The nearby woods were dark and deep, and that suited it just fine. A thick veil of fog drifted through the trees, hanging close to the ground and silently stalking its prey. Above, the clouds were forming perfectly, dark, foretelling messengers that warned of the storm to come. Already, the air was filled with the creaking of wood and the crackling of brush as they twisted and writhed in the cold. That, and one other thing, disturbed its silent work : footsteps.

Minako Aino shivered and hugged herself, teeth chattering as she looked around nervously. "Man," she said, a thick cloud of mist rising from her mouth, "it sure is quiet out here today."

"Oh, really?" A man dressed in black slacks and a padded black leather jacket parka grinned and clapped his gloved hands together. "Well then, let's have a song for the pretty lady!" His one exposed eye twinkling, Seiji Date tugged up his fur-trimmed collar and began to sing. "Over the river, and through the woods, to Ryo's house we go..."

"Ouch!" Another boy, whose thickness did not come entirely from padding, tugged down the ear flaps on his woolen toque and made a sour face. "Who got the human jukebox going again? He's been doing this for hours!"

"Hey," Seiji shrugged, "it's not my fault the van broke down! Maybe you should have rented something decent..."

"Maybe," Shin Mouri countered, as he crested the hill behind his two friends, readjusting his long red scarf, "you should have known better than to try and jump the ditch..."

"Maybe," Seiji responded, "you should bite me!"

"Don't you dare, Shin-kun!" Her long black hair tucked into the hood of her woolen jacket, Rei Hino scrunched through the frost covered grass. "You don't know where he's been!"

Shuu chuckled. "I know where Seiji's been... and it sure isn't his house!"

Seiji scowled. "This from a guy who still has his mittens on strings! Do you want me to hurt you, Shuu? Is that it? Because if you want me to hurt you, I'm more than happy to hurt you..."

"Seiji!" A small white cat lunged out of the underbrush and glared accusingly at the blond man. "I knew you couldn't be trusted! You've been seeing other girls behind Minako's back, haven't you?"

"Artemis," Seiji asked pleasantly, "can you swim?"

The cat looked confused. "Well... no..."

"Good." Seiji's smile grew as he snagged the tomcat by the scruff of its neck. "Gee, Minako," he said cheerfully, "I don't know what happened. Artemis and I were just walking along, and he must have tripped... into a boot. That fell in the river. Think she'd buy it?"

"No, she's not that stupid." Minako Aino sighed dramatically and shook her head, her long mane of blond hair swaying in the bitter breeze. "Really, you two! I leave you alone for two seconds, and you're at it again! This is the tenth time since we left home!" She gently removed her cat from her boyfriend's grip and smiled at them both. "Now, for the last time : Artemis, stop trying to antagonize Seiji. And Seiji... stop trying to kill Artemis!"

The cat and boy shared a glare. "You're lucky," they seethed in unison, "that she's here to protect you..."

The clouds gathered in eager anticipation. Slowly, softly, the first flakes began to fall. It howled, a sound of sheer hunger and unending need, and the wind changed direction, blowing in from the north... bringing the storms.

"Hmmm..." Touma Hashiba looked out of the cabin window at the falling snow. "I hope this doesn't get worse, Ryo. We could all be stuck up here."

Ryo Sanada looked up from where he was serving a mug of cocoa to his early guests. "Oh, come on, Touma! You're nearly as paranoid as Seiji, sometimes. It's getting near the start of winter : we're getting a little bit of snow, and it'll blow over in a few hours. You'll see."

Usagi Tsukino grinned as Ryo tossed a few extra marshmallows in her cup. It was so good to be queen, around these guys. Still... there was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind. "I don't know," she said nervously, tugging on one of her long ponytails, "what if it's some kind of snow demon, or something? You know, like one of Jadeite's troops? Maybe one we missed?"

Ryo groaned and sat on the edge of his coffee table, shaking back the thick black fringe of hair that dangled over his eyes. He was long overdue for a haircut, even for a boy who habitually wore his hair well past his shoulders. "Aw, Usagi! It's not a demon, okay? I mean, surely we can all get together at least once without something trying to kill us!"

