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The Mood is Write

Mom-de-Plume
Original poster
DONATING MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
  1. Looking for partners
Posting Speed
  1. 1-3 posts per day
  2. Multiple posts per week
Online Availability
It varies wildly.
Writing Levels
  1. Advanced
  2. Prestige
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Nonbinary
  3. Primarily Prefer Female
Genres
I'm open to a wide range of genres. Obscenely wide. It's harder for me to list all I do like than all I don't like.

My favorite settings are fantasy combined with something else, multiverse, post-apoc, historical (mixed with something else), and futuristic. I'm not limited to those, but it's a good start.

My favorite genres include mystery, adventure, action, drama, tragedy (must be mixed with something else and kept balanced), romance (again must be mixed, and more.

I'm happy to include elements of slice-of-life and romance, but doing them on their own doesn't hold my interest indefinitely.
A howl ripped through Faida's thoughts, and she looked up from tailing whatever creature made it to the artifact before her. Snow began to fall, and the wind whipped, cutting through her clothes and stealing away warmth with a singular gust. "Ohhh no," she murmured, then began to jog. She had to catch up or she'd lose the trail, and she also had to find her target before he either went to hiding or died as well.

Long legs pumped forward, and she breathed into her mittens as she sped her pace, eyes darting about as she hoped the other thief didn't take a sudden turn.

Within five minutes, the scenery was blowing specks of white in a field of grey. Faida continued forward, though her legs felt numb and heavy and her arms, held tight about her chest, couldn't hold the cold away from her sore nipples.

Cold was one of the worst torments!

Ten more minutes of walking, refusing to stop, and her foot landed on... That wasn't a rock. It was covered in snow, but it had give to it. Faida stopped with her foot rested and looked down, vision blurred by the lack of visual stimulus, and she gaped as she spotted brown. A light shake to the brown thing revealed not a weirdly-shaped log beneath the snow, but a person! A scaled and very lizardy person, but screw it. Even as her nose finally picked up his presence, she ignored the dripping and freezing red that fell from one nostril and onto her cute sweater.

The girl bent and pulled the lizard over her shoulders. He was... heavy. Big and heavy, and still had some heat to him. She could hear his pulse.

Sense of direction blocked by the swirling snow, she kept going.

Between one step and the next, the wind and snow stopped, and Faida blinked, mouth agape, at a familiar cave.

She'd spent the previous night here.

A helpless laugh escaped at the unreal good fortune that brought her and the lizardsickle to her previous camp sight. She dropped him carefully to the floor and pulled whole logs from a pocket in her jacket. Some tinder and kindling came next, and she arranged it. This place had good ventilation, though she'd not paid much attention before: before, she could just walk outside. Now though... Now she had to hope wherever the smoke went before, it went again. She dragged a match on the cave floor and lit the kindling in a few places, then blew gently until the tinder began to catch before she looked across the fire to her 'guest'.

He'd warm as the fire built in strength. She hoped his core temperature hadn't dropped, or he'd be dead by morning.

Still, one last thing before she could sit: she had to block the narrow entrance. For that, she began to pack snow tight. It was already there in mass quantities, and packing it into ice was fairly simple. As a bonus, stomping around as she did warmed her until a wall of white, near-solid ice covered the entrance. She turned from it and leaned her back against it, and heard a 'fump'.

Cold air brushed the backs of her knees. She lifted away, then sighed at the hole. She filled it as much as she could with what fell inward, but eventually just shoved her back against it and rested her arms and head on her knees to keep the cold out. Her jacket—praise the tailor—resisted the worst of the cold. The cave grew warmer.

Faida's eyes slid shut as her body felt the painful sting of warmth after so long without it, though her back remained chilled. She sagged, and her head fell to one side as her nose continued to drip, pooling in the folds of her leather jacket's sleeves and then spilling down onto her jeans, her boots, or the floor as she shivered. Her last thoughts before sleep took her away were fairly strange: 'This reminds me of a scene from something...'
 
Of course it had to be a blizzard. Not a particularly cold night for the time of year, not the first snows of the oncoming winter, not even some outright regular snowfall. But a blizzard.

