During the night, Mark kept warm by the fire and with a couple of blankets wrapped around his shoulders. Outside, he heard some animals snuffling around, nothing big. Once, he did go outside mostly to relieve himself but also to check on the horses, and there was just the sounds of the night time birds and from somewhere were some bullfrogs, he even thought he heard a coyote but thankfully no sign of any bears.

The rest of the night he slept, fitfully for the most part with fractured dreams mostly about the snake and the vision he had seen inside the sweatlodge. At dawn, he was wide awake and rebuilt the fire, heating some water over it to make himself some coffee. After a while, and no sign of Jimmy, boredom began to set in a bit, so he went outside and brushed down both horses. Not that they really needed it, but it was something to do. He gave them some feed and checked his watch. Just past noon. Jimmy would be coming down off the mountain soon, and he took a look up the trail his friend had gone on but there was no sign of him. Not that he expected to see him. Jimmy had told him to wait until late afternoon, and he would, but he hoped he was okay and hadn't been eaten by a bear or frozen to death overnight.

As the afternoon drew on and there was still no sign of Jimmy, Mark needed to do something and he was growing more agitated. Being alone with only his thoughts and with little to do wasn't helping his sobriety, and he was starting to really want a drink. It was time to distract himself and go look for Jimmy. He saddled up Sassy and, before mounting up, shoved his handgun into his waist band and slipped the rifle into the saddle. A part of him tried to tell himself that Jimmy would be fine and would be coming down the mountain at any moment, but he dismissed it. His friend had been gone too long.

Turning Sassy around, he kicked her on and headed up the mountain.