It wasn't the type of blizzard that slowly drifted its way to the ground in large quantities of snow, while still allowing an individual to hear or even see. The blizzard that the team dashed quickly through was the kind that made it nearly impossible to see anything, or hear anything. The snowflakes must have been at least an inch across, and the wind that was driving the snowflakes around like herds of cattle was cold enough to freeze blood. Ebony scanned the clogging whiteness, trying to make out any landmarks so that she would not lose herself in the wilderness. Where to look...where to look...

Approximately two hours had passed since Ebony had first journeyed out into the winter wonderland looking for the person whom she had guessed was traveling to her winter cabin. There was no other place around that any individual would risk life and limb to find. Ebony knew that some people really needed to get away from the everyday grind of work, but risking one's life was no way to go about doing it. Worry was beginning to grow inside of her like a tumor. With the temperature being as low as it was, and with the wind chill, it was very possible that the man would not live to greet her.

By this time the snow had thickened considerably, the snowflakes becoming bigger and thicker as the minutes passed her by. She almost felt like she was being encased in a tomb of pure white. As more time passed, the temperature was still dropping rapidly, and both she and her huskies were getting tired. Snow-blindness would probably start to settle in soon, too, and that wouldn't do anyone any good. Ebony blinked her eyes a few times to clear the cobwebs away; and when she suddenly felt a brush against her leg, she looked down only to see a movement out of the corner of her eye. It was Fate; he had disappeared into the forest leading to the main route into her neck of the woods. It was at that moment that she felt ... no ... she knew that something terrible had probably happened to the man.

Oh, that's just great! The idiot has put his life in danger...

Feeling an unexplainable dread coursing through her veins and down her spine, Ebony slowed her team to a trot, considering that the main route ran between two very steep mountain peaks. The peaks were known to cause frequent deaths due to the considerable amount of snow covering them. This very unstable snow was very prone to fall in large amounts onto people below, crushing them or suffocating them in minutes. Any noise could cause a deafening and deadly avalanche to careen down one side, which would inevitably cause a similar slide on the opposite peak. Anyone caught in the valley between them would never make it out... alive. Ebony's breathing increased its pace the further into the valley she traveled. Even her team seemed anxious about entering the pass, as some of the local people liked to call the only route leading from the main town up into the mountains.

Luckily for Ebony, her team could smell Fate's excitement about what lay ahead, which kept them moving. After a short time, the snow thinned out a bit so that Ebony was able to see a little bit better in front of her. She could see Fate standing regally on top of a thick mound of snow that looked as if it had recently fallen off of the peaks. The wolf barely moved, except for his head as he scanned the area for Ebony's arrival. He looked like a statue, a tribute to some great hero. She smiled to herself with that image of Fate in her head. Then she groaned to herself, knowing that with even that small amount of snow landing on a living creature, a greater amount could fall at any second; and she also realized that she needed to move quickly if she wanted to save the life of the man whom she knew was trapped beneath the suffocating, white mass.

Taking out her shovel and her handy, folding, avalanche stick, she put the brake down on her sled to keep the huskies from running away, and slowly and cautiously trudged her way over to where Fate was waiting for her. Once she climbed her way to the top of the small hill of snow, Fate began to dig and she knew for sure that the man was buried beneath. After about ten minutes of digging, her shovel hit something hard. It took another ten minutes to dig around the object, and once that was accomplished, she realized that what she had uncovered was a four-wheel drive vehicle sitting there with its driver's side door wide open; and laying a few feet from the open door was the body of a man. Tossing her shovel aside, she reached for his wrist to check for his pulse. Sighing with some relief when she felt a very faint flutter, she proceeded to check him for any broken bones. Once she was confident that he had none, she stood up and quickly trudged back over to her sled with her shovel and stick. When those were secured, she spread a blanket out on the flat portion of her sled to prepare to transfer the man onto it. Trudging back over to the vehicle, she looked at Fate who was guarding the prone figure.

"Fate, I'm going to need your help here, buddy. He's going to be too heavy for me to lift on my own so you're going to have to help me drag him over to the sled, okay?" Fate turned his head to the side as if he understood what she'd just said.

