Jack Hotchkiss was on his third hunt, and the second hunt accompanied by the Sharp Claw Pokémon he took in with open arms. They were fed to give them energy and motivation for going outside, and sprayed with the scent masker so other Pokémon wouldn't be alarmed at something foreign if they caught wind of them. The Weavile was allowed to lead the way this time, and Jack followed her every move, though she was still unhappy at having to be sprayed in the first place. Nonetheless, the pair of hunters hiked through the compact snow and even farther into barren woodlands, feeling the crusty crunch of ice with every step underneath their soles.

Usually, Cleo would stop every so often and carve a landmark symbol into the side of a tree to mark their progress, and then climb the tree in the hopes of finding something above. This time, the Sharp Claw Pokémon had a different approach to the tracking as she spent far more time on the forest floor than climbing to vantage points. Cleo was keenly following a set of paw prints left in the snow from the far away figures cloaked by the trees from yesterday. All she could remember were their dark winter coloring and unique crescent symbol in the middle of the head before they scampered far off into the wilderness. The Weavile wished she had gotten a better view of them, but they didn't seem that significant or threatening with their limited numbers. Wherever they went, the Weavile would feverishly follow.

Jack marched on behind Cleo with his firearms holsters and letting his hands swing freely at his side or dart freely into his pockets. He too picked up the cluster of odd paw prints left in the snow, traveling together tightly, and walking a few feet to the cluster's side so he wouldn't tread over and erase them. The tracks ran from the left to the right, and there was an overlapping set from right to left, indicating that this was a common path for others in this area to take. From their size, it must've been a small pack of small Pokémon that moved through this area; they were most likely from juvenile Pokémon.

Yet, there was something much more telling about this set of prints. Leading the prints were singular, large paws that the smaller tracks did not stray from much. All of them had five ovals on top and a large, bent circular shape underneath them. Right above the five ovals were five stubby triangle markings, making a great depression in the compacted snow. Faint ideas and images of the makers' identities exploded as they had the answer in their minds.

Jack suddenly swallowed hard and had his heart start beating faster as he just figured out what left these tracks behind as well; he was still too afraid and uncertain on how to explain it to his partner, whether it would be right to continue going or turn back.

(These tracks… don't tell me what I think they are. This can't be right; can't I convince her to turn back? I don't like where this is going.)

Cleo turned around and saw Jack breathing through his mouth and looking incredibly nervous. When he realized his partner was watching him, he puffed out his chest and became a bit defensive.

"What? What is it? Something wrong?" spoke Jack as he tried not to make himself look like he was panicking. She scanned him from the foot to the head and back down again before turning around and continuing to move on. Cleo also finally found what the makers of these tracks were, and had a much different attitude compared to Jack. She flexed her claws with a smirk, and turned back to the human. The Sharp Claw Pokémon was eager to lead him into the heart of action and demonstrate that she truly was an apex predator of this region, and that none would surpass her.

At one point along the hunters' hike, both of them stopped and crouched at the base of a birch tree, where the cluster of prints widened and made many depressions in the snow. At the very base, jutting a few inches above the snowline was a jumble of light scratch marks made by whatever the duo was currently stalking. The ones in the middle went the deepest, with five markings going about half an inch into the wood. The scratches around it seemed to be more like sketches etched into old paper from a dull pencil, hardly getting even a quarter inch of the way in. The Weavile alternated between studying the scratches and the tracks.

"Looks like they stopped here to play a little." said Jack while pointing to a sharp right, "Then they went thataway. You think we should turn back?"

"[I think we're getting closer to them. I want to keep moving!]" Cleo hastily spoke as she made a break to get back to stalking the tracks. Jack shook his head to clear himself and dragged himself along the Weavile's hunt, with his right hand never a few inches away from having to draw the revolver at his side.

(Damn me.)

Jack continued to follow Cleo as they went deeper into the untapped, untamed arctic. Jack did his best to keep his eyes and ears out in his surroundings, realizing how far one could see in a forest in wintertime. No foliage or leaves; nothing but empty webs of hardened wood for a greatly field of view. The Weavile saw that the prints now came at a crossroads and stopped to think about her next move. The tracks branched off to the left still covered overlapped by both directions, and the other to the right, a fresh set in one direction down a steep drop off to both of the hunters' right sides. She carved yet another landmark into a tree and punch-climbed it to figure out which way to go. Jack's hand was still hovering over Wilson's four-fifty-four Casull and started to doubt himself on the provisions he brought. Because Cleo stopped to survey area, this came Jack a few moments to double-check his gear out of a necessity for peace of mind.

