By the time the pair had come across Romany, they had put too great a distance between themselves and the lookout hill to make it back in time before the sun set. Thus, they found themselves somewhere to sleep in the safety of the roots of a hollow tree. It was cramped, but it provided shelter from the rain and wind.

It was only temporary, and for this reason Kit didn't mind the fact that Max's leg was driving into his ribs the entire night as he struggled to sleep. He shifted a little, trying to find a comfortable position but ultimately failing.

As he couldn't sleep, the young wolf settled himself at the entrance to their little den. Trying to put as much space between himself and the kicking legs of Max and not being out in the rain. He exhaled softly, watching the mist form in front of his muzzle.

Somewhere behind he caught sound of movement, he turned his head. Twitching an ear in the direction of the sound, narrowing his eyes through the darkness. He saw a pair of dark eyes looking back at him.

Romany chose to stay silent for a moment, maintaining the eye contact for a short while. Kit fought the urge to look away, when she spoke at last.

"How did you lose your arm?"

This wasn't the question he had been expecting, and he shifted a little when it was asked. Uncomfortable by the prying, he thought for a moment. Looking down at the ground where his left leg should have been.

"You don't need to tell me," she said with a shrug, rolling onto her back. So she was looking up at the underside of the tree roots, trying to not look as interested as she had sounded. "It's your business, I was just curious."

Silently watching her for a moment, he drew his eyes across her resting form. His long tail twitching from side to side, he thought for a moment.

"When power plant went into a meltdown," he said with a quiet voice, an almost mournful one. "there was an explosion. When they found me, there was no way they could save it. It was either die of infection, or cut it off. So they chose the latter."

"I'm sorry," Romany's words were surprisingly honest.

"Don't be," Kit insisted bowing his head until his chin rested on the ground, his eyes half closed at this point. "Many others lost a lot more than I did, I'm one of the few lucky ones." His words too carried a pained honesty, as he thought of all of the friends he had lost since coming to this damned place.

Nothing further was spoken between them for a couple of moments, he twitched his ears back and forth. Following the sound of the howling wind as it danced around their tree trunk, seeping into its crevices and breathing its ice into the den. Kit shuffled a little, trying to find some warmth in the sparse area.

"How did you learn to live with all this?" Romany asked after a moment or so, burying herself beneath her coat. She too struggling to find warmth in the den. Kit pitied her lack of fur, but didn't say anything.

"Easy, just pretend I still have four legs, I occasionally face plant but I manage ok." Kit replied with a chuckle. He hadn't meant to sound teasing, or condescending. Yet he had a good reason to do what he could to avoid her questions. Mostly because he had no good answer available to give her.

"You know what I meant, with this." She muttered, gesturing with her hand to the world outside the tree trunk. The tips of the power plant only just in view from this distance, but even from here the tell tale signs of what had one on were apparent.

Kit shrugged, as though the topic were the simplest one. He hadn't really thought about it before, it had just been the way it was. "We didn't have much of a choice," shifting from side to side again, he settled after a moment.

Max stirred in his sleep, Kit looked over. Reminding himself to try and keep his tone a little quieter for the sake of the younger man. Just because he found himself unable to sleep, didn't mean he had to take it out on Max.

From the look he was given by Romany, Kit guessed that she wasn't going to let him leave it at just that. He sighed, "You're not going to give this up, are you?"

"You're beginning to get to know me already," her voice held a slight tone of amusement, but it was weak. Nothing surprising considering the circumstances they found themselves in. "No, come on. Who exactly am I going to tell your darkest secrets to? It's only you and me here."

"I'm sure Max appreciates being forgotten about," Kit said. The King when it came to avoiding the subject.

Romany wasn't amused by his attempts. "You know what I meant, come on. Give me a straight answer. Your friend is dead to the world right now, I don't think setting his hair on fire would wake him up right now."

Glancing down at the now snoring young man, Kit chuckled shortly. "Your probably right," he admitted in spite of himself.

"I honestly don't know, none of us signed up for this. About forty of us woke up, and there were five hundred of us on this island in the first place." Once Kit opened his mouth, he found it difficult to close it again.

"All we knew was that there had been an explosion, even the animals were mostly dead. We tried to get out but, we found..." He hesitated, a knot forming in his throat. He had lived through it, and yet he still struggled to find the words to describe it.

"The monsters," the woman offered gently. Careful not to interrupt him in the middle of a sentence, trying to help him.

Kit only nodded. "We didn't even know if the rest of the world was alive, we tried and tried but we couldn't communicate with anyone outside of the island..." He choked again, closing his eyes. They had believed for so long that they would be stuck here for the rest of their lives, and yet to have this stranger here went against that very belief. "We thought we were alone in all of this."'

Silence fell between them both for a few moments, the only audible sound was the howling of the wind and the snoring of the eagle. Kit didn't look at the stranger, his eyes tightly shut he wondered for a moment if he could simply pretend to sleep.

Her next words, the most painful ones spoken of the entire conversation, stole him of this hope.

"But, when we... Kidnapped your friends," it was an apt name for what the strangers had done. "There were fifteen of them at most."

Now he sat up, looking the woman directly in the eye. It wasn't an aggressive movement necessarily, but it was swift enough to prove his point.

"We've been here over five years," Kit let out a low and frustrated growl. "That's all that is left of us."