Quote:
Wordcounts:
--- Ylva || 1302 words
--- Rajko/Reko || 1259 words
--- Fintan || 1005 words
--- Momoka || 759 words

Total Wordcount: || 4327 words

Ylva moved quickly across the snowy ground. She wore a grin a mile long and with each foot print that buried lightly in the snow she found comfort and warmth and glee. She had only met Momo a few days ago, and having said that she had only awakened a few nights prior. Yet the cold and flurries that spun and buzz about did not bother her. The winter winds did not pierce her thick fur and Ylva was in her element of surprise. She turned, her black and yellow eyes gazing upon her brown and tiger striped partner.

"Fear not!" She declared, her voice a shout despite the relative calm wind and lack of a storm. Ylva liked being loud and important. It filled her with a sensation of utmost glee. She paused to sniff the air, like a wolf she had seen upon her first night of awakening. "I smell caribou. We will feast like queens tonight!" She laughed and told Momo with a grin.

Momo was glad and sighed with happy relief upon Ylva telling her that her belly was soon to be full. "W-where are they?" She asked, shivering just a little. She had been awaken where the temperatures dropped coolest. Where the snow stung even to one with fur of her length, where the snow was like fire as it batted into your eyes.

She had wandered for a while, and a few moons had past. She then met another, Ylva, who seemed excited and happy as could be. With yet another shiver she asked her companion "A-are t-they on our side?" By that she meant the river. The two were trailing alongside a gully that wasn't extremely high, but it wasn't near enough to the ground where she could place her foot off the edge and expect to touch ground. It was a decent size, and thin enough that maybe they would be able to jump across. Momo was fearful of danger however; jumping across a wide gap and only hoping to make it was out of the question. Yet Ylva didn't seem to get this, always rushing head first into danger and snowstorms. Still, she was relieved when Ylva suggest they cross a bridge.

Indeed, as far as Ylva could tell this bridge was amazing. The recent snowstorm that she had Momo had braved contained a n** of ice within it's contents. Clearly, this wind and ice had found a snow drift resting upon the gully, and it froze over on an angle. There was enough snow however that it created something of a bridge. A giant icy bridge that was thin at the middle, but thick at the ends. Ice and snow slopped over it and the whole structure was simply magnificent.

The sound of hoofs caused Ylva's eyes to dart away from the structure and look just beyond it. A stampede of reindeer and caribou struggled by. The mere size caused the gully to shake and the crystals hanging from the ice bridge to move and sway, threatening to break and crash into the water below.

"Let's cross it." The wolf like feline said with a grin.

---
Rajko was new to the world. His first breaths were hours earlier and his first steps only two before the current time. He was wandering in circles, aimlessly trying to get used to the world. He had been put here by something. Someone. He didn't know who and he didn't know why but he had been. Now it was his job to survive the world he lived in.

The land he lived in was cold. It was brittle. It was lifeless. He thought this until he approached the bridge, the same bridge that he watched as Ylva and Momo began to cross. He was curious of them, they looked like he did! Immediately his reaction of to go to them. To be drawn towards them and to converse with them over something of some sort. His life was off to a rather good start, that was, until he watched something move in the corner of his eye.

A cat was down in the liquid ice, water, he thought it was called. This cat was swimming in it. Indulging in it as if the cold was not enough to kill. How odd, Rajko thought. He was about to turn and leave the strange cat, chase instead after the females who looked like he when a gleam came from the cat. How peculiar, he had a gem upon his face. The gem was a yellow hue and looked to be some sort of treasure. A treasure that Rajko, no, to the stranger he would call himself Reko, wanted.

Fintan bobbed in the blackened cold water happily. The cold was of course, enough to induce shivering and yet the water was refreshing and gleefully hydrating enough to make him stay. Upon the stranger approaching him he opened his eyes with a friendly smile, not expecting what was about to happen. "Why Hello-" The stranger's brown paw as big as a bear's stretched out and slashed Fin across the forehead, damaging enough to cause him to reverse with a snarl.