He knew he should’ve cut his losses and headed South long ago. Winter was coming quick to these latitudes, whether he was a fan of the fact or not, and his physique hadn’t been built for such temperatures – quite the literal opposite, in fact, being the native desert-dweller that he was. But no. He had to convince himself there was still time for one more run, one more ruin to skulk through, nick the valuables, and pawn them off on the road to warmer environs for some extra coin in the pouch. And he’d even gotten himself a particular ruin all picked out as his mark, too, so what could've possibly gone wrong with spending an extra week in the northernmost territories, right?

A surprise, freak-of-nature blizzard out of nowhere, that’s what. A fucking blizzard!

----
The aspiring lizard-shaped popsicle known as Karothyss didn’t recall falling asleep. Or being in a cave, as the cool, uneven stone underneath his stirring form hinted. And certainly had no memories of lighting fires in the immediate past. Oh, he’d certainly recall any sources of such lively warmth in contrast to the cold he’d been stuck dealing with. So how did…?

Things began piecing themselves together as the bronze-scaled creature pushed himself if not upright, then at least to a seated posture. His motions were slow and sluggish, extremities felt a few degrees more numb than they had any right to be, and his joints and tendons seemed to be happy to take their time in carrying out their tasks of maneuvering limbs and articulating motions. The cold. The bloody cold must’ve knocked him flat while he was trudging through the damned snow in attire that wasn’t in any way built to handle such degrees of snowfall, never mind murderous, biting wind. But that only explained how he had no prior recollection of the locale, not how he’d gotten there. Unless he’d recently developed some curious traits of the sleepwalking variety unbeknownst to himself.

Of course, solving that particular mystery wasn’t exactly difficult. Blinking his viridian, slitted eyes open, the chilly lizardman was quick to take in the dimensions of the cavernous interior, the ebbing fireplace, and slumped, dark-clad figure at the entrance.

Oh. So that was how.

Aching joints be damned, the bronze-scaled reptile was quick – if not exactly graceful in his motions – in clambering over to the mystery figure. Human female, a closer look revealed… or an elf? No. No, definitely human. One fast asleep, no doubt courtesy of the local temperature which seemed to insist on being either near or well below freezing. Well, damn. Guess he’d get to return to favor of helping his savior avoid freezing to death sooner rather than later.

There was more than enough kindling on hand to revitalize the lazy embers of the makeshift fireplace, and moving the frosty human offered little in the way of challenge to the creature that was obviously tall enough to tower over the dozing figure. Faida’s valiant blocking of the narrow entryway had allowed another natural barrier of snow, ice, and icy snow to from over the break in the rockface, rendering any howling wind which may have still reigned outside altogether toothless against the odd pair huddled in the cave. Which was all the more welcome to Karo, and a hunch told him that the girl now lying next to the fire didn't mind the fact, either. While the human stirred, the lizardfolk representative sat cross-legged next to the source of warmth, practically soaking up the heat like a dry sponge would water after being dropped into a bucket full of the stuff.

And besides hogging the heat, there was the question of the girl that'd apparently saved his scaly hide. Mercenary type or not, he couldn't well just up and leave without a word of thanks, now could he?
 
Faida didn't notice when the chill pulled the heat even from her coat and spread its icy fingers through her, especially since the fire died down. A distant part of her mind noticed the sound of movement, but she didn't move: couldn't move. Her body felt stiff.

Even as he moved her, the singular nostril continued to drip. Strong hands gripped her, their shape slightly abnormal, but warmer than the air. She felt herself moved, and then laid before crackling fire. It stung her fingers as her nerves crackled back to life. Healing kicked in, and she spread her toes within her boots and her fingers toward the fire, The flames licked briefly at the tips before she drew them back suddenly and forced her eyes open, brows furrowed.

Oh. Oh, yes, that was pretty damn close.

Her eyes remained on the dancing flames, somewhere between sleep and wakefulness. "Pretty fire," she cooed quietly.

Something about Pokemon was stuck in her head, and that head throbbed. Carefully, she pushed herself to a sitting position, despite the protests of chilled joints, and only then did she see that her repsicle not only survived, but was conscious!

"Hi." The word sounded unforgivably lame as far as first greetings went. Little did she realize, she'd soon trump it: "Yer a pretty lizard."

