I pushed my chair away and got up after Mika. "Mika! Wait! It-it's not like that!"

The door of the restaurant flopped sadly behind me. It had begun to snow softly and the sun was starting to set behind the misty sheet of clouds.

I saw Mika running off towards the woods. I followed her. "Mika! Come back! You never gave me a chance to talk!"

She seemed to know exactly where she was going. As I got closer to the forest, I caught the scent of her wolf friend- Krishana.

The forest was really quiet except for me and Mika.

"Come on, Mika! Let's talk!" I yelled out.

In response, she took a single look behind her, then she ran to the top of the hill.

Mika turned around to face me. "Don't follow me, you свиной!" She ran behind the hill.

I wasn't very fluent in Russian, but I could tell that wasn't a compliment.

"That isn't fair Mika!" I said, following her. When I got to the ridge of the hill, it ended with a sharp drop. I couldn't see her.

She's fine. I thought to myself. She can jump that far without getting a scratch. Maybe she should be alone.

I huffed and turned back. Maybe I could wait for her for a bit.

I walked into a clearing with a little river off to the right of it. A pair of partridge footprints were branded into the snow, being quickly covered up with new flakes.

I decided to lay down in the snow while I waited. Most animals wouldn't enjoy resting in knee-high snow, but I found it refreshing to feel the cold up against your stomach. It gets so hot with all that belly fur. I would hate to be a human; always needing to cover your torso, never free to lie down in the snow without getting your clothes soggy.

A grey bird launched itself from a branch and flapped away, avoiding branches and foliage strategically. It caught my attention and I instinctively jumped to my feet and prepared to jump for it. A more human side of me told me not to. You just ate; you don't need to kill it. And besides, it's too high up for you now.

In the swaying branches, a bright spot of red caught my eye. I thought it was a holly berry or something because of the prickly leaves, but the color of the berries weren't right. They weren't the deep, blood red that most holly berries wear humbly. They were far to orange and loud.

A ruddy berry. I thought. I don't know how I remembered the name so fast. When I was younger, I got a book with lots of strange plants and their properties. My mind went instantly to the sketchy illustration and the cartoon of the man who looked confused with a question mark over his head.

The passage read: Ruddy berries are quite troublesome, but they're easy to spot out and avoid. They look similar to holly berries, but ruddy berries have a distinct orangey tone while holly berries have a deeper, darker red. If consumed, the victim will forget everything of his past. If they eat to many, they'll forget everything-like how to walk or breathe!

I always thought it would have been funny to see someone who ate a few too many.

The presence of the berry made me feel uncomfortable. I didn't know why, but it just did. I decided to leave the clearing altogether.

I followed the river downstream. The calming sound was soothing, but then I remembered Mika. What would I say to her? I don't like her! It isn't like that! We're just friends. More like allies.

But what if she was all like Hmph! I know you're lying! You like me, don't you? Admit it! You're lying! Why would you lie to me! You're a horrible, coal-eating piece of turd!

I'd just have to tell her the truth.

But what was the truth?

No. The truth is that we're friends and nothing more. She's just crazy and lets her imagination get away from her.

The river stopped it's gurgling sounds. The sound of nothing filled the air before I heard the distinctive cracks of water being frozen.

I stopped and turned around slowly.

A large wolf made from ice and snow stood in the middle of the river. He stood awkwardly; the tiny river was far too small for his large frame. But his strange stance made him no less frightening.

His eyes were the color of charred wood.

"Kota. How are you? I haven't seen you in ages. But I've seen your friends quite recently, though." His voice was like snow being pounded into a block of ice.

"Fryse dryet," I said. "It has been long." Poison dripped from my words.

He broke his paws away from the river and stepped onto the snow. It greeted him and rushed to accommodate each paw.

He walked closer to me slowly. The sound of his paws shuffling through the snow was like the beginnings of a March blizzard.

"Enough with the technical terms. Call me whatever you like." The fryse dryet smiled, if such a thing was possible.

"You haven't come here to say hello." I said sharply. "Cut to the chase; no one wants you here."

"What? You don't enjoy my company? That's sad. I find being in your presence extremely humbling." He mocked me.

I growled.

"Temper! No need to be rash! I just wanted to make a quick trade." He said.

"With whom? And what?" I asked.

"Well, anyone, really. I'll take almost anything. But since I'm here with you, why not? I have an offer that you might find promising."

"I don't want to trade with you." I said. "I don't have anything of value."

"That's the beauty of trading. I have something I don't need but you do, and you have something you don't need but I do. It's a win-win."

Curiosity overtook me. "What do you have that I need?" I asked.

"Your memories."

"That doesn't make sense." I said. How can someone posses someone else's memories? But we were talking about the ice wolf. You can never predict what he will or can do.

He walked closer to me. My fur pricked up like a fir tree's needles. "You just don't understand it. You can't comprehend it: the fact that someone stole your memories. The fact that I have them with me now." He opened his jaws, and in them was a flashing ball of colors. With each color I saw a glimpse of my old memories; a female tigress, a scream from a cub, a cold journey.

Who would take my memories? And why would they want them? Or why was I not allowed to have them?