How dare he. That orb was precious, feeling the scrape of shear claws go across it brought tears to Fin's eyes. Not to mention the blood from where he scratched, dripping down his forehead and blinding him in one of his eyes.

"What are you doing?!" He growled, and watched as the stranger's hair's stood on end and he bore his fangs with the intent of swinging at Fin again.

Fintan could be scary too, he decided, and curled in the water furiously, moving quickly to the right and ducking under his tail to shoot out of the water. He was spinning madly with a hiss and his claws were born to the outside cold. When the brown attacker pounced again Fin was ready, and although being crushed by a bear-sized being was painful he imagined that the claws sinking into his attackers stomach and the bite to the back of the neck he was giving was equally painful as that.

The swimming cat, as Reko had decided to name him, was making this taking the treasure from him thing rather difficult. He had slashed at the kitty in hopes that the gem on his face would simply pop off, that despite the injuries the treasure would be Reko's now and the stranger would be fine with this. This was not the case. The creature was attempting to speak with him but by then it was too late. Upon him slashing this water stranger the gem did not remove itself from the forehead of it's owner.

The stranger looked angry, Reko noticed. Well, Reko would just show him he was scary too. All he wanted was to look at the stone! Why did he not give it to Reko? Was Reko being mean?! His fur bristled and with a roar he swung his paws again. This time though the stranger attacked back! He grasped his teeth around Reko's arm and swung him into the water. A feeling of instant cold overcame Reko and he shivered with the sensation of not belonging in the water. Reko seemed to have fallen on top of the stranger, and the creature was quick to bury sharp objects, claws, into Reko's soft underbelly. He hardly noticed the bites to the neck however, as his thick fur was protective of that area.

He wanted those gems! Reko leap slightly out of the water, using the stranger to propel him up, and then bore his long fangs towards the gem, intending on ripping them off. He thought that maybe they were glued to the strangers head without him knowing...

Fintan slashed viciously at Reko. When he rose and jabbed his feet into Fin's stomach the water tribe member knew he was in serious danger. With head went under and his nose was filled with water, causing him to gag and cough. The attacker, this creature that wanted to kill him was swinging his head down when Fintan jabbed into that bear-sized body and broke skin with a slash of his back claws. This temporarily crippled his foe and Fintan used it to his advantage. Within seconds he was twisted around normally and swimming away. When his head touched air above water once again he had never been so glad. Grasping the shoreline Fin began to shake. The cold was starting to get to him now..

He heard a growl, and his ears lowered with another spin allowing his back to face the shoreline and unfortunately be pounded into it with the pressure of Reko's body slamming into him.

Nothing was broken. A miraculous miracle. Using his feet Fin plied Rajko off him and leap onto the shore. 'No good, no good, no good' he thought. He had to deal with this threat now. He had to stop his attacker. Fangs bared, claws out, Fintan jumped back into the water. Right on top of Reko.

---
Ylva skipped merrily as she touched snow on the other bank of the bridge. Here, the ground was elevated and in order to reach the shoreline one would have to tumble down a small hill. A trip that looked inviting if Ylva was to voice so herself.

Turning, she looked at Momo with glee in her eyes and grin still wide as day upon her features. "Look Momo!" She called. "The caribou aren't scared of me." Or they were scared of something else. Something scarier. Either way, they ran behind Ylva and then carried on running over the hills and mounts of snow until they were growing to be further out of Ylva's yellow eyes range of sight.

"Hurry!" She called back to Momo. For a newly found hunting partner she wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about hunting as Ylva was.

The brown colored female was not nearly as brave or strong willed as Ylva. Momo was crawling slowly, like a caterpillar across the icy column of a structure they called a bridge. She was little more than half way over the thing, at the part where it was thinnest and most likely to break under the pressure of her weight.

