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The cave seemed to be big enough for them to light a fire inside, without risking to be discovered. Drilled in the mountains that Raon had visited before when hunting, it seemed to be the huge jaw of a giant wolf, ready to devour everything. Or, at least, the shadows which dwell in it and the cold wind that seemed to come from inside gave that image.

-It could work -Jarek admitted, reluctantly, repressing a shudder -. But, do you really want us to sleep in there? We don't know what might be inside.

Raon bit her lower lip, thoughtful. As the wolf, he didn't like the idea, but for the moment...

-This is all we have, Jarek -he replied, softly, while he started to rummage in his bag -. We'll have to survive until Rukj find us.

-And how is that Rukj going to help us, pray?

-I don't know... but I'm sure he will think of something -the boy ventured, taking two big pieces of wood from his bag. After that, he drew his dagger and started to carve the wood, attempting to get two good portions, appropriate to light a bonfire. After a while, he turned back to Jarek and told him -. I need you to find some firewood, Jarek.

-No problem... -the other replied, surrendering -. But let me say you something: you trust too much in that Rukj. And I believe you when you say he could help us, but... remember he's just a wolf, Raon. Sometimes I think you believe he's invincible.

The Human let out a gasp of exhaustion, and the wolf, seeing he wasn't going to get anything talking to him, decided to go to collect the firewood they needed. Interestingly, he didn't have the same problems Raon had had when he went up the mountain the first time he had come there. Though the Human wore some kind of footwear, wolf's legs were generally strong and they didn't need footwear because of his paws. That was one of the reasons why Jarek sometimes thought if he was the one who should hunt instead of the Human.

Going higher up the mountain, he gave Raon a brief look, who was still carving the wood and seemed to be very focused in his work. Sometimes, Jarek couldn't help admiring him: all he knew, the way he was able to defend himself without any help, and how deadly he could become... being just a fragile and young Human of his same age. That impressed him, certainly, but also made him feel a bit envious.

Jarek, despite of being strong and having a body fit for the fight, had never learned to defend by himself. In his family they never had touched any matter relating to violence, and he had never been taught to hunt, to handle a sword or to fight, as a lot of wolfs of his same age. That implied, of course, that Jarek had never been forced to join the army, and it was a relief. He couldn't imagine anything stupider than losing his life fighting for a war which he didn't even believe in.

But there was something about Raon saddened him; sometimes the boy seemed to be confused to some situations, feelings and even conversations, and Jarek thought that it was because he hadn't anything like that with that Rukj. The Human's point of view was so close about that wolf that he didn't know anything more. Jarek trusted that, with time, Raon would learn to find his own point of view, and to get used to other people.

Silently, he picked up some dry bushes growing between the rocks and began to accumulate them under his arm, wondering if those would be enough. He spent some time there, plucking twigs, until he got bored and decided to return to the foot of the mountains to see if Raon had made some progress.

When he returned, he found that the Human had already light a fire and was looking at him frowning, his arms folded.

-Wow! It seems you won the race -he smiled, giving him a pile of wood.

-Race? -Raon asked, confused, while he took the wood and gave him a look of bewilderment.

-Er... yes, you know... I went to pick wood while you lighted the fire, and you did it first. We could have taken a race and... well, it was just... a joke -he explained, the disappointment flooding his face and his ears dropping down.

To his relief, at least he got to see a little smile hovering at the Human's face, while he threw some wood into the fire.

-Hey! What a surprise! I see you dare to smile! I had never seen you doing that insanity!

-How funny -Raon replied, a bit annoyed, but still smiling -. Well, today is not precisely the best day of our lives, don't you think? Our hut is burned to the ground and we don't have anywhere to go. Forgive me if I'm not laughing.

Jarek looked at him, pretending to be impressed.

-Wow... please, someone pinch me... that was irony, wasn't it? Were you being sarcastic, really?

-Oh, shut up... -Raon reproved him, his smile widening -. Well... yes.

-Alright, now I'm sure this is a dream. You smiling, and being sarcastic... if this was real, I should pay to see it.

-Well, enough -the Human asked him, and the wolf knew that the time to lower the voice had come -. We have to enter the cave and investigate it, if you didn't know... and your jokes are not helping us to light the way.

Jarek gave a long look to the cave, which seemed to be dangerously close, and then turned to Raon, a bit disgruntled. Raon guessed what the wolf was thinking before he said it.

-Alright, I'll go first -he murmured, resigned.

Having taken a large enough branch, wrapped it with tinder, soaked it in alcohol and set fire to the torch, both ventured towards the dark cave, with a slow, cautious pace that Jarek could only interpret as the prologue of a disaster.

-I don't think this cavern is very deep -Raon muttered, trying to reassure him -. Just a few meters more, maybe... because it can't cross the mountain, right?

