Since he was the 'expert' – having done the whole snowshoeing thing once more than the others – Peter showed MJ and Ned how to get their boots into the bindings of the snowshoes and then gave them a demonstration of how to walk in them. They caught on fairly quickly, taking a lap around the cabin and purposely aiming for the deepest drifts of snow that they could, and when they felt competent enough to try it in the trees, they headed away from the house and toward the forest that surrounded the place.
"It's harder than it looks," Ned said, walking abreast with Peter and MJ since there wasn't an actual trail that they were following.
"It beats slogging through waist high snow, though," MJ pointed out, not looking at them because she was focusing on her feet, making sure to pick them up with each step and not get them tangled and tripping herself up.
"Yeah, it does."
Under the trees the snow wasn't coming down nearly as hard, since the evergreens still had foliage and it was capturing the snow, sheltering them. There was still plenty of deep snow underfoot, but it wasn't quite as bad as whenever they would come to a clearing and would find that the snow was much deeper out of the protection of the trees.
Ned had his camera out, taking pictures. Not only of the scenery – which was pretty – but also of Peter, MJ and himself in all their outdoor trappings. If nothing else, he was sure his mother would want to see what he'd been up to and how well prepared they had been for the winter weather. Besides, no one at school would believe that there was so much snow so early in the season if he didn't have pictures to prove it.
They had walked for about an hour – which seemed like forever, but wasn't really all that far since they weren't in any hurry – and were discussing that they were probably ready to turn around, when Peter suddenly felt a warning tingle as they came out of the trees and into the edge of yet another clearing. A warning so strong that he came to an immediate stop and automatically brought his hands up to stop MJ and Ned, who were flanking him. His right hand pressed against Ned's chest, and his left went to MJ's.
Ned happened to have his camera up, and snapped a picture before coming to a complete stop.
"What's up?"
"Hush."
He heard what sounded like snarling and growls, and allowed the sound and his spider senses to direct his attention to the far side of the clearing – maybe 300 feet and slightly downhill from them. MJ gasped as her gaze followed his, and Peter froze, his hands still against the front of his friends' coats.
"Holy shit!"
It was only a whisper, but to Peter Ned's curse sounded way too loud - as did the soft clicking noise that the camera made as Ned automatically snapped a dozen pictures. A pack of wolves had taken advantage of the deep snow and had brought down an elk and were feeding on it, snarling and growling as they did. There was blood everywhere, staining the trampled snow on the other side of the clearing.
"Shut up," Peter whispered, taking hold of their coats and pulling both of them behind him, his eyes only on the scene in front of him. "Back up. Slowly…"
He heard a whimper but wasn't sure if it was Ned or MJ – or if it was coming from him – and carefully pulled his gloves off as he heard his friends moving away from the clearing as quickly as they could without seeming to move at all. He turned his head and saw MJ stumble, but she was behind a tree, now, and the snow muffled the noise that it would have made. Ned pulled her to her feet since it would have been a lot harder for her to do it herself in the snowshoes, and only when he was sure that they hadn't been seen – or were being ignored – did Peter turn as well, following them back into the shelter of the trees.
"Jesus," Ned whispered, his eyes wide and his grip on MJ's coat like a vice. "Did you see that?"
"Let's get out of here," Peter told them, putting his gloves back on.
"I can't," MJ said, looking frightened. "I hurt my ankle when I fell. Got it twisted in the binding."
"Take that side, Ned," Peter told his friend, coming up beside them and putting her in between them.
He pulled her right arm over his shoulder and Ned did the same on the other side, and the boys just picked her up and carried her between them as they hurried back the way that they had come, following the tracks that they'd made. They moved as fast as they could without tripping themselves up, as well, but eventually Ned had to stop their hurried retreat.
"I need a breather," he gasped, lowering MJ back to the snow and grabbing his side, his breath coming in frosty pants.
"We're probably far enough away," Peter assured them both, helping MJ over to a large rock so she didn't have to try and walk on the hurt foot.
"That was scary," she said.
"Yeah." He looked down at the foot she was favoring. "How bad does it hurt?"
"It's not broken," she told him. "I broke my arm, once, at summer camp. "This didn't hurt like that did. More like I twisted it, I think."
"Let me catch my breath, Peter," Ned said. "Then I'll help carry her the rest of the way. We don't want her walking on it until Dr. Strange can look at it."
"No, you're right about that." He bent down and took off the snowshoes, since they were just in the way and she wasn't going to need them to keep herself on top of the snow, now. "Can you make it back if we carry you?"
He could call Tony for help, but even as Ironman Tony wouldn't be able to do any more than he and Ned were planning to do. Dr. Strange could open a portal, or jump her back, but he knew that the doctor didn't really want all that many people who weren't already in the loop to know what he could do, and if MJ didn't think the ankle was broken then it probably wasn't enough of an emergency to call him for help, either.
"Yeah. I'm good."
"Okay. I'll take your snowshoes, so we don't trip over them."
It took Ned a couple of minutes to get his breathing back to normal, but he smiled at Peter when his friend walked over to check on him, looking up from the display of his camera at the photos he'd automatically taken of the wolfpack and the unfortunate elk – as well as Peter with his gloved hand pressed firmly against the front of MJ's coat.
"Dude, you touched her boobs," he whispered, turning his back to MJ in case she could read his lips.
Peter frowned.
"What? No, I didn't."
"You did," Ned told him, still whispering. He held up the camera and showed Peter the display. "Look."
Peter rolled his eyes, but he did blush a brilliant red that made Ned grin.
"Put that away and come help me."
OOOOOOOO
It was Clint who first saw them coming out of the trees. He was on the porch, talking to Tony about the flight back the next day when a motion in his peripheral vision caught his attention and he turned toward the trees in the distance. They didn't call him Hawkeye for nothing, after all.
"Uh-oh."
He moved toward the steps, causing to Stark to look that way as well, already moving. It wass a moment before he saw what Clint had.
The kids were coming out of the woods and obviously something had happened, because the boys were supporting MJ in between them, with Peter carrying her snowshoes in his free hand. Tony and Clint hurried as quickly as they could through the thigh deep snow to meet them.
"What happened?" Stark asked, taking Ned's spot at MJ's side, and automatically looking for any sign of injuries or any indication of what had happened to the little group.
Ned looked wiped out; his breath coming in gasps and his head hanging. Peter looked worn, as well, although not as much as Ned, and MJ looked more embarrassed than anything as Clint moved to take the girl's other side away from Peter to give him a break.
"I twisted my ankle," MJ told them.
"We saw some wolves," Ned gasped out, holding his side once more. "Eating an elk. It was so gross – there was blood everywhere."
Tony looked at Peter, alarmed, even though it was obvious that the boys were fine, and MJ wasn't suffering more than what she had mentioned.
"Are you guys okay?"
"Yeah. We saw them, first. I don't think they even knew we were close by. They were distracted."
"We backed up and got the hell out," Ned said, getting his breath back. Now that they were safe, it wasn't a scary encounter, it was an adventure. "That was when MJ tripped on the snowshoe and fell."
"Go tell Stephen what's going on, Peter," Stark ordered. He turned to MJ and winked, reassuringly, to her as Peter and Ned both hurried ahead of them, pulling their snowshoes off when they reached the porch. "It's your lucky day, kid."
"How?" MJ asked, confused.
"Strange is a brain surgeon, and we're going to make him take care of a sprained ankle. It's like making Picasso paint your fence. It's priceless."
MJ smiled, amused despite her injury and her embarrassment. Which was exactly what Tony had been trying for, even though only Clint and he knew it.