GEACOB

   "What do you want, Loryn?" I asked as I pulled my chin to the branch then down again. Up again, down again...
   "How did you know it was me?"
   "Because you're the only one I can hear stomping her way through the wood." I told her honestly.
   "I am not fat."
    I sighed and dropped to the ground, picking up my cloak. "I never said you were. You're too damn skinny if you ask for my opinion, but the fact that you keep defending your size when no mentions are made of it makes me sure that you think you are. Which is ridiculous by-the-way. Not that I should expect anything more from you."
   Instead of arguing, she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me. "I wish you'd get out of this mood you're in."
   "I'm only in a mood when you're near." I said but that wasn't entirely true. I'd been in a terrible mood for weeks now. Some of it was due to the fact that there was still no sign of the other seers, but most of it, I knew, was due to being alone most of the time --- something I wasn't used to.
   I couldn't stay in the inn for the entire time so I mostly stayed out here in the woods about twenty minutes away from the inn. Loryn of course, stayed at the inn always. Ritch joined me often and I was thankful for it, but I'd grown up surrounded by Rangers and I wasn't used to being alone at all for any length of time.
   I sat on one of the logs I'd dragged near the fire in my boredom and wiped sweat from my face before it could freeze upon m skin. "Why are you here, Loryn?"
   "I'm here to tell you that some more people are in town."
   "More useless information?"
   "Hopefully not." She grumbled. "I'm getting sick of this place."
   I raised my eyebrow at her. "You actually want to travel now?"
   She sighed and sat down on the opposite side of me. "I think I do." She admitted. "I'm... bored."
   I snorted a laugh. "Come out here for a few weeks and you'll change your mind about what the word 'bored' means."
   She grimaced at the very thought. "No, thank you." Her tone was so absolute it was actually amusing and I snorted out some semblance of a laugh.
   "Geac! Lor!" Ritch's voice came from the trees and we both stood as he burst from them, eyes alight. He said the words we'd been waiting to hear for weeks.
   "It's them! They're here!"
   "Ritch?" Came a distant voice.
   Ritch's eyes widened. "Sorry!" He called out, realizing he'd ran off without them in his excitement. "This way! Follow my voice!"
   A second later two slim boys came out in a rush. One was dark-skinned and one was light, but their slight build and short height in addition to their identical grins of excitement made them look like twins.
   "This is Loryn, and that's Geacob." Ritch said in motioning and was about to introduce the boys but they'd both showed their reactions when they caught sight of my black cloak. The dark-skinned one took a step back warily and the light one stepped forward in front of the other as if to guard him, gripping a bone knife in his belt.
   "You're an Outsider." Said the dark one.
   "I'm a Ranger." I corrected but nodded. "It's good that you're finally here. I didn't catch your names?"
   "Sorry." Ritch said to them. "I forgot to warn you. I'm just so used to it now. Geacob is pretty intimidating but he's good. He wont hurt you."
   The dark one seemed to take him at his word and came forward with a hand. "Sorry. We had a wee bitta trouble with y'r kind in Tark. I'm Venny, an' that one's Hark."
   I shook his small hand. "Nice to meet you both."
   The light skinned one nodded at me then turned to Loryn. "Tis nice t'meet you, too. Lauren was it?"
   "Loryn." She corrected the slight difference.
   "Wait." I said, hearing their accents. "You're both from Tark? Which one of you has the glass eye?"
   "Oh!" Ritch's eyes widened. "That's Alie. She's tending to the horses and fetching food and spiced ale. Venny is the one with the mermaid's scale."
   "Hark is my friend." Venny explained.
   "Does this Alie know where we are?"
   Ritch looked embarrassed. "Uh... I may have run off." His face was sheepish. "I was eager to tell yous."
   But both Venny and Hark laughed together. "Don't worry." Hark said. "She'd find us even if we was tryin' ta hide from her."