It took a few moments before she realized she said that out loud, and she slapped her hands over her mouth. "Oh. Oh, Jade, I'm sorry! Oh Jade, I sound like a creaking freep!" She gasped. "Freaking creep!" Her tongue wasn't working! Her brain wasn't working, her own breath hurt her still-tingling hands!
 
Things… began well, at least?

Sure. Sure, there was a bit of doziness and stupor from the human, that was only to be expected. And maybe her entrance wasn’t the grandest, but to be fair, he’d been the one that’d wound up unconscious in the snow. And a “hi” was a reasonable thing to expect as a greeting, right? A lot more so than a sudden blurting of how pretty someone was, at any rate. Now that - that resulted in a single eye-ridge slowly inching upwards in apparent confusion.

And before he could manage to conjure up something to follow that up with, the girl just made things increasingly confusing. Jade? Who was Jade? What was Jade? Why did she care what this Jade must’ve thought? Who was being the creep, now? What was…

Just... what?

Karo himself must’ve looked the very image of utter puzzlement – in case puzzlement were to be portrayed on the features of a monstrous sentient reptile than, say, a human for artistic reasons. The raised brow remained as such as the lady went on, his head also joining in on the expressiveness by tilting quizzically to one side by the time she seemed to be done. A heavy, awkward silence fell for a handful of moments, until the it was broken by the so-called ‘pretty lizard’ with a clearing of the throat.

“So,” he began, voice best described in the borderline-oxymoronic terms of ‘a soft, gentle rumble’. The bronze-scale sounded like one could imagine a scaled-down dragon to, and almost looked the part, too. Lack of wings, hoard, and fire-breathing notwithstanding, anyway. “How about we… backtrack a minute, forget that never happened?” Sensing no disagreement – though it wasn’t as if he gave the poor girl time to articulate one – the scaly being went on, introducing himself with a subtle bow of a horned head.

“Karothyss, a pleasure. Believe you saved my hide from freezing solid.” To his credit, the lizard seemed to do a decent job of acting as if the awkward motor-mouthing had indeed never happened, though the keen-eyed may be able to spy a hint of a smirk in the corner of his mouth... if it actually were one, that is. Lizardfolk. Who knows how to read those toothy faces, anyway?
 
The more she spoke, the more confused the lizard became, until silence ruled the little cave, and Faida was left with a bright red face until finally, the lizard-man spoke. He had a nice voice: gave her the good kind of shivers. He offered to forget her awkward, barely-awake babbling, then quickly introduced himself.

Faida could only nod mutely, hands still over her face for several moments before she forcibly lowered them. "Faida! I'm Faida." She paused again, and then nodded. "Oh! Right. Happy to help. Cold weather is a—" The woman shut her mouth. "A pain." Good save, she praised herself. Keep it up, she urged herself.

"Do blizzards like these crop up often? First time being out this way." She reached up and grabbed her hat by one of the pompoms, then pulled it off and squeezed it, unintentionally driving her fingers into the fuzzy, knitted kitten's eyes.

She opened her mouth, ready to apologize for her earlier blabbering, but decided against it. What was done had been done. It was hard to smell his emotional scents with his lizard-ness and her snotty nose, but she didn't detect any rage or negativity from him about her foolishness. A few more moments passed. "You hungry? I have something like rations. Not a lot, and could taste better, but it can take the edge off."

Yes, good job, Faida. Offering food was a quick way to friendship! She tried hard to hide how pleased she felt with herself for saying something moderately normal.
 
It wasn’t a surprise to hear his newfound partner in cave-dwelling say she was no local. She was much too helpful towards nonhumans to be one, for a start, dressed all funny for the region, and reacted to waking up in his company with a compliment on his looks rather than a startled scramble away. The inquiry on the local frequency of freak blizzards was initially met with a distinctly sarcastic snort, followed up by some elaboration in the same tone. “No. No, having snowfall this time of the year would be rare. This bloody cataclysm of ice? Must be some deity or another trying to kill me.” The words trailed off into a low chuckle. Perhaps suggesting a divine intervention was a touch hyperbolic, sure, but he was nothing if not a creature with a penchant for the dramatic.

He’d be happy to accept the offer of food, though. Freezing to death turned out to be hungry business, especially when preceded by some intensive spelunking in search of worthwhile artifacts and assorted curio to pawn off. Though the girl didn’t really need to know of the latter, far as Karo was concerned. It'd be just an auxiliary detail, right?

