Chapter 4: The surface world

Sorry for the delay in updating, things have just been so crazy with work because people won't get off their lazy butts and do their work! So anyway I hope you enjoy this thrilling new installment.

Yami sat diligently beside a peacefully sleeping Little Game, keeping his keen hearing searching for anymore sounds of the Wendigo. But no far, nothing reached his ears. Not even the winds that were raging only mere minutes ago.

"How could I have missed the signs?" the skinwalker wondered to his slumbering companion. Yami hadn't given the unusually harsh winter season a second thought. After all no two winters were ever the same. But if the chilling howls he'd just heard were a hallucination, it was obvious that the Wendigo was awake from it's ten year hibernation; and it was very hungry.

Yami shivered at the stories he'd heard many years ago when he was a little boy living with the Cree. Listening to the wizened elders tell the tale of a ravenous giant who brought forth weatherly disasters. The name Wendigo means 'evil spirit that devours mankind', and it was a beast that lived up to it's reputation. A enormous hairy monster with big owlish eyes rolling in blood, a long blue tongue and a mouth full of sharp gnashing teeth with the head of an elk. Despite it's impossible size, the malevolent forest spirit was said to be incredibly fast, being able to catch it's prey easily before ripping it asunder with it's raptor like claws.

It's cry was said to cause madness, and like the skinwalkers they can manipulate their voice to lure away unwary humans. However this ability is limited to the Wendigo, as it can only make it's voice sound like a crying infant or a distressed woman. But where it lacks in trickery, it excelled in communicating with nature. Making their hunting methods all the more deadly.

"Did you know Wendigo's can talk to the trees and rocks?" Yami said to Little Game; the little teen's chest was rising and falling steadily, oblivious to the dangers outside. So the question now was, what to do now? The skinwalker tapped his chin in deep thought. If he was going to convince Yugi to stay with him, then he had to demonstrate his provision skills. A wheel of cheese, staling biscuits, and a couple pots of water would last for two weeks. He had to go hunting, Wendigo or no Wendigo.

"I'll be back as soon as I can little one" Yami leaned down to kiss Yugi's cherubic cheeks "stay safe". Discarding his coyote pelt, Yami opted out for the white camouflaging fur of a snow fox.

"You are really going out there?" said the serpentine voice of Redscale "if you do, the Wendigo may find you".

" I will be careful Redscale" the skinwalker reassured his pet "just look after Hardfang and Yugi for me okay?"

"That boy is irresistibly adorable and helpless isn't he?" the female rattlesnake laughed "Yet he has you wrapped around his little finger…but tell me, do you plan to let the boy go?"

Yami sighed adjusting the fox fur about his shoulders and back "If it were up to me…I'd never let him out of my sights…" and with that, he shot up the tunnel to the surface above, leaving behind the warm darkness, his rattlesnake servants, and his love. He wasn't worried about Little Game escaping, not with Hardfang and Redscale guarding the only exit.

The biting cold of winter nipped at Yami's bare skin as he scrambled up from his subterranean home, to the snowy land above "Brr, better change quick" the skinwalker hissed. Reaching into the depths of his magic, Yami's human body slowly melded and twisted along with the fur skin until a snow fox stood where Yami had once been. However, the snow foxes body was somewhat deformed from regular foxes. It's tail was too long and puffy, and it dragged the ground. Another uncanny feature was it's toes. Paws that ought to be rounded and canine were clawlike and slightly curled. Two hypnotic red eyes stood in contrast to it's pure white coat.

"Damn, still not right" Yami cursed under his breath. He never knew why, but no matter how much he practiced, he could never make his transformations perfect-no skinwalker could. Old White Horse, the skin walker who had him taken in long ago, claimed that since animals were so pure in their perfection-no man could hope to replicate them totally. "It's good enough I suppose" he thought. Now wasn't the time to ponder over his limitations. He had a lover to provide for, or else he really would be forced to take Yugi back. Something the skinwalker had vowed to never let happen.

Turning his wet black nose to the winds, Yami caught the scent of squirrels; most likely fast asleep in hibernation. The thought of some dark juicy squirrel meat sounded mouth watering "Hang on juicy squirrels~Yami's coming to take you home~" Yami sang running towards the tree line, leaving not a single footprint in his wake. It didn't take the skin walker long to reach the outer edge of the woods were the smell of small animals was stronger, there was just one problem though, how to get the squirrels from their nests? Yami hadn't brought what he needed for his owl transformation "well this could be problematic…" he huffed. Food for his Little Game was just out of reach, Yami surmised that he could change back in order to climb the tree but then what would he do?

All thoughts of food were chased from his mind when Yami's keen senses picked up the sound of soft footsteps crunching in the snow, someone was coming! Spinning quickly around the skin walker spotted an overhanging snowdrift formed from a scraggly pine, the perfect place to hide. Not wasting time, the deformed snow fox that was actually a human in disguise dove for the cover of snow and branches, his pristine white fur blending in perfectly with the frozen water crystals.

Yami's furry ears perked tensely as what he heard walked to wear he'd been moments ago "I know you're there" the new comer growled "I can smell you".

End Chapter

Sorry again for the long wait. I hope you all think it was worth the wait. Please review!