---Projekt Red's perspective---

Suddenly she awoke. She found herself in a place she could not recognise.

-''Tacet?'' Red whispered, but no response came.

She touched her head and felt a sharp pain. However it was not the worst she had ever experienced, and it was bandaged as well. She looked around and noticed the water and rations near the little lamp like heater. She pulled a knife from under her jacket and used it to open the makeshift tent in utter silence. Outside was a deathly cold.

-Tacet?

Silence reigned, but she could smell Tacet's scent. Her eyes instantly adjusted to the dark, and she silently left the shelter. She noticed the door barricaded with the desk, and then the shape sitting on the couch. Standing guard with his rifle tight in his hands. A sentinel against potential intruders. Frost covered him heavily.

-Tacet.

No response came from him at all. She came besides him, touching his shoulder, but he didn't move. Projekt Red then pulled his beanie and face mask off. She noticed the blood having spread all over his head from the wound gotten earlier in the fight today. She came to realise a difference, he took the time to tend to her wound, she had not. As she touched his face she felt him so cold. Her heart rate picked up. The thought of her partner being dead entered her mind and made her uncomfortable in a way she hadn't felt before. She pulled his attire open further and had slipped her hand on his neck. There she felt it, a pulse. But so weak and so rare, it shouldn't have been possible to still be alive. She realised he was on the brink of death, and in an instant she decided to act. She picked up his rifle, setting it besides the couch, then immediately threw off the frozen blankets off of him.

She grabbed him tightly, taking him inside the tent. Laying him on the still warm spot that she awoke from. She took off his jacket as it was itself too frozen, throwing it outside the tent, leaving him only in his long sleeved shirt. Yet it wasn't enough. His body temperature was too low and Red knew there was only one way that she could save him. Closing the tent behind her, she unzipped her own jacket. Then, she laid against his chest, enveloping him with her warm body, covering them both with her jacket. With her fluffy ear against his chest she could hear his heartbeats better. So rare, so weak. She willed her fear away as she kept him close for dear life.

She looked up at him and saw the dried blood on his head. She felt a pang of guilt, and she quickly pulled some sterile wipes from her pockets without raising herself from his cold body. Dampening it with some of the warm water she carefully cleaned his head, the wound on his head looked worse than she remembered. She applied some disinfectant upon a sterile wipe and stitched it upon his wound with a medical tape. It would be the best she can do for now. She laid her head back on his chest and closed her eyes. But not to rest, she had enough of that. She would now stand guard in turn. Her senses remained sharply focused while she held a knife in her hand at the ready. Nothing would sneak upon them.

It was later into the night that a blackest shadow seemed to engulf the darkness of the corridor outside the room. An ancient existence that exuded a foul malevolence. It was blind yet it had many eyes. And it sensed the living creatures beyond the door. Slithers of the shadow slowly crept inside through every crevice. Red'd ears picked something up, she sensed it coming. But she had already chosen, she would not abandon him. She tightened her grasp on her knife, she would battle until death to protect him if need be. But Red was no ordinary lupo. She was a Fang. And as the ancient darkness continued to creep closer the other entity present decided to intervene.

Grandma was here.

It suddenly gained shape and a large paw stepped upon the creeping shadow, obliterating its tendril. It was a large wolf beast form befitting its kind and its face radiated pure intent of murder towards that which threatened its charge, its chosen disciple. The darkness crept back behind the door into the hallway. As ancient and malevolent as it was it would not risk provoking the wrath of the entire Signori dei Lupi. The entire wilderness would descend to battle the darkness less their Great Game was disrupted or their brethren or chosen touched. Unbeknownst to Red, far out from the outpost, ancient wolves were also watching intently.

Red felt her presence. And as much as it displeased her decision, as much as Grandma wanted Tacet dead, it was nothing compared to winning the Game. The shadow finally relented and vanished as if never existing. And Red knew nothing would touch them while Grandma remained on watch. They would sleep the night in peace. She laid on him for much time, still not daring to take rest. Not until she knew he would live for certain. And soon she felt it. A twitch and then movement. He was waking up. And then she heard his voice. She rose slightly upon Tacet, looking at him. For his part he looked incredibly tense. The eyes of someone who was caught.

-What are you going to do to me, Red?

Tacet asked. Though it was just a nicer way of asking ''Are you going to kill me now, Red?''

-I am keeping you warm.

She felt his heartbeats rising, almost irregularly. His body language was giving conflicting signals and Red had difficulty reading his state of mind. Something was off. She felt him so close and so well that she could read him. But not understand him. There was an intensity growing dangerously inside of him... it was pain, pain and something else.

-Tacet stood watch. But the cold was taking your life.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

-Red didn't wish to lose you. So I brought you in with me.

He was gasping lightly for air as he looked intensely at the lupo upon him. Then, suddenly, she felt it all instantly change.

-Red!

Was the only thing he would utter. He brought his arms around the lupo and embraced her closely, her jacket having fallen off of her. Projekt Red was surprised. She had yet to understand the reasoning for his behaviour, but she felt him surrender, give in. She couldn't exactly figure why. But she felt his tenseness loosening, his pain now dissipating. She preferred him to be free of pain, and so she accepted it. She laid back relaxedly upon him, and she could feel him at ease. His heart was beating clearly and normally now. A hand gently came upon her head and fluffy ear. His grasp was gentle and warm. It was soothing to be at ease with him, she thought. She... decided she liked this. She fell asleep upon him and they both basked in a restful slumber upon one another.

