[Rozen]

Yuki watched Yemon try to heat up Kore with no luck. She just watches, being useless since she still had the mentality that heat could affect her still. She could still feel the effects since she was used to such cold weather and this abnormal heat was making her extremely hot but she was sweating like how she normally does when she's this hot, that she knew of.

"Well, I don't relish the thought of being a bear to be honest. At least if I was a wolf, I could play with Kiba. He might be afraid of me if I was a bear. Even if I still look like myself, I don't want him to ever think of me any different." She explained as she petted her ears to show affection to Kiba since she wasn't sure if he could feel it or not. She could and it made her ear tingle. When Kore still wouldn't move, she was getting worried. "Um, Yemon, what if she never wakes up?" She questioned.

[ml1201]

After sticking the water bottles in with Kore and not seeing any results he gets a bit annoyed. Walking quickly back to the other room to grab more blankets he hollers back to her, "I'm going to keep trying until I've run out of ideas, but if nothing works I might have to set her on the oven door and turn it on. I'd rather not because in such I storm I'd have to light the stove since the cold probably would have partially frozen the pipeline. So I might have to go outside and do that. Otherwise we'd probably just have to wait until Spring for her to wake up since she seems to be a spirit of Spring." He wraps Kore up some more and moves her closer to the fire, but just out of danger of catching on fire. Then a thought occurs to him.

"Hey, do you think there's a spirit for this mountain? Where I'm from my village worshiped a mountain spirit, and I was thinking that maybe they might have been the one that warned you away from humans. But if so that would have had to of been a long time ago since you don't seem to remember much of anything because the mountain covered in snow and Kiba."

[Rozen]

Yuki watched at Yemon had a hard time waking up Kore. She really wished that her sister would open her eyes, even just a little so that she could get Kiba back into his body and she would settle to just melt away forever. She still didn't believe she would come back, she never remembered melting before, everything in her mind just seemed to be rolling together, there were no times that she could think of where there had been a huge gap in her memory. "What if Kore won't wake up, what would we do then? I don't want to live without my Kiba.

Yuki shrugged. "I don't really know. I don't remember seeing anyone or anything besides humans. I don't know how we would even find out if there is a spirit of the mountain. But that doesn't mean there isn't one. Maybe we can go search for the spirit and hopefully be able to get everything switched back and maybe I can ask to live."

[ml1201]

"Hmm...Well, if you can get the blizzard to settle down we can take the snowmobile. I'll have to take some warm bottles as well just because it might be a while. But with all this new snow it will actually be easier for us to travel. Let me get ready then, it should only take a few minutes." Rushing around he gets everything he'll need together, including some water to drink if he needs it, slightly warmed and kept in the thermos. When he's ready he nods his mask covered face to let Yuki know, then heads out to the snowmobile. He starts it up and pats the seat behind himself to let Yuki know to get behind him.

"Just hold on to me, I'm going to go as quickly as I can. If its anything like the mountain where I grew up there will be a shrine near the top of the mountain in a cave."

[Rozen]

Yuki did as instructed and made the blizzard settle down for Yemon and her to take the snowmobile to help find the mountain spirit. She doesn't remember seeing any shrine but maybe she just never really looked and that's why. She got behind Yemon and wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder as she thought about everything.

"What if there's no mountain guardian spirit?" She questioned. "What if what Kore did caused winter to stay? What if I have to melt in order for Kore to wake up? But with Kiba inside of me, I won't melt." Maybe it was bad that she didn't melt. Maybe she shouldn't have caused such a ruckus and just let herself die. "I will miss you when I melt. I don't want to die but I guess you want spring to come don't you? When I'm gone, promise to take care of Kiba ok? I don't want him lonely."

[ml1201]

Yemon can't help but sigh, "How many times do I have to tell you? I do not prefer Spring over Winter and I don't want you to melt. We'll find out when we get closer to the top whether there is a mountain spirit or not." He travels on for a while, almost reaching mountain climbing level before they stop, "We have to look around for some caves. You'll be able to tell if its a shrine of some kind because there will be some kind of human influence like drawings and stuff." Going long the mountain to explores several locations, seeing signs of people having been there but mostly trash left from people. Getting tired he finds an untouched cave, panting slightly from going for so long looking for a shrine.

"Let's rest here a moment, I haven't had anything to eat or drink for a while. If I don't eat or drink anything soon I'll collapse." Plopping down on the cave floor he leans against the wall and looks through the stuff he brought to get out some food and water.

