The snow outside bit into my face the moment we stepped out of the cave.
It was dusk. The sky bled orange and violet over the endless stretch of frozen peaks. The blizzard that once howled around us had calmed to a lazy drift of snowflakes, drifting down like feathers. Beneath that calm, the mountains felt quiet—almost reverent, like they knew what had just happened.
The pup nestled against my chest, wrapped inside my cloak, his tiny breaths tickling the crook of my neck.
Alice didn't say anything for a while. Her boots crunched in the snow beside me, steady, purposeful.
Then, after a long pause, she spoke.
"I am asking for the last time. You're keeping him?"
"Obviously."
"Hmph. Don't forget if that monster killes anyone you will also be dead." She didn't sound pleased. Or maybe she was and just didn't want to show it.
"I know."
I adjusted the cloak, making sure the pup's head was covered from the wind. "He needs a name."
