Just because a guy is over 40 doesn't mean he's automatically less athletic than every 20 year old. I have a buddy who was 45 when we got ambushed by some southern alpine hunters and when I got shot in the shoulder the absolute madman knocked out two of them and then carried me to a place where we could stay hidden. But the next day their friends caught up to us further up the mountains and got him in the back. He was an experienced hunter and knew he was going to die from that wound, even though I didn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it. He told me to take the arrow and run but my hands were shaking, so when I pulled, it made a horrible noise and the arrowhead stayed lodged in his shoulder. Then the other archers caught up to us and I had to gtfo but I led them away hoping maybe he would survive. A few days later I'd killed the last 2 archers and was able to circle back. By then it had gotten really really cold and his body was a completely immovable frozen mass in a really inconvenient shape. He wasn't a huge dude but I sure as fuck wasn't strong enough to get his corpse to a better place. Those kids had beaten him up after he had died. It was honestly really horrible to see and sometimes I still have dreams about it. Lucky for me, the dumbasses didn't even think to go through his stuff. Maybe they were scared he was going to come back to life after everything that happened. I would have been. So yea even though I was literally freezing to death, I put together a burial mound for him the way they do in his tribe. I couldn't bring myself to take his tools because he loved them so much but I figured he wouldn't mind if I grabbed his blanket. Gave myself frostbite but it was worth it so next generations who climb that mountain will see the mound and know a great warrior died there.