He turned to Jarek, but the wolf didn't seem willing to talk. For some reason, it seemed as if the presence of the cave affected him somehow. As if suddenly he hadn't words to say.

-How well, for once you're not joking -Raon said him, giving him an accusing look and penetrating further into the cave, followed by the copper-furred wolf.

What the Human didn't know was that, in fact, Jarek was not afraid of the cave itself, but of the threatening brightness of the torch the boy carried. Since the day of the catastrophe, he couldn't help feeling a strong repulse of the fire, as if he blamed it for all his misfortunes. The images of his house's fire still repeated in his head over and over again as distant memories, and the possibility that the torch could ignite one of Raon's fur clothes was what worried him most.

<<It's alright>> he said to himself, trying not to be nervous <<. It's just a torch. It can't start a fire>>.

But even knowing that, it was hard to believe his own words.

As Raon had provided, the cavern wasn't very deep. It just seemed to have ten or twenty meters deep, which were constantly interrupted by stalactites, stalagmites and a lot of rocks that obstructed the way. If they wanted to sleep there tonight, it was going to be difficult to find a place flat enough.

Suddenly, the wolf's ears perked up and he stopped short, holding the Human by the shoulder. Raon turned to him, a bit annoyed, asking him with his look.

-Haven't you... haven't you heard that? -Jarek questioned him, sure he had listened a disturbing whisper somewhere in the cavern.

Raon seemed to understand.

-What? -he asked, quietly, looking around and drawing an arc with the torch to dispel the darkness. He found nothing -. What have you heard, Jarek?

The Human knew that the wolf's hearing was far superior to his, and because of that he trusted more in what Jarek could have listened than what he heard.

-There it is again! -Jarek exclaimed, slightly uneasy -. It sounds... sounds as if it came from above us...

Immediately, Raon raised the torch above his head to try to find out what was on the roof, which at that moment was covered by darkness. He didn't like what he saw.

The torch's light reflected in a hundred of small red eyes, that seemed to be watching them penetratingly, as if they felt offended. Maybe that cave was their territory, and all those eyes were angry because they had entered in it. Or maybe, there was no reason. But Raon hold his breath as the eyes started to blink.

-I bet now you would need a joke, wouldn't you? -Jarek murmured, with a weak, broken voice because of the fear. His scruff's fur was bristled with tension -. Well...

He couldn't say anything more. Suddenly, all those eyes seemed to jump over them as if emerging from the darkness, and before they could realize, a thousand of dark wings involved them from everywhere. Some painful squeaks started to resound from corner to corner of the cave, and Jarek raised his hands to his ears, seized with a violent headache that seemed to come from his eardrums. There was something that made him suffer... a sound which he couldn't identify, but was shattering his ears... He couldn't help letting out a roar of pain, while beside him Raon seemed not to be affected by that diabolical sound.

Luckily, it didn't last long. Those strange creatures soon went out of the cave, with the same speed they have fallen above the boy and the wolf, and his silhouettes got lost in the distance as a million of black stains. Raon, astonished, followed them with his eyes and even steeped forward to them, surprised, but he didn't abandon Jarek, who was still with her paws on his head, panting with pain.

After a few seconds without talking, the Human broke the silence.

-Have you seen that? -he asked, impressed -. What kind of creatures were those? And why were they here, in the cave?

-Hey, don't worry about me; I'll survive -Jarek grunted, a bit annoyed at being completely ignored.

At that moment, Raon seemed to notice the state of the wolf and crouched beside him, alarmed.

-Jarek? What's wrong? Have those things... done something to you? -he asked, worried.

-Yes, of course... ask me now -the wolf grumbled, with a hint of sarcasm -. When I was dying of pain, you didn't seem to be interested in nothing but those... things with red eyes.

-Don't exaggerate -Raon replied, raising the torch again and looking for signs of life.

The light of the torch illuminated all the corners of the cave, and for a moment the boy thought he could see baleful shadows behind every stalagmite...

Luckily, it was just his imagination.

-We're alone -he comprehended, wondering if feel relieved or concerned.

Those words never had sounded so true and disheartening.

Jarek sighed for the umpteenth time, and stirred in the hard, cold ground of the cave that now was his shelter. Unfortunately, they have been forced to abandon their hut so suddenly that they hadn't been able to save all they had before, not even a blanket or a mat. So the only solution they had now was to sleep with nothing below them, only that hard, cold ground. Raon had his fur layer and Jarek his own fur, but still it was impossible to find a good position to get to sleep.

Finally, they had decided to stay inside the cavern, in one of the deepest zones, for some reasons; first, it would be harder for someone to discover them if they slept under cover; and secondly, they could avoid the icy wind that used to blow all nights in the Beasts' Lands.

