I think I woke up a few hours past noon. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did. I remember feeling like the sun was above my head, even though I couldn't see it.

That was the first thing I thought when I blasted up from my back to my feet. The second thing was Where the heck am I? Better yet, what's going on? Who am I?

It took me several minutes to register my surroundings. My mind was racing, trying to grab details from thoughts. My mind settled on memories that I thought may be useful as they were suddenly ripped away from me to be quickly replaced by another thought.

My body slowly took notes of where I was. It was cold. The floor felt solid. The air was cold, stifling the breath in my lungs. It was so cold that a tiny storm cloud pushed between my lips and into the air. It reminded me of a dragon puffing smoke.

Then I was able to recall a memory from my cubhood. Mom, you never let me do anything! Mika and Dacelle always get to play! I think my brother Kodak had said that. He had fallen in the river the day before, and mom didn't let him out of the cave so his newly developed cough and incessant shivering wouldn't get worse. The next day he complained about staying cooped up inside when me and my sister went out to play.

But who am I? I wondered. I'm sure I have a name. Is it Dacelle or Mika? They were both girl names, but which one was mine? I don't know. Maybe I should flip a tree branch or something.

Instinctively I looked around for something to flip. Nothing but chunks of rock and ice.

It looked like I was in some sort of cave or hollow. More like a bowl with a lid on it. A bowl big enough to fit several kiloliters of milk and cereal. The floor and walls were made of gray, ragged stone, but ice covered the entire roof in a sparkling sheet. It covered the upper part of the walls in thick blobs, but as it drew over the top and came to the center it became thin enough to see through. A mammoth could have stood on the sides without a single crack, but I wouldn't trust anything heavier than an elf on the center.

Blue light sparkled through frozen air bubbles in the center. The sides nearest to the wall were dark as a closet. It was terminally cold everywhere except for where I had lain; like a small, fading candle flame in the middle of an arctic ocean.

But I wasn't that cold. When I think about it, I don't think I've ever felt really cold. A few times when I was a cub and I didn't have my real fur, or when I ran in the river, (boy, was that fun or what?) but most of the time my body temperature was either just right or scalding hot.

I remember when I had ran over the ice horses. Minutes later my paws were back to normal and my entire pelt was hot. Maybe I had a resistance to cold or something.

But I still was reluctant to move from my warm little island. Until I heard a shaky cough from a dark corner.

I shot my head towards its source. I didn't hear another cough. I thought there was nothing there at first, but after staring into the dark, I noticed white fur gleaming softly with each rise and fall of breath.

"Hello?" I called out. My voice was hoarse. I didn't like the way it bounced off the walls, becoming metallic with each echo.

No reply, but I did see a flick of a pointed ear.

"I know you're alive." I said dryly.

"They can't hear me if I keep quiet." She said to herself. Was she crazy or something?

"Hey, you can be quiet all you want, but I can hear everything you say. If you want to go unheard then you should keep your creepy remarks to yourself."

She whipped her head to the side. I could recognize her form better now; she was obviously a wolf, and I wasn't sure how long she had been staring at that wall.

The yellow eye that faced me gleamed in the dark. "They come when they hear you talking. They're afraid your noise will disturb the ice, so they make sure you're quiet. You can silence yourself or they can make you silent." Her voice didn't sound crazy; it sounded smooth and deep, ringing with intelligence and prowess. The threat made me consider being quiet.

But good thing I didn't like being quiet.

"What else could they possibly do? I'm stuck in a freezing-cold Tupperware made of ice. There is little they can do to make this less comfortable." I said, stomping my paw. My claws clicked on the stone.

"Believe me, there are things worse than this. How would it feel to have your vocal cords removed by a serpent crawling down your throat and chewing them off?" She asked. I cringed at the thought.

I walked closer to her, abandoning my warm spot. The fresh stone felt like a hot pan on my pads. "What's your name?" I asked more quietly.

She mumbled something that I couldn't quite hear.

"Pardon me?" I asked, trying my hardest to be polite.

"Krishana. Most animal call me Shauna or drippy icicle. Yours?"

"Mika." Yes. That was my name.

I recalled Nick saying something about an icicle. Was he talking about an actual icicle? "Why do they call you drippy icicle?" I asked.

"You're a chaser, aren't you? I can tell by your bright blue eyes." Krishana said. I hesitated, then slowly nodded. "I thought they might have taught you about all types of baddies. How long have you been a chaser?"

"Two days, I think." I mentally counted down from when Nick asked me to be a chaser to now. It felt like a lifetime ago. Those two days were the longest of my life. I couldn't imagine being a chaser for a month, let alone several years.

"Not sure you can consider yourself anything after two days. But Icicle is a nickname for fryse dyret, or freeze beast. It's pretty much what it sounds like; any animal that would be considered a beast that creates a freeze or is made from frost is called a fryse dyret. My father is an Icicle, but my mother was a regular wolf, so I'm only half Icicle. I'm as good as a melting icicle; as annoying as a constant drip on your head." Krishana said shamefully.

