him causing him to land on his back. “OW!!… WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?!”

“You had your fun, now I had mine.” Shade helped Kit back to his feet and the two glared at one another for a few seconds before letting go of each other’s hands. As Shade walked away Kit noticed that he was walking stiffly as if something was wrong with his back.

“Are you O.K.? I mean you didn’t land to hard did you?” Kit asked, as he watched Shade walk.

“I’ll be fine, but right now we have to move.” Kit looked at Molly who kept looking at Shade with a worried look on her face.

“Fine just give me a few minutes to get Molly on my back again.” with that Shade nodded and waited as Kit let Molly climb back under the cloths and started to carry her again. “So why are you in such a rush to move anyhow?”

“Because during are walk today, at any time did you hear a plane?” Shade asked, as he kept moving.

“No.” Kit looked at Shade for a second and then got his meaning. “Maybe they went a different direction today, they could be looking in the wrong area, that doesn’t mean they crashed.” Shade stopped and looked at Kit.

“Not what I meant, and you shouldn’t be saying such things.” Shade motioned to Molly on Kit’s back who now looked worried for another reason. “Your parents are alive, Baloo is too stubborn to die, and your mother would lecture Death on how to conduct its job to the point that it would never come near your family again.” Shade said, as he walked up and lifted Molly’s chin. “Their fine I know that much, their up in the sky looking for you two as we speak.” Shade turned and started to walk ahead once more.

“And what about you, I’m sure Rebecca will be glad to find you.” Shade stopped in his tracks and clinched his fist slightly, then started to move once more.

“This is not the time, nor is it the place for this talk Kit, so please save it until we get to the surface.” having Shade dictate to him on anything was pushing him to his limits on dealing with Shade, and he saw it as a threat.

“You know what, why are we following you? I mean it’s not like you know where you’re going anymore then we do.” Kit stopped walking and just looked at Shade who kept moving forward.

“Keep moving, the exit is just a few meters away.”

“And how do you know that?”

“Because, oh annoying one, if you haven’t noticed we’ve been walking on the path with the most snow on it, which means that the snow has blown through here last night, and most of it landed on the way in, therefore we are heading to the exit as we speak, the more snow on the path the closer we are to the exit.”

“You just made that up.” Kit accused, as he started to follow Shade once again, after what seemed like an hour the three emerged at an opening that over looked at small Thembrian town. “I take it back.” Kit said, as he looked at Shade.

“Don’t bother.”

“No I mean it, you are trying to help and I was acting like I jerk.”

“No I mean don’t bother because I really was making that up back there.” Shade said, as he started to head for the town, leaving Kit in shock while Molly giggled slightly.

“You did? But then what would have happened if we didn’t find an exit.”

“I would have made up something else to explain it, just so you didn’t stop moving, the one thing I do know is that if we stop moving frost bite will set in sooner, as long as Molly is next to your body and covered by those extra lays she’s safe, but you and me, we have to keep moving. If not for our own sake, then for Molly’s.”

“Wow… I think I read that line somewhere before.” Kit said, as he caught up to Shade who smiled at him slightly.

“I have looked at a comic or two in my life time.” As the three started to reach the town Kit smiled as he saw smoke coming from it.

“Well at least will be warm.” Kit said, as he looked at Shade.

“True and if they have a few parts I might be able to make a radio, if they don’t have one here.”

“Careful you might break a Thembrian law.”

“Yeah like no playing in the snow.” Molly said, as she looked at Shade who smiled slightly.

“Shadow Law out ranks Thembrian Law.” Kit and Molly both looked at Shade funny at this statement, as he turned and gave them a slight smirk.

“What’s Shadow law?” Molly and Kit asked at the same time getting Shade to turn back to the town.

“I’ll tell you some other time.” They had gotten close to the town by now, and Shade had noticed something was wrong, there was smoke but not coming from any smoke stack, there was no one around, as he looked up at the sun he could see it was near mid day and there was no one out, no sound what so ever. “Kit stay here with Molly, something isn’t right here.” Kit stopped in his tracks, he wanted to follow Shade to find out what he meant but with Molly on his back he didn’t want to risk his future sister’s well being. As Shade walked into the town Kit waited and listened for anything, after a 20 minutes of nothing he was about to go in after Shade only to watch Shade come walking out holding something in his right hand.

“What’s going on?” Shade only looked at Kit and then at Molly.

“We have to find cover, let’s head back to the tunnels and will stay there for the night.” With those words Shade started to head back to the caves, leaving Kit to look at the town and then at Shade.

“Now wait a minute we walked all this way and now we’re going to walk back?”

“I’ll explain later Kit, right now we have to move.”

“No way, I want some answers and I’m not moving another step until I get them.” Shade looked at Kit for a minute and then walked back and whispered something into his ear so that Molly couldn’t listen. When Shade stopped he gave Kit a stern look and got the older boy to look around before moving towards the cave, the two ran as fast as they could back towards the cave Kit looked at Shade as the young wolf started to pass him. “So how bad was it?”

“Bad the town’s a mess and the fire that we saw was the largest building the doors blocked on the outside so that no one could get out, the town’s been destroyed, and right now even if I found a radio I wouldn’t use it in fear of calling back those that did it.”

“But how do you know it was them?” with that Shade opened his right hand so that Kit could see a patch off of a uniform of a Hauser he had found on the streets of the town.

“Wild guess.”

“But why would they do such a thing.”

“We can discuss that later after we step away from Molly.” An hour later as Molly sat wrapped up in Shade’s trench coat both boys stood at the opening of the cave looking at the town and watched as the smoke slowly died down. “It’s the work of the Hauser.”

“But why?”

“They want to rule the world.”

“But how do you know that?” Kit asked, as he looked at Shade who said nothing as he closed his eyes, and thought back to the days of being with the Night Witches.

********

Flashback

********

Shade lay in his cot in the Night witch hanger and smiled as Barbra came walking up to him. “Shade story time.” Barbra said, as she smiled at him. “So what would you like to hear tonight? Military tactics? Flying tricks? Or maybe one of the Night Witch’s mission reports?” Barbra had noted that Shade wasn’t like normal children his age, he didn’t like the normal bed time stories, but in a way she didn’t care since he hung on every word she said.

“Hauser.” Shade said flatly, as he looked at Barbra, getting a rather surprised look from his mentor.

“Now where did you hear that name?” Barbra said, as she smiled and tried to change the subject.

“From you and the others… who are they?” with that Barbra cleared her throat for a second and then started to look around not knowing if she should tell him who the Hauser was.

“It’s just some extremist group causing some trouble, nothing to really worry about.”

“But you’re always on the lookout for them… why?” Barbra looked at Shade for a moment and smirked slightly.

“So they don’t get to big for their britches like a certain little pup I know, now choose something else or no bed time story tonight.” Shade pouted at this and turned his back to Barbra, as he rolled over. “So that’s it, you don’t want a bed time story tonight?”

“I want to know my enemy.”

“Your enemy? Now what makes you think that the Hauser group is your enemy.” Shade turned back over and looked up at Barbra.

“I’ve heard you talk, I’ve listened to the reports you give the others, this group isn’t just some kind of small group of trouble makers their organized, or as you said “a threat to the entire world if they get to powerful.” Barbra looked at Shade for a moment, and then scowled slightly towards him getting him to gulp slightly, knowing that he had just admitted to a major no, no. He was never allowed to listen in on the crews’ daily briefs because he didn’t have clearance.

“Alright young man you