Raon seemed to had fallen into a restless, alert sleep a few minutes before, but Jarek couldn't close his eyes once in all the time he had spent there. The reason of his wakefulness was the bonfire that crackled again and again in front of him, threatening him while it reflected in his deep lupine pupils, whispering hatred words that made him feel unsure again... while the memories of what had happened time ago still tortured him. Again and again, he remembered the fire in Frostmoon, and he revived the horror of what he had suffered that night... and his heart shrank more and more, oppressed by an anguish that couldn't be described with words.

Letting out a groan of pain, he turned in the floor to look for another position, and without even thinking about it, his eyes stopped in Raon. The boy was sleeping near the bonfire, but not even all the heat of that fire could keep him warm. Wrapped in his fur clothes, he seemed to be shivering, and his teeth chattered sometimes, without waking him up of his uneasy sleep. Jarek felt sorry for him.

In general, wolves didn't have many problems with the cold. Of the four clans, they were who could adapt better to the snow and the extreme chill of the nights in the Beasts' Lands. So often they didn't needed to wear more than pants to cover his legs to their feet paws; it wasn't like they didn't want to wear more clothes, it was just like... they didn't needed it. That, for example, didn't happen with lynxes. His fur was longer, but less thick than a wolf's. They used to be completely dressed. Though all that, of course, depended in the Beast and what he or she wanted to wear.

A new shiver from Raon took him from his thoughts. It seemed the boy was having it really bad, and Jarek knew that it would be worse as the night progressed, because the sky had just painted of black. An idea appeared in his mind; an idea that made him blush but that, after all, had much sense and wasn't so bad.

Silently, the copper-furred wolf approached Raon trying not to wake him up, and situated behind him watching with attention. It was worse than what he had thought first; the Human, attacked mercilessly by the cold of the night, had gathered knees to his chest and tried they didn't shake violently, in vain. For the first time, a shadow of fear clouded Jarek's mind; he was a wolf and he would be able to resist that night but... what about Raon? What if he wasn't?

After some seconds of hesitation he took a decision, and passing an arm around Raon, he laid down beside him to try to infuse him some heat. He felt a bit awkward for a moment, but immediately that feeling disappeared when Raon's cold fingers closed around his arm, almost desperately.

A strange sensation spread through his body at that moment; the same he had felt before when, careless, they have dared to touch them. The same that seemed to come whenever he maintain any kind of physical contact with Raon. It was something... indescribable; and since the first day Jarek had felt it he had known that he would never be able to explain it, with or without words. But it was comforting too, almost as if an invisible bond was knitted when they touch, as if, suddenly... they were one instead of two separate and different bodies.

Overcome with that feeling, Jarek closed his eyes and snuggled closer against Raon, trying to ignore all his doubts and follow what he wanted... And in that he had no doubt. He didn't know when he had guessed it, but his feelings for Raon had been clear since he had found them. And though probably those feelings made him feel awkward at that moment... he knew it wouldn't have been a good idea to reject them. He had to seize every moment, every second of that contact... because maybe it would never repeat.

Suddenly, someone moved brusquely beside him and the wolf opened his eyes, a bit bewildered. He found Raon's confused look, which seemed to drill his eyes just a centimeters away.

-Jarek -the Human asked, in a whisper -. What are you doing?

The wolf lowered his ears, a bit ashamed, but he immediately remembered that he had a logical reason to be doing what he was doing.

-You were shivering. A lot. I didn't like you to die frozen -he confessed, without looking away.

Raon seemed to be wavering for a few moments, as the wolf had been minutes before that.

-I appreciate it -he said, finally -. But you don't have to worry. I slept at... at the open at other times, this is not the first night I do it.

-You lie horribly, did you know? -Jarek commented, drawing a small smile in his muzzle -. You were suffering, Raon... Really.

The Human kept his eyes on him, and finally he looked away, thoughtful. Jarek thought he seemed uncomfortable for some reason, almost as he had been when he had laid beside him. He wondered... he wondered what could that be due to... and if there was something Raon couldn't tell him, something he could guess... and he was suffering too.

A light went on his mind. A light that carried hope with it.

-Is that, right? -he asked, softly -. You feel it too.

Raon turned to him, surprised.

-Feel? You mean... when we touch?

A great disappointment turned off the light in Jarek's mind. He had thought Raon would talk of another thing, something related to feelings, and not to sensations... Still, he tried to hide his disappointment.

-Yes. I don't know exactly what it is and why it happens but... I mean, you know what I'm talking about, right?

Raon did not answer immediately.

-Yes... -he finally recognized, looking down -. But, until you told me about it, I thought I was the only one who felt it. It is... strange.

-Yes it is. I wouldn't know how to describe it. I just know it happens when I touch you... and it's nice to feel.