'This isn't so bad.' She thought to herself. 'I can do this... It's no trouble!' The fact was Momo was deathly fearful of heights. Not that she knew this up until now, but the idea of the bridge snapping under her weight was terrifying. What if the water was shallower than it looked. What if it had a deadly fish or something swimming with in? These reasons along with several thousand others caused Momo to freeze, and stop moving along the bridge.

"It's too scary!" She whined to Ylva, who looked back at Momo upon hearing her call in distress.

It was in that moment that all eyes were drawn to Momo. Fintan and Reko ceased fighting, Ylva's eyes widened with fear. Momo. Momo simply sat there and for a moment the world was still.

Crack!

The world began to move again. For Momo, what happened wasn't fast but it was slow. Like a movie it played in slow motion and every detail was crystal clear. First, the bridge had cracked under the weight of Momo's soft paws grasping it for safety. In that moment she could feel the sweat and tension under her fur and her claws had extended to grasp the underside of the thinnest piece of ice. That was what caused the crack, her claws and the faintest touch from them. From that crack other cracks formed and Momo could only watch in horror as it stretched to where Ylva stood, but stopped short of the last bit of ice.

Then, it collapsed. All at once ice flung in all directions and the roar of something heavy falling accompanied the bridge as it caved. Momo's paws fought to grasp onto an edge of ice that remained solid, that wasn't broken when she hit the water. Sadly her paws didn't reach that far, and her body wasn't able to keep up to the pace of her eyes. Seconds it took as her head was submerged completely in the black and lifeless water, and Momo struggled for a few moments before accepted she couldn't swim. Looking after having heard a loud noise she could only watch as the main part of the bridge came tumbling down from where it stood.

Right on top of her.
---
Reko's paw was the first thing to touch the snow outside was the frozen water. Then, with a heave all of him appeared above the frozen depths. He rolled over to allow himself more room on the edge and breathed shallowly attempting to free his lungs from the water now trapped within them. His fight with Fintan was exhausting, and it had ended moments before the bridge had come soaring down.

Standing, he felt a pain surge through his lungs and fought to breath normally once again. Reko's eyes widened at the damage. The crack, as far as he knew, had been caused by the wind. He never imagined a little bead of broken ice could be such a fragile thing.

From where he stood Reko had to admit, he had a good view. Shaking himself free from the cold and water, as best he could the brown male gazed as he saw something in the water. Something that wasn't the stranger who he had attempted to steal from. Something, that couldn't swim.

His legs moved faster than his mind and Reko was in a hurry to reach the ice bridge. He was much slower in the water on land and he figured that being so he had at least a small shot of beating Fintan to this drowning feline. He didn't want to risk this new cat being killed by the water stranger who had fought him so viciously. He could imagine a fate that await those who couldn't swim.

With a roar of passion and determination he approached the bridge. Or rather, what remained of it. It seemed that the edges of the side of the bridge had frozen to the dirt and made it stronger where he was. On the other side no bridge remained, as he could recall it never did quite reach the other edge. His eyes then lifted to see Ylva standing at this other non-bridge covered side. He was about to shout for help of some kind, when the female who looked bitterly angry leap to his side and attacked.

Oh great, so they all hated him!

---

After his little fight with Reko not only did his face hurt, but his arms, his stomach, his feet and legs, everything was sore and painful from being kicked, clawed and bashed with. Not to mentioned rammed into. Fintan surfaced from the water victorious however and watched with a scowl as his attacker pulled himself to safety and dared not to leap into the water again. He felt glee upon seeing Reko run off somewhere and it was only when he turned did he notice why.

Everyone, even those running deer had to have seen or turned to look at the bridge collapsing. Even Fintan's ears had perked and he watched as it came tumbling down. But he hardly imagined that someone would get trapped under it.

The adrenalin from fighting was still everlasting strong. It filled him with a heat, a willpower to fight the frostbite and swim on. He scurried through the water like a snake, hurrying best he could.

'Beat the attacker.' He thought. 'Beat the attacker to her.'

Ylva could be called many things, but one of her many faults she was proud to admit was she was strong. When Momo had fallen from her eyes Ylva had considered leaping in herself, only she noticed the two males within the area.