   "You boys would not be able to hide from me even if I were blind." Came a feminine voice from the trees. "All I would need to do is follow the laughter." A tall figure came out from the trees, arms packed with bags and rolls of fur. Ritch and Venny quickly helped her put it down and she brushed herself off with a smile of thanks. "You are Loryn and Geacob I presume?"
   Loryn nodded and sat down, apparently dismissing the girl immediately. Alie raised an eyebrow at that but seemed amused more than insulted and turned to me. I held out a hand. "Geacob." I nodded. "You must be Alie."
   "I am." She said and pulled her mitts off to shake mine. I gave a start at her eyes which were so light of a grey they looked like silver. Those silver eyes looked me over and raised both eyebrows in surprise at my cloak, but not, I noticed, with fear or anger at all. "You're a Ranger." She said. "I had not expected that, I will admit."
   I grinned like a fool. "You called me a Ranger."
   She frowned. "That is what you are, is it not?"
   "Well, yes, but nearly everyone calls us Outsiders."
   She chuckled. "I wont insult you unless you irritate me." She gave a grin and took her hand back to turn to the boys. "Hark. Sit." She ordered, pointing at a log.
   He groaned. "Alie, not now."
   "Yes, now. I'll need your help soon and I'll not have you give excuses to get out of doing work and pulling your weight."
   "It's not an excuse!"
   "Perhaps not intentionally, but you've been throwing your arms around in your sleep like mad. I swear it, Hark, you are gaining incredible movement back, only you are afraid of hurting it. Now sit and allow me to help you so that I can start bossing you around again."
   Venny started chuckling at his friends' embarrassment but hushed quickly when she gave him a warning look added to by amusement. By their reactions, I suspected this was more of a habit between them then serious threats and complaints.
   "The boys were ambushed by a group of Rangers in Tark." Alie explained to us. "An arrow sliced his arm and it festered until Venny was forced to cut the infection out." She took a steaming cloth out of a small barrel she'd been carrying and rubbed some sort of plant on it as Hark removed his coat and shirt, shivering suddenly in the icy air. "Unfortunately," she continued, "the infection had spread into his muscle and much of it had been damaged." She wrung the cloth out and then quickly wrapped it around his arm. He hissed slightly but didn't complain. A moment later she was throwing a horse blanket over his shoulder and her own fur on top of that, revealing a loose wool shirt and pants. She clapped her hands around and glanced at the four of us still standing. "I have a request to ask of you."
   "Oh, so now you're requesting things?" Loryn said haughtily. "I was under the impression that you simply ordered everyone around."
   The comment wasn't even directed at me and I felt like snapping at her, but to my surprised, Alie only laughed.
   "I apologize." She said. "I tend to do that, but you misunderstand me, Loryn. Unless I have a bolt cranked in my crossbow or a knife to your neck, assume I am not ordering you but instead requesting or jesting."
   I grinned while Loryn scowled; I liked this girl.
   "As I was saying." Alie continued. "I'm under the assumption that you've all been here for some time, so I understand if you wish to leave on the morrow, but I ask if you would not mind terribly if we were to stay here for a week, perhaps even two. The three of us has been in near constant movement since the day of the dragonfire and to be honest, I'd simply like a moment to stand still." She raised her hand when I opened my mouth. "However, as I said, we are well fed and more than ready to continue on to wherever we are going right after the storm if that is what you choose."
   Ritch and I shared a glance and we both shrugged. "We'll stay another week or two." I agreed. "But... what storm? The skies are clear."
   "I can smell it." She said with a shrug. "And so can the animals. You hear how silent they are though there is not a touch of wind?"
   We were all silent a moment as we listened to the eerie silence though it was only midday.
   "Huh." Ritch said finally.
   Venny leaped to his feet. "Does this mean we get to build the shelter you were talking about? You said you'd teach us."
   She let out a tinkling laugh and nodded. "It wont be the best in such a large space with so few furs, but we can make due with branches off the pine." She glanced around. "So long and you don't mind if we do it here. I'm sure we'll be staying in the same shelter for the warmth aspect."