“Won’t say ‘no’ at something to eat.” And besides, the snowy weather could’ve carried on outside for all he knew. Might as well have something to bite into while waiting to make sure the snowy maelstrom had passed. “What’s it that brings you to these parts, then? Not much more than woodland and farms.” And ruins, he added to himself. Ruins with plenty of valuable trinkets just waiting to be scooped up. Such as the motley collection of ancient bits and pieces stored snugly in the satchel the bronze-scale lugged about.
 
The sarcasm only brought a grin to the blonde's features, and his acceptance of the food boded well. "You have to rip the shiny skin off to get at the food," she warned as she pulled a scattering of granola and nutrigrain bars from various pockets, then scooted around the fire so the two weren't talking so much over its crackling. The shiny packages she placed between them bore colorful illustrations and labeling, and lacked a visible opening.

As the friendly lizard asked what brought her this way, she grabbed a nutrigrain bar in strawberry and ripped open the package, then stuffed the wrapper into a pocket.

Slowly, she took a bite and chewed, pondering the best answer. Finally, she found it and looked toward Karothyss, just in time to swallow her bite. "Hm, may as well be open about it. I'm here to retrieve a dangerous gizmo for my boss. Supposedly there's a little dip you can push, and it'll summon a bunch of weird tentacle-faced monsters. Thankfully, only certain people can press the dip, and I think um..." The young woman paused to lick her lips, then tasted the blood that flowed freely from one nostril. "Oh! How long have I been bleeding?" She reached into a pocket and pulled from it several thin white sheets, then used one to wipe her face and another to stuff into her nostril. She wiped herself as thoroughly as she could, given she couldn't see her own face, and then tossed the tissue into the fire.
 
It was a good thing Faida mentioned the piece of advice in regards to the wrapping. Otherwise, her scaly compatriot would’ve more likely than not ended up chomping down one of the bars in a single go, covered or not. Instead, Karo had the time to peer at collection of shiny, colorful packages laid out on the cool ground, puzzled at the sheer amount of effort that’d gone into seemingly disposable bits of… whatever the stuff these rations were wrapped in was made of. But if the human could eat them without worry, then logic stated the same would be true for an eight-foot tall reptile. And soon enough, Karo was also chewing his way through one of the compact meals, this one apparently flavored in ‘blueberry’. While hardly displeasing in taste, he had to wonder whether whomever had made the bar had actually ever tried one of the berries in question themselves.

But before he could launch into commentary in regards to his experience with the rations and their bizarre packaging, his cave-dwelling comrade made the worrying discovery of finding herself bleeding. At first, the lizard took it as her having suffered a cut – and found himself much relieved at the revelation of the problem being of a much less worrying sort. “Weren’t doing it when I pulled you over to the fire.” He paused for a moment, head tilting slightly to one side whilst regarding the markedly shorter girl, resuming his out-loud musing once she’d finished wiping the crimson off her features. Most of it, anyway. “The cold do it, maybe?” Honestly, guesswork was the best he could do with this subject. Human ailments and medical diagnosis? Not fields he could claim to be terribly well-versed in. Still, she seemed to have it all under control, even if the paper plug up her nose did give the girl a bit of a comical look.

Tracking down 'gizmos', though? Now, there'd be something more up his alley. Once satisfied that the human had indeed managed to stem the mystery nosebleed, he figured a subject change couldn't hurt. "...Anyway. This 'gizmo', thing you're after. What's it look like?"
 
Faida cracked her neck, then reached for another bar, only to pause and stop. She had a limited amount, and even if she could go back for more easily, she hardly knew Karothyss at all, and had no idea what sort of rate this world moved at compared to HQ. For all she knew, she could be gone only a second and return to find a frozen lizard skeleton in a museum while kids dragged unwilling parents around to watch them shove their faces against the glass.

The image, though amusing, was an unhappy amount of fatal for her companion.

"What's it look like..." She trailed off and closed her eyes. "Hm. I'm not wholly sure how to describe it, but I have a photo!" The young woman beamed and stuffed her hand into a pocket, then withdrew a shiny rectangular paper. It was firm and slightly curved, with white space on each edge and a larger at the bottom.

