The warmth of the fire started to make me feel lethargic and sluggish and I found myself falling asleep from the comfort of the fire pit. I suddenly snapped awake at the sound of growling and the entire cone shaking, I threw my head back and stood up getting my pistol ready, Verrax some how managed to still stay asleep while the entire cone rocked back and forth, then it abruptly stopped and the growling did as well.

I stepped out with my pistol in front of me and my thumb back on the hammer scanning the snowy landscape, large impressions of paws dotted the snow around our cone hut, judging from how deep they were and the look they had they looked almost similar to terran bear paws but they looked almost three times bigger or heavier. While I was examining the paws I heard Verrax emerge from the cone hut and jump on me from behind pressing her boobs into my back.

"Ash! I thought you abandoned me for a second I bad this weird dream where I was eating a sheep and you were talking about the treasure and I then the sheep turned into a bomb." 

I spun around patting the dragon girl on the head, but tried to focus on which direction that guy ran off to."Alright Verrax we gotta get an idea where the guy went off to, then find the others that he mentioned." 

She looked like she didn't want to be bothered with that."Come on can we just go back to the ship? This seems like too much work!" She groaned. 

Feeling a little bit annoyed by that I pushed here hair up and looked her in the eyes." Come on you aren't just gonna give up on the thing your mother worked so hard for are you?" I asked." You're lucky to have had something that your mother kept for you and to still have her around to give advice." I was beginning to lecture her. 

With the sun out it wasn't as cold as it usually was, the warm sunlight coming down on me felt like it was filling me with energy and with all the snow on the ground and not in the air made it better to see, the trees bare and lacking leaves with the nearby almost frozen river. Without all the cold stuff littering the place the planet would be better; suddenly there was an explosion in the distance collecting my attention something gave me the thought that this must've been him, he had to be trying to signal someone for help, it was lucky we are nearby.

The two of us closed in on the area where we heard the explosion, midway there we climbed up a hill and surveyed the little area from above. Unfortunately it wasn't the person we was looking for, but the scene we stumbled upon was a large man clad in power armor fighting several members of what looked like civil protection with only a long sword. Dozens of members were cut to pieces or had their bodies littering the clearing, long red streaks painted the snow, and armor pieces stuck out of the ground like shrapnel.

I quickly checked my pistol ammo and got my knife ready, something in my gut told me that this guy might know something about the prisoner who escaped from us." Ash you aren't thinking about going down there are you?" Verrax asked me. 

"I am Verra, he might know something about those prisoners or about the one that got away, hell he could be one." 

She looked worried but held back on telling not to go."J-just don't get yourself killed." 

Acknowledging the advice she gave me I slid down the hill and almost into the thick of it, with the only thing stopping me being one of bodies from the Civil scouts. Once I was on my feet I noticed the guy was taller than I thought. He stood taller than me for sure maybe a couple more inches taller, his armor I thought to be power armor, was simply metal armor with a lot of dark paint scraped off, his sword looked almost like a great sword. 

His back was turned to me as he slain the last civil protection officer, I dashed through the snow as fast as I could and pressed the barrel of my pistol to the back of his head."This ends here!" 

In flash, he spun around slicing the barrel of my gun with his sword then with his other hand grabbing my neck and raise me off the ground, I felt the point of his sword against my stomach for a brief second then he sheathed his sword." Oh you're not one of these guys, that's a bit more reassuring."

The hand he was holding me with felt unnaturally cold, like a piece of metal, his right hand and most of his arm was robotic. He dropped me to the ground and pointed his long sword at me." Alright who are you with? Those scum bags with Civil protection or some kind of bounty hunter or merc?" 

"Neither, I'm a bodyguard and I'm looking for someone." I told him. 

"Looking for who?" He questioned me. 

Suddenly the sound of several howels filled the air, and it took our attention away from each other. Just at the edge of the clearing there were almost a dozen sets of eyes on us from what I could guess to be Arx wolves."Damn it the battle drew them!" He yelled out. 

He moved fast, rolling and jumping over a number of bodies and tossed me one of the weapons, the multi barreled shotgun met my hands and I quickly pulled myself up on my feet. A pack of large cyclops wolves broke through the brush, charing at me and him, I pulled back on the fore end handle firing at one of the ark wolves. A cold burst of blew on me from the guys position and when I glanced over I spotted him cutting an entire wolf in half with his sword and in the same swing he crushed another wolf into the snow. 