   Loryn spoke up. "I'll be staying at the inn with Ritch."
   "Actually, I might stay here." Ritch put it. "But you can have the room of course."
   So under Alie's orders, we went to work.
   The shelter was complicated, yet simple once Alie showed each of us the technique. It was simply branches stuck firmly between rocks or packed snow, or even some small logs at the base, but Alie said it was only temporary. Explaining that once the circle dome built up, it would hold the shape itself.
   So, working together between chewing occasionally at the roast and potatoes Alie had brought from the inn, with drinks of spiced ale to help keep us warm. We used branches of all sorts to weave together until it stood high and enclosed except for a small circle in the very top to allow the smoke from the fire escape. Then, we weaved the furs and leathers and even some blankets from the inn through the branches like a basket, occasionally securing bits with twine or adding freshly cut pine branches to the smaller spaces, explaining that this would normally be packed with snow instead but seeing as there wasn't enough snow, branches would do.
   With two ropes, we secured the basket to the ground by tucking the rope ends under heavy logs and then it was done. With the five of us working together (five, because Loryn sat watching the whole time) we managed to finish it before the sun went down, but the wind had kicked up by then and I knew she'd been right --- there was a storm coming.
   "One question." Loryn said, sounding smug. "Now that you've used all the blankets and furs, what are you going to sleep on?"
   I laughed, I hadn't thought of that. But Alie was unperturbed. "It'll be warm enough inside we can sleep on our coats. Boys, can you get some hot ale and bring these back to the kitchen at the inn? If you can find your way back." She added.
   "I'll go with them." I said but she waved it off.
   "No, I'll need your help with the logs."
   I frowned but agreed. I understood the true reason why she'd sent only the boys away when we could no longer hear their footsteps and she turned to us, speaking low enough that even Loryn moved in closer to hear.
   "I need to warn you." She began, her eyes suddenly losing their smile and sadness creeped in to replace it. "Before I found the boys, they'd had no idea how to live off the land and they have very nearly starved to death. At some point, they'd killed their horse and ate the meat raw, not knowing which parts were actually safe or what to look for." She paused and gained even more sadness. "Venny seems fine, but Hark ate some worms that were festering in the flesh."
   I closed my eyes in pain, knowing the words that was coming.
   "After the infection in his arm, his body could no longer fight off the worms..." She paused then let out a breath. "He's dying." She stated simply. "He hides it well, but he is afraid and so is Venny. I've managed to stop the pain for a while, but it is returning. I would like you all to say nothing if you see him clutching his belly. Take no notice of it or bring that fear back in his eye. It makes Venny even worse for he feels guilty for bringing him along, do you see?"
   Ritch answered for all of us. "We wont draw attention to it, Alie." He said and both Loryn and I nodded in agreement.
   She seemed to relax. "Thank you." She said sincerely.

ALIE

   I jumped when I felt a hand touch my shoulder and the bloody knife was up against the throat of its owner before I'd made the thought to do so. I pulled the knife quickly away when I saw it was the Ranger, Geacob. "Sorry!" I shouted over the wind. "I had not heard you. You startled me." I explained and went back to skinning the wolf.
   He crouched down next to me, unfazed by my blade. "You caught this yourself? Just then?"
   "The Mother sent this. Or I was lucky." I gripped the muzzle to hold it steady and made the cut up under the mouth, then began skinning the head. "He was separated from the pack somehow, or exiled because of his colouring. The poor wolf tried to eat my rabbit! May as well get a coat out of it!"
   Finally boneless, I spread the fur on the ground, skin side up.
   "Storm is getting bad fast!" Geacob shouted over another gust of wind. "We should get inside. We're waiting for you to start the stories!"
   "I'll be right in, I only need to salt it so it will remain unfrozen until after the storm!" Even as I said this I was sprinkling salt onto the skin and rubbing it in with freezing fingers. After a minute, the Ranger knelt and helped me then together, we rolled it tightly and hung it up so it would be more difficult for animals to get at it.