[Rozen]

Yuki sat down beside Yemon. "So...do you like Winter? I don't know much about the other seasons, but everyone that I ever see is always smiling, having fun doing their activities. I wish I had someone to do those things with. But, as you can see, it's not meant to be. It's not meant for me to stay here for much longer. And I know you will forget me even if you don't want to. You know why? All humans forget. I would hear mothers tell their child that they will come again later but, later never comes. They forget. So, even if I do come back next winter, you will forget about me like all those mothers." She said. But she didn't make it seem like she was complaining about it like before. But her loneliness seemed to show more when she talked. "Kiba was my only friend this whole time. If you knew him like I did, you would have loved him too. He always cared for me! If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't mind melting permanently. There's not point to me existing." She stretched and yawned.

[ml1201]

He raises a brow at her, even when she wasn't complaining she still was pretty depressed about the whole thing.

"If I could forget things like that so easily I would have forgotten all the torment I went through as a child for standing up for my beliefs. So you needn't worry about that. And from What I've seen of Kiba I am already very fond of him. So don't worry, we'll figure something out." He gives her a small reassuring smile, then suddenly the ground begins shaking. "We need to get out of here or else we might get trapped!" Yemon indicates that Yuki should go first, wanting to make sure nothing happened to her since he doesn't know if it would affect Kiba. As he's running the ground opens up beneath him, swallowing him up and seeming to close, only a small fracture in the ground left.

Fading in and out of conciousness, Yemon stirs, sensing that he's fallen a long way. He can feel the blood pooling on the ground around him, the fall having caused his head to split open. Then he feels a cool hand on his face, but not cold like Yuki's hand.

"You would have eventually gotten here, though if Yuki hadn't of interfered it might have been sooner rather than later." Says a an older man in a crackly voice. "Mother Earth has chosen you to replace me, she's giving me my time to rest now, so I'm passing my role as the mountain to you." The man places a hand on Yemon's chest, then a burning sensation consumes him, causing him to scream out in pain before blacking out.

Stirring again, Yemon tries to look around, but the pain in his chest is very distracting. Using a hand to grab his chest he feels something like a rock of some kind where his heart is. Sighing, he lets go, trying to roll over to get on his knees to stand, but lets out a scream of pain from how much pain his body is in.

[Rozen]

Yuki went a head of Yemon and began running, she would look back occasionally to make sure that Yemon was still behind her, she was more worried about him than her since she wasn't afraid of the cave caving in on her. She was more worried about Yemon. She heard a weird noise, like the ground breaking off and as she looked back, she saw the tail end of Yemon falling into the hole. Kiba took over and growled as he went over to paw at the ground, hoping to dig him out but it wasn't working. He whimpered. When Yuki got back in control, she was ecstatic to know that Kiba was truly within her but her friend was most likely dead. She petted her ears thinking that Kiba would be able to feel it and know she was doing that for him. Sighing, she wasn't sure whether she should leave or stay. If he was still alive she wanted to be there for him but if he was dead, what would be the point in staying? Deciding to stay, she didn't want to leave the stop. She had a small ounce of hope that he was still alive and that maybe he would come back to her.

[ml1201]

Finally, after what seems like an eternity, the pain finally subsides enough for Yemon to stand up and try to find his way around. In front of him is a shrine made out of stone and wood, paintings all along the walls of the mountain in the different seasons. Sighing he shakes his head, "Of course I find it when I'm nearly dead..." His eyes go wide as he places his hand where he had been bleeding before then looks at it. Nothing. No blood, no injury what so ever. Turning back he sees what seems to be dried blood on the ground where he had been laying, trying to recall what happened and how he's completely healed when she realizes something else. He can see, in a cave that probably should be pitch black since there doesn't seem to be any light source there. Swearing under his breath he begins to try and find an exit, feeling a jolt of pain from his chest. Looking down there looks to be some kind of crystal embedded in his chest, but the skin around it doesn't look inflamed like it would for an injury, which confuses him even more. Deciding it would probably be best to try and find Yuki instead of worrying, Yemon looks for an exit, soon finding a light that leads to someplace near the bottom of the mountain.

Looking around to figure out where he is, he notices something else, his skin doesn't feel cold on his face like it should. Actually paying attention to himself now, his skin looks textured, like stone of some kind, but still wearing his winter gear. He was neither hot, nor cold, just not affected by the weather at all. Starting to feel a head ache coming on he decides to ignore it and begin heading towards the top of the mountain here he had left Yuki. In what seems like a really short amount of time he finds himself outside a cave that's recently had people going to it. Going to the entrance he looks around and spots Yuki.

