The black haired Nord leaned back in the chair he had taken with his arms crossed in front of him. He eyed Sabine and Meesei just as suspiciously as the others. That was, until Meesei brought up her ring emblazoned with the head of a wolf. At the sight of it, his expression fell away to reveal one of shock. He stopped breathing for a moment. He couldn't take his eyes off the ring. Meesei's request didn't even register in his mind for several seconds, but once he confirmed what the ring was, he stood up from his chair. His tone changed from threatening to surprised, "You weren't what I was expecting. You had better come with us, don't forget your coats." The man started towards the front door.

"Us? Do you mean just you and your friend?" Janius started to ask.

The Nord didn't respond. Instead, he turned around, stuck two fingers in his mouth, whistled loudly, and then pointed four fingers towards the general direction of the tables in the inn. Four more roughly dressed people approached along with the remaining man who had sat by the Nord when the pack arrived. The pack now had an entourage of six unknown Lycans escorting them, each donning their own coats and gloves. There was no telling how many more were in amongst the inn's patronage.

At a strong walking pace, the pack and its escorts were led out of the inn my the Nord with the sound of crunching snow under their collective boots. They didn't head to the gate that they entered in, rather they ascended one of the staircases up to the second terrace of the town, then headed North to another gate. The guards seemed curious about the suspiciously quiet group of a dozen or so people walking through the streets, but they didn't stop them.

Once they were all out of the gate, one of the entourage, a Bosmer man, cast a spell similar to Meesei and Sabine's, then began to light torches for everyone. "Stay warm," The Nord announced, "if this snow picks up any more, some of you might get frostbitten by the time we get there."

"How far away is 'there'?" Fendros asked.

"An hour or two on good time."

That wasn't so bad, but if what the Nord said was true, then the cold could get worse than they thought. Fendros hoped for Rhazii's sake more than anyone's that it wouldn't come to that.

Janius felt uncomfortable enough with the cold, but being guided by an equal numbers of strangers was causing him concern. He didn't know whether they were being lead into a trap, or into hospitality. He though perhaps some introductions would help. "So, what's your name?" He asked the Nord, walking up to him with Kaleeth up against his side for warmth. "Mine's Janius."

Much to Janius' relief, the Nord smiled, grateful to let go of the situation's seriousness. He pointed a gloved thumb to his hide-clad chest. "I'm Anders. Nice to meet you." Anders looked at the ground while he walked, but seemed to relax a bit, "We normally look to find new lycans in town to pick up. It's an interesting enough day when we find a strange pack and have to chase them off to keep them off our game. Never expected the champion's pack to show up." He glanced at Kaleeth-Rei, "Much less a werecrocodile. Sorry if it sounded like I had something against Argonians, I've just not met a new werecroc in over fifteen years. What's your name? I take it from the way you cling to your friend that you're not used to the north."

Whether Kaleeth-Rei participated in conversation or not, Janius kept chatting with Anders the whole way to their destination. While they climbed uphill, they learned the names of their entourage. Fenian was the Bosmer, a young mage, rather scholarly, infected while on a field expedition; Sara, the Imperial woman, apparently a farmers daughter; Coram, the Orc teenager who kept glancing at Lorag nervously; And finally, there were the Redguard twins, Isran and Alesan, inseparable and fast. All of these lycans seemed amiable enough when spoken to, but didn't want to keep a conversation up like Anders did. They were all clearly uneasy to be in the presence of Meesei's pack.

The mountain path seemed to take longer to traverse than what felt like an hour, but they eventually neared the hideout's entrance. Anders cleared his throat and announced as much to everyone. "We're almost there. It's much warmer underground in our home."