1. Chapter     Silvery flakes drifted down, glittering in the bright light of the harvest moon, giving the cold December month a peaceful atmosphere - it was just an illusion, the blizzard was yet to come. The blackbird swooped down to its nest, as a powerful draught made it impossible for the bird to fly.  The wind howled, piling up snow in drifts, blinding the night with ice-white greyish dust, illuminating the dark through the reflection of the moon.    The young korean man, Kyungsoo,  bend over against the cold, protecting his eyes with his arms to avoid the snowflakes from blinding him. While guiding the sleigh it would be fatal to not use his eyesight and fully rely on the dogs. How could he be so foolish and leave his googles at home?    Trees, posts, cowsheds loomed into his vision, then vanished, swallowed in white. In this swirl of white the world was washed anew, like a new page. They were about three miles apart from their farm.    "Faster, faster!", he screamed over the ghostly wind to his leading dog, a muscular husky, to speed up the tempo from the sleigh.  The blizzard approached them quicker than he expected it and fear clenched his heart to not make it in time.    'We need to make it home', he thought, horrified as images filled his mind about them not getting home quickly.    Snowstorms were merciless, many people, some of them he considered as his friends, had lost their life in them. It was a trap - first the fog would make it impossible for you to see, then the coldness would appear and slowly you'd become hypothetic. The village dweller named blizzards the 'white death' and during this season there would be plenty to occur.    Luckily, however, the Alpha of his sledge dogs, was a raw bundle of unspent energy, immediately did he sped up as they dashed through the night, while Kyungsoo's grip tighten around the leash that connected him with the sledge.    One problem with the alpha Kyungsoo had was that he had to learn to function in his team, their steps were often unsynchronised. It would often lead into a reduction of their speed and when they took part in a competition, it would result in them loosing.    Under the new white caps footsteps and paw prints peeked out, crisscrossed each other around the labyrinth of paths. The wind was getting stronger and despite the thick wool gloves, Kyungsoo's fingertips felt numb. A couple of times when there were bumps in the road, he almost let go of the leash.    "Through the woods!", he announced, his voice harsh, yet filled with pure determination and hope.    The woods were their only option to survive, if he wouldn't give it a chance it would have been unmistakably their death warrant. At least the thickness of the boles would shield them from the beastly weather. Soon the white landscape was replaced by the daunting woods land. Once, however, they crossed the woods they would soon approach their home, Kyungsoo was certain.   The woodland seemed ominously quiet and terribly peaceful. Something was odd - something had to be wrong. The dogs paused for a moment, now that even the sound of their own footfalls was silent, all that could be heard was the susurration of the leaves in the gusty wind. A shiver ran down the young musher's spine, he had been afraid of the dark since his childhood.    "It is shortcut", he assured his dogs, before he pushed the leash. It had been come his habit to talk to his sledge dogs. Kyungsoo even vindicated the point of view that dogs were able to understand the human language.    The woods accelerated the twilight, shrinking the way which would normally have taken an hour into just a few minutes. When the sleigh entered the rutted path, Kyungsoo made sure to carefully avoid the hoof-sized frozen pools, the light had faded now between the thicket of the snow. It wasn't a long trek, it was muddier for sure but it would get him home twenty minutes earlier and they needed an advance, mere seconds would pronounce the sentence of being alive or dead.    The air was colder and a sense of isolation spread through the team. Kyungsoo's heart pounded in a way that had nothing to do with the exertion of leading the sleigh. His wam brea