"Actually," Touma said with a sly grin, "it might be a snow demon. It might even be... a Wendigo."

"What's a..." Usagi stumbled slightly over the word. "Wen- dah-goe?"

"It's an ancient and powerful creature in North America," Touma said wisely, folding his arms over the front of his white turtleneck sweater. "The Native Americans used to believe that Wendigos were giant snow demons, that went hunting during fierce storms and blizzards. In fact, they used to take sick and old people, and strap them outside during these storms, so the Wendigo could find them... and in the morning... the people would be gone!"

"Well, duh!" Makoto Kino interjected, blowing the steam off of her cocoa. "Of course they'd be gone! If some pudding head tied me up in the middle of a snowstorm, I'd run for it, too! Where do you get this stuff, Touma?"

"It's in this book," Touma explained, indicating the slim novel clutched in his hands. "When we were going to New York last summer, I picked it up. Figured we might want to know what kind of monsters we could wind up against. This thing has all of them : Wendigo, Sasquatch, Ogopogo, Candyman..."

"Well, gee," Ryo said sarcastically, "if it's in a book, then it must be true." With a groan, he turned to a visibly shaken Usagi. "Listen, 'Sagi. Touma's just an idiot, that's all. There's no way some big, boogedy Wendi-whatever would walk, or float, or paddle all the way across the ocean just to come after us."

"Sure. Right." Usagi nodded and took a sip of her cocoa. "Besides, he's... he's probably just making it up to scare me. There's probably no such thing." She looked up expectantly as a slim blue haired girl entered the room with a cup of cocoa in one hand and a closed laptop computer in the other. "I can even prove it! Hey, Ami! What's a Wendigo?"

"A Wendigo?" Ami Mizuno sat down on the floor and leaned her back against the couch. Gently, she placed one finger against her lips and squinted slightly. This, to those who knew her, was the face she wore whenever the wheels in her head were spinning faster than Mach 2. "Uhm, I believe it's some kind of Canadian or American legend. Some form of snow demon, if memory serves... why?"

Usagi was already bawling. "IT'S NOT FAIR! I'M GONNA GET EATEN BY A WENDIGO, AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT ONE IS! WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?"

Ryo slapped one hand over his eyes as Usagi's wail quickly reached the limits of human hearing. "Way to go, Touma," he snarled. "You just had to go and scare her, didn't you? Some victory party this is turning out to be!"

Shin whooshed and lifted one hand to cover his eyes. "I say! The snow certainly seems to be getting worse... we might be in for a bit of a storm!"

"Gee, Artemis," Seiji said sarcastically, "I hope you don't wander off and get lost in this. Why, we might never find you!"

The wind tore through the trees, shaking a flurry of dead needles into the air that whirled around the five teens and one cat. Spitting and covering his eyes, Seiji squinted through the snow, which was practically falling in sheets, and grabbed Minako's wrist. "Come on! I think Ryo's cabin is this way!"

"You think?" Artemis spat and hissed, arching his back. "Forget it, Seiji no Korin! Minako and I aren't going anywhere until this storm dies down and we can see where we're going!"

"That's okay : you weren't invited!" Seiji spat in return, and clenched his fists. "I've gone to Ryo's cabin a million times, and I know it's right on the other side of this ravine, and up the hill!"

"You don't even know enough to come in out of the rain!" Artemis replied. "You'll just get her lost!"

"Oh, and your plan's any better? It's nearly eighty below out here! You'll get her frozen to death!" Seiji clenched his teeth. "And if you think I'm going to let that happen, then perhaps you don't know just how flammable cat fur can be!"

"You don't have the guts to try it, Yoroiden!" Artemis yowled.

Seiji growled, and suddenly clutched his head, biting his lip until a slim trickle of blood flowed down his chin and falling to the ground. Nearby, Minako collapsed into the deepening snow, lying on her back and crying out in pain. Shin and Rei quickly knelt over the girl, as Shuu ran over and checked out Seiji.

"Minako? Are you all right?" Rei asked gently, shaking the girl slightly.