---Tacet's perspective---

I suddenly woke up in a heavenly comfort I have never known before. I felt still half asleep, it was pleasantly warm but even more pleasant was the wolf girl I felt laying on me. I instinctively knew it was Red. I was at ease, and I felt I could lay like that with her for a long time. She was snuggled comfortably onto me, and slowly I wrapped my arms back onto her. I wanted to feel her closer, to prolong this moment. I instinctively knew I was not thinking normally. My inhibitions must have been down, still only half awake as I was. And I decided to enjoy this moment of bliss as much as I could. I felt her move. She must also have awakened. But she seemed in no rush, she only adjusted her comfort on me before she slumbered a bit more. Her face was close against my shoulder and her head was against my visage. I could smell her scent, and I couldn't help but readjust my palm onto of her head. She was so warm, her ears were brushing so softly against my hand. Some more time passed before she rose up slowly, morning fatigue still on her face and she looked at me.

-Tacet.

She spoke with a voice which softness I have never encountered before. She wiped her face and her eyes, bringing back her sharp composure of a hunter. I remembered last night when I woke up briefly. And... I didn't feel too awkward about it.

-Are you alright Red? Is your head wound better?

I asked nonchalantly as she was still onto me. I... enjoyed her closeness too much I could not deny.

-Red is well now.

-''Thank you for last night, I think I might have never had woken again if I stayed there.'' I said.

She shook her head.

-You don't have to. I remember losing conscience when the avalanche was upon me.

-You came back for me, cared for me. Red will never forget.

I felt a sense of mutual respect growing between us. It felt like she no longer just tolerated my presence but acted as if part of a pack. And then, I realised I felt something else growing... I had to quickly shoo her off me!

-Let's get going! We have to find our snow cab.

She scooted off of me without any semblance of shame or awkwardness to how we spent our night. And just in time as either the morning wood or something else was making me grow something. I packed my belongings and prepared to head out. There was no sign that anyone tried to force its entry into the room. We passed by the med-lab just to check and indeed the dead body of the monster was still there. We dug our way out through the open window from a room on the third level, opposite from where the avalanche had come from. That way we had less snow to dig through, and indeed soon me managed to reach the surface.

It was a sea of white snow and our snow car was nowhere to be seen. I pulled out my compact binoculars and scouted along with Red. I could find nothing. So we headed down along the mountain on a probable direction where we believed the snow car might have been washed away. It was two hours later that I finally had picked something up with my visors. A thick black antenna sticking out of the snow.

-''That direction, three hundred clicks away.'' I told Red.

It would take us the better part of the day to dig to the snow cab and roll it out of its hole. We were damn near freezing by the end of it and the climate controlled heating inside was a God send. However, my suspicions were proven true. The antenna was shorter that I remembered. It was partly severed, probably from the amount of tumbling the avalanche gave it.

It was such that we travelled for eleven days together, stretching our rations as much as we could. Finally, atop a high snowy hill on the eleventh day of travelling we managed to make contact with Rhodes Island. The signal was shoddy and unreliable as Hell, but it was enough for the emergency beacon to be received by the landslip. An Osprey arrived to pick us up within twelve hours.

All in all, we went missing for almost fourteen days. And the folks back on the landship by that time were thinking of the worst case scenario. Our mission originally being slated to last no more than two days and with often scheduled reports to be sent back. The mission was secret. Nobody but a very select few knew. Yet within those two weeks word spread of my disappearance. The residents and operators of the landship quickly noticing that Projekt Red was missing as well for that same amount of time. Kal'tsit's stone silence only compounded the worst kind of fears. Either that Red finally finished her original deed to kill me, and then forced to go into hiding. Or that we were sent into a suicide mission and having lost our lives.

I was actually displeasedly surprised at the large amount of operators that came to greet us at the hangar. I was never a fan of crowds. There were quite a few operators and lupos I recognised having come to see us, or rather, just me for some reason. When I turned around Projekt Red had already slipped away just as the group of people enveloped around me. I wouldn't catch sight of her again that day. Nor the next when we were required to hand in our reports. Not even on the third. On the fourth I made a conceded effort to find and meet her and I failed. So did my efforts on the fifth, sixth and seventh day. I succeeded on the eight day after an enormous amount of deductions and calculations of her probable route. She was walking towards me in the corridor I guessed she would be passing by at a certain time. She noticed me as I stopped before her.

-Hello Red.

She said nothing. I then pulled out one of her personal knives that I had borrowed during our long ride home.

-You forgot this.

She looked at the knife and then picked it, stashing it along the others under her jacket. Yet she continued to remain silent to me. As if tolerating me until I released her, and she could walk by again. She was expressionless, I couldn't read her at all at that point.

-Red, I have to ask.

-You were difficult to find these few days.

-Do you have any misgivings towards me?

I asked sincerely.

-No, Red doesn't have anything against Tacet.

She answered after a short pause, yet her answer was controlled, final. She truly meant what she spoke, and she was just back to her normal life on the landship. I smiled. She wouldn't reveal more, yet her answer was satisfying. Things were normal. And if she just wanted that and only that then I would accept it.

-Take care Red. Maybe we'll see each other around.

I spoke, then I passed by her, walking at a leisurely pace. Releasing her to go her way.