The ice wolf read my mind. "You'd understand if you take them. It doesn't matter who wanted them; right now, it matters who wants them the most. Who needs them the most."

I shouldn't have listened. I knew not to listen. But the hole in my heart, where my memories was supposed to be, felt something new; a yearning. A desire.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"That stick that you hide in your scarf. The one that you woke up with." He said.

What? That wasn't right. A useless twig for the answers I had been searching for for two years? That didn't make sense. There was a catch.

"What's so important about the stick?" I asked.

"It must be valuable to you, I understand. The only possession you have from your cub hood; the only evidence that you had a life at all before Dover found you." The ice wolf said. The sound of his teeth was like bones being crushed.

I felt it against my neck. It was uncomfortable. "It's just a stick." I said quietly.

"If you don't want to trade, that's fine. Twigs can be valuable these days." He started to shuffle back towards the river.

"No!" I said abruptly. "I-I'll trade." A sense of dread filled me.

The ice wolf grinned at me over his shoulder. "Wonderful." He turned around to look at me clearly. "As soon as you drop the stick, I'll give your memories to you. I won't even touch it till you remember everything."

I pulled the stick out of my scarf. I almost didn't want to let go of it; I had kept it with me ever since I could remember. I don't know why, but it reminded me that I was someone before I lost my memory. It wasn't anything special; just a little brown twig, smaller than a dekameter.

I dropped it. As soon as it hit the snow, I felt a wave of force fall on my head. It was like a sledgehammer was brought down on my skull. I crumpled to the ground and wailed.

Colors flooded my vision. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the ice wolf cackling, then he started to melt into the snow.

A cave. Two faces wrenched in horror. The faces of my parents. Three smaller faces, hiding in a corner. A shadow over them. A giant monster slamming a rock down on them. The face of the monster was horrible.

I heard a scream from my mother and a roar from my father. He jumped on the beast, but it grabbed his neck and held tight.

I turned from my hiding spot and ran away. I ran farther than I was ever allowed to.

More shapes. More faces. More memories.

It all hurt too much.

A feather of thought floated through my mind. I caught it and examined it. If consumed, the victim will forget everything of his past. The ruddy berry.

I staggered to my feet. Avalanches of images banged at my mind. It was all too much. Too much!

Too much to comprehend! The little parts I did understand were too horrible to see!

With a shaky jump, I ripped a chunk of ruddy berries from the tree branch and swallowed the whole blob. Too much! Too much pain!

I screamed again. The berries were like a bonfire spitting out embers. Where each ember landed a piece of memory was burned away.

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"I heard a scream coming from over there. Kind of where the river was heading." Krishana said.

The scream still tore at my eardrums. It was long and banshee-like. But it had a familiar undertone. Kota.

"He's in trouble." I declared.

I ran off towards the scream, ignoring Shauna completely.

"Mika! Wait! Who's in trouble?"

I didn't answer. There was a horrible feeling in the air.  Something was horribly wrong.

I hope he's okay. I thought. It's my fault! I shouldn't have run away like that!

I should have said I was going to talk to Shauna and I would be alright. Knowing Kota, he probably had stayed behind to see if I was alright.

I really hoped he was okay.

As we ran, I heard another scream. It was quieter, but more shrill. Also Kota. I ran faster.

We came to a clearing by the river a few minutes later. The snow looked like a tattered blanket. It didn't look like a fight had gone down; only one set of paw prints was making a struggle. Another set looked calm and decisive. It came from the river.

In the center of the clearing a few scarlet berries had landed in a paw print. I examined them more closely.

"Those are ruddy berries." Shauna said. "They make you forget everything."

"How can you tell?" I asked.

"Their color. It's slightly orange." She said.

I stepped back to take a look at it all. Closer to the river, the paw steps were more uniform. Towards the back a huge portion of snow had been squished down, like someone was making a demented snow angel. The paw steps were frantic. A trail of them led out of the clearing; they had ran away.

"Your father was here. There are paw steps coming from the river; he's the only one I know that walks through rivers at this time of year." I said. "Kota was here as well. He got hurt or something. Then he ran that way."

"What has he done now?" Shauna muttered to herself. "Let's hurry and follow him. He hasn't been away for long."

I nodded in agreement. We left the clearing and followed the track. They were made by  impossibly long and fast strides. Kota had been sprinting away.

My heart sank as I saw what lie ahead. A deep ravine was cut into the Earth like an old battle scar. The steps ended there.

Kota's green and white scarf had been tossed aside a few meters from the ravine. It still looked confused, waiting for it's master to return.

I stopped myself abruptly at the precipice. The ravine was more of a canyon; it was deeper than I thought. At the bottom of it ran a black river.

"Where'd he go?" I asked, stunned. He was nowhere to be seen. Not even floating down the river.

"He's gone, Mika." Krishana said. "He ate those berries and went mad. He's gone, Mika."

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The End

Thanks for reading! I'm glad I was able to have so many readers! You guys are so enthusiastic about this series!

Watch for the next (and possibly final) book of the series, Evergreen, coming next year after Halloween.