"Seiji? What's going on?" Shuu asked, crouching over the boy and looking down at him with concern. Holding out a fist, the Chinese boy extended three fingers. "Come on, man, how many do you see?"

"Uh..." Seiji blinked and tried to focus as he absently massaged his temples. "I... I think... six?" With a sigh, he let his head fall back into the snow. "I'm sorry, man... I guess one of those youma clocked me better than I thought, yesterday. I'm seeing two of you, Shuu. Guess Artemis... has a good idea after all. Kami, but my head does ache..."

Minako winced and looked up at Rei. "I'll be fine, Rei. I guess it's just a stress headache, or something. From dealing with those two fighting, probably. It'll pass in a bit... they usually do."

Shin sat back and brushed the snow off of his knees. "Well," he said, "the way I see it is that someone has to go and find help for Seiji, even if Minako says she's fine. I don't want someone with a head injury wandering around out here. Rei, what say Sailor Mars start us a cheery little fire over by this big old tree, hmm? We can at least try to stay warm until Shuu finds his way to Ryo's cabin."

Shuu nodded, then stopped. "Hey, wait a minute... how am I going to find my way back here, even if I make it to Ryo's cabin?" He pointed at the trees, which were barely visible despite being a few feet away. "What if I get lost?"

Shin grinned and reached into his pocket. "Fortunately," he said with a smile, "I came prepared." Out came a spool of fishing line, and both Rei and Shuu groaned. "What?" Shin asked, "it makes perfect sense. We'll tie one end to this branch over here," he demonstrated, looping the thin cord around a nearby branch, "and Shuu can hold the spool as he walks. It's good for nearly eight hundred feet : if he can't find Ryo's cabin by then, he'll just come back here to us."

"Why are you carrying a spool of fishing line in your pocket?" Rei asked.

"Well, we're going to Ryo's cabin, right? It's only proper that we take a gift, and I know Ryo likes to go fishing, so I bought him some hooks and lines." Shin shrugged. "I guess I forgot the hooks in the van..."

It watched the children closely. They were so foolish, these strange ones, to place their faith so blindly in themselves, and each other. Even the fire they were building, it was certain, would not be enough to protect them.

The snow whirled higher, the wind howling and spinning and dancing across the banks of snow, and one of the children walked away from the others. This one it had been watching for some while, as they tried so foolishly to avoid it. He was strong, but his strength had already been sapped by the cold, far more than he knew.

It smiled in sheer, almost childlike, glee. Soon, very soon, it decided, it would come to the lone one. The others could wait, if just a while.

Shuu Rei Fuan tugged up the collar of his jacket and shivered, placing his back against a nearby tree and trying to get out of the wind for a second. "Okay," he muttered, "bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, Fuan on deck... Jeez! I'm talking like Touma over here." With numbing fingers, he unrolled a length of the fishing line, keeping it slack as he braced his shoulders and lowered his head.

With a sudden motion, he turned and pushed against the wind as it battered at him and hurled snow everywhere. Not so bad, he thought. I've handled guys way tougher than this stupid wind! Huffing, he methodically climbed down the ravine, feeding the line out between his fingers as he did. Naaza would laugh at this wind, he told himself, and I'm TONS tougher than Naaza!

Shuddering now, he began to cross the frozen river. It was tricky, as his boots kept skidding over the fresh powdery snow, which made the ice even more treacherous than before. Soon, his boots had gotten caked with packed snow, and he might as well be walking on grease with banana peel slippers. Anubis, he reminded himself, would absolutely LOVE this kind of weather. No way he was going to give up when Anubis would think this was a walk in the park!

There was a sudden, violent, crack, and Shuu's left foot broke through the ice, plunging into the frigid water up to his knee, and throwing him off balance. The Yoroiden of Kongo landed on his face, and scrambled desperately to grab the spool once more in his snow caked gloves. "Hey," he whispered coarsely, as he rolled over and pulled his sopping wet leg out into the wind, which cut him like a knife, "Seiji an' Ryo... they'd laugh at this, ya know. I ain't gon' stop when... those two wouldn't!"

