It was so cold.

She shivered and snuggled deeper into the pile of blankets that were piled on top of her. It took her a few moments before she realized just what kind of situation she was in.

With a small gasp she sat up so fast that she didn't even realize that there was someone sitting beside her. She yelped in pain and fell back onto the soft surface of the bed before she whimpered, covering her face with her frost bit hands. It was only when she realized that her hands were wrapped in bandages did she pull them away from her face.

"You know…. For someone who has been unconscious for four days you sure know how to wake up really fast." A man grumbled as he sipped a cup of tea that was in his hands. "Do you have a name?" He asked after he swallowed.

"Skylar…." Skylar croaked as she reached for her throat. It was very obvious to her that she had not used her voice in a very long time, her throat was sore and her mouth was dry. "Has it really been four days?" She asked as she turned her head towards the man. He looked like he was middle age, the thing that stood out the most of Skylar was that the hair on the top of his head was as dark as the night, but the beard that was on his face was as red as Aela's hair.

"Well… Four and a half now." The man chuckled as he placed his tea cup to the side and turned to Skylar with his hands clasped on his lap. "What is the last thing that you remember?" The man asked with a brow raised.

"I remember… Snow... Lots and lots of snow." Skylar grumbled as she looked around the room. It was cozy, there was a fireplace on the far side of the room and the entire place smelled of fresh herbs. "Where am I?" She asked still very groggily.

"You are in a little village by the name of Skaal." The man ran his hand through his beard as he tilted his head, examining the girl who was in the bed. "Do you remember what happened?" He asked.

Skylar shook her head. "No… But… So much snow." She whispered. Skylar almost looked as though she was delusional. She honestly didn't know what to say. She could tell him that she was running away from her girlfriend in a very bad and desperate attempt to save her from Skylar's horrible uncontrollable unexplainable rage.

Thinking about it made her feel absolutely miserable. She wanted to go back to Serana, but she knew she couldn't. "Skaal?" Skylar asked.

"Yes. Skaal." The man's face suddenly went serious. "I have a very serious question for you, Skylar, and I need you to tell me the truth, I will be able to tell if you are lying." He man said as he leaned in closer. "And you don't want to know what we will do to you if you are lying, if you lie that means you are a threat to us, but if you tell us the truth there may be hope for you." He said with a tilt of his head. "Do you understand?" He asked.

Skylar looked at the man for a few seconds, she went very quiet and felt as though her heart had stopped dead in her chest. What did he know? What was he going to ask? Did he know about Serana? She honestly didn't know what to expect.

"Ok." Her voice sounded like it was nothing more than a whisper. Truthfully she was mortified. She thought about springing up out of the bed and running, but it was when the thought came to her mind did she realize just how sore her entire body was. Running was not an option. Her body would not be able to handle the stress. She realized that if she even tried to stand that there was a huge chance that she would end up flat on her face in a very sore heap on the floor.

He leaned in closer with narrowed eyes. "First of all." He reached forward and ran a thick finger over the collar that was still around Skylar's neck. "Do you know what this is?" He asked her.

Skylar instantly felt uncomfortable and tried to move away to the other side of the bed to put some distance between her and him. But she didn't make it too far before her muscles began to scream out in agony. Why was she hurting so much?

"Well?" He said with a sigh as he dropped his hand, noticing how the girl reacted.

"It's… Annoying." Skylar answered him. Technically she was not lying…

"When we first brought you here you went into a state where some of my friends almost wanted to tie you down." The man explained as he sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "You began to claw at that collar, you almost ripped out your own throat in the process, we could see that you wanted it off, really badly, so we tried to take it off you." He shrugged.

Skylar listened with a brow furrowed, what was he getting at?

"At first we tried to take it off with our hands, couldn't get it off, then we realized he needed a knife, the moment we brought a blade close to that thing you went crazy and attacked us." His brows furrowed and he drew back his upper lip in a sneer. "You hurt a friend of mine, really badly. Broke his arm."

Skylar instantly felt guilt begin to bubble up in the put of her stomach. Wait… Should she feel guilty? What if she was being held prisoner.

"I…" Skylar began but didn't continue. She didn't know what to say. She couldn't remember anything.

The man sighed and shook his head. "I know what you are." He gave a little smirk.

"You do?" She asked with a brow furrowed.

"Yes…" He chuckled. "You're a Werewolf… One of us." He smiled and winked. "And that thing around your neck… Is something that I have seen a little too often lately. I have a team on their way to a hidden lair…" He stopped talking as Skylar forced herself to sit up.

"Hidden lair?" She asked. She didn't want to assume anything for false hope. "Why?"

The man chuckled. "There is a leech who has a key in his possession, a key that will get that thing off your neck."

"And you know where he is?" Skylar asked.

The man nodded. "After weeks of tracking, yes… You know more than you are telling me, Skylar." He chuckled again.

"There is only so much I know… I can remember much." She sighed as she flopped back on the bed. "I need to get this thing off me." She whimpered.

The man nodded. "And I am going to help you do that." He stuck out his hand towards her. "My name is Stone, and you and I are going to have a very long chat. Starting now. We are going to start with why you were running around outside in a snow storm."

"Does it matter?" Skylar asked him. "I got lost and I guess I might have panicked." Skylar murmured.

"You are aware that you caught a very bad illness, you've been here for weeks, but it was four days ago you lost consciousness."

"WHAT!?" Skylar screamed.