Focusing on him I didn't notice one of the wolves pounce on me, the smell of terran blood on the monoeyed creature's teeth. I held back the monster from trying to tear into my neck, right as I could feel it's breath on my neck the guy ran his sword through the wolf's red eye lifted the whole animal on his sword and threw it over his shoulder. 

As I got to my feet a number of howls filled the air as the arx wolves retreated into the tree line. I caught my breath and wiped the wolf blood off my chest."Why'd you help me?"

"Because, you aren't civil protection." He stepped over the bodied of the fallen officers and stopped over one wearing a thick coat, he practically squeezed the corpse out the coat and held it in my direction, the hand holding it a retro looking robotic arm."Here take it, you gotta be cold I'm freezing my ass off in this armor." 

I reluctantly snatched the coat from him and zipped it up."Now this might not look like it, but it's not as it seems. These "Officers" were beating a kid for answers." 

It felt hard to believe that the people protecting the civilians were interrogating a child."That's impossible, Civil protection wouldn't hurt anyone that doesn't have it coming!" A familiar voice roared behind me. 

Verrax walked past me puffed her chest out to the towering man, she was being stupid brave and naive."I'm guessing your looking for her?" He asked me. 

"Hey! Don't ignore me tiny." Verrax demanded his attention." Civil protection would never harm a child you are lying to try and get away with mass murder, what's your real reason for slaughtering them?" 

The guy looked down to the snow as if he was searching for something then pointed to a direction in the trees where small foot prints led into."I told you once already, they were hurting a kid, they were wearing animal furs." He explained. 

Verrax crossed her arms."So it's one of those people?" 

"One of who?" I asked. 

"Junkers, they are dirty scrap people who spend their days drinking animal pee and think anything that's on the planet belongs to them. They are all just savages."

Out of the blue the guy grabbed Verrax holding her off the ground." Listen here miss dragon, it doesn't matter if they are savages and drink animal piss, a kids a kid and I'll do the best I can to protect them." 

I quickly decided to interject before Verrax got herself cut in half or something, I put the barrel of my new shotgun under the tall man's chin."Listen here, put her down or I'll add you to this massacre." 

He turned his gaze upon me and the moment he opened his mouth we heard a high pitched scream like one that would come from a child. Acting fact he dropped Verrax and nearly knocked me over as started running in the direction of the sound. "Hold up damn it!" I yelled. 

My mind was racing with the thought he could be one of the tattooed people and just killed the officers to get them off his trail but some part of his story felt true. I took off after him hoping Verrax was behind me, I dodged trees and leaped over exposed roots before finally coming to the edge of the forrest with my lungs feeling like they were in a burning vice grip.

The three of stood at the edge of a small cliff with the heavily armored man staring over the edge, I charged up next to him and grabbed him by the shoulder pad, I was ready to interrogate the bastard before I heard another yelp and looked down off the cliff. It was a child, and they hanging on to a log while moving down an ice river, like he said there was a child and suddenly I was feeling more like an asshole for not beliving him. 

He pushed me off him and looked like he was gonna jump in to save the kid, but as he made it to the ledge Verrax yanked him back and down into the snow to stop him."Do you have some kind of deathwish? You're wearing metal armor and gonna jump into a river you don't know how deep."

"I don't see you stepping up to save them Ms.Dragon." he growled at her. 

"Why should I risk passing out and drowning for a terrorist child?" 

Before the two could bicker any further I dropped my guns and leaped off the cliff, right before I hit the water Verrax's words rang in my head, the words she told that fool earlier."[i]You don't know how deep[/i]." 

Lucickly it was deep enough, I went in the water deep before coming back up for air and catching up to the child, the cold ice floating in the river nearly made me freeze up and just try to warm myself in anyway, but I knew I had to catch up to the kid. As my hands met the log I grabbed the kid in one of my arms and pulled us to the edge of the river and pulled us out. 

The moment we were out I was cursing this planet and Every thing about it, the damned winter and the freezing river and just coming here with Verrax and now I was probably gonna freeze. The kid managed to be okay shivering but he didn't drown, he started to franticly look around and I could tell what he was doing when he grabbed sticks."Starwalker, grab wood or we'll freeze." 

I could barely take my arms from my sides, the cold was messing me up so bad, the kid already had several twigs thrown in a small pile."Starwalker, w-we need fire to t-thaw." He was starting to shiver just like I was and their face began to contort to looking really apathetic like he didn't care about the situation. 

I forced myself to drop low and get some in one hand and put them on the pile with his, and when he added more to make a suitable fire I groaned, it wasn't out of pain or anger, it was out of how futile our efforts were."D-Damn it w-we could rip the w-whole forest d-down but it wouldn't start a f-fire!"

