The Wayfarer Way Station

The party ran into trouble when they arrived at a cave just outside of Qaanaaq. Orthrus growled until he was followed a half an hour walk from the town. The cave was surrounded by Fey guarding it. It was quickly found out that the Fey were after a treasure inside and they weren't willing to share after going in groups for the past four months. The first group hadn't been found and since then rotations were made to find them.
Spells were being flung by each group's wizards. The pack shifted into their wolf forms. The fight was getting out of hand and dangerous. Nokomis looked towards the mouth of the cave and the man before her glanced with a grin. "Don't try it deary. That cave be spelled. You take one wrong step and you are dead or brain dead." His smile was crude and spoke of unspeakable things. She looked at him in disgust. "Now come quietly human." He lunged at her and received a swift shin to the gut. He fell to the ground as she ditched her pack and sprinted through the snow. Only hesitating a half second, Nokomis ran into the cave. She heard screams behind her as Fey tried to follow after her and be obliterated by spells guarding the cave. She didn't glance behind her as she continued running through different corridors and passageways. After hours of running this way and that, she came to a large room with strange writings on the walls, an alter like area against the wall opposite her, and a tall pedestal in the middle. She hesitantly looked around as she slowly walked towards the center of the room.
"It is gone." Nokomis jumped as she turned to her right and saw a woman walking towards her. She had long wavy dark brown hair, a crown of flowers, a long white toga with a gold belt and dark purple shall wrapped around her shoulders and flowed down to the floor, and gladiator sandals.
"What is?" Nokomis asked, enthralled by the woman's beauty.
The woman tilted her head, "The box."
"What box? Where am I?" Nokomis looked around again to find things that did not belong. The room was sculpted like Greek architecture but the writing was something she had never seen before.
"You are at the center of time. The box holds it together and is a great source of power." The woman replied.
Nokomis's mouth dropped. "That cannot be." When the woman did not reply, Nokomis put a hand to her head, "Who are you?"
"I am Pandora." The woman Bowed her head.
"Wait. Pandora as in the Greek woman Zeus gave a box to and told her not to open it."
"And when I did, disease, hate, sickness, envy and all bad things flew out. Yes."
"But why are you here?"
"Punishment for disobeying my father. I am to watch over all of time, never to leave here or die."
"And the box?"
"Holds time together."
"That is why time rifts have been opening?"
Pandora looked down, "Yes. It was stolen and I cannot leave this room."
"What happens if it is not returned?"
"This," She motioned all around her, "Will no longer exist. Time will eat up reality like Fenrir swallows up the Moon during Ragnarok." Nokomis started thinking until a sliver of light made her turn.
"That is a time rift, can it appear here?"
"Why not?"
"This is the center of time, would it not want to open in other places first?"
"This would be the most likely of places to open. It is where all time streams cross."
"How long has it been missing?"
"Years."
Nokomis spun around to once again face Pandora. "But the hunters have only been here a few months!"
"Then they are not the culprits."
"How come we have not noticed any rifts before?" Her voiced spiked in panic.
"It is like anything else, it slowly builds. Small rifts here, some there and only for a short time. Time slowly starts to unravel because there is so much of it, but as years pass of the box being gone, the unraveling accelerates."
"How do we stop it?"
"I do not know if we could at this point. The unraveling is too far a long." Nokomis heard despair in the woman's voice.
"But if there was a way."
Pandora scrunched up her face as she thought, "Sacrifice perhaps."
Nokomis's face paled, "What would that entail."
"Not a blood sacrifice, but a being would have to willingly be the new box. It was a safe guard, but it is dangerous and painful. A person is not meant to have the whole of time in their head, let alone try to keep it together."
"Is it really too-" Before Nokomis could finish she screamed as the rift she stood near pulled her in. It was a crushing feeling as she slipped through a time stream into another period. She hit a cold hard floor and groaned. Shit. She looked up to see Pandora looking at her startled and an older man holding a dark metal box. "Wait!" She lunged forward. "You can't-" The man smiled as he pulled a piece of the box apart and threw it in the rift the she had come from. Nokomis's feet gave out as she tried to follow him as he ran from the room.
"Are you alright young lady?" Pandora asked as she gracefully knelt down next to Nokomis.
"I am fine. We need to go after that man! Why did you not stop him?"
"I am not allowed to touch the box. Once he had it, I could not interfere."
"That is stupid."
"That is so I do not try to manipulate time."
"Excuse me, I have to go after him." Nokomis got up on shaky legs and ran. She listened for traps and footsteps. She finally caught up with the man. He looked behind at her and jumped through another small rift. She entered it just as it closed and found herself face down in snow. She shivered as she got up and chased the man. He entered a little Russian town and people looked at them strangely; a woman chased a man. Nokomis lost him at one point, only to find him grinning with only one part of the box left. She scowled as he silently laughed at her, and started off again. Nokomis followed after until she found him in a tavern waiting for her. She sat down shivering from the cold outside.
"Why are ya followin' meh?" The man asked as her, sipping his tankard.
