Hello! I'm back!!!! It has been a very long time but I'm back again and I hope you all continue to enjoy my book. My writing style may have changed a bit over the time I've been gone but just let me get back into it and I hope to make a book you all love. I also made a new tiktok, please check out TheBlackForestRemastered! ⬆ Above: The mountain range the mountains Ridge lives on is based on. (Tablelands, Gros Morne, NL)

May the sun shine again,

Amber <3

~~

Aspen sat close to the fire, the wind that shifted through the trees brought the new cold chill to the usually warm city. He watched his sister closely as she slept.

He and his sister had run away from their abusive parents at 12. They had lived on the streets for 3 years but with food now so hard to find combined with the cold and all the plants dying, it was a lot harder now.

Ivy shuffled in her sleep, she and her brother were going to investigate the barking they heard but Aspen was having second thoughts. He didn't want him or his sister to get hurt by some rabid dog or the owner of the canine.

Aspen looked over at his twin sister as she propped herself up on her elbows, her deep brown eyes scanned the forest around her landing firmly on her brother. He stared back at her and without speaking they came to a conclusion that they would go.

Ivy tossed her backpack over her shoulder, the hot pink bag stood out against the black hoodie and black jeans she wore. Aspen was fixing his bag on his shoulders. A pair of white converse hanging from it got tangled up in the water pouch he also had secured to his bag with rope. As Aspen tugged at the tangled laces and rope, Ivy removed her bag and pulled out a grey winter coat with fur that covered the hood and sleeve cuffs.

Ivy rolled her eyes as Aspen finally finished fixing the tangle, and they set off into the woods. They trudged over the podzol, dogging large low evergreen branches as they made their way to the clearing where Ivy had heard the barking. Aspen huffed, his long, messy brown hair kept blowing into his face. Ivy glanced at her brother, raising an eyebrow at the sound before she landed flat on her face.

Aspen roared with laughter. He was hunched over, leaning against a tall, bare evergreen tree. Ivy pushed herself up and glared at her brother.

"Why didn't you tell me there was a log here!" She snapped.

Aspen was too busy laughing to answer, the tree he was leaning on creaked. "You're some good brother." She growled, picking a brown, long dead fern out of her dark brown hair.

Snap

It was Ivy's turn to break down in hysterics. The tree her brother was leaning on snapped, sending him backwards over the dead stump and he landed flat on his back, his arms outstretched like a starfish. Aspen giggled.

Aspen and Ivy's head snapped, they stared at the direction of a loud, savage barking. Aspen gulped, pushing his hair out of his eyes and glancing at his sister and then back towards the sound.

~~

Ridge woke, stirring in his bed. The inside of the cabin was bright, combined with the sun and the warm fire. Since the mountain was high, it got more light and stuff was able to survive instead of almost everything dying off. A big white dog jumped up onto the bed, sniffing and pawing at the boy. Ridge looked down at the dog with his one working eye, placing his hand on the dog's head and giving his ear a good scratch. The dog's tongue lolled out and his tail started wagging.

    "Come on, Keyno." The boy mumbled. "Let's go check on your sheep."

Ridge stepped out of his one room cabin, walking around back with the hip height white dog trotting beside him happily, his tongue out and his tail waving in the wind like a big white flag. The boy opened the rickety old gate, 7 sheep and 1 ram looked up at him, grass sticking out of their mouths.

Ridge ushered the dog inside the pen, where it sat at the mouth of the gate to block the sheep from an escape. Ridge walked to a small box that was against his shed, right next to the sheep pen. Inside was a canvas bag full of corn grain that Ridge had made himself with the crops he harvested at the end of the summer. The boy stuck a hand into the bag, feeling around for the scoop. After the scraped and bruised hand found the scoop, it shoved it into the grain and then poured it into a bucket also in the small wooden box. Ridge took four scoops of the grain before moving towards the end of the shed, where a make-shift well sat, its bricks had begun crumbling and it was lopsided. Ridge lowered the bucket into the well, and after it had gathered the water he pulled it up and as he was pouring the water into the grain, Keyno started barking.

"Keyno!" The boy yelled. "What is wrong with you?" Ridge stood up straight, peering around the corner of the cabin to the back where he saw his dog, his sheep and three large canines, snarling.

"Keyno!" Ridge yelled, but before he got the chance to help, the dog had leaped at one of the wolves. The tall boy kicked into action, sprinting across the dusty ground to slam the gate to the sheep shut, who had panicked and one had escaped. Ridge watched, unable to do anything as two of the wolves quickly grabbed the sheep, who struggled to run and break free because of how round she had become inside the small pen. Keyno was attached to the last wolf, his jaws clamped around its neck while the wolf held one of Keyno's fore-paws.