"Yeah, a short, snowy winter..." he said.

Yukina nodded in agreemnet."yes at the very most a month",she said hapily.Then stoped looking around.Thinking she had hurd a twig snap.

Kevin looked around and sniffed the air- he had heard the twig as well. He turned around, sniffing and when he caught the scent, he recognized it. "It's an animal- a bear, and it's a real bear." he said, looking around for it. It was belnding into the trees not far from them, behind them. Kevin knew it wasn't as anxiety-inducing as the hunters, but it could still kill them in their current form. "Keep walking, slowly..." he said in a low, flat voice to Yukina. If they moved too fast or spoke in the wrong pitch, it would attack, and he wasn't sure he could transform quick enough in that event. Slowly he started backing up to see if it would follow.

Yukina looked at him nervously.But nodded as she slowly followed.She kept here fear low as they walked , but then blinked hearing a loud wrar as the bear came out running at them , teeth bared. Then as if by instinct, Yukina sudenly transforemed into a wold and bareing her fans charged at the bear.Leaping up she bit onto its neack ad it growled and thrashed arround.It swiped at Yukina once or twice.Missing.It even threw itself to the ground to try and get her off.She yellped slightly but still hung on.The bear finaly swiped her off,and slamed her to the ground hard,right near the clift to the river.She slowly stood.Her eyes loked more animal then human.The bear sareled and charged at her again.Yukina growled and held her ground and bit into its paw as it pinned her.

then , the ledge they were on, gave way,sending Yukina and the bear into the rageing rivver.

Kevin barely had time to react. He saw her go over the cliff's edge and ran towards it, looking down. He could see nothing- not the bear and not Yukina. He looked up and down stream, and began running the way the stream flowed. If Yukina were alive, she'd be getting closer to their destination quicker than he, because the stream followed the direction the two had been traveling. Kevin could not figure out why the bear had attacked- they had no food, and though bears were omnivores, rarely did they attack a fox- fish and insects, yes, and smaller animals, like rabbits... But he hadn't thought it would be desperate enough to attack foxes.

Kevin ran along the cliff, which descended closer and closer to the river, till he was able to hop down to the bank, where the river began to calm down and became more still, yet flowing, as well as shallower. He looked around. He could see the beaer, climbing out on the other side of the river bank, but he couldn't spot Yukina so easily. Kevin returned to his human form, without much effort, and continuing to look for his partner. Eventually he spotted her, in her human form now, a little further down the bank on his side. He ran down to her and turned her over, so she could breathe. Apparently, the shock of the cold water had turned her back into her normal form. He shook her gently, "Yukina!" he said in a raised voice, willing her to awaken.

Yukina laied there lifelessly,she had shallow breathing, and was scarely pale.She was cold to the touch and there were gashes from where the bear had hit her and a gash n the side of her head.

Kevin pulled her out of the water completely and lay her on the river's bank with him. He put his head to her chest- her heart was strong. Her breathing was so because she was unconscious, not because she was dying. He had no bandages, so he began dressing the worst of her wounds, including the one on her head, with his shirt, which he was tearing into strips. She had taken the worst of the beating, apparently, as the bear had already sauntered off to find whatever it was looking for some place else.

He waited by her, lifting her into his arms and holding onto her, hoping to raise her body temperature. He waited for her to wake, as there was not much else he could do.

After a little while ... Yukina stered and opened her eyes.She looked around in a daze."Kevin?",she said softly."what happened?",the last thing she could remeber was the bear tearing out of the bush , then every thing had went black.She was confused to why she was sokeing wet ,cold and why she hurt.

Kevin smiled when she finally woke up, and laughed a her question. "You attacked a girl, you crazy girl!" he smiled, teasing lovingly, "You went over the edge, and you went into the river. I chased you down stream and found you unconscious. How are you feeling?"

"confused",she said staying clsoe."i dont even remeber doing that",Yukina said softly.