At least, he thought as he crawled across the icy surface of the river, then levered himself back onto his feet and stared dumbly at the climb ahead, his leg wasn't cold anymore. Just pleasantly numb...

Shin sighed as he laid his jacket over Seiji's sleeping form, curled as it was around Minako. "I think they'll be okay," he whispered to Rei, who sat feeding pieces of the tree they were using for shelter into the small fire she had started with her powers. Dressed still in the fuku of Sailor Mars, she looked over her shoulder and smiled.

"Well," she said softly, "at least they look happy. I wonder what's wrong with them?"

Shin looked over at the raven haired beauty. "You don't believe them? It's not just an old injury and a stress headache?"

"No." Rei smiled as she brushed the snow a bit further away from their fire. A circle of rock had been set up, to keep them from accidently burning down their shelter. "Minako is good at a lot of things, but a liar she is not. And I don't know Seiji as well as you do, but I know if I had the power to magically heal myself, I wouldn't just walk off an injury."

"You're right, Rei." Shin smiled, but sadly. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a handkerchief, sodden with blood. "Seiji's ears were bleeding," he said. "And the Yoroiden of Truth cannot be lied to about anything. Those two," he glanced over at the slumbering pair, "are hiding something. I just hope it isn't serious."

"You know, you're really cute when you're like this," Rei said as she draped her arms around Shin's neck and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Like what?" Shin wasn't sure what she was talking about, but he decided he wasn't exactly complaining, either.

"You know..." Rei giggled slightly. "When you turn into Mr. 'I must protect my friends' Samurai Trooper. You get all serious and worried, and you get the cutest little wrinkle right... here." She leaned up and gently kissed a spot between Shin's eyes. Shin promptly turned beet red and started to stammer incoherently.

"I, er, I, uhm, I... " Shin took a deep breath, and tried again. "This may not be very 'I must protect my friends' Samurai Trooper of me, but I was just thinking... about our date on Thursday..."

"If you're about to call it off," Rei warned the brown haired teen, "I'll break your arm. In several places, to boot."

"NO! Not that! I was just wondering..." Shin began to sweat nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "We didn't really get a chance to talk about it, much, and I was wondering what exactly we were going to do."

"Oh." Rei placed her hands under her chin and gazed into Shin's deep green eyes. So she was in charge, huh? This could be interesting... "Well, first you'll take me to dinner, and then maybe a movie, and after that I guess you can walk me home. No big deal."

"Right," Shin said, seeming to relax a little, "no big deal at all. I was just asking because, well, I thought you might want to, uhm, d-dance, and I... er... can't, much."

Rei's eyebrows nearly hit her hairline. "You can't dance?"

"Well, I don't THINK I can..." Shin said worriedly. "I mean, Mother taught me how to waltz, and foxtrot, and samba... but I can't dance like Shuu and Ryo can. I'm more of a slow dancer, I guess... I need time to place my feet, plan my next move..."

"Well that's okay, then!" Rei's eyes lit up. A slow dancer? What was wrong with THAT? In fact, it was kind of romantic. "We'll just make sure to do a lot of slow dances. And kissing."

"Beg pardon?" Shin looked nervous again.

"Oh, yes," Rei said as she leaned in and pressed her lips against the base of his neck, "lots of kissing. Definitely lots of kissing..."

A short distance away, Artemis snorted and rolled his eyes. A bunch of starry-eyed little girls, that's all they were. So busy planning dates and chasing boys it was a surprise they EVER got any Senshi work done! Speaking of which... he glanced over at Seiji and Minako, curled up in each other's arms and sleeping peacefully. "First the headaches," Artemis whispered to himself, "next the visions. Damn it, I KNEW this was going to happen! I tried to keep them apart, but they just wouldn't listen to me..." There really wasn't anything personal against that Date kid : he'd just been trying to keep them both safe. "Too late now," he whispered, "better warn Luna. We'll just have to throw them in and hope like hell they float."

Shuu Rei Fuan stumbled and bounced off of a nearby tree. He had stopped feeling his feet ten minutes ago, and the snow was so thick he could barely see his own hands, let alone Ryo's cabin! Methodically, he placed one foot in front of the other, clutching the spool to his chest with snow-encrusted claws. His head bobbed slightly with every step, and his breath was coming harsher and more ragged every time.