   He handed me my mitts and started off but I stopped him. "I have a question!" I told him and he leaned in so I wouldn't have to shout so loudly over the wind. "Are you the leader here?"
   He pulled back enough to look at me with a face akin to confusion. "Why would you ask me that?"
   "Loryn's comment earlier. I had first assumed some sort of odd jealousy, but I wonder if it was because I was unintentionally acting as leader when it was not my place."
   "I'm not a leader. We work together as a group." He shrugged. "Loryn a little less than Ritch and I, but she contributes too... sometimes. But that's her choice, not mine."
   Ah. "I just wish for you to know that I am not trying to act as leader or to... step on any toes." I told him honestly. "I make suggestions which sound as if they are demands, but it is not my intention."
   "Intention or not, you'd make a good leader." He told me, making my blush a bit. "Not often I come across someone who isn't a Ranger that knows more than I do about living off the land."
   I snorted in a way that would make my mother grimace about manners. "Only in winter. Once the weather warms again, I will be completely useless." I jested.
   "Somehow, I doubt that." He said and took my arm. "Let's get inside, I think my leathers are freezing to the ground."
   As if our closeness had hidden the cold, the second we began to move in the direction of the camp the air seemed to become even colder, the wind twice as strong. Quickly we both found ourselves rushing toward it.
   Ducking inside the shelter gave me the same feeling I received while diving into the hot spring. The outside was a white, windy, scream of bowing trunks and creaking branches, whistles, and cold. Inside, the noise faded into a dull roar and the light of the fire cast a warm glow on the skin of all those who surrounded it, settled on logs with cups of hot, spiced ale and bowls of warm rabbit stew that coated the air with scent. Venny and Hark were in the middle of telling one of their stories when we entered, but when the others caught sight of my bloody clothing they looked alarmed and Ritch even stood up from his log, grabbing his ax.
   "What happened?" Ritch demanded.
   Before I could answer the boys laughed. "Don't worry about it." Venny said, absolutely and completely unconcerned. "Alie is always comin' back covered in blood."
   I chuckled and removed my fur coat and sat on the log next to Loryn. There, I began to wipe the blood from the fur. She grimaced but remained seated next to me.
   "What'd you kill this time, Alie?" Hark asked.
   "Just a stray wolf."
   "Wolves?" Ritch's eyes widened. "This close to town?"
   "A stray wolf." I emphasized. "One not belonging to a pack."
   "I didn't even know there was such a thing." The Ranger said, sitting down next to me on the log after hanging up his own furs.
   "It does not happen often, but sometimes, a cub is born so different in colour or has a deformity of some sort for which they exile it, if not kill it outright."
   "Like a bastard child." Ritch said and I nodded.
   "Yes. The fur is very dark. Near-black. I believe I'll make it for you, Ranger." I motioned to him with a hand, being rewarded with a grin. "And while you boys are here and resting, I'll head out in search of the pack it came from or another, and perhaps, if I'm lucky and if the Mother wishes it, the three of you will have some furs too instead of only your wools and skins." I'd already gotten the boys furs on our way here and had taken mine back.
   "You're going to hunt wolves?" Loryn looked at me in surprise. "Alone?"
   "It wont be too dangerous." I said with a chuckle. "If I can find traces of a pack, all I need is to kill a deer, keep myself in a tree and await them to show." I shrugged, unconcerned, having watched that very thing done several times while joining my brother on hunting trips.
   "Who are you?" Ritch asked, awe in his tone as he blinked at me.
   "I'd like to know that m'self." Venny admitted. "We talked lots on the way here, but we ne'er got around ta askin'."
   "You mean to say you boys spoke a lot." I said with a chuckle but was merrily delaying my own answer. The truth was, they had asked. However, it had been extremely easy to deflect the conversations elsewhere. If people learned that I was Princess Aliena Greyor, daughter of King Aaryn and Queen Liana, sister of Prince Aaren, and now the only surviving of the royal family of Nascia... well... ransoms and manipulation and forced marriages came to mind on the top of my head.
