Several days had gone by since Miss Eva and Miss Erin had provided coin and possible shelter for Lirssa's crew of mangy mutts. The dogs had snuggled, rolled, and made haphazard nests of the blankets Lirssa had purchased with the money. In the following days, she had transferred them from the cozy but dangerous hovel next to a coal engine heating a warehouse into Miss Erin's old residence.

The cold had worsened, giving only the slightest respite just that day and creeping closer to just freezing instead of turn mittened fingers purple kind of cold. Lirssa took advantage of it by taking the dogs out for a group stroll around the streets and encouraging them to sniff out others, four legged or not, that might need a place to shelter from the weather.

Two more children, both Lirssa would need to take to one of the clinics - perhaps Dr. Maranya's as she was due to visit there again - had joined the leisurely parade, charmed by the friendly dogs and Lirssa's hypnotic chatter.

"Of course," Lirssa continued from her previous topic expounding on the state of various decorations around town and their religious meanings, though more often than not she proclaimed she would have to ask her tutor about it, "you have to be careful who you talk about around these parts. I mean for some, Santa Claus is a real life person, and I've heard folks talk about seeing him. For others he's more like, ummm," she looked at the two scrawny red faces, "like a representation of a feeling, I guess. Sort of like hearts are drawn for love, though I've seen a heart and they don't look like the drawings."

The two little boys gave dutiful nods, but shared skeptic glances. Lirssa, however, continued her chatter on spiritual creatures because the clinic was a bit far from where she had found them, and she needed to at least get them into a warm spot for a bite of food. She had at some coin for that — she hoped. "Then there's things like people blaming Jack Frost for the cold, when my tutor says it has to do with the way places rotate around suns and stuff, only he said he's not sure about here because this place is killer different, but he would find out. Still, I bet you if Jack Frost wanted to be about, this would be the place to be it. It's been ever so cold. Want to get something warm to drink?"

The boys trapped into just nodded at her did so automatically, but then hesitated when she turned for the door and opened it. The dogs took seats outside as if they knew they would not be welcomed. Lirssa turned to grin at the boys and motioned them inside. "Come on now, won't hurt ya. I'll pay for it, promise." She avoided making one of her elaborate promises because from the scars on one of the boys' cheeks, he looked like he knew about pain a little too well.

"Come on in, and I'll tell you all about Jack Frost while we're biting our thumbs at him over some warm cider and soft cookies." Lirssa grinned like they were about to be triumphant over the greatest of powers. "Come on."

The boys followed in at a shuffled pace, clinging to each other and near running into her back side. "Hey now, give me some room to walk. No one's gonna grab ya here."

A shiver of cold slid down Lirssa's spine, like she had just walked over her grave, or at least that's what Bubber always called it. When she turned to check on the boys a slender man who, if she were honest, rather looked like Mister Locke but with avery traditional fashion sense, stood with his arms folded. His voice was as cool and smooth as ice. "Bite your thumbs at me?"

The boys cowered and Lirssa grit her teeth. She should have taken her own advice.