Toffee grunted as she pulled the makeshift gurney behind her. Kel lay motionless on top of it. His back paws and tail dragged on the ground. Deep ruts in the snow marked the winding path back to the mine they had just left.

Toffee noticed that the trees up ahead were thinning and knew they were getting close. She threw her weight into the makeshift straps and hauled harder. Toffee was huffing and puffing when she made it to the edge of the colony.

"Help! I need Help!" Toffee yelled out as loudly as she could before she collapsed in exhaustion. She had pushed her body as far as she could.

"Toffee is that you?" Bunsen called out. She soon appeared at Toffee's side. A strange Belemoid was with her.

"Names Issun. " he said when he saw the confusion in her eyes.

"Issun? " Toffee muttered. She could not remember a belemoid by that name. She peered up at him with blurry, tired eyes. He was a pale tan Belmoid with striking markings that made it look like he had tar poured over him.

"I just arrived. Only had time to put my stuff in my new house when I heard you hollering. " Issun said as he came over to check on Kel.

Bunsen joined Issun. "What happened?" Bunsen asked. She did not like what she was seeing. Kel was unconscious and had small bloody wounds all over his body. The worst were wrapped tightly in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"There was a cave in. The roof started to come down and Kel pushed me out of the way. But he got caught in it. I - I did my best. " Toffee said hoarsely.

"You did good getting him here. " Bunsen said as she came and put an arm around her friend.

Issun gently took the rope from her and started pulling the sled toward the village. "I got this. You just need to show me where I am going."

Bunsen helped Toffee to her feet and they stumbled past Issun toward a long building. Issun followed, dragging the sled behind him.

It was warm inside the building and Bunsen led them to a large room. "Here put him there. I am going to get Kya and Moon Stone. They will know what to do."

Bunsen left and soon came back with Kya and Moon Stone. Moon Stone immediately ran over to Kel.

"How bad is he?" Kya asked.

Moon Stone looked up from her examination. "Bad. And I don't know how to fix him. I know how to clean simple cuts. But this- this is more then I know how to deal with. And we do not have the supplies that we will need.

Kya was silent for a bit. She then turned to Bunsen. "You, take Toffee and go to the next village over. They might have the supplies we need. They are closer to the science center. Take some of our winter supplies for trade."

"I would also like to help." Issun said quickly. "Three is better than two." he added quickly when he saw Kya hesitate.

Finally Kya relented. " Alright. But Bunsen, you're in charge and make sure Toffee has something to eat before you go.

They left as soon as they had all eaten. They filled up a sled full of supplies to trade and left the small village. Issun took the rope to pull the sled and followed Bunsen and Toffee into the evergreen forest. It was dark under the branches of the tall trees and Issun was impressed how well Toffee could keep them on the trail with the all the snow on the trail.

They had not been walking for long before the first snowflake fell. Followed by several more. It grew darker and the wind started up making the branches above them creak and groan.

"We need to hurry. This looks like it's about to be a good snow storm." Bunsen shouted.

Issun didn't really know what a snow storm was but he figured it was not something to be caught in.

Toffee slowed down so she could walk next to Issun. "We should all grab onto the rope so we won't get lost. I can probably see where we are going better than the both of you. So I will take the lead."

"Good idea!" Bunsen said as she grabbed the rope.

Soon the storm hit with a vengeance and Issun found he could not see very far in front of him. He could barely see Bunsen's red backside. The snow was coming down so hard. He made sure to have a good grip on the rope. He had to trust that Toffee could see where she was going.

They walked on in silence for what seemed like forever.

"We are here!" Toffee shouted. Her words were snatched by the wind and thrown back to the other two.

Issun was too tired and cold to answer back. He just kept plodding along.

"I see lights." Issun could barely hear Bunsen's words as a gust of wind whipped passed them. Then the wind stopped. Issun looked up and saw that a building was blocking the wind. The snow still fell in great numbers. But they were no longer being whipped into a frenzy. Issun could see the outline of a door.

Toffee let go of the rope and stepped to the door. She curled her long claws into a fist and rapped it twice, hard. Then waited.

They could hear rustling from the other side. Then the door creaked open and a blue head peeked out. As soon as the Tsabhua saw them she flung the door open.

"What are you doing here! How did you get here!" She exclaimed. Another smaller head popped out from below her arm.

"The questions can wait. Come in before you freeze to death. Your sled should fit just fine in the hall.

The door cleared and Bunsen walked in with Bunsen behind her. Issun pulled the sled inside. The sled took up a lot of the hall but there was still enough room to get past and deeper inside where a fire was dancing in the fireplace. It felt so good to be warm. He noticed that Toffee was sitting in front of the fire already.

"Now that we have you inside. I would love to know why you risked coming here in this storm. " The smaller of the Tsabhua said. Her arms crossed.

"We have someone hurt at our village and we don't have the supplies needed to care for him. " Bunsen said. "We brought supplies to trade." Bunsen said as she indicated the dripping wet sled.

" I see." The Tsabhua said. "Well you won't be leaving here any time soon. I won't let you leave while that storm stays. But that should give us plenty of time to haggle." She said,

"But first you need to eat and get warm then we can start.