Later through that night, since they where a few hours from the labs, Chiyoe had managed to get enough twigs and small branches to create a small fire between them to keep them both warm.

Being a little bored Chiyoe started to make small things out of the snow. Crashed her fingers through them a couple times, letting out a childlike giggle. Just ever so amused in the simplest things. She even made Daesung smile a few times, being the only person who's treated him kindly.

"Chiyoe-ah?"

"Hai?" She looked up from her little snow men.

"What's the village like?"

" It's kinda small. Compared to the human city. I think it's pretty cosey there. Anyway, it looks a little traditional. It was left over from the war and what was reparable was. Some of the elders wear hanboks or whatever their native dress was..."

"You mean not just Koreans are like us?"

" They've found a wide range of people who are like us. Westerners, Europeans, and such. It's kinda secluded in the forest. Unless you really know where to go with out the paths you would never be able to find it. They started it when they started treating us like diseased people."

"Which is why I was in the labs."

"Pretty much... 'Betterment of mankind' they call it. Not really. I lost my mother to them.... "

"When was that. I might have known her."

" She was taken when I was three, died when I was nine. She'd get the other cat demons to slip her letters to me."

" Wow.... I don't remember my parents. Or any of my family."

" Is that why you want to meet those other boys in the village?" Her tail flicked across the snow.

" You really are a cleaver one."

" Nah... As a cat demon I can hear what people think about the most. " She smiled. " I'm not like the other and pry my way into people's thoughts. It makes my head hurt too much."

Seeing the wonderment in his eyes she allowed him to ask her anything, she was very patient with him. Letting him go on and on and on.

"So Daesung, it's my turn." she giggled. " What is the bet memory you have?"

He smiled a little. Thinking back, " My best one was being a small child. I think about four or five, being taken to a sort of nursery type room with those other boys all there. The fire haired one was too busy sometimes playing with his tail..." he laughed a little at the mental image. " a coupe of us were tackling and rolling around with each other. And the youngest was a tiny one, sleeping in one of the nurses arms mostly.... We called him Panda for a long time as children...."

"Daesung...."

"Nae Chiyoe?"

"....... Is it nice to have people like them? The other boys?"

"What do you mean? Didn't you have a family?"

" No..... I lived on the street mainly as a cat just to stay warm.... I was in te human city when my mother died. The family I was staying with left me. I had wandered for a few years before I found the village. An ahjumma took me in, real sweet lady. Taught me to speak better and to read and right."

"Oh... Well the other boys were the only family I have. All like brothers... They heard us talking about running away one day an locked us up. I was chained. It wasn't testing they did there, it was down right toucher."

The pain in her eyes rose up, welling in her eyes. Seeing this broke his heart. Just imagining the things going through her head at the moment...

"D-did they do that.... To my mother?"

" I don't know.....  Chiyoe..... I really don't." He gently wiped away a tear that had escaped her left eye. Immediantly she was crying in his arms. He wasn't sure what to do. He'd never been around people enough to know.... He just held her, frozen letting her cry out.

"Chiyoe-ah.... She's free.... They can't hurt her now...."


The snow was beating down as hard has her tears....