A/N Thank-you everyone for the reviews, it makes it so much easier to write and update when you post such great comments! Just a quick FYI: I plan on going back and making a few slight changes to chapter 1, but nothing major that is going to effect the story. I am not too happy with how it is right now. I don't know when I will do it but I will let you know once I have so you can go re-read it if you want to. But like I said it won't be anything major, mostly changing some wording and hopefully make it sound a little less far-fetched.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders, but I do own Tayin!

Chapter 4: Where Are We Anyway?

Dally's POV

Everyone else had gone to bed but Soda, Two-Bit and I were still to wound up to sleep. We decided to go for a walk and check out the town. We had to be pretty sneaky because Darry would flip his lid if he knew we were wandering around an unfamiliar town in the middle of the night.

It was dark and chilly out and none of us were wearin' very warm jackets, but I didn't care, I was tuff enough. We walked through the small town for a while; I didn't even know the name of it. Soon we had reached the end and entered the woods.

"I think I read about this place." Two-Bit was lookin' around like we were gonna get jumped.

"You read?" I laughed.

"Well it was on TV," and then he quietly added, "there are these snow elves that live in the forest. They are tiny, even smaller then regular elves. But they do not help Santa in his workshop, instead they wait for people to walk through their forest and then they surround them and tackle them and drag them to their houses where they…" he suddenly stopped talking. Finally. He looked like he was concentrating on something, and then I heard it.

A loud noise coming from almost right behind us and getting closer, "Snow elves!" Two-Bit screamed and we all started runnin' as fast as we could.

Soda's POV

We ran in no certain direction for what seemed like days until I tripped over a root stickin' out of the ground. It was good timin' though because we were all tired. Dally and Two-Bit were actually hunched over tryin' to catch their breath.

I flipped onto my back, propped myself up on my hands and stared up at them, "Well howdy Dal," I grinned, "Have a seat." I patted the spot next to me. Two-Bit took it graciously. Dally looked at us like we were nuts.

"Snow elves?" he gasped, "Really?"

"Hey you ran too." I pointed out.

"Only so you fools wouldn't get lost."

"Ok great. Thanks Dally. So where are we anyway?" I asked looking around.

"How the hell should I know?" he looked disgusted.

"Well let's get out of the forest for starters," Two-Bit was lookin' around nervous about the "snow elves" findin' us again. We stood up and started walkin' hopefully towards where we came from, but who really knows?

Eventually we came across a path and started followin' that, hopin' it would lead us back into town.

No such luck. It lead us to a huge clearin' of some sort.

"Huh," I thought aloud. It was so cold I could see my breath, "I think we're lost."

"Don't worry," Two-Bit smiled, "I was watchin' TV and there are these elves that…"

Dally cut him off, "Shut up! I've heard enough of your stupid little elf stories! It's your fault we're here in the first place!"

"Ok cool it Dal. We can't change that we're here, let's just walk around 'til we find another path. There's got to be one that lead's back into town." I stood in between my two friends, the last thing we needed was to start goin' off in different directions.

"Whatever." Dally looked like he was about to add somethin' else but then we heard a noise.

Two-Bit's POV

It sounded like someone was hollerin' from the forest.

"Hello!" I yelled.

Sure enough someone replied, "Is someone there?"

"Yea! We're in some sorta clearin'!" Soda yelled.

After a few minutes of followin' our voices a figure emerged from the trees.

Now that we were out of the forest and away from the lights of town we had the light of the full moon and the stars to actually see for quite a distance. The voice belonged to a guy about Soda and Steve's age; he had jet-black hair peaking out from under a twilight blue toque, the colour matched his eyes. He was just a tad shorter than Soda and was wearin' a jacket that was about the same thickness as ours, which was not very warm at all.

"Thanks," he grinned, and I noticed he had a dimple on one cheek. Even in the moonlight I could tell he was someone that girls would find very attractive. If he lived in Tulsa, Soda would have some tough competition, "I was walkin' in the forest and I guess I got turned around. I feel like I have been walkin' in there for hours."

"Snow elves," I nodded my head in understanding and was rudely interrupted by Dally.

"Ignore him," he advised, "We do."

I was about to defend myself and was cut off again this time by Soda.

"I'm Sodapop, but you can call me Soda, this here is Two-Bit, and Dally." he had pointed to us as he said our names.

"Well it's nice to finally get out of there. Thanks again. I'm Tayin." I could see that he was shakin' quite a bit in the cold and only realized then that Soda, Dally and I were too.

"So where'd you come from Tayin?" Dally asked with a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"My brother's place, and well now mine too, I guess. It's a couple of minutes out of Sparing."

"That's the town we're staying in." Soda looked pleased, "Do you recognize this clearing?"

"No sorry, I just moved here about a week ago so I'm not too familiar with the area. So you said the town that you're staying in, I take it you aren't from around here either."

"No," I was finally able to get a word in, "We live in Tulsa, and just flew in this afternoon. We're here on vacation."

"Here?" his eyebrows shot up in surprise, "Really? Why?"

"We wanted to see snow, and we heard there were a lot of great sights to see around here." Soda grinned.

"Oh, yea. I heard that too. I haven't had much of an opportunity to go sight seeing yet or anything. Moving takes a lot of time."

"So why'd you move here?" Dally asked. He was tryin' to look tuff by smokin' and probably trying to intimidate the poor guy.

"Long story," Tayin mumbled, "So which direction do you think we should try?"

After a couple of minutes of discussing some options we ended up choosing a direction by me spinning around with my eyes closed and then stoppin' suddenly while pointing. Actually we didn't do that. That was my idea, but they thought we should choose what looked like the most traveled on path. I still think my way would've worked better though, or at least it would have been funner*. As long as it lead back into town and got us out of the forest and away from the snow elves faster I wasn't gonna complain.

A/N: Well that's it for this chapter. I hope that you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I would have liked to add more to it, it doesn't feel finished, but it is getting late so I am going to bed instead. I will still post it tonight so that I at least keep my promise of updating. Hopefully I will get another chapter up soon, but it will be the weekend so I make no promises!

*I realize that this is not a word, but it is from Two-Bit's POV