Lars's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

The next morning, Lars returned to the stone cottage and built up the fire. Word had spread overnight—he could see it in the way people walked past his door, slowing their steps, glancing inside. Three of them arrived before noon, asking different questions all at once. Mia wanted to learn emergency signals. Owen needed rope work for securing equipment. Yuki asked about reading animal tracks in snow. Lars felt his chest tighten as they all spoke over each other, their voices blending into noise. He pulled at his glove straps and opened his mouth, but nothing came out. The wind picked up outside—another storm system moving in, maybe six hours away. He couldn't teach three skills at once, not properly. His hands shook as he reached for the rope coiled by the hearth. Then he stopped. He looked at each of them and said the words that felt like admitting failure: "I can only teach one thing at a time." Mia nodded first. "Signals then. The rest can wait." Owen and Yuki agreed, and Lars felt something shift in his chest. They weren't demanding everything—they were asking him to choose. He pulled the training dummy from outside and positioned it near the fire, showing them how to attach signal flags at different heights for different emergencies. His hands steadied as he worked. When the lesson ended, Owen asked when the next one would be. Lars said tomorrow, and meant it.