   I trusted the boys now, and would perhaps tell them alone, but the others were strangers and among them was a Ranger. I may be fascinated by that Ranger way, but that only made me all too aware of how little they could be trusted by those that did not wear the cloak when prizes were set in their paths. I did not wish to be a prize.
   Venny and Hark were flushing now. "That be true." Hark admitted, a little sheepishly. "But we're listenin' now."
   "Actually," Ritch said, "it would probably be a good time for all of us to get to know each other a bit. Alie, you seem the most... confusing." He said with a chuckle. "Who are you exactly? What did you do in Nascia?"
   I decided that I would not outright lie, I would simply refrain from telling the entire truth. "I studied animal behaviour for King Aaryn." I told then, not mentioning that I did this as a hobby, not as a job. "In the bowels of the castle, the king had several northern animals there and it was usually where I was, if not, I was out in the white."
   "Which is why you have such a highborn accent." Loryn understood and for some reason, she looked relieved when she stated, "You're just a servant, that's all."
   I frowned at her but continued with my story. "My father did no wish for me to be surrounded by so many dangerous animals without knowing how to defend myself against them, and so whenever we could find the time, I was taken out on the white and taught... well... everything I know, mostly." My hand found the glass eye at the hollow of my throat. "It was terrifying at first, but I learned how to keep warm in the worst storms and how to live off the land if I needed it. What I did not learn with my father, I learned through books." I found myself smiling at a memory. "I used to sit among the penguins with books about medicinal herbs and hunting strategies, never expecting that I would ever have a need to use the knowledge in practice." I glanced at Geacob and grinned at him. "There was a whole volume of books in the royal library written by a Tark lord who had been captured by Rangers for ransom during the War Across the Sea. He had been with the Rangers for three years before finally ransomed to an uncle in Nascia and he wrote about the experience. Much of what I know now came from those very volumes."
   Loryn grimaced at me. "But the War Across the Sea was over two hundred years ago. What could you possibly learn from something that old?"
   "The animals do not change their ways so quickly, nor do the plants change their color, nor do their uses change." I reminded her gently. Then, deciding I have spoken more than enough, I asked her. "What of you? Who were you before the vision?"
   "I was the daughter of High Lord Barrick Rosel." She said smugly, then seemed to slowly deflate and swallowed as if nervous. "The Rangers took me captive hoping to ransom me. They took me to The T..."
   "Where I met her." The Ranger said. "Luckily, I noticed her ring and we came here and met Ritch." He shrugged, stretching out his legs to push at a log in the fire with his toe. "As for me, I was raised by my Uncle Jack from a babe under the Rangers. When I had the vision, we left the city and went south-east as the vision told me."
   Uncle Jack, he'd said. "I think I may have met your cousin." I told him with amusement, but he frowned.
   "I don't have a cousin."
   "Oh. My apologies. Before I met the boys, I ran into some Rangers on the road and they mentioned an Uncle Jack."
   "Ah!" He understood. "Everyone calls him Uncle Jack. But he's actually my uncle by blood, my fathers' brother." He explained but he looked concerned. "Rangers mentioned my uncle around you? Saying what? Had they seen him recently? Who were they?"
   Though I was curious about his sudden concerned voice, I answered before asking some questions of my own. "A group of six led by a woman named Darci. When they had me surrounded, I may of... caught them in a trap of words in which made them incapable of killing me and forced their hand into a trade instead. One of her men mentioned that if Darci and someone named Uncle Jack had a babe, she would more than likely turn out as I was." I shook my head. "That's all that was said about your uncle, I'm sorry, they made no mention of him otherwise."
   He looked both relieved and troubled at that, but then he eyed me and chuckled. "Darci and Uncle Jack." He said and his chuckle turned into a brief laugh. "I barely know you, but somehow I'm not at all surprised at the description matching you. Darci is as bold and brave as any man, and my uncle is clever and a natural leader. For them to say that was perhaps the highest compliment you could receive."
