A/N : Hi everyone! Thanks for the reviews! You are all so kind! And I'm sorry if the story is going a little fast, but I have to get my ideas out! :P you know the feeling... Anyways, that stupid essay is done! So here's 8...

Chapter 8

Jack flew us both back to my cabin. I was still startled from the wolf attack, and Jack thought it would be best for us to call it a day.

We were both sitting on my sofa watching TV, not seeing anything particularly interesting. Animal Planet. Tonight had a special on wolves playing, ironically. I changed the channel, and a weather forfaster predicted the rest of the week in a monotone voice.

After a while, I got bored and started to wonder about the strange wolf. It was alone, from what I could tell, and wolves always hunted in packs. Even when they're starving. And that wolf was definitely hungry. I recalled the way it stared at the rabbit and my hand. Eyes never leaving either the entire time. Why was the wolf so aggressive? It had to have seen that I wasn't a real threat. But it still pursued me. Wolves are usualy shy. They keep to themselves, deep in the forest. That afternoon was the first time I had seen one in real life.

"Hey, Jack?"

He turned to face me, the TV lighting up half of his face.

"Ya?"

"Have you ever seen any wolves in the forest, besides the one today?"

"Uh... Ya. I'll seen some walking under the trees in the deeper part of the forest every once in a while. But they never notice me, because I'm too high up in the trees to see. And I don't think they can smell me either. I don't think I have a scent. At least to them. Why? Was today the first time you've ever seen one?"

"Ya."

He nodded in understanding, and we both turned our attention to the TV when we heard the weather woman say, "...and this blizzard will roll into the area, especially in the mountain region, late tonight. It'll stay around for several days it seems, given the strength of this particular storm. People in the area, expect snow drifts and sub-zero temperatures...".

Jack smiled to himself and muttered.

"Sounds like my kind of weather. And I didn't have to even do anything this time."

Then, he turned to face me again, face half-lit.

"Uh, you know, if that blizzard is gonna kill your crops and stuff in the greenhouse, I could just blow it the other way."

"Oh, thanks, but I kinda want it to come here. I've never been in one before. And my vegetables are already dormant, so they'll be fine."

I started a mental checklist. Check food supplies. Did that a couple days ago. Check water pipes to pump. That's taken care of too. Get firewood. I'd have to do that before the sun goes down. I stood up from the couch.

I looked over my shoulder as I put on my jacket. Jack looked at me from the couch.

"I need to chop some firewood, so-"

"I know a thing or two about that. I'll help you. "

He jumped over the back of the couch, and opened the back door for me. We walked down the back porch's steps and onto the snow. I lead us towards the small shed behind the cabin. When I looked back at Jack, he was carefully, deliberately stepping in my boot prints, making a game of it. I laughed to myself as I swung open the rusty door to the shed. Jack closed it behind us, and I lit a lantern hanging from the low ceiling.

A warm glow lit Jack's face. It looked so much more different than what it usually did. I had only seen the strong, invulnerable, and... well, cold Jack. Until now. Now he looked more innocent. Less invincible. He looked quite human, actually. His eyes didn't look as blue as usual, they relected the warm fire lit wooden walls. And his hair was full of shadows cast from the lantern, and appeared much darker. I turned away and started looking for my axe in a box of tools against the wall. He put his hand on my shoulder, just as I grasped the smooth, wooden handle of the axe.

"What is it, _? Something on my face?"

I turned around, axe hanging beside me, sheepish grin on my face.

"No, I just thought that you looked, I don't know, different? Like, you looked more human. Not that you don't right now, you just looked... Warmer."

"Oh."

We walked outside again, me feeling like a complete idiot. What if I had insulted him? And what I said didn't make any sense.

I told Jack to find a large, dead tree, becasue the dry wood wouod burn easier. Jack flew into the air, floated for a minute, and came back down.

"Um, _? Are you sure I should leave you here alone? With the wolf earlier today-"

"I have an axe."

"Ya, but still..."

He saw my face.

"Fine, I'll go get a tree. Just yell though, like just in case-"

I raised my eyebrows.

"Ok, ok! I'm going."

I walked back to the porch, and waited. It wasn't long before I saw him emerge from the treeline, staff in one hand, tree in the other. He drug it behind him in the snow, leaving a trench in the ground. He let it down, and I felt the ground move a little. It was pretty big.

I walked up to the tree, axe swinging back in forth in my hand.

"Thanks Jack."

I raised the axe above my head, and brought it down using all my weight. A loud *thunk* resounded across the snow. The lighter, tan wood showed through the dark, split bark. I raised the axe again, and swung down on the trunk until the section finally broke off. I was working up a sweat, but moved onto the next section with eagerness. It was kinda fun.

I finished several more sections, Jack watching me silently. He grinned when I finally paused to take a breath. He stuck the bottom of his staff in the snow, rolled up his hoodie's blue sleeves,grabbed the axe, and took over from there. I had already done 2/3 of the trunk, and he finished the last part with ease. Just 2 minutes later, he dropped the axe in the snow, and started stacking them for splitting. I walked over, picked up the axe, and began splitting the first couple of logs. 10 minutes later, I had split around half, and Jack took over to do the rest. Again, he finished quickly. It was probably due to the fact that one swing from him sent the log flying into two pieces. One swing from me just cracked the log. A little. He was a pro.

"Did you always used to chop wood?"

"Yep. Every winter. You know. When I was still human."

I nodded in undestanding. We both stacked the firelogs in a pile against the outside of the cabin. When we finished, Jack put my axe back in the shed, and I spread a tarp over the wood pile to protect it from snow. I couldn't quite get one of the far corners to settle right. I kept tugging on the edge, but it wasn't straightening out. A gust of wind lifted up the entire tarp, and set it down gently and evenly onto the pile. It looked fine. I turned around, and Jack smiled at me.

"Ready to go in?"

I grabbed a fire log from the pile and nodded.

I crouched down, set the log in the fireplace, and watched as the yellow flames climbed around to smother the wood. Each flame grew until the small, bottom part turned blue. The heat started to burn my forehead and nose, so I turned away from the fire to face Jack, who sat on the sofa, whittling some wood scraps with a knife he had found in the shed. The faint coldness rolling off of him cooled my face. I walked into the kitchen, found some canned cream of chicken soup, and heated it on the stove.

I could hear the wind picking up outside. Snow started to fall, and the sun went away for awhile.