“Jinki, I need you to stay awake,” Taemin, struggling to speak around chattering teeth, begged Jinki as he half-dragged half-carried the boy through the snow.

            The injured boy on Taemin’s back moaned in pain and weakly clenched his jaw. A trail of disturbed snow mixed with blood lay behind them. Jinki’s face was pale and his lips were beginning to turn blue. Taemin knew that he needed to get to the village soon, but Jinki weighed more than he appeared.

            The village gate at last came into view and Taemin almost cried in relief. The sun was peaking over the trees and gates must have just opened for the men’s return from the woods. For the first time in his life, Taemin welcomed the looming shadows of the wooden gates.

            Taemin began to become aware of just how exhausted he was. The frost had set into his clothes and his shoes were soaked through. His breath came in gasps and every part of him ached.

            “Help,” Taemin cried when he was in earshot. He could barely muster the strength to call out. “Someone please help.”

            Taemin was shivering all over his body, and he could not quite make out the blurry objects around him. The cold weighed heavy down on him, so strong he could swear he felt like he was sinking into the ice-packed earth of the village road.

            Hands lifted the weight of Jinki from his back and Taemin dropped to his knees in the snow. Another set of arms pulled him up and guided him into a hut where he was stripped and swaddled in blankets. A hot liquid was shoved into his hands. Taemin slowly felt his body began to calm down, and he became aware of his surroundings.

            He was in a smaller hut filled with middle aged to older women who were bustling about the feebly stirring Jinki and building a fire in the pit in the corner. He also realized that he was . Taemin pulled his blankets over his body.

            Jinki had a large score mark making its way down his side, ending just above his hip bone. A bruise marked his temple and ran up and down his ribs, and every time the boy took a breath he let out a soft cry of pain.

            Taemin winced at the sight of the wounds as they were treated and pulled his blanket closer around his body.

            “What happened?” The elderly Mrs. Young asked Taemin as she cleaned dried blood off of Jinki’s side with a sense of practicality that only mothers who have seen a lot in their day seem to possess, grimacing as she did so. “This did not come from any ordinary fall.”

            “We found them,” Taemin leaned in to tell the woman quietly. “The wolves.”

            A terrified gasp came from the woman, and she dropped the rag she had been holding into the bucket of water on the floor beside the straw mattress. The water splashed upwards and stained the hem of her dress a dusty orange. She made no move to pick it up, but stared at him with wide eyes. The womens' activity around the room came to a standstill and all attention was on Taemin.

            “You found them,” the woman’s voice was quiet. “How did you make it back?”

            “More like they found