-And awkward too -the Human said -. We don't know what it is. We don't know where it comes. When I feel it, I can't help... feeling a bit afraid, thinking it could be something bad.

-Bad things don't feel so good -Jarek smiled -. You shouldn't worry about it and simply... enjoy it.

Raon blushed and turned her head sharply, maybe trying the wolf not to see him. Unfortunately for him, Jarek was aware of what was going through his mind, and again, a hope light appeared in his mind. Maybe they shared the sensation... and the feeling. Maybe they had a chance.

-Empathy, I think that is the word -Raon whispered, after some seconds -. But it's a really intense empathy, don't you think?

-Yes it is -the wolf replied, funny.

But Raon made no hint of a smile. Instead, he seemed to be thinking about that question, searching for an answer.

-At least, if we two feel it, I know I mustn't keep it on secret, or feel ashamed about it -he murmured -. I don't know. When we find Rukj, we'll ask him.

-Rukj again... -Jarek grunted, annoyed -. Do you really think he could know about what we feel?

Raon didn't reply, comprehending that the wolf was right, much to his regret. He bit his lower lip and returned to his glum thoughts, while Jarek observed him, a bit worried. He feared being too hard on him; after all, Rukj was all Raon had known until then.

-Why don't you sleep? -he told him, with a conciliatory tone -. We'll think about it tomorrow. Today it's been a hard day, don't you think?

Raon nodded in silence and he leaned against Jarek, still with a slight hesitation. When the wolf's arm closed around his waist he trembled, but he instantly calmed.

-I have to recognize you give me warmth.

-That's because I have fur.

-I know. When I was young, I always wondered when and why my fur has disappeared, you know? -Raon confessed him, softly -. I thought I was a wolf without fur, or something like that, so I always compared myself with Rukj and noticed that I was... well, I was furless... and I sensed that something was wrong.

-Did you think Rukj was your real father?

-Only when I was a child. Over time, logic made me understand that couldn't be. And Rukj began to talk me about the four species, and the two faced races. I just had to tie up loose ends to realize I never was his son, and he decided to adopt me... for some reason.

Jarek nodded silently, meditative. His muzzle's fur touched the boy's neck, triggering another wave of that strange sensation, similar to empathy, which seemed to connect both of them. The wolf had to repress his impulses and focus on the conversation they were having instead of doing what he really would have liked to do.

-Sometimes I think... Rukj suffered a lot because of me. He don't say it to me, and he really hide it, but... -he stopped, not knowing how to explain -. He never went to the town, for example. He didn't want anyone to see him, let alone me. He didn't tolerate the visits, and he never let me go far from the hut. Especially, it was strictly forbidden to approach the Borderline. Sometimes I think that with him... I wasn't less fugitive than what I am now.

-It seems hard -Jarek murmured, a bit distracted still, but making a great effort to pay attention.

-Yes -Raon replied, nodding slowly -. But still... he is my father, Jarek. The only one I've ever known. And he didn't just keep me alive, but also taught me how to survive by myself. Now... now I'm afraid he can't do it.

Jarek understood what was happening to Raon as fast as if he himself was feeling it. He would never know if it was due to chance or to the contact between them, which seemed to help them understand each other better than ever. Anyway, he dared to hug the young, trying to instill him some confidence and warmth, risking he frightened.

Luckily, Raon received the hug and did not react, though inside him a lot of feelings were appearing and triggering things that threatened to make him lose his cool. After all, that was the first hug of his life, and he had never felt so protected and appreciated... by anyone. Meanwhile, Jarek breathed the boy's scent and tried to convince himself that he will never let anyone to hurt him. Even knowing that the Human could have killed him with closed eyes, he couldn't help want to protect him. Even from those thoughts that seemed to cloud his mind.

-Don't worry about him, Raon. He's a hunter, not a prey -the wolf assured him, trying to sound firm -. He will find the way to come to us, you'll see.

Raon draw a small smile, appreciating the attempts of Jarek to make him feel better. During some seconds he stood quiet, until he finally muttered:

-Thank you very much, Jarek. No one... no one had ever encouraged me so much. I think now I'll be able to sleep calm.

-Try it -the wolf recommended him, feeling a growing satisfaction inside him -. And if you're cold, just tell me.

The Human didn't respond. He just snuggled against the thick warm fur of Jarek, trying to sleep, while the wolf hugged him gently. The night didn't seem so cold after all, or the wind so icy. Jarek wished that moment never ended, while he watched silently all half sleep Raon's facial features, and closed his arms around his body wrapped in fur clothes.

He loved Raon, he was sure of that, and though he still had to guess if the feeling was mutual, he was unwilling to let go that moment. He wanted the time to pause, that moment to freeze forever... a night wasn't enough for him.

Meanwhile, the bonfire was still crackling, and this time its flames reflected in an immensely happy wolf's eyes.