As with every winter, the whole forest was doused in pure, pristine tranquility. Few plants sprouted through the snow, yet even the scant harvest was enough to suffice for the coming freeze. The occasional squirrel and hare could be seen plucking at the winterberries, where their bushy fur contrasted against the stark red. But upon hearing a stampede of hooves, the creatures quickly scurried away, avoiding the footfall of elk sprinting through.

As their antlers scraped the trees, tangled the gnarly branches, and sliced through the misty air, the elks were pursued by an agile shadow, whose paws darted across the snow. Twisting and turning, Lewis swiftly maneuvered against the biting wind, while his hackles kicked up flurries of snow. Meanwhile, another was following from the bushes, his long body stretching thin.

"Haha, gotchu!" A pair of paws clamored against Lewis' fur, desperate to hoist themselves up.

"Not this scamp again…" the lynx hissed inwardly, glancing at Edward catching a ride on his back. But a single second was all the elk needed to disappear from view—causing the lynx to let out a frustrated groan.

"What is it this time?" Lewis muttered, his tone irate. It hadn't been long since they first met a few weeks ago, yet even the ermine's squeaks were starting to get on his nerves. 

"Don't you think this method of hunting is inefficient? How about letting me join you next time, pretty please?" Edward pleaded, rolling around in the lynx's soft fur. "What are friends for if not hunting buddies?"

Dismissing it with a low growl, Lewis rebuked, "And have you catch my next meal? I find that hard to believe. And…" Lowering his head with an indignant sigh, the lynx murmured, "...How many times do I have to tell you that we aren't friends?" But no matter how many times he said that, the ermine kept accompanying him, while also making up a new excuse each time. 

"Come on, it's so lonely this time of year! With you here, at least there's somebody I can talk to."

"You've never considered visiting your family again…or even making snow pals?"

"What are snow pals?" Edward asked while sitting against Lewis' resting form. The latter was heavily panting from today's chase, his chest heaving each second. But even the sound of Lewis' heartbeats soothed the agitated ermine, whose skittish form relaxed against the eerie quietness of everything.

"...They're what the children call snowmen. Apparently, it's become a tradition to mold snow into spheres and stack them on top of each other."

"So like this?" the ermine asked, hopping onto the snow. After molding four irregular snowballs, he began stacking them on top of each other, their height going as far as his body could allow. Before he revealed two weirdly shaped snowmen standing next to each other. Slapping on some twigs and pebbles he found, Edward mused, "Tada, now it's perfect!" while revealing an overenthusiastic grin on one and an angry frown on the other. "Looks just like us, doesn't it?"

"Hmph." Huffing to the side, Lewis laid his head on the snow, his ears twitching against the soft showers of ice. "If it's companionship you seek, then I'd imagine the task itself must be difficult for you."

"Hey, I have friends! Like…" Jumping defensively onto the snow, the ermine looked sideways, his expression perturbed. "...My Fling-a-ma-Thing! Or…Or…the Automatic Nut Breaker! At least my friends don't need to hunt once a week like you do!" Before he wailed dejectedly.

"Oh, what's the point? Who's going to hang out with an eccentric weirdo like me?"

"Hm, so it seems you are aware of how intolerable you are…"

"Hey, nobody asked you to agree with me!" Edward spat back, wagging his tail defiantly. "I've been told that my looks can asphyxiate a rabbit at just one glance!"

"That isn't something to be proud of, scamp."

"For the last time, it's Edward! Edward Erwin—!"

Before he could finish, a shrill sound rang through the forest, deafening the air around it. In that brief moment, the forest fell silent, where only the sound of falling snow tumbled onto the ground. From a distance, bloodcurdling screeches soon billowed into the air, their sound dissipating into the frigid void. Lewis' eyes dilated, his nose sniffing the air, while his ears kept twitching and turning. Meanwhile, a small figure huddled up against him, his trembles becoming painfully obvious.

"W-W-What was that?" Edward squeaked out, peeking his head over Lewis' back.

"Only one way to find out." Standing to his paws, Lewis kept his head pointed towards the sky. There was an unusual odor coalescing in the air, which smelled of thick metallic iron and the musky petrichor of sweat.

"Hey, where are you going?!" Edward exclaimed, his paws attempting to catch up with Lewis' pace, as the two of them sprinted through the wintry woods.

"Figuring out the source of that sound. For all we know…"

"...It couldn't have come from a mere animal."

Across the snow plains and icy brooks, the lynx and ermine were steadfastly approaching the source of the sound, at least according to Lewis' nose. As the former kept sniffing the air, the other stayed close to his side, despite all the snow splashing onto him. But even the repeated icy flurries couldn't abate Edward's lingering agitation.

The further they ran, the more he noticed that the encroaching trees were becoming congested in this neck of the woods. Their long, rickety branches stretched over the pair, daring to encapsulate them within. Compounded with his fear, he realized he had never gone this deep in the haven, considering the vastness of the area itself. They say that at the deepest center of the woods lay the fallen, where hundreds of souls have wandered to and fro since the war. And with superstition comes paranoia, where some describe the trees as having burls of blinking eyes, while others were nearly engulfed by a circle of flames. While some of these rumors amounted to hearsay, it couldn't stop the tremors from wracking the ermine's body.

