Nahanni knocked lightly on the gate. "It's me," she whispered. "Let me in."

The gate opened a crack, and she saw Ashiwut. Tokopaw was behind him, with his bow held ready, while Ashiwut checked for Nahanni's reflection in the mirror. Only then did he smile. "It's Nahanni," he told Tokopaw, and released the rope to let the gate be opened by more than the crack he had looked through. "How was the hunt?" he asked her.

"I killed four," said Nahanni. "There were three more trying to get into the village. I chased them as far as the river, where they met with two more. They all escaped into the water."

"Mandokee?" asked Ashiwut.

Nahanni shook her head. "I didn't see him. He wasn't one of the ones I killed, or chased. He might have been at the river, I didn't see those two, only heard them, and saw their tracks."

"We must tell Moguago," said Tokopaw.

Nahanni yawned. "You tell him. I need to sleep." She took hold of Ashiwut's arm and pulled him with her toward their lodge. She also wanted to wrestle.

Nahanni lay with Ashiwut in their bed. They'd had a good wrestle, and had gotten some sleep, and now she just lay with him, and held him. She could hear the morning activities of the village going on outside their lodge, but no one had disturbed them. Everyone knew that Ashiwut had been awake all night.

"Why do they wear winter clothes?" she asked suddenly.

"What?"

"The wendigo. Why do they wear winter clothes?"

"To stay warm," said Ashiwut.

"But Grandmother says that the cold doesn't affect them like us," said Nahanni. "And I lost their trail because they escaped into the river. If they can tolerate the cold of the water, why wear heavy winter clothes at all?"

"They can still freeze," said Ashiwut. "It won't kill them—when they thaw out again they will be able to move again—but while they are frozen, they are helpless. A child could kill them. A wendigo gets warmth from the blood it drinks, and it must conserve that warmth, just as we do, so it wears warm clothes."

"How can they go into the river, without freezing?"

"As long as they are immersed in running water, they will not get so cold that they will freeze solid. They will still be able to move," said Ashiwut. "But they will need a blood meal very quickly after they emerge."

"Perhaps we should be looking for where they came out of the water," said Nahanni.

"Perhaps."

Nahanni was back at the river by noon, but she wasn't alone. Moguago, Ashiwut, and the four other warriors who knew about her being the Protector were with her. They split up into four groups, one to search in each direction on each side of the river, looking for any sign of where the wendigo left the water. Nahanni and Ashiwut were searching upstream, on the far side of the river when they heard a shout from Tokopaw, who was searching downstream. He had found something.

When they got there they found Tokopaw and Moguago by a hole in the ice that was masked by the branches of a fallen tree. Tracks in the snow led from the hole into a narrow ravine where they were hidden from view by anyone who wasn't right on top of them. They searched the area while they waited for the others to arrive. Nahanni found a skin bladder lying beside a rock, it was stained with blood. She could see that the wendigo had been in too much of a hurry to drink from its neck. It had bitten right through it to get at the blood it had contained, and then thrown away the ruined bladder.

Nahanni started to follow the tracks into the ravine.

"Wait," said Ashiwut. He didn't like the look of the place. It was too narrow, and it was shaded enough to protect the wendigo from the sunlight. "It could be a trap."

"I don't feel the wendigo nearby," said Nahanni.

"There could still be a trap," said Ashiwut. "A deadfall, or something."

"I'll be careful." Nahanni started to move forward more cautiously, with Ashiwut following her, her eyes probing the shadows for any sign of a possible trap. She saw a place up ahead where the snow didn't look quite right. She looked around, and saw a heavy rock. She picked it up and threw it.

There was a snap when the rock hit the snow, and a log fell from up over the lip of the ravine, and smashed down into the snow where her rock had hit. "Definitely a trap," said Nahanni.

"There could be others, farther in," said Ashiwut. "There is no need to follow in this ravine. Let's follow it from up top. They won't be able to leave it without leaving tracks. Then we can follow them to their lair."

They returned to the mouth of the ravine, and told the others what they had found. Moguago agreed with their plan to follow the wendigo's trail.

They split into two groups to follow along each side of the ravine as it wound away from the river. The ravine got shallower, the farther they went, until it became little more than a shallow creek bed, and their two groups came back together. The tracks of the wendigo stayed in the bottom of it.

"They are travelling by daylight, if they came this far," said Tokopaw. "They are staying in the creek bed for protection from the sun."

"Yes," said Nahanni. "I had hoped that they would go to ground, somewhere nearby, and we could rout them out of their daytime lair."

"Still, travelling by day will be difficult for them," said Ashiwut. "They may not have gone much farther."

They kept following the tracks, and it soon became apparent that the wendigo hadn't gone to ground. The trail kept leading them farther east, away from the village. They stopped from time to time for Tokopaw to examine the tracks more closely. He declared that they were gaining on their quarry. The tracks were fresher now. The wendigo were taking the time to pick their path to take them through the most shaded parts of the forest. They pursued them into the afternoon.

Moguago called a halt at mid afternoon. "I don't like this."

"We are getting closer!" said Nahanni. "If we hurry, we can catch them!"

"Tokopaw, do you think we can catch the wendigo before sunset?"

"Perhaps, but as the shadows grow, they will be able to move more quickly."

Moguago frowned. "I think we have followed this trail far enough. If we don't turn around now, we will not be able to get back to the village until after sunset."

"But they'll get away!" said Nahanni.

"I don't like this," said Moguago. "This trail has been too easy to follow. They have made no effort to mask their tracks, or to split up, to make it more difficult for us to follow."

"You think that they are leading us into a trap?" asked Ashiwut.

"Perhaps…or they are simply leading us away from the village. They could have doubled back. Lead us away so they can attack the village while we are gone."

Nahanni wanted to object. She didn't want to give up now, after coming so far, but some instinct told her that Moguago was right. "We have to go back."

Nahanni's sense of urgency grew as they made their way back the way they had come. They had waited too long, and the sun had set when they reached the river. She could feel the wendigo up ahead, and she broke into a run.