Javier woke up with a groan as his aching body remembered how to move. He flexed his joints that seemed to have been welded into place. He took a few moments to focus on his surroundings and the only thing he really wanted to do was escape back to sleep. The deep furs that he was wrapped in made that a very promising and enjoyable thought. He rolled over and pulled the furs that were draped over his body up over his head, shutting out the soft, but unwelcome, light that surrounded him.

"Come on Javier, get up," Keva's voice said from somewhere.

"Why should I?" he called petulantly from under the fur. "It's still snowing outside, we can't go anywhere anyway, so why can't I just sleep?"

The furs were suddenly ripped away from him, bathing is body is soft light and the chill of the morning air.

"What the hell was that for?" Javier asked loudly as he quickly sat up and hugging himself against the sudden chill.

"You needed a reminder of who listens to who," Keva said harshly standing over him. "I'm not your mother, don't push me. Get up."

Keva stalked over to the door of the hut that they had been 'guests' in for the last week or so. The storm that had broken just long enough for Javier to find the remainder of his pack, had closed in around them even before they got to the Berserker village. The Bear clan members knew the path well, but even they needed the aid of the rope guides that had been suspended along the path.

When they got here there wasn't any real welcome or instructions, they had been pretty much thrown into this shack. The shack was round, lined with warm deep furs, and they had wood for their fire brought to them daily. It was a nice prison, but a prison all the same. They had been allowed outside to relieve themselves, when they were brave enough to go out into the storm. Javier wasn't claustrophobic, and for what it was, the place was spacious, but it was pretty much the worst place that he could possibly conceive of being in.

After he had gone out and taken care of his morning routine he pretty much ran back into the shack and sat down in front of the fire. He thought that the cold didn't really bother him. After being here, and living with all this snow and the frigid cold, if he never saw another snow flake it would still be too soon.

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After his body had warmed up and he was sure he could speak without shivering he said, "I think the snows coming down a little less than it was yesterday. Maybe it'll stop in the next month or so." He meant the last part to be a joke. Nobody laughed.

"Did they say when… Yrsa? Is that her name? When she would be back?" Soter asked irritably.

The remaining two wolf born of their pack had no reason to stay in their wolf form. They were surrounded by people who, not only understood they were Shape shifters, but seemed to respect the power that they as a group could wield. It only took the people of this village a day or so to get used to seeing monsters walking around in the deep snow. Now, you'd think they had lived with Shape shifters their whole lives.

Keva shook her head, studying the weather from the warm confines of the shed. She did notice a lightening of the sky from the days before, but that could just be wishful thinking. She was starting to hate seeing the stuff as much as anyone else. For now, she knew that they would have to wait. The hard part was staying ready to take advantage of any opportunity that presented itself at a moment's notice. Even her nerves were starting to fray a little. She turned back from the door of the shack and sat down, with her back to the fire.

They spent the day doing what they had done every day they'd been there, making conversation, playing stupid mental games, making another top twenty desert isle list, anything to keep from going insane.

Their food was brought to them, as it always was, once in the late morning, the other in the late afternoon, right when the darkness of night started to drop down around them.

The wind picked up at night, and even with the dense forest around them, the wind shook and moved the shack around them. It was hard for Keva to fall asleep when she thought that the roof over head was going to be ripped away any second by an icy gust of wind. Living under the mountain had spoiled her. She hadn't had to really deal with weather for a very long time. Now that she was forced to deal with this kind of extreme weather, she could admit it to herself but no one else, ever, that it scared her.

The next morning, she awoke and didn't hear the wind. It was still there, but it wasn't the vengeful howling from the night before, or of the days prior. She got up and prepared for her morning outside.

She stepped out of the shack ready to get snow and wind blown in her face. The wind was a gentle breeze and there was no snow falling at all. In fact, what met her was a crystal clear, although frigid, blue sky that was just starting to show signs of the morning sunrise. Maybe these people would finally figure out what they were going to do with them, and maybe explain where they had taken Yrsa, and why.

She got the rest of her pack up and they had just settled in to wait when the door opened and a large bearded man stuck his head in.

"Clan leaders will see you, come with me," he said shortly and withdrew his head outside. Keva stood up and walked outside, the rest of her pack and Huan Li followed.

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