Smooth and glossy in the center, an image stood, wholly realistic, of an elliptical stone. Based on the rulers laid above and to one side, it was three inches at the widest point and six inches long: roughly egg-shaped with a point at the top. Deep, smooth ridges carved on diagonals spiraled along the entire length save one spot on the thickest point, where a dip was stained black and surrounded in clear gemstone polished into facets. The rest contrasted heavily, made of agate in vibrant colors with layers of amethyst, opal, and lapis swirled within: how they might have come to be parts of the agate's layers remained a mystery to Faida, but it was very, very pretty.

"It's supposed to have been in a ruin just north of here."
 
Things just got incredibly awkward.

From Faida’s perspective, it must’ve looked as if Karo was simply taking his time in examining the picture in deep, focused silence. What she did not know was that the reptile had seen the object before. In fact, he was intimately familiar with the damn thing, the place wherein it had been previously located at, and even its current whereabouts! The latter being about a foot, maybe two away, tucked safely in the very satchel that held his collection of loot. This left the treasure-hunter in a bit of a pinch: On one hand, that thing had to be the most valuable trinket he’d plucked from the old ruin, and was bound to sell for mint on the collector market. On the other hand, the girl had gone and most likely saved his life. Which made the prospect of withholding this bit of information somewhat ethically questionable.

Oh, damn it all. Why did he, of all people, have to wind up developing something resembling a moral compass at some point?

With a deep, deep sigh – and still without nary a word – the lizard reached into his bag of pilfered goodies, fished his way through the contents until feeling the distinctive shape of the object in the photo, and pulled it out with all the flair of a magician that’s just yanked a rabbit from a seemingly rabbitless hat. It had looked elaborate and utterly expensive in the picture, but in the flickering light of the makeshift fireplace? The thing practically oozed in black market value. And maybe regular market value, too, but that’d mean paying taxes at most law-abiding trade hubs. “Amazing what you wind up picking up out there,” Karo finally spoke, as he held the gizmo out at a more human-friendly height for his companion to get an eyeful of it. It sure was a pretty thing to gander at, making the whole monster-summoning feature even more of a shame. “Isn’t it?”
 
With his lizardy smell, Faida wasn't confident which emotion she smelled on Karo, nor did she feel certain of how accurate her attempt at reading his expression could be, however it didn't take long to find out why the long silence.

With a sigh, Karo produced the artifact from his bag. Faida's mouth fell into an O-shape, and then she giggled.

"It is," the Hunter agreed, and a warm smile filled her face as she looked to him and reached for the dangerous artifact. "Thank you for handing this over, Karo!"

Did that mean the mission was over? This seemed far too easy for a three-star mission. Regardless, she decided she'd stay with Karo until he was safe from the cold: it was the least she could do to thank the man for pretty much doing her job for her.

( Lame post is lame, but I got sick of NOT posting. >.o )
 
It may well have been a good, the human's inability to sniff out just what the towering reptile was feeling. After all, it might've ruined his impression of being the selfless, admirably generous sort! Still, handing the artifact over felt like upending a fat pouch of coins into a wild, roaring rapid.

But that didn't mean that there wasn't a way for the quick thinker to capitalize on the situation.


Once again, a few seconds were spent in thoughtful silence, with Karo getting an eyeful of the gleeful reaction his act of kindness had coaxed out of Faida. He even put on a smile at the heartfelt thanking! Though the expression may well have been a bit more toothy than one unfarmiliar with the expressiveness of his species might have expected, and kinda soured the meaning a bit. Still, it didn't linger for long before his deep tones took to the air once again.

"Say: This boss of yours that you're trackin' down 'gizmos' for. How much're they paying for it?" He paused for a second, idly examining his claws in the flickering light. Hunch told him that it wouldn't be a modest sum, the sort that funded searches for artifacts this far from civilization. "They wouldn't happen to have need for a pro, would they?" The reptilian head tilted just slightly to one side following in inquiry, giving the towering figure a quite the quizzical look. For Karo's part, he just hoped that whomever the girl was working for wasn't a huge fan of the arctic.
 
Faida lifted her head as he began to speak, eyes wide and lips together in an attentive pout, though the pout sprang only from the shape of her lips rather than her emotions.