It was so COLD! Every breath seemed to burn its way down his throat and added to the ball of ice he could feel forming in his lungs. Pausing, he coughed violently, and then shook his head. "Keep it together, Shuu," he muttered, and pushed himself forward another step.

That was his last. His chin hit his chest, and his entire body sagged to the ground. Get UP! He screamed to his sluggish and traitorous flesh, but it simply lay on the ground, the snow blowing against it like a sandblaster, striking and sticking to skin well past frostbitten.

He was so tired, he thought wearily, so cold. He just couldn't go any farther : it was hopeless! He could be walking in circles! He could be miles from Ryo's cabin!

He could barely even summon the strength to close his eyes... Maybe, he thought, things will be better in the morning.

It watched as the boy fought his lonely battle against the cold, and grinned to itself when he lost. They always did, it knew, in the end. The strange boy was definitely strong, though : he had gone much farther than it had expected him to. In fact, he was almost to the cabin, if in fact that had been what he was aiming at.

It could smell them, there in the cabin. Laughing, and joking, and completely unaware of what was happening outside their walls.

It smiled again. Well, it would have to change that... and then there were still the other four to take care of. This was going to be a very busy and rewarding night for it, perhaps the most so in many centuries.

Usagi nearly jumped a foot in the air when the window rattled, the remnants of her cocoa sailing unerringly across the room and splashing on Ryo, who made a face and dabbed at his red sweatshirt with a paper towel.

"At least," he sighed, "it wasn't hot anymore..."

"Oh man, oh man, oh man..." Usagi whimpered, biting at her nails, "it's the Wendigo, he's gonna eat us, he's gonna take us away, and I'm never gonna see Mamo-chan again..."

Touma smirked, and placed his hands on Usagi's shoulders, leaning down close and whispering in her ear. "Surely," he said, "surely that is something at our window lattice. Let me see then what thereat is, and this mystery explore." Creeping across the room, he reached for the window latch, and grinned over his shoulder. "Let our hearts be still a moment, and this mystery explore..."

"Tis the wind," Ami replied with a raised eyebrow, "and nothing more."

Touma chuckled and shrugged. "Well, of course it's the wind, Ami! We all know I'm just trying to have a little fun with Usagi, here! I know as well as you do that there is no such thing as..."

With a resounding crash, the window exploded inwards, pelting the room with glass shards as a massive limb thrust through the hole and tore deep into Touma's shirt, ripping at the boy with its gnarled digits as he spun and fell to the ground. The wind screamed in rage and forced itself into the room, buffeting around each of the four teens and pelting them with arctic cold. The fireplace went dead, even its embers snuffed by the intense chill.

"This," Ryo yelled into the roaring gale, "is very quickly getting less funny!"

"Where is it?" Makoto yelled, covering her eyes as she grabbed for her henshin. "I'll teach it to mess with us!"

"AHH!" Usagi ducked behind the couch, holding her hands over her ears and closing her eyes tightly. "IT'S THE WENDIGO! IT'S THE WENDIGO! IT'S - "

"A tree." Ami interrupted, and pointed. Sure enough, a gnarled and wizened old tree limb was sticking through the broken glass, it's long and twisted branches still tangled in pieces of Touma's torn shirt.

"Well, I'll be!" Ryo chuckled and walked over to the offending limb. "I guess one of the old trees out there must have been dead, or sick. Wind probably pushed it over, or something." He looked down at Touma, who was white as a sheet. "Well, Mr. 'I'm going to scare the girls with a ghost story', how does it feel to get a bit of your own medicine?"

"Shut up, Ryo." Touma's face was almost expressionless, his pale complexion making his blue hair seem almost navy by comparison. "I saw something out there. It was moving."

"Sure you did, Touma." Ryo shook his head. "Isn't this story getting a little old, now? You got a few laughs, but let's just let it drop."