She placed her hands under both of the man's arms and began to drag him across the packed snow-path she had created earlier. Fate grabbed a hold of the man's coat and began to tug at it to help Ebony get him to the sled. With the wolf's muscles, the task was relatively simple. When they reached her sled, she squatted next to the shallowly-breathing man, and managed to roll him onto the sled by gently pushing him from behind. Quickly, she wrapped him in the blanket and secured him tightly to the sled. She then returned to the vehicle to retrieve the two bags that the man had stowed in the back seat. Finally, after securing the luggage, she stepped on the sled, released the hand-brake, and gave a short, quiet whistle and a gentle snap of the reigns before she and her team were heading back to her cabin.

The moment she cracked the reigns, she could feel the rumble beginning to start. The main avalanche was starting! Ebony didn't know where the crux of the snow would land, but she crossed her fingers and prayed to the Lord that it would not cover them ... or the poor man's vehicle. As the rumbling got louder, she shouted to her huskies to move faster. Considering that she had a medical emergency on her hands, she drove her team hard through the snow, trying not to look back to see the closing of the pass. She did not slow her pace until they reached her cabin which seemed as dark and lifeless as a black hole.

When she pulled her team up along side her garage, she surveyed the situation. The lights were all out in the cabin except for the soft glow of hot coals coming from the fireplace in her living room. The second avalanche must have knocked out the power lines. Leaving her huskies and Fate to guard the man, she made a path to the back of the cabin where she manually started her large generator. She had a vague idea running around in her head that there must have been something wrong with the mechanism that allowed it to start up on its own, which was the reason why it did not come on automatically. Then again, she probably was more sure of the fact that she had absolutely no idea why it had not yet kicked in on its own, but that was okay as long as it still worked. Upon accomplishing that task, she returned to her sled to unharness her team. While she did this, she tried to think of a way to get the man into her house. Looking down at the still form, she didn't think it was possible for the man to walk on his own. Maybe if she half-dragged and half-walked him, she could get him into the house through the breezeway.

Deciding on this idea, she whistled to Fate. "Fate, drag him into the garage." Fate took a hold of the man's coat again ... once Ebony had dragged him off of the sled. She then proceeded to drag him into the garage as Ebony had instructed him to. She mused to herself on his ability to understand almost exactly what she had commanded him to do. Then while he did that, she retrieved the two bags and then covered the sled with a tarpaulin. Her huskies had all gathered around the door leading into the breezeway by the time she entered the garage. She unlocked and opened the door so that they could enter. Ebony set the bags down just inside the breezeway door. Fate followed the team inside while she wrestled with the man.

The man's dark brown hair hung all lank and wet so that his face was covered, and his clothing was soaked as well. Wrapping one arm around the man's narrow waist to support him, Ebony took his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders. Having done that, Ebony stood up and, with great difficulty, managed to get the mostly unconscious form to stand. Everything went smoothly up until she reached the winding staircase leading up to the bedrooms. She needed to get the man up to her room so that she could keep a watchful eye on him. That decided, she began the long, arduous climb to the master-bedroom where she deposited him some ten minutes later. She sat him in a chair and looked at him as she tried to catch her breath. First thing's first: she needed to remove the his wet clothing. Kneeling down in front of him, she began removing his boots and then his socks. Ebony managed to remove the drenched coat after that. He was wearing a sweatshirt and a T-shirt beneath that so she removed those and tossed them aside. Turning to the task of removing the man's jeans, she unzipped him, unbuttoned him, and then slid the pants off of his body one leg at a time. Ebony surveyed her handiwork trying to decide if she should take off the man's underwear.

Looking over at her soft, warm, queen-sized bed, she decided that it would be in his best interests to get him into something warm, which meant she would have to remove all of his soaking wet clothes ... down to his birthday suit. Crawling closer to him, she leaned him forward so that he was half-laying on her. From that perspective, Ebony decided that she could remove his underwear with relative ease. Ebony frowned when a familiar scent invaded her nostrils... a scent that came from a memory buried somewhere in her past. That memory tried to resurface, but she immediately stuffed it back into the Pandora's box that it had tried to come out of. Averting her eyes, she removed his underwear. Having finished this, she put the his arm around her waist again for support; then she put his other arm around her shoulders before she moved him to the bed. Ebony carefully tucked the man in before rushing down the stairs to her CB radio to call Jason.

