Kelly worked her way through the snow. They had a couple shovels they’d managed to scavenge from the surrounding buildings, but not enough to really clear a lot of paths. The concentration was on the entrances to the buildings they were using and down to the small valley. There was no one else out as she made her way between two of the buildings.

  Past the alley, the snow was even deeper, the crust on top harder. Kelly looked out across the parking lot. More buildings beyond, a couple of wolves visible as they stalked their way through the streets. She could see a couple of her people watching the wolves, seeing it was clear and entering the buildings.

  Another scavenging run.

  They weren’t bringing much back. Barely any food, but they did get games, books and winter gear. The games and books she had borrowed from what Clan Brady was doing, making sure there would be entertainment through the cold months of the winter.

  Clan Brady. She smiled, still not used to it.

  Kelly started walking through the snow, working her way over to the footsteps the others had made. Reaching them, the going became easier, the walk quicker. She reached the buildings, tempted to go inside and help clear the apartments, but kept moving.

  Once again, she was forced to break her way through the snow. She moved slowly, trying not to make noise but knowing she was failing. It was another block before she came to the wolf tracks. Barely tracks as the large animals didn’t even break the surface of the snow.

  Winter Dire Wolves.

  The things were the size of horses and something that seemed to come with the weather. The refugees hadn’t encountered Dire Wolves. They’d fought many wolves before, which had been bigger than Pre-Connection wolves but still smaller than these Dire Wolves. The monsters were something new.

  She looked both ways, where the Dire Wolves had gone and the way they had come. With a sigh, she turned the way the Wolf had gone. She knew she had to find where the Dire Wolves den was, if they had one. The ones out hunting, her group could deal with them later, but they couldn’t have a den of the monsters near their temporary home. But there was no way she’d let a couple of the monsters stalk up behind her.

  ***

  The two wolves snapped at each other, fighting over the corpse of a large elk. The animal had been massive, bigger than the Wolves with a huge rack. Kelly had never been a hunter but her father had. That elk with the twenty-point antlers would have been the trophy of a lifetime. The two animals had taken it down, getting some wounds themselves, and were now tearing into the elk, enjoying their dinner.

  One head lifted up, sniffing at the air, Kelly froze. She held as still as she could, watching the two Dire Wolves. The wind blew around her. She hadn’t even tried to stay downwind, which was impossible with the way the winter winds swirled so much. The wolf’s head snapped back around, growling at the other who had taken the chance to snag a bigger bite of the elk. The two growled and snapped at each other focused on the food.

  Kelly smiled, glad they let their stomachs control.

  Taking a step, she Activated an Ability, her spear glowing with a golden light. She launched it at the first wolf, the thing sensing the attack and turning just in time to catch the golden spear of energy in the shoulder. It was thrown back, tumbling across the hard snowy ground, coming to a stop against a nearby brick wall. The spear disappeared.

  The other wolf charged at Kelly, taking a couple steps before lunging in the air at the unarmed woman. She braced herself, angling her body, arms held out as the spear reappeared. A trick she had learned from Loch. She braced the butt end in the ground, turning her head slightly as the leaping wolf impaled itself on the weapon. Kelly dove to the side at the impact, turning the spear into pure energy as she landed out of the way of the heavy wolf.

  It slid down the weapon, crashing into the ground. The feet scrambled, trying to dig into the snow so the beast could pull itself off the weapon. Kelly resummoned her spear, her new Soul Weapon. She had loved Loch’s weapon, Onyx, and had wanted one herself. It took some time and trying but she managed to do it once she hit Level 23 and gained a new Ability. Birgha, a name famous in Irish Mythology. Her spear wasn’t like the mythological one, but she liked the name. She wasn’t sure if all the Valkyrie’s would get a Soul Weapon when they hit that Level or just her from being around Loch and his Unfettered Trait.

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  It didn’t bother her that she didn’t have the Trait. Her girls would and it would help them survive. That was good enough for her. She’d find out if it was a Valkyrie Ability when one of the other’s reached Level 23.