Jack started with Wilson's Casull. He opened the cylinder, counting all six bullets to double-check that he had fully loaded the six-shooter. The cylinder snapped shut, and he did the same thing for his Encore, restoring his peace of mind that his guns were ready to go at a moment's notice.

"The last thing you ever want from a gun on you are carrying is it to randomly go off."

Maybe he was overthinking things when it came to his weaponry. Handling fully loaded firearms when there's no need for it was also a good way to accidentally trip something and make it go off. His peace of mind started to fall apart again; he tried to think about the other side of the coin Wilson told him about,

"As long as you treat them with respect and as tools and not toys, you'll be fine."

That didn't help much. Jack's doubts that the guns he brought may have been too good and would betray him were winning, and he thought more in depth about them going off if he ever so slightly nudged one of them when walking and-

The hunter was interrupted with a loud optimistic call from the huntress, swiftly descending the tree to share new information.

"[I think I found the way to go!]"

The young hunter snapped out his delusions from his partner's call. She returned to ground level and beckoned to him to come closer towards the left, as Jack accidentally put about twenty feet in between him and her.

"Oh. Coming!"

The young hunter jogged through the snow with the slope becoming much more noticeable. Jack turned to his right out of curiosity, seeing the once-treaded path and a dramatic drop off point that the trail took. It was essentially a cliff side, with a drop of about seventy to the right into a small bowl-shaped depression in the ground. He shuddered at the thought of having to descend it and accidentally slip, making him tumble down fast and hard. The hunter trusted the huntress's judgment on this being the right way to go and caught up with her.

Fortunately, Cleo was leading him up to the left, making him climb back up the gentle snowy slope and away from the steep drop off. Then she started to veer off to the right again, taking him back along the cliff side, but at a point where the drop off was much less frightening. It only took a few minutes for Jack and Cleo to arrive at what caught the Sharp Claw Pokémon's attention. The hunter and huntress quickly about fifty from the place that caught the Sharp Claw Pokémon's attention, and Jack nearly gasped when he saw what it was.

The Weavile had led the human to a cave along the shallower edge of the cliff.

Jack looked down at his feet and suddenly saw way more of the paw prints left in the snow, most of them going into and out of the cave. Something had made the cave its home, and whether or not it was nearby was a matter that could only be solved by closer investigation. Cleo looped behind Jack, sticking close to him and making him the leader of the duo. He looked at the Sharp Claw Pokémon, silently compelling him to get closer to search the cave against his better instincts.

Jack gave a stern breath and drew his Encore rifle with a fast-drumming heart. He slowly marched towards the cliff side, ready for anything.

"Cleo… get ready."

The opening could fit two fully grown rotund men through it, with several huge stones fixed into place as a sort of lip on the sides. The rocks' colors were a mix of ice-white and pale shades of indigo-gray. Along the edges and faces of the stones were a plethora of tiny grooves, trenches, and troughs in addition to a cracked-layering effect, carved into them from years of frost wedging and general weathering. The parts that were not weathered or chipped looked smooth in comparison. The whole piece of land stuck out above the ground like an oversized chiseled stalagmite, possibly from formidably earthly forces crashing into each other millions of years ago.

To the upper-left of from their position was another trail sloping upward somewhat for about six feet, then parallel with the rest of the ground. To the duo's right was the drop off that could easily result in a careless creature's death. There was a much wider strip of land where one could loop around the cave and still comfortably walk. It felt historic and protective; the latter most likely being why whatever they were stalking decided to make its residence here.

Jack reached the entrance of the cave and squatted down to look inside through his scope. Not surprisingly, he could only see about ten feet in before it got too dark to discern any details. From what he could see, it sloped downward about a foot and a half and narrowed by the same amount, before it faded into darkness. Jack wondered what the rest of the interior was like, of how shallow or deep into the earth it ran. Cleo peered over Jack's legs, trying to do the same thing. The Weavile took a couple more steps towards the cave, having a slab of stone go fixed into the Cliffside over her head. The Sharp Claw Pokémon almost vanished into the darkness as Jack called to her.

"Hey, Cleo! Don't go in there! You have no idea what's in there!"

The Weavile turned and adhered to Jack, wandering out of the cave. The Weavile paced around to the left in search of other things to explore near the cave. Meanwhile, Jack got up and panned to the right, once more thinking about the drop off and what would happen if he slipped and tumbled down. His right eye peered down the scope of his rifle, getting a much more in-depth view of the land below, pretending he was a marksman at war.