"The bear attacked and you went crazy" he said, putting her into a sitting position, but not moving away from her. After what had just occured, Kevin was feeling particularly clingy. Yukina could have been killed, and he was still worried about her.

Yukina looked at him."me ....i attackt the bear ..",she said looking confussed."i really dont remeber any of it , i emeber us walking and trying to sneek away, the bear rored and i saw it comeout of the bush but everything goes black after that",she said with a soft sigh.

Kevin nodded, "Well from the looks of it, you got hit in the head pretty hard, so that could be why you don't remember part of it...Basically, what you're forgetting is you changed into a wolf and charged when the bear jumped out of the bushes to attack." Then he remembered how fast she had changed and furrowed his eyebrows, "Or... it could be how quickly you shapeshifted. You could have killed yourself, just transforming that quickly you know! You're not adapt enough for that. It took me years to be able to transform that quickly without bleeding all over the place! You only had one day in the facility. Rearranging your molecules that quickly... You're lucky to be alive!" he reprimanded, "Do not ever, ever do that again." he told her, in the most serious voice. Yes, he was happy she was alive after all that had just happened, but what she had attempted was stupid and if she did it again, she may not live to be confused and forget what happened.

Yukina blinked and cringed when he got mad at her.She didnt mean to do it."i .... i didnt mean to .... i just know i didnt want you to be hurt .... ",she said with a few tears in her eyes.

Kevin looked at her confused, "You remember that?" he asked incredulously. He was surprised she could remember what she was thinking, but she couldn't remember what happened. That made him think that it was the shapeshifting so suddenly that made her forget, rather than the hit to the head.

Yukina nodded.But thiking about it all made her head hurt more."im sorry" she said sotly and looked down.

Kevin looked around, "Well, you probably feel like your head is about to bust open, and soon enough, the rest of your body will feel the same, so it looks like we're not moving for awhile." he said in a frustrated tone, "We probably won't be able to move you safely till late in the day tomorrow, which means we'll be traveling through the night, so rest while you can." He let her go, to hold herself up while he looked around for some place for them to camp out. It had to be close, because if he moved her too much it would only cause her more pain.

Yukina sat there looking down.She felt terible.She looked around as well.She was such a bother to him.

Kevin looked further up the bank from which they had ended up. There was nothing; they were going to have to sleep in the open. Hopefully, the hawk-boy wouldn't come back, and it wouldn't rain. There were a few passing clouds overhead, and more in the distance, but there were white, so there was hope that it wouldn't.

Other than lack of shelter that they had, they needed food. Kevin walked to the edge of the stream and saw there was plenty of fish swimming about. Perhaps that would be good enough, and if not, Kevin could always kill another deer... He walked back to where Yukina sat, relaying the information to her, "We've got nothing for shelter from the looks of it, but we should be good on food. As long as the hunters aren't looking for as and it doesn't rain, we should be alright without the shelter."

Yukina looked up at him."i ... im so sorry",she said agin then looked down at the ground.A few tear streemed down her face/

Kevin looked down at her, furrowing his eyebrows, "For what? It's not like you chose here to get stranded." he said.

Yukina looked at him ."you just seem so mad ..."

"I'm not mad, I'm worried." he told her, looking away, "You could have killed yourself, I've told you about this before. Don't you remember the other day, when you transformed too many times for too long? This is going to feel worse than that." he said, looking at the fish swimming around in the river.

Yukina looked at him."i feel fine ... my head just hurts",she said liiking at him and gentlystroked his cheek.Then also looked at the water as well,watching the fish.

He crouched down near her as she reached up, and then stroked his cheek. "I've been where you are, Yukina. You're going to wish you were dead tomorrow." he told her, sadness in his eyes. He truly was not looking forward to seeing her like that. "You weren't engineered like me, so it might even be worse. I was practically born in a petri dish, I was made to be a shapeshifter. You were kidnapped at eighteen, and they started injecting you. We don't even know if the treatments they did give you will last, nor do we know if you'll react to it." he said. "There's a possiblity you could die at any moment, whether you shapeshift quick or not."