"There you are, I honestly have no idea what has happened to me, but I have a rock stuck in my chest and I'm afraid to pull it out since its where my heart is. There was some weird old guy I remember hearing, and then after that I passed out from an excruciating amount of pain. So I have no idea what's going on."

[Rozen]

Hearing some someone walking and smelling a familiar scent, she twitched her ears and looked up to see Yemon walking towards her. Her eyes lit up slightly as she stood. Her tail wagged. She could feel that Kiba was happy. "Y-you're ok. You're safe. Kiba, he was worried about you. I can feel him, he's deep within me but...I can feel him." She told him. She awkwardly wrapped her arms around him like she saw other people do and then released him as he told her about some old man and about the rock embedded in his chest. "What?" She ran her hand over his chest. "I-I don't understand. Your heat, its gone...you're different Yemon. Come on, lets go try and wake up Kore to see what's wrong with you." She ushered him along. She wanted Kore to wake up to tell her what was happening to Yemon, she didn't like how he had changed and that old guy, there was something going on that she had no clue about. It worried her greatly.

[ml1201]

He's a bit surprised when Yuki hugs him, wondering if she really knew what it was she was doing since she is pretty clueless about human things. When she says his heart is gone and that he's different his head begins to hurt, holding his hand to the side of his head.

"You're right, we should head back. We can try to wake her again..." As he's starting to walk back down the mountain he collapses, falling unconscious again. He begins dreaming of weird things, the mountain forming over thousands of years, the season changing. Even seeing Yuki during some of the previous Winters and how she returns to mother nature to slumber until the next snow.

[Rozen]

Yuki was shocked to see Yemon just collapse. She lifted him up with the snow and then moved him along with her to the cabin. She felt helpless as she wasn't sure on what she should do for him. Once there, she got him inside and went to grab a blanket for him. If Yuki had known to place him in the bed, she would have but she didn't know what it was used for. "I wish that I could help you, I really do." She rubbed his head and just sat by his side.

Going over to Kore, she began to shake her to wake up her sister but that did little good. "Come on, right now isn't the time to be sleeping! You need to wake up!" She grumbled. Lowering her head, she sat beside Yemon with a snowflake falling out of her eye and landing onto Yemon's face then turned into water. "I hope you're not dying because of me. Maybe it would have been best to not have saved you." She sighed.

[ml1201]

He's unconscious for a little more than an hour before he stirs again, groaning as he holds his head and tries to sit up. Looking around he's confused, "When did we get here? I thought we were still on the mountain." Trying to stand he notices that he's laying on the floor, making another note to teach Yuki about beds. "Did you try waking Kore up? Or is she still unable to wake?"

As he stands he lets the blanket fall, not really having noticed it there because the temperature difference didn't seem to phase him. Walking over to Kore he starts getting annoyed. Putting his hand on her to wake her a surge of heat emits a short distance from him, which startles him and then lingers for a short bit as heat around Kore. Yemon looks from his hand to Kore, then back, baffled by what's happened.

[Rozen]

"You fell asleep and I brought you back here where Kore was. I didn't want you getting cold." Yuki explained. She watched him curiously, she knew that there was something different about him but she couldn't quite place it. As she saw him touch Kore, even she noticed that something had happened. Only then did Kore began to wake up.

"What did you do? H-how did you wake her?" Yuki questioned in disbelief as Kore slowly opened her eyes and yawned. "Oh, it's spring finally!" She yawned and stretched. She looked at Yemon. "Oh, I remember you. Y-you're from...T-that time. Yeah, hello!" She smiled. She looked very tired indicating that it was still too early for her to be awake. "I never felt so tired whenever I wake up." Then noticing Yuki, she looked at her sister curiously. "You shouldn't be here. You should be melted." She said yawning. "Oh...wait, is it still winter? D-did you wake me up early again?" She asked. Noticing the ears and tail on her sister, she walked closer to touch them. Yuki lowered them. "Oh, so they are real. Why do you have ears like that and a tail?" Her memory wasn't too good.

[ml1201]

Yemon face palms, having hoped that she would remember, "You took Kiba's, a wolf that was with us, soul and stuck it in Yuki because Yuki didn't want to melt. But now its been snowing like crazy and Yuki wants you to take Kiba's soul back out of her and put it back in his body because she misses him and had basically thought of him as being dead." He collapses to the floor again, but this time stays conscious. "And this crazy guy muttered something about my fate and shoved a rock in my chest! We had gone looking for the mountain spirit to see if he could help with restoring Kiba or waking you up enough to fix this. And I've been having issues staying awake or standing since then. With the occasional headache."