He had a full minute of scoping out the land below when he heard some strange cries coming from his Pokémon companion. The hunter ignored her, until he heard an odd, light, high-pitched whine coming from behind him. That one wasn't from the Weavile. It sounded too juvenile to be her. On top of it, the cry she made sounded like one of agitation and challenge, quite a different sound that she was not used to making. The hunter turned to around from the right and saw Cleo staring in down something behind her. His heart skipped a few beats as he saw what Cleo was upset over.

Off to the left of the cave about forty feet from where Jack and Cleo were standing, were four Pokémon; they were the same figures that Cleo saw move through the woods yesterday.

They had very dark brown fur, almost like rich syrup and quality confectionaries. Each one had a buttermilk-colored mouth, covering up a large portion of their strange faces. Two stubby, circular ears were on each side of their heads with a chubby tuft of a tail on their rear. The most distinctive markings, by far, were the white markings on each of their heads; a white crescent right above a pair beady black eyes, similar to that of the moon.

Jack knew what they were, and he instantly knew that things like this were an ill omen out in the wild, especially in this time of the year.

"Teddiursa cubs!"

There was a pack of four not far from Cleo and Jack. One was standing up with a small paw in front of its mouth, expressionless and naïve at seeing the foreign figures in front of its home. Another one was on all fours and looking in the opposite direction, licking its paw to clean its face. Two others were rolling around on top of each other, playing in the snow and making little mewls of happiness. The one looking at the human and the Weavile gave several more cries of alarm to its siblings and potential parent.

"Ted! Teddi! [Who are you?]" cried the cub, waiting for a response. When none came, it started to wail out of fright.

The other Teddiursa turned around and shook violently at the sight of the Weavile and human in front of the cave. Soon the other two playing cubs stopped and looked on in frozen curiosity of the pair, not knowing if they were harmless or potential predators.

"Teddi! Teeeeeddiii! Ursaaaaa! [Mommy! Mooooomyyy! Help us quickly!]"

Soon all four of the Teddiursa devolved into a saddening choir of confused and worried juvenile grieving. Though they were young, they still could recognize if things were out of place or seemed wrong, and had a defensive mechanism; their voices. Unbeknownst to Jack, the Little Bear Pokémon were crying for their mother to step in and protect them from the mysterious, nasty monsters about to ransack their home.

Jack was not sure how to think or react to the situation. He looked at Cleo to try and find reassurance or a suggestion, who surprised him by eagerly staring back at the four Little Bear Pokémon with an open-mouth, predatory expression. A threatening growl that could only be heard by Jack was coming from the back of her throat. To her, they were just food. Nothing morsels of tender, juicy, juvenile flesh. They wouldn't put up any sort of notable fight against her or the firing support of the human she tagged along with. However, she knew that when Teddiursa age and grow, they become a far, far different Pokémon than their young selves. That's when they get too dangerous that even her kind would not dare bother with them. Sure, they get big, but she had speeds and smarts. According to her reasoning, if you eliminate them when they are small, pathetic, and helpless, you will never have to deal with the problem of them being fully matured and far more dangerous.

Cleo was dying to charge ahead and start tearing into the four cubs watching and wailing from a distance, but something inside of her was telling her otherwise. And for whatever reason, she obeyed to the silent voice of reason, sticking by Jack's side and not taking the initiative. Her patience was starting to wear thin, as the hungry predator she was, and every second that passed was another shackle breaking and failing to restrain her from diving into close combat with the cubs.

The sounds of distressed Teddiursa started to feel like nails on a chalkboard to Jack, still locked up on the spot. He thought about scaring them off, or at least shutting them up for just a second. Thick, gloved things squeezed the forehand and trigger guard of the rifle, giving him a contemptable, borderline illegal idea and action. His right thumb pressed down on the hammer to cock it, setting the trigger to a sensitive state and pointed the muzzle at the Teddiursa. Even if he missed, the sudden eruption of sound and flash of light would surely make them disperse and leave them be. His left eye was shut, and his right eye looked through the scope, getting an extreme close-up of one of the Teddiursa. Gloved fingers danced on the trigger guard until they suddenly squeezed the metal loop and one rested on top of the trigger. Jack seriously contemplated scaring them off with excess use of force. Doing so would also invite Cleo to sprint and finish off the stragglers, leaving no witnesses.

"Is it even worth it? But if I don't shut the Teddiursa up now…"

Right as Jack was about to give the trigger the tiniest nudge to fire his weapon, he heard something that made him ill at ease, and so did his Pokémon partner. It was a ferocious, protective bellow from something as equally primal, towering, and vicious. The two hunters shifted their attention to the left, the source of the sound, and knew that things were about to get really bad really fast.