slow days I had remade my arms splint with metal and better fabric then rested inbetween my fire testing. I could now throw the fire pretty well and reach good distances. My knowledge of science made augmenting my flames easy but it was incredibly draining. While busying myself I made some things. The first was armor as I didn't want to be disabled by another animal attack. I stripped the steel plates and such from their sheaths in the armor clothing and cut them down to my size.
I was small and thin so the armor lost most of its shape but it would still hold up against an animals jaws and claws. My ability to put the armor together was shoddy at best but I finished a decent set of armor. I scrounged together all my white cloth and made it into a snow ghillie for near invisibility in the ice and snow. I took my small knife and made a hidden sheath for it then grabbed a large heavy glaive blade and made a hefty machete.
With my gear done I grabbed some blades and welded them together to make long sled blades. I painstakingly attached them to a box made steering blade with another glaive blade and welded metal. Finally I made some proper boots made with the boots I'd found here. I'd taken a sheet of thin steel and wrapped it around the boots I made then welded small spikes for traction.
I piled all the books I'd found in the bottom of my sled box, blades and good steel next, and nice cloth and armor on top.
I maneuvered the sled outside in the morning with all my 'trade goods' inside. I hung my machete on the back of my waist in a carved wooden sheath made to make it easy to draw while being out of the way.
I slowly pushed the sled towards the smoke in the distance in hopes of finding some village or something. The ice and snow was just as it had been and I quickly found myself overlooking a small primitive village with a snow wall around it. As I approached I could see people in blue and white notice me while most of the men I could see were readying boats on the nearby shore.
When I got close I was met by lots of grumpy looking men with primitive spears and swords. I stopped when spears were leveled. They started speaking but we quickly resorted to gestures. One of the motioned for me to move my hood so I pulled my snow ghillie up and flopped it to my back. A bit of shock rippled through the gathered crowd as the warriors or guards tried to communicate with me.
I slowly walked around my sled and flipped the cover off my box to reveal some of the stuff I had. The leading figures seemed to catch onto what I wanted and helped me unload my stuff onto the cover. A few words to his people and I started trading some things. I got some high quality furs from the leader in exchange for the blades, steel, and armor. The villagers got most of the fabrics I had for the currency of this place. I traded a bit more and got a bow with lots of arrows. By the end I was mostly left with the books, currency and my new weapon.
Eventually I sold all my books to an elderly lady who was shown great care by the leader. While looking everyone else down she was doing the same to me. I could see her look at my arm while I took the currency for the books. She shared a few words with the leader and others and one was sent away. The old lady gestured for me to wait till three ladies and the other man came back.
The old lady practically stripped the ghillie off me and found my left arm secured to my body. She shared a glance with the other women and gestured for me to show my arm. I looked at her then around at all the potential enemies. She threw a few words at the leader and the men and all but the leader and another man left. The old lady then took my hand and pulled me towards a large igloo.
The leader and the three women followed as the last man stood by my stuff. They hadn't given me a reason to distrust them so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and followed. Inside the igloo the old lady and one of the women helped me remove my gear and clothes till I was only in my pants and my arm wrapping. I tore free the knot and pulled away the wrapping on my torso with a wince as my arm moved.
I removed the splints and wrap to reveal my charred arm. Everyone in the room flinched at my reveal as I propped it up slowly by holding my wrist. The old lady immediately started ordering the women around for stuff as the leader approached. He asked a question to me, clearly forgetting that I didn't understand him. The old lady whacked him on the arm and he looked down in shame. From the reactions I could easily guess what he wanted to know.
I lowered my arm and grabbed a nearby thin piece of wood and a thin paintbrush with ink. The dogs terrifying image had been seared into my brain, so it was easy to make an outline of what it looked like. Before another question could be asked I pointed at the fangs then at my arm. I slipped my blade out some and gave myself a minor cut, just enough to draw blood. I painted the blood onto the dogs mouth and pointed to my arm. I drew a line and outlined it in blood then slashed through it and smeared the blood. They understood that I was explaining its mangling of my arm.
I then raised my right hand, made sure I was away from my weapons, put the old lady between myself and the leader, then I showed my palm. With a pull of heat and energy a small candle flame bloomed in my hand. They were all briefly stunned but the leader quickly recovered and pulled a dagger. I extinguished the flame and backed away till the old lady started harassing the man.
