Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-2601:2C1:C001:1F20:C5A0:24B8:F8E:EC16-20170714203553/@comment-2601:2C1:C001:1F20:80B9:A1B0:4862:7768-20170717005145

No one else has submited an idea for a part two, so here's mine.

Part Two:

When I woke up, I was laying on my back on top of the snow, facing upwards. The snow didn't seem cold at all to me, and I wasn't shivering, so I must have been either hallucinating or in stage four of hypothermia. If the latter was true, then I shouldn't be able to use any of my muscles or move at all. To test that, I attempted to sit up, and I was successful. With my new perspective, I saw my rifle laying about a foot to my right, parallel to my body. I picked it up and shook it to make the snow and ice that had accumulated on its surface fall off. The outer layer of white powder fell from the barrel quickly, but no matter how hard I shook my gun, a transparent, glassy layer remained on its surface.

I looked down at my legs and saw that my fur was covered with a lattice of ice crystals (yellow is brown fur, green is bluish transparent ice), forming a flexibe maille that stretched all the way up my legs, torso, and down my arms. As I tried— unsuccessfully— to break it off with my fist, it occured to me that it might serve as protection from sharp rocks or other hazards on the mountainous terrain.

I turned around on the snow and saw the ninja monkey and one of the ice monkeys that I had set out on the journey with, as well as another ice monkey whose face was completely unfamiliar to me, digging through the snow. I got up, walked over, and started to help.

About five minutes later, we hoisted the last member of my group from the snow. He was shivering rapidly, which was not a good sign. As I pulled his right arm up, I could feel the same maille of ice crystals, hidden under his same-colored fur, as were on my arm.

"What's with the ice crystals under your fur?" I asked him.

"Oh, ice monkeys always have that, but they blend in with our hair, and the crystals are smaller in warmer environments."

"But why do the ninja monkey and I have them?"

"I'll let him,"—he gestured to the ice monkey whom I had never seen before —"explain that."

    "He better," I thought, not out of anger, but out of curiousity.

    The trudge to the stranger ice monkey's home was uphill, but I never felt the slightest bit cold during it. When we finally got to his house, he opened the door, and I saw that the floor was completely covered in ice.

    "How...?" I started to ask before looking at the thermostat. The temperature was negative ten degrees.