Lars's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

Lars waited in the stone cottage until the light outside turned gray. The benches sat empty. The kindling he'd arranged by the fire remained untouched. He pulled at his glove straps and told himself people were busy, that the storm warnings had kept them away, that tomorrow would be different. But when he checked the weather monitor at the lodge, his chest tightened. The storm would hit in three hours, harder than the first warnings suggested. He looked at the twelve screens showing the other contestants—most were in cabins with thin walls, gaps under doors, no proper windbreaks. They didn't know. Lars pushed through the lodge door and grabbed the wooden weathervane from near the supply cabin, its arrow already spinning wild. He planted it outside the stone cottage where everyone could see it, then lit the hearth until smoke rose thick and visible. Within twenty minutes, Yuki arrived first, shivering. Then Mia and Owen, drawn by the smoke. Lars showed them how the weathervane's spin meant the wind would shift north, how to read the pressure drop in their ears, how to bank a fire that would last the night. His hands moved without hesitation as he demonstrated insulating gaps with packed snow. When the storm hit an hour later, all of them were inside structures that would hold. Lars watched the weathervane bend but not break, and he realized he'd stopped pulling at his gloves.