I was the third one to get to the sign after Jova and Reesha. Qiwi struggled through the snow; she shivered like a snake's rattle. She had told me many times that she wasn't ready for the weather. I think she was really trying to say that she wasn't ready for the mission.

"Kota, my paws will freeze. You said it yourself; the fryse dryet's lair is colder than ice. I've never been warm since I came to the North Pole and I'm sure it's much colder in the palace." She called out to me as we trekked up the hill.

"Qiwi, you'll be fine. It's probably not that cold. You'll get used to it. And the cold will give you incentive to run faster."

She growled.

I stopped at the top of the hill and waited for Qiwi. She claimed that she wasn't suit for the mission, but I had faith in her. She was as fast as a bullet, more agile than a whip and had the reflexes of a rubber band. Her random freak outs might be a problem, or they could help her get out of a pickle.

I would have chosen Thrush to come with us, but he wasn't terribly fast. He also had trouble with keeping his furry rump where it belonged. I considered Barb; she was getting much better. She was really fast and was the smallest of my trainee group, but I was afraid she would chicken out or complain about something.

Qiwi could take care of herself. For the mission, she had gotten a white scarf from Mrs. Claus. The white stood for purity, and with no other colors in meant extra purity. I didn't understand why Qiwi had gotten a scarf that represented purity, but Mrs. Claus has her ways.

"Is everyone here?" Reesha asked. Qiwi was looking through her scarf one last time to check for everything.

Everyone nodded.

"Let's review the plan." Jova said. "It's real simple, but the trick will be getting out once we have Mika. We'll follow that frost horse brain, then we bust her out of the jail someway. Kota and Reesha will carry her if she needs help walking. Chances are she's been hurt badly." I flinched. If they've hurt her . . .

"To find our way back through the maze, I have glow stones." Jova pulled a small sack of rocks out of his scarf. When he untied them, they glowed a wintery blue. "I have this and five other bags; probably a thousand or so stones, but place them very sparsely. They glow when they are near each other. If we place them far enough apart, they won't glow when we aren't there. They'll look like any other rock."

Jova handed out the bags and kept two in his scarf.

"Alright. Ready everyone?" Reesha asked. We all nodded. I had to swallow a knot of fear and anticipation down my throat.

Reesha pulled a light blue portal orb from her scarf. With a single turn it flew from her mouth and straight towards the North Pole's sign. It popped open, turning the air around it into a swirling vortex of blue, black and white. If I looked hard enough through it I could see stars. I looked at Qiwi to see her reaction. It was priceless.

"Unknown location," Reesha said. "Ice wolf's lair."

The portal seemed to recognize the address, because it activated. It pulsed a bit harder and the colors swirled faster.

"Watch them go through." I whispered to Qiwi.

Reesha hopped through, then Jova.

Qiwi looked very nervous.

"It's okay. Just jump through. It's hard to keep your balance, but try. Especially at the end." I said reassuringly.

Qiwi carefully stepped up to the portal. She counted to three, then held her breath and jumped in. I followed her closely, just as the portal was starting to close.

><><><>><><><><

We popped out of the portal close to a tree. Qiwi had fallen on her face.

The portal closed behind me.

"Where's the tunnel entrance?" I asked. "I don't see anything but trees, snow, and that big rock."

"It's almost as big as the bunker!" Qiwi exclaimed.

"Wait a second," Reesha said. She hopped over to the giant boulder, then she walked around it, inspecting it carefully.

"The portal dropped us off at the right spot." She said. "Come take a look."

We followed Reesha to the other side of the rock. Near the top, too high for a human to reach, was a little, weather-beaten, wooden door with a brass knob. A dented metal sign had been crookedly nailed on it. The sign read: Не совещании. Разрешение персональный только: Russian for no trespassing. Authorized personal only.

There wasn't an easy way to get up the rock. The rock had a few holes and ridges, but it was all slick from melted snow.

"Who wants to try first?" Jova said sheepishly.

"I'll try." I said.

I stepped back to take a good look at the rock. The ridges were small, but maybe I could grip my claws in them. They were all over the rock, too. If I lost my footing I would just slip onto another foothold.

I got a running start before I jumped up and threw myself on the rock. I got pretty high, almost halfway, but I hit my muzzle on the rock.

I was so shocked that I barely had time to grab a foothold. My back legs found a place to grab on real quick, but my fore legs had a hard time. I got a grasp on the rock, but my claws gave out. I fell on my back with a thud.

"Gah . . ." I said, trying to find feeling in my mouth and my back. I could taste blood on my lip.

"Can I try?" Qiwi asked. Reesha nodded.

Qiwi took another approach. She stared at the rock for about a minute.

She whispered to herself a few directions, then she approached the rock calmly. She then strategically placed her right back leg in the perfect place. Three claw holes were conveniently placed where her more powerful claws were. Qiwi found the next foot hold, then the next. Then she just kept going, scaling the rock like a spider. She knew exactly where to put her paws.

After a couple of minutes of holding our breath, she reached out a paw and flipped the door open easily. She raised her head high enough to just peek through. "It looks like a slide. I can't see very far though; it's dark. Should I wait for you guys?" Qiwi asked.

"No. We'll most likely be a while, and you can't hold on forever." Reesha said. "Go ahead, Qiwi."

Qiwi shakily brought her body through the door before sliding through.

