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Oh, bitehis way over stones and scri the strea for a safe spot where he wouldn’t wind up wet As the bea that only registered when his light had already skis: snow heaped around a rock where all the rest nearby were still covered, and a trio of animal prints Probably an animal had disturbed the snow as it stepped past Froe, too That print was bigger than his hand, and fresh As in, not long ago

Considering that, all of a sudden, he was glad for the guard and his gun Make this quick is right The last thing he needed to run into was a hungry wolf He had enough probleht over a curving side the silver oval of a face

The green eyes belonged to a honking huge gray-white wolf

But the face belonged to a girl

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Luke was so freaked, a scream fizzed into his throat that he just as quickly bottled behind cla the flashlight jittered from a sudden fit of the shakes

The wolf didn’t er to her lips and then crooking her hand the way Morpheus had to Neo: not bring it on but coot to be kidding This was like the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood Get near a strange kid as just the right age to be a Chucky? Hell no Then he considered that this girl was a) hiding and b) with an animal, and that except for Finn’s weirdo Chuckies, all the ones he kneere the kind who snacked first and asked questions later

"Kid, what the" The uy hacked, then hawked up so from deep in his chest He spit and then croaked, "Damn coffin nails" Louder: "What’s the holdup?"

"Uh" Luke dragged up his voice fro her head "There’s a lot of ice Be up in a couple seconds"

The guard ht couard lit up a fresh sirl was now only a foot away, her wolf--or --at attention by her side

"Who are you?" he whispered

"How ht she hteen, and decked out in a funky, fluttery cah cheekbones, a narrow nose, and strong jaw The sharp dash of a ’s peak was just visible high on her forehead, but he couldn’t tell what color her hair was Her eyes, though, were an intense, deep e and roughed hands--not toand the sheathed knives strapped to either leg--he thought she’d been in the woods, on her own, for a long tiirl

"Four One here, three back at the tents" He paused "Are you from Rule?"

She shook her head "Weapons?"

"Uzis, and they all have pistols"

A deep wrinkle forun?" When he nodded, she said, "Get the guard to coue to ask what she was going to do, then he considered how that was just du, he stood and called, "Hey, I need souard said, bored, no question in his tone at all "What happened"

Luke injected a note of ed his hand into ice water and splashed around "And my boot came off I can’t find it and"

"Aw, Jesus" An exasperated sigh, followed by the clop of heavy feet "Hang on"

"Thanks" Luke ht, but the girl and her hu, he pegged his flashlight bea sidestep Too late, he remembered: Shit, I’m supposed to have losthis light until the beauard’s face "Over here"