It was too much to hope for this kid to have a lighter or a book of matches or even a laser pistol, we were done for. Losing all hope, I put my face in my hands before slipping on some thing and feeling the cold snow on my back freeze me just a bit more and the kid gasped."Starwalker, you dropped this thing!" 

He almost jumped on me and showed me a silver lighter, I nearly teared up, I took it from the kid and flipped it open, with just a couple tries we had sparks igniting the wood and the fire slowly grew. I slowly took my jumpsuit off and sat back to back with the kid."So kid what's your name and why were Civil protection interrogating you?" I asked.

He looked over to me for a brief second then turned his head back towards the tree in front of him."My name is Wiaat." 

"Oh it sounds alot like Wyatt, I'm Koschei." 

He grumbled some thing before asking me."Are you gonna ask about those tattooed people like those other people did?" 

"Yes, but I won't hurt you, if you don't know anything then that's fine Wyatt." 

He went silent and the only thing I could hear was the fire crackling and the water of the river pass by us."I saw one of the tattooed people, he was in the mouth of a Grokisu, it was carrying him off somewhere." He turned to look at me and asked." Why are you looking for him? Did he do something wrong?" 

I covered myself with my hand."He is a bad person who went to prison, and he's got something that me and my friend need." I thought on it a second time and told him what I knew."He's got a tattoo on him that will lead to a hoard of platinum, something highly valuable." 

"Platnum? You mean the mineral right?" He questioned, when I confirmed it he was surprised."I was told by my grandparents that our people planned on buying the lands and rights to the Starwalker ports, many villages even came together working for the starwalkers and mining the platinum out of our mines and sifting through it in the rivers. They collected more than enough of the platinum and space money to fulfill their mission but then demons arrived to our village slaughtering many of the people and taking the minerals, we later found out they were all starwalkers and my people haven't been the same since." 

I thought back to the guy at the bar's story and started piecing things together, Vertex and her gang stole from the natives and mustive hidden the gold on the planet, before getting captured she must have killed her crew and then put the map on the prisoners, but why didn't she just find a different way to get a message to her child. 

While I struggled to make sense of all this, Wiatt asked me something to break my concentration."Are you like the guy who helped me? A warrior who sells their body to others?" 

I tensed up, not just from the words he used but also from the fact I left Verrax behind with that guy." N-no I'm not like that, I'm a bodyguard." 

He stared at me from over his shoulder, looking at me as if I spoke an unknown language." Isn't that the same thing?" He asked.

I began stuttering trying to explain it to him before my antenna picked up on a sound, the soft step of snow crunching under someone heavy foot, and second foot crushing the snow lightly. I shushed Wiatt and turned my head into the direction I believed the sound was coming from; I grabbed the quad barrel from before and aimed it at the brush before a dark metallic hand broke through the bushes.

It was that guy again, his helmet was covered in scratches that Imma guess was given to him by the person behind him. Verrax stood behind the stranger with her licks poked out and trying yo look angry at me. The guy turned his head away from me as they both approached us."What's wrong haven't seen my kind unclothed?" I asked. 

He coughed into his robotic hand."N-no I just thought that you'd be embarrassed or something." 

Before I could say anything Verrax pushed him out of her way and pouted at me."Ash how could you leave me with this guy?" She asked me."He could've killed me, he could've eaten me, I don't even know what he is." 

"I said I wouldn't hurt you!" He tried defending himself. 

I groaned."I think I'll jump back into the water and let it freeze me to death." I thought out loud. 

"Ash, I'm sorry but I can't have you as a bodyguard anymore, you're fired. B-but you can still be on my crew." 

"What!?" I got to my feet staring Verrax down."That makes no sense Verrax, you'll fire me but keep me on your crew." 

"Y-yeah because you couldn't do your job while we are looking for this platinum." 

"Platinum?" The guy parroted. 

I held my face with my chitin hands and groaned again, after explaining it to the big guy around the fire, we all came to some form of an agreement.

"Alright, new plan we find the platinum and return it to Junkers, it belongs to them and if we can take a little bit it would be enough for Verrax's debt." I explained it to them. 

"Its fine with me, I don't really want the platinum myself, but my people could use it." Wiatt told us. 

"I don't care about any shiney rocks or credits. I'm here to put someone in the ground and since they are one or your escaped convicts I'm willing to help you out." 

"Good." I nodded to him, "What's your name?" 

"Lynx."

"Alright, Lynx Wiatt. We're going to hunt down this beast and get this skin."