On my way back to the cave, I came across the mangled corpse again. I delicately put its limbs back where they were supposed to be and placed its organs back inside. Then I buried it.
I made it back to the cave. The first thing I grabbed was the wolf pelts I had spent a few days fleshing. I also managed to disassemble the tanning rack and brought it over to the house. I returned and grabbed my clay bowls and the pine cones I had spent a few days collecting. I checked the traps one last time. I don't know if the cave was saying goodbye to me, but each trap had a rabbit. That meant I had three rabbits. I went back one last time to gather the wolf bones and meat I had preserved.
Now the inside of the house there's not much furniture or shelving; it's just a big open space with a very banged-up wood stove. The house was about 25 ft deep and 20 ft long, and the ceiling at the tallest point was 20 ft.
Outside of the house around to the left side, I set up the tanning rack which is just two sticks in the ground and a bunch of strange strands of twine with wolf teeth tied to the nine strands of twine.
After I set up the tanning rack, I went to some nearby pine trees and gathered needles. The plan was to make another bed similar to the one I had made back in the cave with pine needles. After gathering a hefty amount of pine needles, I went back to the house and started laying them out. I then spread a recently defleshed wolf pelt over the pine needles. I lay down and stretched on my new "bed." It was surprisingly comfortable.
After I was done this it felt like something close to home. Everything is not how I wanted but everything is livable. All I wanted was a place to live so this works out.
As I was laying down enjoying being out of the house I suddenly rebuilt this blue light glowing above me. It wasn't this huge bright blinding light but just enough that I had to spit my eyes. Then I saw this small piece of paper materializer to the light and then fall into the ground. It was a letter. And the insignia that was stamped on the envelope had the initials RD.
I hesitated for a few seconds and then picked up the envelope carefully I opened it making sure not to break the wax seal. I opened it and the contents of the letter were.
"Congratulations, Ivan! You have survived in the prison realm for one month. As a reward, we will grant you one question that we will answer with complete honesty.
Additionally, we will give you 10 coins that you can trade with the merchants in this realm. A merchant should be in your nearby area, and you can expect to see him in 2 to 5 days.
We will give you another reward if you manage to kill the Wendigo.
Thank you for reading,
RD."
There is a space at the bottom of the letter not very big and probably just enough to fit one to two sentences. The Prompt above States "We will answer any question that is written here" I think for a few months before I wrote my question because I had plenty of questions.
Why am I here? What crime did I commit to end up in this place? Does magic exist? Are there more monsters than just that one to go? What's the Wendigo curse? Why do I not feel as cold as I normally would? Probably my biggest question was did I die in the hospital room?
I wrote down in the letter, did I die in the hospital room? In a few moments I felt some warmth on the back of the letter. I turned it over and there was a response.
"Yes, Ivan Miller did die in the hospital room. Somehow, your soul managed to cross over to a different realm. A wandering sage used his power to create a body for your soul to inhabit and left you there in the snow. He gave you a few items—a pocket knife and a bandage, I believe. When he left, I summoned a letter into your pocket."
After reading this I took a few moments to think. If it wasn't for that Sage, if it wasn't for that coincidence I would have been gone. It was Oblivion between the time I died and the time I woke up. Is there nothing after death?
never mind that, Now I need to focus on my next task: to kill that Wendigo.