Reesha scaled the rock second, followed by Jova. They both struggled, but Jova had an especially hard time. He didn't have sharp, cat claws. With difficulty, they reached the door. I followed closely, making sure to not slip on anything.

After Jova went through the slide, I waited till I couldn't hear the rush of wind before I put my butt on the slide. It was more slippery than I imagined! Before I could get pulled away I shut the door behind me.

The floor of the slide was so slick and so cold that I was sure it was ice, but then I hit some sort of chunky goop with my hip. From then on I could feel more and more goop on the floor. It felt sticky and cold but it was lubricated with something slippery. I was glad it was dark; I didn't want to see what it was.

I expected there to be lots of sharp turns, but there wasn't. It was a generally smooth descent, but I was turning. From what I could tell the tunnel went down in a corkscrew. One time I passed a separate tunnel. I could tell because of the sudden rush of clear air and chirping sounds of some kind of baddie. I didn't want to run into them, but I knew it was inevitable.

I made a sudden stop at the base of the corkscrew. The sticky goop and stone met and the ground leveled out. Reesha was carrying the frost horse brain around her neck. It began to glow dimly; we must have gotten closer.

"Leave a glow stone here, Kota." Jova said.

I dropped a stone at the base of the slide. It glowed brightly, but as we walked away it became dimmer. From then on, Jova asked one of us to drop a stone every two dekameters

"Follow me." Reesha said. "Let's jog."

I didn't know if Reesha knew the definition of a jog. I was struggling to keep up with her in the dark, and I had longer strides than Qiwi or Jova. Keeping up with a cheetah wasn't easy. I didn't doubt Qiwi could run fast, but I wasn't so sure about her stamina. Running in the dark was hard, too. The only light came from occasional balls of light on the walls and the dim light of the frost horse brain.

The edges of the tunnel were lined with bones and scraps of decayed fur and meat. As we ran past them heard bugs crawling into hiding spots. I thought it was too cold for bugs, but maybe not.

We ran for about ten minutes before we came to a cross section. Reesha gestured with her tail for us to stop. I panted with relief; we all needed a break.

Reesha stood in each of the three tunnels to see which way glowed brightest. "The tunnel on the left is brightest, but it's hard to tell. It keeps flaring. Like a lightning bug." She said.

We ran down that tunnel. As Reesha said, the brain glowed brighter, but it flickered a bit. The tunnel was taller than the one we had just left.

In a separate tunnel to the right, I could hear more yipping. I ran a little faster, feeling a bit of terror inside of me.

"We should hurry up; I can hear baddies in those tunnels." I whispered to Reesha. She only gave me a nod and pressed forward a little harder.

There were more baddies, but most of them sounded far away. With each passing second I wanted to get out of there faster. Reesha felt jumpy, too; we took fewer stops and rested for shorter amounts of time. Qiwi was panting hard, but she didn't complain. (She obviously wanted to, but I was glad for her diligence.)

The tunnel we had been following opened up into a cavernous room. Two other tunnels poked through the room's wall while two more went down into the floor. A fifth tunnel was higher up on the wall.

"I hope we don't have to go through the top one." Qiwi said, panting.

Reesha quietly checked each tunnel. When she got to the tunnel on the left that went through the floor, it glowed very brightly. "Oh - wow. That's bright. This is the way to go. We're gaining progress."

Two seconds after she said that, two milky green eyes glowed in the darkness of the highest cave. It screamed and jumped on Reesha.

They rolled to the other side of the cave in a jumble of legs, claws and teeth. Reesha made a strange hissing sound that could barely be heard over the baddie's terrible scream.

Me and Jova rushed to it just as Reesha kicked it off and smashed it's head against the wall of the cave. There was a thunk, then a dog-like whimper.

It crumpled to the ground, but in a split second it jumped back up and leaped at me. It was hard to see, but it looked like some sort of baboon-yeti monster with long yellow incisors. It tried to strangle me with it's dirty hands, but I kicked and wrestled it off of me. With my fore paws I slashed at its nose, ripping off skin.

It screamed again and lifted me off the ground by my scruff as I strangled and kicked. It was surprisingly strong, but we were equally matched.

Jova, Reesha and Qiwi came to my rescue and attacked the baddie's flank. It hollered in surprise, loosening its grip on me. I bit its cheek hard and it dropped me.

It jumped back into the tunnel, screaming. "You won't find her!" It screamed as it limped away.

"You alright, Kota?" Reesha asked.

I nodded, licking at my scruff. "Yeah, I'm fine. Its claws weren't sharp enough to cut my skin. I'll be fine; I'm just sore."

"Good. Let's go." Reesha said.

We started to run down the tunnel Reesha had pointed out.

We fell into a haze of running, dropping glowstone and checking tunnels. We had to back track a few times. I wasn't sure how long we had ran. I forgot where we were after a half hour or so and all that existed was my soreness and my thoughts.

Suddenly, Reesha stopped. "It just suddenly got brighter." She said.

"We must be on the right track!" Qiwi said happily.

We ran faster, filled with excitement. Who knew a few days without Mika would cause such happiness when we were so close to seeing her.

Farther down the tunnel was two forms illuminated dimly by a green light. Through the caves I could hear echoing. Shauna! Look at this!

"It's getting brighter!" Reesha said.

"Mika's close!" I said buoyantly.