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Eight hours into their run and things had steadily gone from bad to worse. The blizzard was far worse than Tuska had ever expected, the wind screamed in her ears to the point that no matter how hard she would shout orders behind her, only Arthur would clearly hear. The snow was so fresh and light that their feet sank into it and made running much more difficult, causing them to progress at a snail's pace through the tundra.

The worst part of it was that they had lost their way. The beacons were set up equal distance apart from each other, which made it easy to tell where you were in relation to your destination, but after they had passed the first three, the fourth seemed to be completely lost. It had gotten to the point that they had begun to navigate by compass, which was the next best thing, but from how long they had been running in the direction that they had oriented themselves, they should have hit the fifth and sixth beacon by now.

Night had fallen and Tuska was frustrated beyond belief. Her cheeks were flushed with anger and they slowed to the point of stopping in what was a vast, featureless wasteland of white. She turned to her team and made a quick signal with her paws to disengage and make camp.

From the back of the sled there was a large, folded up tarp that was meant to be their tent. It was rather huge and somewhat unruly, but the five had set it up so many times, especially in blizzards. They unfolded it carefully so that the wind didn't take and toss it away and made sure to stake it down on all the crucial points. A compressed air canister was hooked up to an inlet and the whole tent inflated to a dome shape that could bare to brunt of the storm. In hardly not time at all, the team had a shelter.

A box of dried food and RME's were brought inside and the five huddled together to eat and rest. The wind continued to batter the tent exterior, but it gave no sign that the stakes were going to give away. Sleeping bags had also been brought in, along with an LED lantern. With the floor covered in the soft material, they could finally eat with their minds at rest. Well, at least most of their minds were at rest.

Tuska couldn't keep from berating herself in her mind. This was so stupid, she thought to herself over and over again. She had been staring into the brightness of the LED lantern and sitting completely still. She didn't realize how still she had been until she felt Arthur lean over and nudge her ear with his cold nose.

"Hey!" she grumbled and shot him a frown.

"Stop beating yourself up about this," he said with an endearing smile.

"I'm not!" she snapped defensibly and suddenly became aware that everyone was staring at her.

"You haven't eaten anything yet," Reggie said and nodded for the strip of dried meat that she was holding. "And you've been staring at the lantern for like ten minutes."

Tuska furrowed her brow as she glanced around and met each of her teammate's eyes, but when she had finally come back to Arthur and his friendly smile, she couldn't help but sag her shoulders and dip her head. "I've fucked up," she mumbled. "I've lead you all out into the desert and I don't know where we are."

Tyke laughed, "I thought the 'we are doomed' talk is on day three of being lost, not day one."

"This is different," Tuska sighed, "We've never lost the beacons before this badly. We haven't seen any of them since four-o-clock, not even at night. I mean this Blizzard is meant to go on for a few days, we can't just sit here and blow through our rations like that," she sighed and rested her cheek on a paw.

"What if we tried turning around?" Tyke offered. "It's not like we'll be penalized."

"If we try to back track we could end up even more lost," Tuska said back. "Despite what the compass says, we could be heading in a direction that has us going farther away from the beacons. Missing them again would have us wasting time and resources."

"I think you're being too pessimistic," Arthur chuckled and wrapped his huge arm around her shoulder, bringing her a bit closer. "We'll get through this, we always do. It's been a long day, I think what we all really need is a good rest and a fresh start tomorrow." The others nodded and voiced their agreement, and for the first time since bedding down, a smile worked its way over her face.

"We've been through worse," Taylo perked up, "Remember when the sled almost went over that cliff and Arthur lifted it back up single handed? I'd say we were all a lot closer to death then than now." nods and grumbles of agreement went around again.

"Not to mention the time we broke through that lake ice last spring," Reggie reminded.

"Or the avalanche the year before that," Arthur added. Tuska blinked and glanced up at the large husky.

"You saved us single handed with that too though," he replied. Arthur gave a shrug and tried to hide a prideful grin. His attempt made a smile break across her lips and she shook her head.

"Okay okay, so we're not in the worst situation ever," she conceded. "But still, I should have been a better leader than this. I guess I let greed cloud my mind a too much," she sighed and rested her head against Arthur's shoulder.

"Wanting more money isn't all that bad," Taylo said after swallowing a spoonful of his MRE. "Plus, I'm sure none of us have lost confidence in you. It's been a tough day, all we need is sleep,"

Read the full story here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/warmth-in-arctic-16153935