Wait, he wanted a job?

The blonde giggled and covered her mouth. "She's not really paying me, except for meals, room, and board," she mused, then suddenly broke into a grin. "But, you know, it would be helpful for me if I employed my competition." Orange eyes shone playfully. "I could hire you, and report the cost as a business expense!"

To her, it seemed perfect. She had enough savings to hire him, if he accepted payment by weights of gold... Otherwise, she might have a harder time of it, since she didn't have any of the local currency. "Do you accept gold?"
 
The whole thing should've raised a few questions. Questions such as "who in all of the potential hells would scour the land for trinkets for the payment of room and board", or "how is someone getting paid in beds and glasses of water going to secure to gold to hire a grade-A spelunker?"

It should have, but the human just had to go and mention gold. Had Karo been sporting ears instead of a pair of horns atop his scaly head, they would've no doubt perked up at the mention of the highly-sought metal. Oh, he'd be happy to accept as much gold as he could damn well carry! Preferably in coins. Or, at least, modestly-sized bars.

"Gold's perfect," came the reptile's response. "Or gems. Not silver, though, there being plenty of that where I come from." What then followed was a quizzical tilt of his head, a gesture-slash-expression which was rapidly growing into a running theme. "I do charge premium, though. Especially if there's some more damned arctic to scour. How much, exactly, you figure you can throw my way?"
 
Rather than ask questions about the oddity of Faida's claims, he went right to the gold. She grinned and shook her head. "No more arctic I know of beyond this. Technically, this mission is over, but I can ask my boss if there are any other local jobs for me. I'm sure she can find something. Let me text her!"

With a wide grin, she pulled a phone from one of her many pockets. The shiny rectangle's front lit and illuminated her face with blue light as she tapped at several parts of the the screen, all with only her thumb, and then set it aside. "I'll hear back from her soon, if I get signal in here, but you were asking about the gold, huh?"

Emphasis on the word attempted to pull his attention away from the phone, and she slipped a hand into one of her pockets, then withdrew a small handful of gold coins, each roughly a centimeter across, and formed by a stamp of a crowned and bloody shield. "I got these from somewhere far away. Obscene purity, too, even though they're small." With that, she held her hand out to him, ready to plop the coins right into his hands. "If you want, I can give you that much for each artifact we find, but I'm open to negotiation, since I don't really know the local economy. Where I'm from, that handful could feed and house a four-person family for a month, and that's assuming they eat meat, vegetables, fruits, grains, and dairy at least once a day and have a house with a room for each kid."

Some places considered that luxury, while others considered it poverty. Back home, it was roughly in the middle.
 
[ Sorry for taking this long with the replying! Things got just a bit busy for a while. ]

She wasn't kidding about the size of the coins. Not only were they outright tiny from the perspective of someone pushing on eight feet of height, which only became more apparent after Faida'd dumped her handful of gold onto the friendly neighborhood lizard's scaly palm, but the sheer amount of care that had gone into crafting them bordered on the bizarre. They were so damn uniform, you couldn't tell one apart from another! If this was how much effort they put into their coins over at... wherever the girl had gotten her hands on these, Karo'd have to see just how intricate any more exquisite works coming out of that corner of the world were. And secure a few of them as souvenirs.

But this wasn't the time to quiz his latest employer about her past travels - or the shiny rectangle thing she took a second to toy around with, for that matter. Instead, it was the time for the reptile to do what the mercenary sorts did best: Secure the fattest possible paycheck for least possible effort. Assuming the coins weren't really just painted-over metal, they'd be outright plenty to cover most of his costs! But it wasn't as if one could be paid too much, now was it?

"It's..." he began, dragging on the pause that followed whilst idly scratching his neck with his free set of claws. "A decent start. Another one of these, and we're in business." Sure, he might have been pushing his luck. But in the scaly merc's defense? She had gone and stated that she was open for negotiation.
 
(( Glad you're still around, and no worries! It happens. ))

Faida grinned. In the world these coins came from, he'd asked for the price of an apple, but it worked. She fished out another handful for him. "If that's all you want, consider the deal made."