"Ranger HQ, this is Cabin, copy, please. Over."

Only static could be heard so she tried again. "Jason, this is Ebony. I've found the stray man. He was buried in a minor avalanche and I managed to free him before the major avalanche started. The pass is impassable now. Please come back, over!"

A loud squealing was heard before she heard Jason's far away voice say, "Cabin, this is Jason... Vacationer... station not clear... possible hypothermia... must... gradually..." Then there was nothing but static.

"Come back, HQ. I only caught some of that. Over."

This time the static was there to stay. Each time she tried to reach the ranger headquarters, the static would only become more pronounced. She finally gave up after a few minutes. Then she quickly walked to her study to look up hypothermia in her medical encyclopedia:

Body temperature way below normal. If not warmed, death can occur. If warmed too quickly, blood clots can occur, causing deficiency of oxygen to vital body organs. Suggested treatment in emergencies: warm with alternate source of heat that will heat gradually. A person's body is the ideal vessel in emergencies. Symptoms of hypothermia include: cold abdomen, cold feet, cold hands. Blue in color. Treat immediately if symptoms are prevalent.

After grabbing the man's two bags, Ebony ran back to her room to check on her patient. His pulse was even more faint than the first time she had checked. His skin had almost a bluish-purple tint. She unwrapped him from the blankets she had tucked around his naked flesh and felt his feet and hands. Both were as cold as ice and had the same blue color as his face. Silently apologizing to the man for invading his privacy, she looked down at his abdomen, being sure to keep all areas below that covered, so that she could check the visible area for symptoms of hypothermia. As her eyes traveled down the man's body, they focused on a mole not too far below where his ribs ended. Frowning again, Ebony wondered why that mark looked so familiar.

Shrugging it off, she looked at the man's abdomen, noting its bluish color. Feeling it hesitantly because she felt as though she were molesting the poor, unconscious man, she felt how cold the skin was in comparison with the rest of him. According to the symptoms listed by her medical encyclopedia, the man definitely had hypothermia. Sighing, she covered the man with the blankets again and then went to her bathroom to change out of her clothes, taking the man's wet clothes with her to hang up. When she returned, she was carrying a thermometer and was clad only in a black, silky robe. Self-consciously, she took off the robe and climbed into her bed to snuggle with her patient. Before getting really comfortable, however, she took the thermometer out and placed it under the his right arm to take his temperature. She watched her clock for one minute before she retrieved it to read the temperature.

86 degrees! Holy shit!

Without any thoughts, Ebony snuggled as close to the man's freezing-cold body as she could and mentally and physically began to transfer her body heat to him. As the night wore on, strange things began to happen to Ebony. She began to dream... something she hadn't done for a very long time without having to wake up in a cold sweat, wondering if demons were going to jump out and grab her. When she woke up sometime later, she frowned even more because she hadn't had that kind of dream -- the non-nightmarish kind of dream -- in a long time, the kind of dream where deeply buried memories were the cause. As she sat up after waking up fully, she shivered as the coolness of her room hit her naked, light ebony flesh. She had forgotten to set the thermostat before getting into bed earlier. Luckily for her, her clock had a battery in it. So even though the power had been knocked out earlier due to the avalanche, the time correctly read 2:30 AM.

Getting out of bed, she donned her robe and shuffled over to her fireplace to stoke up the fire that had nearly gone out. Tossing a heavy log onto the smoldering embers, she took out some kindling to get the blaze roaring again. Three minutes passed before a warming fire was blazing brightly. Sitting with her legs crossed, Ebony stared into the fire as thoughts related to her dream finally caught a hold of her mind and began to dance around. Why had she been dreaming about him? It had been six, long years since the moment when they had parted ways. It hadn't been a pleasant parting either. Ebony sighed as the fire began to warm her up inside. Standing, she made her way to the thermostat to turn it up before she returned to staring at the golden embers and the fiery flames causing shadows to dance on her walls.

