Prologue

He walked farther and farther into the forest, the darkness almost consuming him. Tears cascaded down his porcelain cheeks, reminding him why he was out here.

'No, it isn't true.' He thought to himself. 'I don't believe it. They are alive. They'll be waiting for me... it isn't true...'

The trees parted, allowing a stream to come through, and he sat down on the bank silently. His tail curled around his waist as he looked around himself, ears drooping. Whiping away his tears, he waited. For what? He didn't know.

"Why are you sad?" he jumped at the voice. Whipping around, he saw a young girl, younger than himself, staring at him with large, dark green eyes. "Did you scrape your knee?"

"I'm not sad," he responded, cocking his head at her curiously. He noticed the three tails waving behind her slowly, and the large, pointed ears. "Who are you?"

"I'm Nekoi," she came closer to him, raising a delicate hand to brush away the remaining tears. "And who are you? Why were you crying?"

"I wasn't crying," he answered.

"You were too," she said stubbornly. "I saw you. You were crying."

"I haven't seen you around here before," he changed the subject, looking away from her and back to the stream. "Where did you come from?"

"Up in the mountains," she moved to sit next to him, one of her tails curling around his waist as well. "Want to be my friend?"

"I dun got no friends."

"Better yet!" she grinned, though he didn't see. "We can be bestest friends!"

"Bestest ain't a word," he glared at her out of the corner of his eye. "Leave me alone."

"Well ain't ain't no word either," she stuck her tongue out at him. "And no, I'm staying right here. This is my stream."

"I was playing at this stream before you were born," he countered.

"Prove it!" she challenged him. He sniffed the air, and was imediately bombarded with a million different smells. Turning to her, he allowed her smell to waft up to his nostrils. "Why are you smelling?"

"Smelling to see how long you've been here," he answered. "And you haven't been here that long." She pouted, but he ignored her. "Now leave."

"Okay," her voice was tiny and small as she stood up, and he missed the warmth of her tail around his waist. "I'll go back to the mountains now... bye byes..." He listened as she walked towards the trees...

"My parents died," he muttered. She stopped. Bitting his lip, he continued. "There was a fire... there wasn't nothing I could do... I watched them burn to death..."

"My parents were killed under the ice," he jumped, turning only to see her sitting beside him again. "They broke through it as they were crossing the river, way up near it's birth, and the current pulled them along, until there was no more broken ice. I wasn't strong enough to make a hole."

He stared at her as she curled up, all three of her tails folding around her to make a protective blanket. A fine sweat had started to prick at her skin as she started to shake, and he could hear her breathing quicken.

"You're brave," he muttered, hesitantly wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "To go through all of that and not cry..."

"It was three years ago," she smiled up at him, crystalline droplets resting eternally on her lashing. "I don't cry anymore."

"Three years?" he blinked. "Where's the rest of your pack?"

"They died," she answered. "They all died, underneath the ice."

Bitting his lip, he couldn't think of who to cry for... his parents of this girl infront of him. He held her close, crying for both instead.