Normally it wouldn't take all day to reach Mycah's house, but the storm had predictably gotten worse as they got near the mountains. There were other cars on the road, heading in the opposite direction, and they had gotten stuck behind a much larger plow that was moving incredibly slow. The forest on either side of the road was still and looked like a scene one might find on the front of a postcard. For lack of anything else to do, Enzan was staring at the forest through the window. Netto, who was sitting between him and Kichi (to prevent what could have been the third world war) had decided to take a nap, and was leaning against Enzan's shoulder. Kichi was tapping her fingers against the steering wheel in an irritated fashion, muttering under her breath, no doubt swearing at the plow in front of them.

"Okay...I've had it with this. We're gonna take a slight detour."

"Detour? Where? There aren't any other roads here," Enzan said.

"Of course there is. You just have to know where to look for them. Hold on."

Kichi switched gears, then turned the car off of the road, heading into the trees! The first bump woke Netto up, and he was none to pleased with the "detour" Kichi was taking.

"Kichi, what are you doing?" Netto shouted as they hit yet another bump.

"Driving, what does it look like I'm doing?" Kichi replied, laughing.

"This is not the road!"

"Netto, just for the record, I am never getting into a car with your cousin again!"

"I second that," Netto agreed. "If we survive this!"

"Oh, you two are such babies! I do this all the time! Its actually much shorter."

"Yeah, if you like having whiplash."

Kichi didn't reply to that. Instead she sped up, flying over another bump, landing hard on the ground. Snow flew everywhere, blinding them for a moment. It was a moment too long, though, as the truck hit a patch of ice and spun out of control. Netto and Enzan screamed, and Kichi pushed down on the break as hard as she could. They came to a stop only after the truck struck a deep snow drift. Realizing they weren't dead, Netto and Enzan opened their eyes. Kichi was sitting still as a statue, all of the color drained from her face.

"You two alright?" She asked, her voice shaking.

"This, you idiot, is why people invented roads!" Enzan snapped angrily. "We could have been killed!"

"Don't start fighting!" Netto said before Kichi could snap her own reply. "We need to get the truck out of this snow drift and get back on the road."

"Right," Kichi agreed. She turned the key and pushed down on the gas, but the truck didn't move. In fact, the engine roared to life for a minute, then went completely dead! Kichi tried to start it again, but met with failure each time.

"Great. Just great," Enzan muttered. "We're stuck in the middle of nowhere."

Kichi opened her door and hopped out of the truck. "Enzan, you're forgetting who you're traveling with."

"A psycopath?" Enzan offered.

"No... What I mean is that this area is part of the same area we used for the survival contest. I recognise the place. We can walk to the house."

"Kichi, its freezing," Netto said.

"You've survived worse. Come on, it'll only get colder if we wait. Night hasn't fallen yet."

"How do you know that?" Enzan asked. "This truck doesn't have a clock, and we left our PETs at home this time."

"I can tell, trust me."

"That's what you said before we crashed," Enzan muttered.

"Still, its better than doing nothing," Netto replied, pushing Enzan out of the open door. "Come on."

"Kichi, I swear, if I freeze to death I am going to haunt you for the rest of your life."

"You won't freeze, Enzan. I know where I'm going."

"That's what she said last time," Enzan muttered under his breath so that only Netto could hear him. Netto laughed softly. Kichi remained completely oblivious to the exchange.

They walked for awhile in silence, trudging through the cold snow. It was waist deep in some areas, and the going was slow. In the distance they heard a lone wolf howl, but neither Netto or Kichi could tell if it was one of their wolves. Suddenly Kichi stopped, causing Netto and Enzan to bump into her.

"Kichi, why'd you stop?" Netto growled. "Its too cold to just stand here."

"We have company blocking our path," Kichi said with a grin, pointing to a spot about 5 meters in front of them. Both Netto and Enzan looked. Enzan groaned when he saw what was standing in the middle of the path. It was a large skunk, and it was staring at the three of them with bright eyes. The last time Enzan had seen a skunk it had sprayed him, and the memory was still quite fresh in his mind.

"Kichi, do something," Netto growled. "We can't stand here all night."

"Fine," Kichi replied. She ran at the skunk, scaring it into the forest. "Well, that was easy enough. Shall we continue?"

****

They were on the mountains, he could sense it. Centuries of imprisonment had given him pleanty of time to plan his revenge. It would be slow and painful for them, that was for sure. But first he would make a game of hunting them down, the way a cat toyed with a mouse before killing it. Yes, he would have much fun making them pay for his long imprisonment. What he would do afterwards he didn't know, but first things first. Yes, he would enjoy this game very much....