Michael Victor Sinclair ... the name still had a way of causing her heart to flutter and cause her mind to travel to exotic and erotic lands. Sometimes it became a physical ache when her heart wanted to remember back to those good and happy times before Mike walked out of her life. Her mind would always do anything and everything in its power to stop her heart from traipsing down memory lane, thus causing the physical, and often mental, ache. Ebony had been so in love with Mike and hoped against hope that they would be together forever, but Fate decided that it was time for Mike to move on. Shaking her head, a bitter smile formed itself on Ebony's face when she thought about how Mike believed that something powerful was guiding his steps and could take control at any moment. Mike had always said that he had no choice in the matter when it came to his own happiness and being with someone because he wanted to be with that someone; and then came the day when that higher power caused Mike to leave. Ebony thought that she would never be the same... and she wasn't.

All the pain and anguish of that horrible night crashed down on top of her, and she shivered. Mike had been so cold, so cruel to her. His eyes had gone dull and lifeless, and his voice was even more so. Ebony hardly recognized him as the man that had so affectionately rubbed her back the day she had to go to the hospital for an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to see if a past injury was causing some form of brain damage. Ebony sighed. What a long story that would make someday. Thank the Lord that everything was okay, but Ebony had always been touched by the affection and worry that he had gone through at her expense. That one final parting always threatened to wipe those happy thoughts from Ebony's mind.

The reflection of the flames danced inside of the dark depths of Ebony's dark brown eyes. Unshed tears welled up at her bottom eyelids as she thought about Mike and the times they'd shared in one another's arms. Where was he now? What was he doing? Was he even alive? Oh, Mike's friendship had been a friendship to cherish forever, but then the letters had stopped abruptly. Even with the final, face-to-face parting, Ebony had continued to send letters to her friend, and she was surprised to receive ones in response, even though they were as formal as a letter could possibly get.

Then came the day that it had all suddenly ceased. The final letter that she had received from Mike was the one that she would never forget. All it read, in short, curt words was: Have a nice life... -- Mike. That's all it had said. Ebony knew that meant that she had been completely shut out of Mike's life and that wounded her deeply especially since there had been no warning, no transition time. Wiping her eyes stubbornly, and becoming furious with herself for showing any kind of weakness, she recalled how she had promised herself that she would be strong. After all, she had expected it to happen. She graduated from graduate school and then came to Canada to her hermit's cave.

Ah, Mike... How I miss you...

Standing, she made her way downstairs to the living room to find all of her huskies asleep by the smoldering coals of the old fire that had been built in the gray stone fireplace earlier. Ebony placed a few logs on that small fire and watched the flames start to lick at the logs like hungry animals after a piece of meat, before they consumed the logs hungrily in an orange inferno. She seemed to be hypnotized by the glow and the warmth for a while as the thoughts about Mike continued to surface. Yes, they had been in love. Theirs had been a special relationship that no societal standards could measure; and then one day, all of the hopes for the future and all the happiness disappeared forever. All other relationships refused to go anywhere after she'd experienced the true love she'd shared with that man with his golden eyes.

Oh, Mike's eyes... how she missed staring into their ever-changing depth of blue, green, yellow, hazel, and sometimes golden-blue. And his hair... how thick and healthy it was to hold and lose her hands in. She missed everything about that man... especially his presence. Ebony had always felt safe with him. Shaking the thoughts from her mind once again, Ebony returned to her bedroom. Illuminated by the light shining from the night table, she noted that the man seemed less blue, but still remained very, very pale. Ebony placed her hand on the man's forehead without really looking at him. She noted that he was not as cold as before.

Walking over to the thermostat to check the temperature, she turned it down a little bit when she noted that it read seventy-five degrees. The medical encyclopedia said that hypothermia patients needed to be heated gradually, and having the room too hot was no way to do that. Returning to her bed, she placed the thermometer back under the man's arm.

90 degrees. About eight degrees more. I think a few more hours ought to get him up there enough so that I can leave him alone in the bed. Ebony yawned and then climbed back beneath the warm comforter and the smooth sheets. Leaving her robe on, but undone, she fell asleep next to the stranger.