   "I was too busy trying to keep myself alive to notice the compliment, I'm afraid." I said dryly and put some more wood on the fire as the air seeping from the smoke hole was giving me goosepimples. "Ritch? Who were you before the vision?"
   He shrugged. "Just a poor boy living in the deepest bowels of the city." He said. "Chopping silverwood to get by." But then he scrubbed at his face almost nervously... or perhaps guiltily. "I was living with my aunt but she died the night before the dragon came. She was sick for a long time you see, and she... she had The Sickness. I didn't even tell anyone about the vision. I didn't even try."
   "Don't feel too guilty." I told him gently. "I made sure the royal family knew. The Queen even believed me and the King believed us both. Yet, still, they perished." My fingers went to my necklace again. "They're in the animals now, probably as kits somewhere over the sea to grow as leaders among their king." I smiled a little at that but Loryn snorted and I lost my smile.
   "You actually believe that?"
   "I do." I told her firmly. "It is the only explanation for animal instincts that make any sense to me. The life in the eyes of the animals are simply too strong to be fueled by anything but that of a human. It is why Mother can use them to warn us of dangers. She is linked to us all through our loved ones in the animals."
   "What about the Watergods?" Venny asked. "Do you believe in them? Or are fish simply another animal of your Mother?"
   "I am no Tarkian." I admitted but gave a slight shrug. "Yet, who is to say that there is truth to the Watergods as well? And Father Anul even." I added, nodding at Ritch. "Even the dragons of Dargolyn may very well be Gods. My mother believed all the Gods were true. She pricked her thumb before each bath and though she never taught me the ways of the Watergods, I remember as a child watching her touch the water of the hot spring almost reverently, yet she also thanked the Mother over any meat gifted at our table each meal."
   "It doesn't really matter." The Ranger said. "Be it the Mother, the Father, the Watergods, dragons or man that is god, someone sent us visions and we still don't know the reason."
   Ritch motioned to Geacob. "A fifteen year old, a thirteen year---"
   "Fourteen." Loryn corrected him proudly.
   "A fourteen year old." He amended. "A twelve year old."
   "Another fifteen year old." I said, pointing to myself.
   "And a thirteen year old." Said Venny.
   Hark raised a hand with a grin. "And a thirteen year old tag-along." He said, but the grin faded quickly. "We're all so young."
   "And random." Geacob said. "A Ranger, a lady, a bastard, a ship boy, and a servant." She shook his head with confusion. "And now that we're all together, we still have no idea what to do or where to go."
   "Let us speak on it later." I said gently. "Just for tonight, let us celebrate the fact that we have actually found each other. Venny, Hark, why don't you tell us about the sea monster that near swallowed Venny whole?"
   As usual, Hark sat up and dug into the story as a starving man would dig into a feast. Speaking with a skill and drama that had everyone captivated almost instantly, then moved on from there to another encounter that had us all laughing or gasping as well. Even Loryn was pulled deep into the stories that weaved expertly and effortlessly from the mouth of Hark.
   And so for a single night in the midst of a winters storm, six kids sat together in a bundle of warmth, full and comfortable and happy. We all knew that this would change as quickly as the turn of a tide or as a cloud across the sun, but for that night, all was well and good.

GEACOB

   I decided to go with Alie to hunt the wolves. It wasn't that I doubted her abilities, but I knew the places where wolves were known in the area and two weapons were better than one.
   We'd come across no wolves, but there were plenty of tracks, so Alie silently took the longbow from my hands and shot a bird out of a nearby tree. Instead of collecting the arrow, we left it there in the bird on the ground and climbed a leafless oak tree. There we waited.
   The air was still and calm after such a storm, as if even the wind was tired. It was cold, but warmer than it had been the past couple of weeks and definitely warmer than you would expect for the dead of winter. Still, sitting motionless in a tree for a long period of time put a harsh chill on your bones and I wished for a few extra layers.
