[b]Somewhere northeast of Bodö, Norway.[/b]
It always seemed to be cold up in these mountains, Krister was sitting beneath a dark old spruce for a well earned pause on his guard duty.
He sighed heavily, his feet cold and sore, two weeks they had been on this exercise, it was getting ridiculous.
Sure the battlegroup was supposed to be competent in most environments, but this was too much. He was reminded of the 'Jägar' company  members he had spoken to once or twice and thought of the excursions they went on.
Several weeks at a time, often in blistering winter and the weather always seemed to be unusually poor when they went out. If this was simply exaggeration or coincidence Krister didn't bother with.
But their casual happiness about all the hardships they endured. It was bordering on sadistic.
He couldn't understand how they did it. Marching over snowy mountains for days at a time. No clue.

The weather was simply mildly chilly and Krister was freezing his ass off, he tried to wiggle his ice cold toes and they hurt like a bugger.
He gazed into the darkness, flipped down his night vision goggles and flicked through the two vision modes.
Not a soul out there, he didn't even spot any animals.
They were smart and didn't muck about war training, since they were, well, smart. He envied the cozy warm den of a bunny all bunched up warm and snug when a branch next to him was moved out of the way.

Stifling a near minor heart attack, Krister noticed a guy from his unit had entered the foliage.
-"Slacking off at your job again?" Jonas said in Swedish, he didn't let Krister respond before adding.
-"You know if Ågren learns of this, he'd be crazy and punish you with latrine duty for a week." He grinned broadly as Krister calmed down.
-"Sod of to hell Jonas, you can't extort me..." Krister butted in, Jonas knew full well that he was already on latrine duty for today and the next. Jonas just shuckled a bit until Krister realised he was taking a piss on the tree he was sitting at.
-"WHAT THE DEVIL!!!! Go to hell idiot!" Krister blurted out jumping up as Jonas was literally taking a piss at him. Well not on him luckily.
-"Oh, and i'm exchanging you, you've overstayed your pass, so mine's shorter." Jonas sounded awfully cheery and even sounded grateful for a second, before mocking him of course.
-"Hope you slip and die, dumb devil!" Krister gave jonas the finger as he trotted off, Jonas shuckling as he left, luckily it was all banter and they knew each other well, but at times Krister wanted to smack the gleeful idiot in the face.

He walked towards the base, a few tents hidden next to a small metre or so tall cliff face, their squad stationed here to recon the norwegians who were acting as 'the enemy' in this scenario.
Truth is they were fairly sure the norwegians where several kilometers north and doing recon on their main base, but command had told his squad to cover this approach from flanking maneuvers.
While they were good and knew the area more, they weren't some sort of spec-ops with infra-red stopping uniforms or some shit, so Krister was sure they hadn't snuck up on him during his pass.

He reached his tent, entered and didn't even bother with taking off his vest, he was too tired.
Opening a small bag of stuff, he took out a pair of small bags with white stuff in them and pushed the clicker in each, before wrapping them and his feet in a blanket.
He didn't recall their name but they soon began to let off a strong warmth which helped him relax. He decided there and then to shoot Jonas in the ass the next time they trained with those special soft air guns. Serves him right.

It didn't take long before he dozed off. Dreaming of a hot shower.

[hider=For fun, Krister and Jonas conversation in Swedish.]
-"Slöar du på jobbet igen?"
-"Du vet om Ågren får reda på det så kommer han bli galen och sätta dig på att gräva latriner en vecka."

-"Dra åt helvete Jonas, du kan inte utpressa mig..."
-"VA FAN!!! Dra åt helvete din idiot!"

-"Just det, jag byter ut dig nu, du har suttit på pass för länge, så mitt blev kortare."

-"Hoppas du halkar å slår ihjäl dig, dumjävel!"
[/hider]