"H-Hey, maybe we should come back another time? We already ran this far, and there's nothing else here," Edward nervously stammered, quickly looking around. Before bumping into Lewis' hind leg.

"Stop. Look over there," Lewis muttered, his voice low. Crouching towards the ground, the feline quietly crept up towards a grove, where a couple of crocuses managed to break through the ice. Their purplish-white petals adorned their petite stalks, giving way to a blooming flower amidst the snow. Flames of firelight danced from tree to tree, becoming like garlands strung from each bough. And right in the middle of them sat a puddle of viscous blood. Unusually shaped remains were strewn about—like confetti after a human's party, Edward would imagine. As the two neared closer, the stench of it was becoming unbearable, but it didn't dissuade Lewis from creeping closer. And his nose twitched at the sight of entrails lying before his paws, still fresh and beating with life.

"What happened here…?" Edward asked, his beady eyes wide with both puzzlement and anxiousness. In this serene part of the woods, where even the forest itself was in deep contemplation, the abhorrence of this scene was enough to make the ermine scoot away. Gulping nervously, his teeth went to grab at Lewis' leg, desperately trying to drag him. "C-Come on, we have to go! Who knows what kind of beast lives here?!" he insisted with a fistful of fur in tow.

"Wait, this scent…" Lewis muttered, his nose sifting through the pool of scarlet. "It's no beast, but…" Catching a whiff of earthy wood, the odor of stale sweat, and the smoke furling from the area, his canines were set in a growl. "...It smells like a human."

"Ha, you're joking, right?! Even if they came from the nearest village, nobody would dare leave them be! Haven't you seen how many corpses are left unburied around here?!" Edward shouted, his eyes wide with trepidation. Calming his breaths, the ermine ruefully continued, "The difference between a real human and us is that we'll always revert when we've reached the end. But for a human to cross over our borders, it'll only spell senseless slaughter by the Keepers."

"...The Keepers?" Lewis repeated, his ears twitching to the unfamiliarity.

"You really are just a seasonal resident, aren't you?" Edward muttered, paying him a sidelong glance, before grimacing. "They serve as the haven's most ardent guardians…ever since the Forest Keeper's disappearance. But for someone to become inducted into their group, something…incredibly strange happens."

"What do you mean by that?" the lynx asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Erm…I can't quite put my whisker on it, but…" As the ermine's body stiffened, he admitted in a low voice, "Their human forms look more animalistic, from what I've seen. Especially that fox—Fitzgerald! He gives me the absolute creeps whenever I'm testing out my prototypes at sundown. Saying things like "You shouldn't be out this late, you little twerp", or even, "Bet you're tastier than you give yourself credit for." An absolute carnivore, that guy."

"By animalistic…Is that really so different from the talking animals in the children's storybooks? Like the ones who learn to walk on two legs?" Lewis inquired.

"No, no! They still act and appear like humans, but…" Shuddering at having remembered those large glowing eyes from between the trees, as well as the residual blood seeping between those sharp teeth, Edward mumbled, "...Their faces are more akin to an animal's. Y-You'll just have to meet them in person to see what I mean! Oh, wait, actually, maybe it would be better for you not to meet them at all! Because believe me…" Pressing a paw to his chest, he exclaimed, "I felt like I might as well faint right then and there after seeing him lurk in the shadows!"

"Hm, with how easily scared you are, perhaps you're exaggerating this to some degree," Lewis remarked before looking in another direction. "The scent is faint, but there's still a trail left behind…" he shrewdly observed, despite the loud complaints of his companion.

"Hey, who said I was scared?! Having your heart run like a hedgehog on ice doesn't always equate to being scared! And where do you think you're going?" Edward cried before quickly following behind Lewis.

"Whoever must have done this isn't too far behind. I'll confirm who the culprit is, and it would be best if you could alert those Keepers about it."

"Great, dealing with another human that'll be used as fertilizer for our haven. A marvelous plan, my friend." Edward shrugged, a smile twitching on his face, before angrily bickering, "Now if only the Keepers didn't feel like kicking me out every time they see me, then this plan would go off without a cinch."

"So why are you still here?" Lewis asked, quickening his pace.

With a proud grin, the ermine snickered, "Because I always find a way to make it back in. But aside from Fitzgerald, the others aren't as bad, I'd say. The longest-standing Shaman they have right now is someone called Thiago. Haven't heard much about him aside from how incredibly old he is." 

"Thiago…" Lewis mused to himself while wondering, "For my family to never bring up the Keepers, perhaps we're simply seasonal residents after all."

"H-Hey, wait up! You're running too fast—!" the ermine beside him wailed, leaving the lynx to scoop up the creature into his mouth.

"At least he'll stay put for the time being," Lewis groaned inwardly as Edward froze up between his jaws.