   On Alie, however, the weather seemed to have had the opposite effect -- the longer she stayed still in the tree, the warmer she seemed to get. First undoing her fur, then removing it completely. Now she slipped off her mitts and tucked them into her belt, showing nine long, pale fingers.
   I'd noticed the missing finger the night before, but never mentioned it, knowing that most women didn't enjoy having their flaws pointed out. Now though, I was desperate for a distraction from the cold.
   "How'd you loose the finger?" I asked, careful to keep my voice low.
   "Coldsickness." She whispered back, looking at said hand and flexing the four digits. "I had received a rip in my mitt at some point and had not noticed it until I stopped for the night."
   "Looks recent."
   She nodded. "It was only a couple of weeks after I left the White City."
   Wait. "You cut it off yourself?"
   "Of course. I had no one else with me and I did not want the rot to spread." She rubbed the knuckle below the nub and grimaced. "I believe I may have done it incorrectly. It still aches when the cold reaches it, and sometimes it hurts quite badly where my little finger once was, as if it were still there but burning." She glanced at me. "Do you know of a way to fix that? Perhaps you Rangers know a trick of some sort that I am unaware of?"
   "If there is, I don't know it. I'm sorry."
   She sighed. "It's alright. I'm sure someone back home knows of a remedy. Missing fingers and toes are not so uncommon in the White City." She looked around and changed the subject. "We'll need to leave soon if we are to make it back to camp by nightfall."
   "I know the way in the dark if you want to stay a bit longer..."
   "I would." She said, but slowly and a smile touched the corners of her mouth. "Except that I fear you may freeze if we say up here much longer."
   I shifted uncomfortably as I hadn't known she'd noticed. "I'll manage." I said. "I don't know how you can be so warm that you remove your fur."
   "It feels warmer than a Nascia summer today. Your winters are not near as harsh as..." She trailed off, her eyes suddenly becoming alert though still no wolves were in sight
   "What---"
   "Shh." She breathed. "The birds have stilled."
   Even before she finished explaining that, not wolves, but a bear rumbled into the area we were watching.
   Alie tilted her head, looking at the bear a moment, then nodded. "That will do." She said and to my surprise, added a bolt to her crossbow.
   I put my hand on her shoulder. "Are you jesting? That's a brownbear, he must be over six hundred stones. We can't carry that thing back with us." We had assumed we would be bringing back two or three wold skins, not a bear with a few hundred stones of meat and bone, so all we carried were our weapons and a rope to tie down the furs.
   But Alie didn't seem to care. With careful aim, she released the bolt. It went through the bears massive neck and after a pained roar and a few stumbling attempts at running, it collapsed.
   Alie slid down the tree carefully and I followed after her as quickly as I could. "Now what?" I asked her. "Leave the meat for the wolves?"
   "Of course not." She said as if I'd insulted her. She yanked the bolt out of the neck and started turning the massive bear onto its back to better access the belly. "We'll bring what we need with us."
   "Too much weight."
   "With the bones and organs we do not need left behind, we can manage to drag the rest. Help me do this quickly now, I don't feel like defending our kill against a pack of wolves today."
   "Your kill." I reminded her but removed my mitts to help.
   We each split the kin of the four legs, breaking off the paws, then once Alie sliced the belly, being careful not to cut into the gut yet, we skinned it. I was a bit faster than her and my slices were cleaner, but I admired the efficient way she worked and without a bit of disgust on her face. Most women, especially girls, would run to the nearest bush if they ever were to watch.
   Normally, the Rangers would cut the meat from the bear and leave the rest, but when I started, Alie stopped me and quickly gutted the bear, having me hold the heart and liver but dumping everything else onto the side. Then she was basically kneeling in the bear as she cut and pulled and broke out the bones from the inside, sawing through the neckbone to remove the head as well, though she did cut out the tongue first. She cut some meat from the legs, but not much, and then she removed those as well, leaving them in the snow.