That was extremely depressing, but I was too busy gaping at the newly-heard information. "You're the Ice Wolf's daughter? I didn't know-"

"He had a daughter?" Krishana nipped, throwing her head around to scowl at me. "And yes. I am. I wish I wasn't, but there's little I can do about my birth."

I didn't have a father, so I couldn't relate to her. Well, I'm sure I had a father, but I guessed he had been my mother's mate for a day or two then moved onto another female. Typical parenting for cats. (Humans would make a big deal about it, but it's fine. Really, it's good. I don't mind. I don't mind not knowing my father. Okay, maybe I mind a bit.)

But what made me wonder is what female would ever find the Ice Wolf even mildly attractive. I don't know you, but I'd rather have a mate that wasn't frozen and didn't promise harm to little kittens by the river banks.

"Who's your mother?" I asked.

"A frozen she wolf who rests in an iceberg." She said emptily. My heart turned to ice.

"I assume this is some sort of dungeon. Nice decor." I said, trying to change the subject.

She didn't laugh. "My father isn't one for humble dwellings. To find a common corner in his home is rare." I had been joking, but I think she took me seriously. "If you think the dungeon is nice, you should see above that ice roof. Not to mention the torture chamber. He thinks his decorating should be the last thing his victims see."

"So your father put you in here?" I asked. I assumed that Popsicle Padre had put me in here, but if this was his dungeon, he put his own daughter in prison.

She was quiet for a long time. "He said it was my fault. The hypocrite didn't even give him a chance." She muttered.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, straining my ears.

She turned her head towards the wall, like it was a better conversationalist. "I was on a mission for my father in some woods nearby Kirov. Once I had done what I needed to do and I was ready to go home, I saw a silver wolf in the forest. His name was Gorizont, or horizon. He stole the bag I was asked to get, so naturally I had to retrieve it. When I caught Gorizont I froze his hind legs to a tree. He refused to speak until I threatened to leave him there. So adamant."

"That's all great," I said. "but are we getting anywhere? Not to be rude or anything, but I'm still a bit of a cub and I get restless when stories go on for longer than they need to." I think humans call it eighty D.

She folded her ears down to her skull. "Fine. After talking to Gorizont I found out he needed the bag to pay off an old debt to a grizzly bear. After a long expedition of negotiating another payment to the bear and finding a buried hibernation stash, I slowly . . . fell in love with Gorizont. I wanted to travel more with him. One of my father's spies must have heard, because the next day when I went to take a drink, I met my father in a stream. He warned me to come home immediately or I would regret it. I told him that I didn't want to come home and I wouldn't.

"As soon as I returned to Gorizont's and my camp . . . he had been stone-frozen. I couldn't thaw him. My only options were to run futilely from my father or return home shamefully. I knew both would lead to the dungeon or possibly death."

That was horrible. The ice wolf had no reason to keep them apart, let alone stone-freeze (whatever that means) Gorizont. I coughed a dry shiver from my throat. "What's stone-frozen?" I asked.

Shauna finally decided to turn around and face me. Her eyes were sharp and stern like a slanted, harvest moon. Her muzzle and cheeks looked like they had been chiseled from stone. Her gaze was icy, like she was about to scold you. "Stone-freezing can only be done by fryse dyret. They can freeze anything and make ice from almost nothing, but they can also drop a living thing's temperature. If it gets low enough, the carbon will freeze and become rock-hard. In order to heal them they must be soaked in a hot spring directly on the equator, then they need to sit on a fire made from pine wood and cooled to the perfect temperature with naturally-made ice for a moon cycle. I don't know who would come up with such a ridiculous remedy, but my father would never let me be away for so long. And I think I may melt in such warm temperatures." Did she say melt? I didn't know wolves could to that. "I wish I could have stayed with Gorizont; I would in a heartbeat, but there was little I could have done. I just hope he's where I left him and not smashed at the bottom of a cliff by my father's spies."

We were silent for a while, probably mourning Gorizont. I stifled a sneeze.

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

Shauna shrugged. "A year, maybe two or three. It's hard to tell time in here; I haven't seen the sun since I was with Gorizont. I've had company, but they've all been tortured to death. It's terribly sad, but my father likes to play with his prey before he kills it."

I thought for a while in silence, my body racking with thick shivers every now and then. I tried to not chatter my teeth.

Torture. What kind of torture? Like being hung till you are about to die then being taken off and doing it again? Or something like Chinese water torture? Maybe Chinese grass torture. (I wonder if those were actually made by Chinese or some dork put Chinese in front of them to make them sound cool)

Maybe I was already being tortured; sitting in a cold, empty chamber for enough years to forget about everything . . .