  The wolf fell backwards, freed of the resistance. It tried to get up, blood staining the white snow dark red. The other wolf was padding its way toward her, cautious and slowly, still too far away to interfere. She charged the second wolf that still struggled to get up. The tip of Birgha glowing, she slammed it into the wolf’s neck, twisting as light flared up from the wound. Pulling it out, she flung the weapon at the first wolf, missing as it darted to the side.

  Dismissing the kill Notifications, Kelly held her hand out as the weapon reappeared. She charged at the wolf, the snapping jaws leaping for her. Ducking to the side, she drove her weapon into the monster’s chest. With her Adapted strength, she pushed it through the wolf, the tip bursting out the other side. She released her grip, letting the momentum of the wolf take the weapon as it twisted and fell to the side.

  Birgha disappeared, back in her hand, as Kelly walked over to the wolf. It still growled, low but pained, blood dripping from its mouth, blood flooding out onto the ground. With a quick thrust, she ended it’s life.

  The multi-colored sparks of experience drifted up, flowing into her body. She looked at the two corpses, disappointed that she’d made a mess of the bodies and hides. It wouldn’t be worth sending a harvester out to skin and butchert the corpses. By the time she found one, scavengers would be all over the dead wolves.

  She turned, ready to head back and follow the trail back to the wolves den but stopped, seeing three people standing twenty feet away. All were elves and armed, glaring at her. Kelly shifted her feet, not appearing concerned, but ready to fight. Things had been strained with the elves since Kelly had arrived at the valley. The elves, all followers of Freyja, had not been happy to find the humans resistant to their leadership. They blamed Kelly.

  Tensions were high and she was worried it would erupt into conflict.

  “Enjoy the show?” she asked.

  The three elves just walked away, heading away from the refugee camp.

  Kelly sighed, shaking her head, following the trail back.

  ***

  Stepping around the two dead Winter Dire Wolves, Kelly studied the entrance. She could feel the energy of the Dungeon Portal. She hadn’t been in many, but could get an idea of the strength of this one. Relatively low level. She was tempted to run it herself, but knew it would be good experience for the growing fighters in her people.

  They’d have to run it every cycle to keep down the number of Dire Wolves that spawned outside the Dungeon. She wished she had a Codex Band, like the fairy that was bonded to Piper. Kelly hated the idea of the Codex Band and Bonded Spirits, but having someone so knowledgeable about the Connection was vital. Kelly didn’t trust anything Senora or any of the elves told her.

  Not anymore.

  She turned away from the Dungeon, heading back to the camp. It was time to start assembling teams to run the Dungeon. They didn’t have many healers, which limited what they could do, but she’d take a page from what Loch’s people had started doing. Send in an overpowered team with a healer to gauge the strength of the Dungeon and then start sending in higher Leveled teams without a healer, leaving the healers for the lower Leveled teams. Kelly wondered why Healing Classes seemed so rare. Had it been that way in the games Loch had played? Not for the first time, she wished she’d spent more time playing the games with him.

  ***

  Looking around, Kelly pulled the winter jacket she wore tighter, Birgha appearing in her hand. Snow whipped around, the temperature far colder than in Massachusetts. She didn’t know where she was. She’d been sleeping in her room, the one shared with five other people, wrapped up in as many blankets as she felt could be spared. It had been cold, the heat from the fires barely making it to the room.

  Now she was somewhere else. She could see log homes in front of her, a style she recognized as somewhat Viking-ish. There were many buildings but the one directly in front drew her attention. It was a longhouse, the home of the jarl or the leader. Two giant men stood outside, not looking at her or even acknowledging her as she walked up.

  “I take it, I’m supposed to go inside?”

  The two guards didn’t say anything or even look at her. With a sigh, Kelly walked up the stairs. She pushed the doors open, kind of surprised at how easy it was. The interior was warm, multiple fires down the long hall. A great table filled most of the space, lined with seats, all of them empty. At the end of the hall was a larger table with an even larger man sitting on it. He had a mug in one hand, the handle of a hammer or axe laying against the chair. He leaned forward.

  “Greetings Kelly Brady,” he said. “It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Thor.”