One was running along the land, to reach the bridge where she was. The other was surging through the water, to reach Momo.

"Oh heck no."

What Ylva failed to notice was that Fintan and Reko were not on the same side. In fact, she had looked at the two men fighting maybe once but never again. As far as she was concerned these two were going to try and drown both herself and Momo to steal the caribou all for themselves.

Her best shot at avoiding this was to beat the one on land first, and then proceed to get the one swimming like a fish in the water.

The brown male, the one who was much bigger than her finally arrived at the bridge. With a snarl Ylva launched herself from her current position to where he was. The male raised his big bulky arm in an attempt to swing at Ylva, but she was quick. Ears folded back she rammed into him as he stood upright, leaning to the left slightly as she moved swiftly to get past him. Reko fell over and his claws failed to grip the bridge even a small amount! Within seconds he was making a cannon dive into the water.

Ice floats were drowning the surface of the water, but Fintan managed to evade most of them and angrily shoved those he couldn't out of his way. The female bobbed silently in the water, only her ears visable. At this Fin rushed, he made his way to her and lifted Momo's head high into the air, dragging her to the shore by her neck fur.

He didn't realize how long he had been in the water until surfacing from it made him feel cold. Fintan wasn't use to such harsh weather but the cold wasn't about to kill him. Not when he had a life to save.

Momo was silent, and could hear nothing as Fintan dragged her out of the depths and onto the snowy banks away from the water. A few seconds of nothing and he began to panic.

"Come on!" He shouted and rolled her over on her side.

Momo coughed, and water came gushing from her lungs. She breathed shallowly, but she was still breathing and that's what was important.

All she honestly could remember was falling, falling into the water from a tall place. She shivered and felt as someone pressed against her, trying to keep her warm. They were cold though and it wasn't working.

Her eyes opened faintly to stare at the stranger holding her. He wasn't like her, he had fur like the waves. It was smooth, long, and painted like an ocean excepting his paws that looked like fire. Fire... Fire was warm, and fire was comfortable. She hadn't even seen fire before but somehow Momo associated anything that warm with comfort...

Ylva rushed to be nearer to Momo. At first, she was furious. "GET AWAY FROM HER!" She roared with a pounce.

Fintan had little time to react before he was knocked over from the sheer size of Ylva. "Alright now, what gives you the idea that you can just go around trying to drown others!?" For a moment only she yelled, for then she noticed Momo was fine. Not fine, of course not perfect health, but good enough to not be considered in the dying category.

At that Ylva realized that he was no enemy. "You're helping?" She said and cautiously removed the pinned Fintan from the ground. He coughed and stood slowly. Poor thing looked frozen.

Fin coughed again, pleased as Ylva removed her paw that he had been permitted to breathe again. "Yes." He squeaked. "She was drowning, I was trying to save her."

Ylva nodded to Fin, conveying she understood. He listened as she thoughtfully suggested they move Momo up into the snow more. "No." He stated plainly. "I believe she is close to regaining consciousness. And..." He nodded to the distance. "He's not one to give up so soon."

Reko has swam purposely to the side of the river where Ylva, Momo and most importantly that stubborn stranger Fintan were. He growled softly while pulling himself out of the waves. Not only had that stupid stranger tried to drown him, Reko, when he merely wanted his face gems, but then he had attempted to drown the fluffy ladies.

It seemed to him that they were on his side. Or he had brain washed them into joining him, for the girl with black upon her head came charging towards Reko mercilessly.

He would stand and fight if that was what she wanted. He was most likely to win too, purely being more stronger than she, and now, on equal footing. Instead however he was surprised when she came up, for she began to shout instead.

"YOU!" She was furious.

"How DARE you!" She hissed, and watched with a feeling of smug success as Reko reversed in surprise. "You're the reason this all happened to begin with! What on earth are you even? A murderer?! First you tried to drown this poor guy-" She turned and pointed furiously at Fintan before turning back to face Reko. "THEN you try attacking ME. Because of YOU, Momoka over there almost died!" She snarled angrily towards Reko. "Who do you think you are anyways?!"