She tilted her head and looked up. "Though, did you really mean for that to be the pay for however long I wanna keep you?" He never did specify if he wanted it all at once, never asked how long this might take... For all she knew, he was looking more for company and someone else to point him towards adventure, that or the cold addled his head.

"I'll cover any expenses toward the mission, including meals and lodging as long as we don't go overboard."

The blonde rolled her shoulders and stretched her arms, fingers splayed as she closed her eyes. A shift in her jaw hinted at a restrained yawn before one escaped regardless. "Mm. Sorry." She looked toward him through drooping eyelids for a moment before she blinked and her eyes opened properly. "It's really, really cold, huh?" Half-lidded again, her eyes darted across Karo's body briefly before she forced herself to 'be good'.
 
While Faida spoke, her latest reptilian acquaintance was busy securing his newfound funds in a pouch. It may not have been quite as impressive haul of gold as the artifact he'd picked up may have fetched, sure, but it wasn't too shabby a start. "Consider it payment for securing my attention for now," came Karo's distinctly amused reply. "We'll get to talk more on pay once we actually end up going after something, see just how suicidal a job this is."

As for the cold? Now that she'd gone an mentioned it, it was hard not to agree. He gave the underperforming fireplace a half-hearted prod with a stick, but it didn't seem like the pair's source of fiery warmth could pull off much greater temperature-raising feats. "Mmh. It is." The agreement was voiced in languid tones, as the monstrous creature shifted around where he sat in an attempt aid staving off the coolness at least just a bit. Those meals and lodging suddenly sounded incredibly appealing, 'overboard' or not. At least his height would surely mean that paying for the bigger beds - and rooms - would only be an expected expense, right?

Turning his gaze, the man's eyes darted first over the dozy human, and then at the entrance of their little cavern. "Wager the storm's gone?" Much as he'd appreciate just putting his feet up and lazing around, the amount of local coolness made the prospect of doing it there and now just a touch displeasing for any cold-blooded types.
 
"I could check," she offered as she looked toward the entrance as well. If it's not, I've got a bit more firewood tucked away, but it'll have to last us, or I'll have to rely on emergency measures I really, really don't want to use."

The woman slowly forced herself to her feet before she pulled her jacket tighter around herself and approached the exit. Unwilling to break the seal that kept the worst of the cold wind out, she reached into a pocket. While careful to block Karo's vision, the young Hunter adjusted her portable portal and tossed it against the snow wall.

The wind roared directly against her chest and blew fresh snow onto her. She shoved rapidly-numbing fingers through and pulled down the portal, then closed it quickly and tucked it away. "N-not... not done," she informed as she turned around to show him her freshly-snowed face and chest. Wooden legs carried her back to the fire, and she sat, tempted to flop right into it.

"Looks worse now," her chattering voice admitted as she stared at Karo over the flames for a few moments before she wiped off face and chest, then rose and walked to him. "Sorry, I just... need..." Warmth, she needed warmth. She started to climb into his lap, her promise of adding more fuel to the fire forgotten in her rush to seek heat.
 
Had the situation been a bit different, Karo may just have found himself impressed at just how quick his companion in cave-dwelling was at not only opening up barriers of packed snow, but also repairing any holes made in them. Alternatively, he may also have made a casual quip about how mediocre those with literal cold-blooded tendencies were at warmth-creation, nevermind sharing.

But, as things stood, he ended up touch distracted by a snow-glazed lady clambering onto his lap.

What followed was a good few seconds of heavy, incredibly awkward silence, eventually broken by a low rumble that was somewhat analogous to clearing one's throat. One arm lazily snuck itself around the chilly thing that was Faida - couldn't have her falling off or something, right? She was paying him, after all. "At least I'm not the only one that's had enough of snow by the time we're out of here." Off-handed musing aside, the fireplace was clearly going to need itself some nutrition, should the pair want to keep the average temperature of their little hole above 'frozen-solid lizard'. And doing that required some moving around.

And so, with little in the way of warning to the much smaller figure using him as a portable source of warmth, Karo finally stood up for the first time in what felt like ages. If the height difference between himself and the Hunter hadn't been apparent before, it became painfully so as he stood up to his eight-ish feet of tallness. The arm he'd slipped around her form also made it effortless for the human to hang along for the ride - some reactionary flailing notwithstanding. "Right. Where's this wood of yours?"
 
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