n hour after the
disappearing of light, a vast abyss opened before him, wider and
emptier and deeper than any he had yet come across. Like a crushed
cylinder of otherworldly proportions, it yawned directly in front of
him, dropping deep into the earth. His forelegs hovered trembling
above the void.

This must be the passage, or he would die. He no longer trusted his
judgment; it had fallen in the snow many miles behind him. It could
well be madness, but he felt a presence far below, some wild hope.....
No. He must find shelter. Perhaps it was there. A shelter. If he
could find it. MUST CONTINUE ON. NO, HERE. IT MUST BE HERE, OR I AM
DYING. SO. . .EASY TO SURRENDER. LIKE FALLING ASLEEP. LETTING GO.
NO!

He turned his sinking body around, and forced it to descend: hooking
and digging, scraping into ice, forelegs stretched to the limit, trying
not to slip. To slip was death. Down. Down farther. A little
farther. THE WIND IS LESS HERE. Here. KEEP MOVING. MUST KEEP
MOVING. NO STRENGTH. . .BUT WARMTH COMING BACK. YES, WARMTH. MOVE.
FARTHER.

DON'T SLIP! DON'T SLIP. An overhang. CAREFUL. MUST STRUGGLE PAST
SOMEHOW. SOME WAY. PAST. WARMTH. IT MUST BE WARMER. KEEP MOVING.
IT WILL BE WARMER, OR I AM DYING. I AM DYING. IT IS WARMER.

After the long and grueling climb, stopping many times to marshal
strength, he found himself at the bottom. The cylinder had narrowed,
so that now it was scarcely thirty meters broad, a sharp cleft of
stone, rising sheer into ice that overtook it for perhaps a thousand
meters more. He rested there, his body pulsing, spent. The cold was
not as intense, and the wind was less, and the movement had warmed his
limbs.

But he was weak and near dead from hunger and exhaustion. He needed
sustenance badly, soon. Or it was over. He moved to a tiny pool of
snow that had formed from a trickle of the torrent above, and with his
trembling foreclaw worked small bits of it into his mouth. All done in
pitch darkness, and very little feeling left. Then moved to examine
the corners of the cleft.

The first was blocked, solid stone. He turned about. He did not know
he had reached the opposite wall until he passed through it, was
inside. A cave had opened blindly and taken him in, narrow and not
high, but a cave nonetheless. A passage. After a time he knew
instinctively that he was underground, but was far too weary for the
knowledge to have much effect. He cont