After a bit of calming down I brought the flame back up then slowly spread it onto my entire hand. I then reached over and showed that I had grabbed my arm and ran the flames up and down it to cauterize the wound. The leader was a bit dumbfounded, as were the other women, but the old lady had mostly ignored it. She snapped the women into focus and they eventually gave her some colored creams or ointments. She sat me down on a stool and had the women prop up my arm. She slowly applied the stuff to my arm then they set up a wooden structure for my arm to rest on. The old lady had washed off the cream a few times over two hours, every time the water came off pitch black from my charred flesh.
I had multiple flashes of pain but it mostly came when pressure was applied. Eventually she put on a final cream and let it sit till my entire arm was numb. I leaned back as she and another woman approached with a small bowl and some primitive tweezers. The removal of my charred flesh was less painful than it was disturbing. At multiple points they had to use a small bone saw blade to carefully remove stubborn pieces. By the time they were done a bucket sat with burnt flesh and my mangled arm was visible.
I tried to move it some but with the numbness and pain I only shifted what was left of my bicep. Some more numbing stuff was applied then they cut into my arm. They skillfully located my bones and pushed them together. The old lady put some kind of wrapping on the bone then stitched my arm back together. After lots of stitches she finally used a cloth to clean things and applied an ointment. A wrap came next then wooden splints.
She then tied my arm back to my torso and helped me put my clothes back on. After the impromptu surgery the leader put a coat on me and took me to a fire with multiple other men at it. He gave me a large beautifully cooked fish on a large wooden plate so I gave him a short bow and devoured the fish. After eating I put my armor and ghillie back on and went to my sled. The leader and some woman were very interested in my ghillie and I tried explaining it by taking a small net and folding some cloth into it. The leader didn't understand but the woman did and quickly left, likely to try making her own.
I left with a few people watching and made it back to my ship at the end of the day. I took all my stuff in the made a small meal before sleeping.
I woke the next day and immediately set to my plans. This place was as good as any to stay for a bit and I had knowledge of many basic modern things. A green house was my first priority. I'd found some more ovens and planned to use them to keep the place warm. I grabbed all the glass in the boat that I could find and over the next few days cut into a metal building at the back of the boat.
In the cut outs I put the glass I'd found and secured them with small drops of metal between them and the building. With a building done I put in an oven and set to work making beds for plants. Most of the beds were boxes I cut up with precision flames and shoved in the building. I then ran around with my sled, a trowel, and a bucket, looking for dirt. I eventually found some via a few shrubs and spent the rest of the day digging. I trudged back to the ship with my dirt filled sled and passed out after a quick meal. I then carried the dirt up to my greenhouse with buckets. I distributed the dirt evenly between the plant beds and poured what little 'good' waste I had onto it.
After completing the greenhouse I rested and headed back to the village in the morning with a few more trade items and my currency. Once at the village I got more money and helped the woman from last time complete a ghillie. I finally found and bought some seed from a small stall that had definitely seen better days. I grabbed a sweet potato, cucumber seeds, cabbage seeds, and blueberries seeds. My greenhouse only had four plots so I had to limit myself a bit.
As I returned to my ship I tried my hand at hunting a bit. I had seen plenty of weird penguin creatures wandering in groups and they would be better than nothing. I had melted down a few bars of steel and welded them together, then made a sharp harpoon like head for it. It was thin and light, perfect for hunting small animals and fish. Near the boat I found a group separated from the rest and hid till one came near.
My spear cut right through it and pinned it to the ice as the others ran back to the majority. I grabbed a club of wood and whacked it till it dying screams stopped. I quickly cut away the skin and sliced off as much meat as I could. I wrapped it all up in thick cloth and left after grabbing my sled. I didn't know if the penguin thing would taste good but it was a sustainable food source.
When I got back to the ship I quickly planted my new seeds and my sweet potato and gave them some water. I had found the engine room and the coal storage when I searched the ship so I lit some in the greenhouses oven and set a bucket of water to boil to heat and moisturize the building. After setting stuff up I set some beans on my own oven and started frying the meat I'd hunted for.
Everything I cut up the meat and mixed it with my beans and peas to make myself a stew. It ended up being pretty good and I felt a bit better after my meal so I trained my fire a bit before finally going to bed while making plans for my survival here.