"N-o.. No! That's not what happened!" He shouted in a fluster. "See- I wanted to look at his face gems! But they wouldn't come off his face! So I thought that he was wearing them but didn't know! I was trying to help! Honest!"

He watched as Ylva's nostrils flared. She didn't believe him. "No! I'm being truthful! He attacked me and then I! I saw her drowning. M..Momo.ka. So I wanted to go help her! But then you knocked me into the water!" He then paused to gaze into Ylva's eyes. He was being honest. He wanted her to see that.

"My name..." He paused, considering whether to give his real name Rajko, or his alias Reko to her. On one hand giving his real name showed he was being truthful, and it was who he was he had nothing to hide. He had only awoken a few hours earlier after all, the world was still new to him, as were names. "My name is Reko."

Thankfully for "Reko's" sake Ylva was in a forgiving mood. Otherwise she wouldn't have bothered to yell at him and would have merely ripped into his skin with her teeth. She could be monstrous when it appealed to her, she found.

"Hmm. Fine. I'll believe you Reko, if this kid-" She again, waved to Fintan, "agrees with it." Ylva looked over her shoulder and Reko peeked his head around Ylva to see Fintan nod in agreement.

They approached now, careful as they did. Fintan eyed Reko constantly, aiming daggers from his eyes.

Ylva couldn't and wouldn't, didn't concern herself over the tension between the men. "Momo." She lightly nosed her passed out friend, who blinked her eyes open to stare. Ylva then addressed her whole audience. "Alright, so my name's Ylva. Missy panic down there is Momoka." She turned behind her. "This is Reko." Finally, she faced Fintan. "What's your name stranger?"

"Fintan." He nodded to Reko and Ylva. He was still acting as support for Momo, allowing her to lean on him for when she wanted to dare to stand.

The hype from earlier had faded. With it, so had Fin's warmth. He shivered briefly and his company noticed.

"Hey!" Reko noticed he had his chance. "Give me your face gems! I want to look at them!"

"Is... Is that what you were doing ealier?! You were trying to pull the gem off my forehead?!!" Fintan would have stood and throttled that idiot had he not been freezing and responsible for another's life at the moment. "You moron! I need it to stay where it is! It's part of my body as much as that fur is part of yours!" He huffed, feeling satisfied after having said that. Reko only seemed slightly insulted and backed away a few steps with his ears folding back. Fintan swore he heard him mutter "sorry" under the wind as it seized up.

"Great." Ylva grinned. "Now that we all know each other, I think we best get a move on." To which her audience looked surprised. She rolled her yellow eyes at them. "Fintanny here needs something to keep warm. I mean look at him, he's not going to last until we give him a pelt or something."

She then sighed out and turned to face the upper part of the hill. The last of the caribou rushing by reassured her this would work well. "Those deer, we're going to hunt them down. Momo can't hunt currently and I imagine Finny is useless for the moment. So here's the plan huh?" She turned back, facing Reko. "You and me, we're going to go get these two pelts. Those deer will be the pelts. They'll keep them two warm and feed us all at the same time. So what'd'ya say Reko? You in?"

Reko turned to look at Ylva. He still wanted the face-gems but it seemed that was out of the question. Additionally Ylva said things that made a lot of sense to a newly born B'alam such as he. "Okay." He told her. "Let hunt things. Get pelts for Fin-tan and Momo.ka. Then foo-ood as well.

Ylva cheered a little on the inside. "kay." She nodded to Fintan. "See if you can't get something like a fire going. Otherwise you'll freeze to death." Although from the looks of things he was doing okay. Ylva imagined that getting a fire going and then hugging Momo would keep him pretty warm despite his thin pelt. "Stay low." She warned him. "The wind can get pretty vicious."

With a final swing to the right she grinned merrily at Reko, who smiled awkwardly back. "Let's go hunting."