The door rattled violently on its frame, and everybody jumped. Something seemed to be pounding against the wood, slamming into it with enough force that the individual planks were creaking and pulling apart from each other, gusts of wind and snow puffing through the cracks. The hinges squealed, and the wood began to split around the screws.

"Okay," Ryo said calmly as he reached for his yoroi sphere, "maybe Byakuen and I ought to go check this out. BUSSO, REKKA!" Clad in the crimson armour of Rekka, Ryo gestured, and his partner, a giant white tiger known as Byakuen, leapt to his side, snarling and tensing its muscles to pounce. Lifting his paired katana blades, Ryo gingerly picked his way across the glass covered floor and reached for the doorknob. He looked over his shoulder, where Touma had transformed into the blue armour of Tenku, and held his bow at the ready, one arrow already drawn and nocked. With a deep breath, Ryo hurled open the door and looked around.

"Sweet Kamis! SHUU!" Ryo dropped his swords and grabbed the hefty boy, who lay curled in the doorway. "Touma! Ami! Get over here! It's Shuu, and he's in trouble!"

The next morning, Shuu slowly led the other Samurai Troopers and Sailor Senshi back along his trail. "Weird," he said softly, "it was a straight line to your cabin for the last few feet, but now it's all zig-zagging..."

Eventually, the five reached the campsite by the tree, where Shuu's line ended. Seiji and Minako lay on the ground, covered by Shin's coat. Artemis had curled around his human's neck like a furry white scarf, and Shin and Rei lay near the dead ashes of a fire long extinguished. Rei's coat covered Shin, and the Senshi of Mars had wrapped her arms around him as she slept.

Strangely, there was a large oval area around the site in which no snow had gathered. Ryo hopped over the massive rim of the snowdrift and dropped into the campsite, followed by Usagi, Touma, Ami, and last of all Shuu. Artemis shivered slightly, and his tail brushed against Seiji's nose, who then sneezed and woke up.

"Well, hey!" The blond man sat up and shook Minako awake. "It's about time you guys got here! We've been waiting all night!"

Minako stretched and yawned, jostling Artemis awake. "Mmmm... is it morning already? Feels like we just fell asleep..."

Touma shrugged. "Well, I guess nobody here needs immediate attention. Weird, too : I'd expect at least frostbite, if not hypothermia. That fire's been out for hours, and with no shelter..."

"Yeah..." Ryo's voice sounded speculative as he looked around at the drifts surrounding the campsite. "Odd, that..."

"Who cares?" Makoto said sensibly. "I say we all just head back to Ryo's cabin, and I'll make breakfast, and we can try to have that party you all missed out on!"

"Sounds good to me!" Shuu said, rubbing his stomach. "I'm famished. You coming, Ryo?"

"Go ahead without me, guys," Ryo said absently, waving them off, "I'll catch up in a minute. Ami, would you stay here for a second?"

He stood in silence until the rest of their teams had gone, the sound of their voices and laughter trailing off into the distance. Then, he turned to his girlfriend. "Ami," he said in a strange tone of voice, "check me on this. Sometimes, my tiger Byakuen, he likes to lie out in the snow all curled up. The wind, it kind of blows the snow against his back, and his body heat melts the snow under him." He pointed at the oval drift surrounding the campsite. "Now, ignoring size, it kind of looks like this... do you suppose the Wendigo...?"

"Oh, don't YOU start now, Ryo!" Ami crossed her arms and stared at him. "There are countless scientific reasons for this phenomenon. Maybe there was a chinook, or the fire burned longer than we thought it did, or Sailor Mars was unconsciously keeping the snow away while she slept! Touma's story about the Wendigo was just a bunch of bunk : even he admits it! Besides which, everybody knows that Wendigoes are just mythological figures! They don't exist, and if they did, I doubt they would come to Japan!"

"Yeah..." Ryo looked around one last time. "I guess you're right. I'm just seeing things, I guess." With a smile, he cuffed Sailor Mercury on the shoulder. "Come on! Let's get back to the cabin before Usagi and Shuu eat our breakfasts!"

"They'll probably say they thought the Wendigo got us," Ami joked, and Ryo smiled to himself.

"No," he said simply, "the storm's over. I think his job here is done..."