   With most of the bones out, the body had deflated noticeably and she quickly scraped fat and useless meat off then stood and wiped her hair away from her face, leaving a streak of blood across her forehead.
   It was stilll a couple hundred pounds though and I was about to say so when she went to the closest pine tree and started sawing off large pieces close to the trunk. I put the organs down in the snow and helped her, sawing through it faster. She pointed out a couple more branches she wanted, then knelt in the snow and arranged them so they were weaved together tightly, then she dragged it closer to the carcass.
   The two of us managed to roll the meat onto the nest of branches, and after wrapping the heart, liver and tongue in the sacks, she used the rope to tie the ends of the pine and hook it around her hips, then under her arms as well.
   "I should drag it." I said. She was clearly stronger than she looked, but I was still stronger than she.
   "You will." She said and grinned at me, her silver eyes glinting. "When we reach that hill I nearly rolled down. You can take your turn then."
   I chuckled and agreed, knowing I was being given the much harder job, and the look in her eye told me she knew it too.
   "You'd make an excellent Ranger, Alie."
   "I'm going to take that as a compliment and not the insult most would see it as." She told me with a laugh and after rubbing blood from her hands and arms in the snow, she started off.
   I kept my eye out for wolves and followed her, thinking she was much better company than Loryn and wondered again why the five of us had the same vision when we were all so different from one another.

VENNY
   Hark had gone to the inn to have a bath while Ritch chopped wood skillfully. Making myself feel useful, I took on the job of carrying the split wood inside the shelter, piling it around the edges. I was surprised when I returned with the tenth load to find Loryn sitting inside.
   "Oh. Hello, Loryn." I greeted politely but not amiably; from the little time I'd spent with her, she seemed to be nothing but a spoiled, shallow girl who thought she was better than anyone else. I didn't like her one bit, but seeing as we were going to be spending time with her, I thought it best to at least be polite.
   "Have you seen, Geac?" She asked.
   "He's out with Alie, hunting wolves." I told her as I walked around to the piles of wood.
   She sniffed. "I'm surprised she allowed him to go with her."
   I knelt and began stacking the wood pile neatly. "Why do you hate Alie so much? Do you... fancy Geacob or something? You don't like the attention he gives her?"
   "Of course that's not it at all!" She exclaimed loudly. "I don't fancy Geac. He's an Outsider." She said as if the word itself was poison.
   "If that's true, then why don't ya like her? She save our lives out there, and she's the kindest person I ever met, she is."
   "She clearly believes that she is better than everyone else."
   "She clearly doesn't." I said, facing her and crossing my arms. "If you don't want to tell me then that's fine. Tis y'r buisness. But don't go insultin' my friend anymore, 'specially seein' as she's a much better person than you are, yet she's out there huntin' wolves with the intention of makin' ya a coat so y'r warmer, though ye've been nothin' but rude to her." I went to leave but thought of something else and swung around, pointing my finger at her. "And stop lookin' at the rest of us like we're dirt on y'r best dress, b'cause whoever you were before the fires, y'r not no more. While y'r with us, y'r juss Loryn and Just Loryn is the only one of us who's actin' completely useless."
   She glared at me but I was surprised to also see tears in her eyes; she seemed so cold, I would have never expected her to have the ability to cry. "My family is dead. Forgive me if I don't feel like storming through snow with a bastard, an Outsider, a nine-fingered servant and two scrawny shipmates. I just want to go home."
   "I don't give two jugs of piss if you're perfect family is dead! All our families are dead! My family is dead and my best friend is feking dying right before my eyes and I can't do anything about it! We all want to go home, Loryn, but we're here. For reasons only the gods know, we're all here! So stop whining as if you're better than us and start acting your age and be fekin' useful for once!"
   At that, I stormed out and went to Ritch in the trees who looked at me with something like amusement. Clearly he had heard everything through the walls of the shelter.
   "Feel better?" He asked.
   "No." I snapped and picked up another pile of wood.
   Then I sighed; so much for being polite.