It was now pretty dark, Tyler had to guess it was late into the night, the moon hung over the camp like an angel watching over him. He scanned the surrounding area again, looking over the same trees, same bushes, same ferns, searching for something but found nothing, only flora and snow.
Athena was sat in close proximity to him, to keep him safe but to also give him some warmth, her fur covered in snowflakes, with the limited amount of wood that could be scavenged from the ground, the fire was slowly losing is power and was starting to die off, and Tyler was finding himself struggling more to stay awake thanks to the cold.
"God, Your pack is taking their time aren't they, weren't they supposed to be here by now?" Tyler said, shivering a little as he tried to wrap himself up more in his parka which he'd grabbed as well as a pair of gloves, he had the hood wrapped over his head with his balaclava wrapped tightly over his face.
He'd noticed that his new wolf friend Athena was shivering herself, despite her thick fur coat giving her a good level of protection, so he grabbed another coat and a scarf he had with him and gave them to the wolf, who thanked him for them, now both of them were huddled together next to the dying fire as it's light only shone barely a couple of feet in any direction.
A flake of snow fell on Tyler's coat, who squinted at it before looking up at the sky to see more snowflakes falling than before.
"Great, looks like snow is coming harder, the weather in these woods is cursed" Tyler said.
"I don't disagree with you, I swear the spirits are doing this just to mess with us" said Athena, chucking the last twig onto the fire, "That's the last one, we're going to need to stay warm as well as some light".
"I think there might be some scarp cardboard or paper in the tent, and I might have a lantern that I grabbed from the camp, I don't know about you but I'm not going out there in the dark looking for more wood". said Tyler.
"I don't blame you, but we're going to need something otherwise we will be stuck in the the dark and cold with no light and no heat" said Athena, a second later letting out a sneeze.
Tyler stood up, going to his tent, "I'm going to see if there's any scarp paper or something in my kit, I'll be back" said Tyler, Athena only nodded to him, she looked dreadful herself.
"This has to be one of the worse winters ever" Tyler heard Athena mumble as he entered his tent. He rummaged through his burgeon and his other stuff, he eventually found some cardboard from one of his ration boxes. He came back outside with the cardboard in hand and threw them onto the fire with no care.
"That's all I could find, I might just have to go out there and find so-"
"NO" Athena shouted, Tyler jumped a little, "There is no way you or I are going out there in the night, we need to keep close to the fire or we'll freeze".
"Or worse" Tyler mumbled, walking over to sit next to the big wolf.
*SNAP*
The snap of a twig cam from somewhere within the darkness. The boy and the wolf both jumped out of there skins as they sat still, looking around to see what or who had made the noise. A few seconds go by, it was quiet, way too quiet. Athena was concentrating to see if she could hear or smell anything, she couldn't see or smell it, but there was definitely something there, and it wasn't friendly. Then she heard them, soft foot falls, crunching snow, just barley audible to her sensitive ears, as if something was hunting It's prey. and she realised they they might just be the prey.
"we're not alone, get ready, something's here" Athena said to Tyler, as she shot up in a stance, ready for a fight if some kind. Tyler reached over and grabbed his M4 , switching the safety off and running to Athena, standing next to her, ready for the uninvited guest to make itself known.
"Can you see anything?" whispered Tyler, turning on his gun's flashlight and scanning the trees.
"No, but i heard it" Athena whispered back.
"Where?" Tyler whispered.
"I don't know" Athena responded.
The two stood there, in the glow of the fire, then two crunches came from in front and behind of them. Tyler turned to face the back while Athena kept facing the front, they were now back to back, waiting, scanning everywhere they could see.
Tyler turned back to Athena, who had pulled a small knife from her bag and holding it and standing in a fighting stance.
"Where'd you get that?" Tyler said.
"Shush, focus" Athena hoarsely whispered.
Tyler turned to where he was looking but saw nothing out of the ordinary, even with his light. Then, his light caught something as he was panning it around, quickly pointing it back in the direction he saw it, there they were, a pair of glowing eyes, looking directly into him, next to a tree.
He was about to say what he saw to Athena, but before he could even say "hey, the-", a giant black shadow jumped from nowhere and leaped at him, reflexes kicked in and he fired a shot at it, hitting it in the chest.
Athena saw it and pushed Tyler down, the beast hitting her and hurling them both onto the fire and on the ground, both of them wrestling each other, growls, snapping of jaws, slashes of claws accompanied it, the white ground beneath them getting covered in fresh blood. Tyler regained his composer and saw Athena in danger, he wanted to shoot, but he couldn't get a clear shot.
"Athena move, I can't get a shot!" he shouted.
Athena was struggling against the beast, it was skinny compared to the one Tyler saw yesterday, but it was proving to be a hard fight for her.
Eventually Athena managed to throw the beast of herself and onto a tree, she looked to Tyler:
"Get the pack ,they'll find you, get he-" she was cut off as the thing jumped on her back.
"RUN!" she shouted, getting into another battle with the beast.
Tyler did what she said and ran into the darkness in the direction of the lake, leaving the two wolf's to duke it out.