"The box. Do you know what you are doing?" She snapped.
The man raised a brow at her, "I do."
"Then why?"
"Why unravah time? Coz I cahn. This warld cahn go tah Hell far all I car." There was a loud noise behind Nokomis and she looked to see a fight breaking out. When she turned back the man was gone. She stood up to see the top of his head disappearing out the back. She pushed through the crowd fighting each other and did her best to search for him. She eventually found him laying on the ground with blood everywhere. She knelt down and tried to help him. "What are ya doin? Leave meh be." He pushed her away, smearing blood on her.
"But you are bleeding!" She objected.
"Good. I geta leave this warld behine."
"This is not fair."
"Laf aint fair sweethahrt. Baht, as a token af ma grahtitude, hahve this." He handed her the last piece of the box. "Good lahck." He slumped into her, no longer breathing.
"You bastard." She growled before laying him down. "Rest in peace." She closed his eyes and wrapped him the best she could. She picked the box up and started walking until she came across a dying rift. Without thinking, she jumped through it and face planted into more snow.
Two hours of walking and she was a frozen. She felt herself slowly dying from hypothermia. In the distance she saw a large familiar mound. She could have cried at the knowledge that she was a few hours from the cave she longed for.
Half an hour later she was surrounded by five white wolves. Through a quiet shaking voice, she requested, "May I see your Alpha, it is important." The wolves didn't move, unsure of what to do. "I am almost dead and human, you'll be able to take me out if you so wish it." One wolf finally nodded and she was lead to a little makeshift village. Nokomis was shown to a larger tent and she knelt down shivering violently.
"I heard you requested me." A tall man with jade green eyes and dark hair stood in front of her before sitting down. "Would you care for some tea?"
"Please." She stuttered out.
He nodded and looked back at the frozen woman with blue lips and ice covered hair, brows, and eyelashes. "I am Alpha Kalleq of the Ice Wind Pack. How did you know of us?"
It took her a moment, but Nokomis replied, "I did not, but I know wolf shifters when I seen them. They are the size of their human counterpart."
"You are well informed."
Kalleq watched as her face softened, "I know a pack."
"Which?"
Nokomis shook her head, "I have a request."
"What would a human want from us? Better yet how do you know of the Fey?" His eyes narrowed.
"I was raised by two wizards. As for the requ-"
"Fader!" A young teenager ran into the room. He stopped with wide eyes before sniffing the air. "What is a human doing here?" Nokomis observed the boy, captivated by his eyes.
"Erneq, do not be rude." Nokomis dropped her face so her hood shadowed her features. "We are having a meeting, we shall talk later okay?"
"Okay." The boy looked at the woman speaking to his father before padding off.
"I am sorry for that, my erneq doesn't always remember to ask permission."
I have noticed that...[i/] "It is fine." Nokomis pulled out the box piece and passed it to the Alpha. "I need you protect this no matter what."
"What is it?"
"The key to earth's survival. Make sure Aron knows that it is important." Nokomis quietly stood up.
"You are putting a lot of responsibility on this pack." Kalleq turned the object in his hands before freezing. "What how do you know-" He looked up to find the strange woman gone. He quickly got up and followed her unique scent. He jogged about five minutes before he found her a few hundred yards in front of him. "How do you know Aron?" His jade eyes glowed. Nokomis turned around and gave him a small sad smile. His lips parted as a bright silver light appeared behind her. He watched in awe as she stepped through it and disappeared.
Nokomis found herself back in the time room. "Young woman! Are you alright." Pandora came to her. "You are more than half frozen. You have been gone for two days. Where is the box?"
"Scattered." Her teeth clattered against each together. She slowly pushed herself up and shuffled over to the pedestal in the middle of the room. Pandora watched in curiosity as Nokomis pulled out a piece of paper. "You...you don't have a pen or market?"
"No?" Nokomis nodded and cut herself. "What are you doing?!"
"Don't clean." She left a note for the future. "Make sure only Blood Claw pack or Long Tooth Leap see this. Now how does the safeguard work?"
"Who told you-"
"You did. Now hurry before we're all fucked." Pandora looked appalled by Nokomis's language but thought better.
"This way." She helped Nokomis to the alter. "You make a blood packed with the alter and say: I, your full name, offer myself as Pandora's Box. I willingly offer myself to be the keeper of Time until another willingly replaces me or Pandora's Box returns to its rightful place."
"Okay." Nokomis walked up to the alter.
"Wait, are you sure about this? It is-"
"Dangerous and could cause me to go insane. I know, but it is better than the alternative." She smeared blood on the alter and recited, "I Nokomis Leala Ash, offer myself as Pandora's Box. I willingly offer myself to be the keeper of Time until another willingly replaces me or Pandora's Box returns to its rightful place." She felt tentacle like energy wrap around her and she screamed silently as raw Time poured itself into her. Pandora quickly moved forward as the woman's body slumped. She gently laid Nokomis's body on the alter and stepped back as a barrier formed protectively around the Keeper's body. Pandora watched patiently over Nokomis for the time her friends would come to save her.