Chills [Rina]

[Tally]

"Ten?"  He jogged after her, trying to see her expression in the darkness to see if she were just funning with him.  "Ten good ones?  Our library is magnificent of course but I've always thought our records on geomancy and Kishahn fauna to be lacking.  The colleges, they hoard their research on mage craft and magic theory.  Unforgivable, I tell you.  No, not unforgivable—that's too harsh—but still morally objectionable.  Where are we going?"

With Arca now a smudge of light in the distance, it looked to Nell as though they walked into an impenetrable blackness.

[Anonymous]

"Ten of anyones you want baby! You break this curse, I'll even suck your dick for free!" Love laughed, excited and enjoying the rush of giddy delight that just maybe, maybe, she was going to finally be rid of that damned dragon.

She spun around in a circle, laughing, "Oh Nell. Well, I'll steal you all the books you could want! How dare those bastards keep them! And it sounds like we are going to La'marri!"

[Tally]

He gave a nervous little laugh.  The things Love said!  She certainly had an...irreverent sense of humor.

"No, we're not stealing anything.  You can't steal anymore, it's wrong.  We're buying things.  With money—money that is legitimately ours and not stolen either.  La'marri is quite far."

So far he could scarcely imagine traversing that distance.  How could people get so far?  Maybe they took carriages are...something.  He'd never had to travel beyond the few streets surrounding the library.

[Anonymous]

"Oh sure. We'll buy everything." Love nodded, not at all bothered to tell him a lie. And she would make sure she kept coin around, so when he was with her, she could buy things. But, really, her money earning options were mostly limited to prostitution and thievery. And she wasn't about to become a whore, so Nell would just have to be looking the other way while she worked.

"We'll, it's a good thing we got a good start then huh?"

[Tally]

"Right!  We did?"  They'd gotten a start in the middle of the night, and that didn't match any definition of 'good' that he knew.  Love must have been judging this situation on some criteria he was unaware of.

It was a relief to have the money matter settled.  He'd been worried she would put up a fuss about it, but she was being surprisingly reasonable.

"So where are we?"  Arca was long lost to sight, and they'd taken a few bends in the path so he hadn't a clue in which direction the city even was, nor could he discern any location ahead of them that would point to a destination.

[Anonymous]

"Oh, you know, around. Don't worry, I know the way." She wouldn't push Nell too much farther that night. Eventually she took a break, finding a decent spot to stop for the night, "Here we go! This looks pretty good, yeah? You know how to start a fire pretty boy?"

[Tally]

"Ah, excellent.  So long as we're in familiar territory."  And thank the gods Love knew exactly where they were!  Nell hadn't a clue, and probably couldn't have found the way back to the city even if he had to.

They halted in a place that Love referred to as good, but which Nell couldn't tell apart from all the other dark, featureless landscapes they'd been trudging through.  "Yes!  Oh, that is...it's lovely?"

He laughed a little.  Start a fire?  Him?  "Oh goodness no."

[Anonymous]

"You should learn this stuff. Always good to know how to survive." Love was an old hand at setting up camp and she could see perfectly in the dark. The fire she made the old fashioned way, not wanting to risk her magic with Him so close.

Once that was going, she handed some wood to Nell, "Now, make sure you keep it fed while I set up the tent, okay? Don't let it go out."

[Tally]

Nell huddled close, not just for warmth but to watch her make a fire.  Such a useful skill!  He would have her show him the technique sometime, in daylight and warmth when his fingers weren't numb.

"Oh yes, yes.  I'll stay by the fire."  Happily so.  He would not abandon that warmth for anything.  "You have a tent?  Won't that be too cold?"

The fire looked low to him so he threw a log in the middle of it.

[Anonymous]

Love had started to set the tent up when she jumped, her carefully made fire getting destroyed by a log thrown into the middle of it. She stared at Nell over the smoldering pit, "Are you soft in the head?"

[Tally]

Nell peered down at the smoldering remains of the fire.  "Love, are you sure you built this correctly?  More wood only made it die.  I think you should examine your methods.  And rebuild it because I'm cold."

[Anonymous]

Love just stared at Nell, "You are a fucking moron. Were you dropped on the head as a child? You can't just throw logs onto the fire. It smothers it."

[Tally]

"Ah!"  Nell snapped his fingers—they were numb, and it made a dull sound.  "Of course!  Because it needs air!  Go on and build it back up and show me how to do it."

Nell hunkered down and poked at the embers with a stick, still cold but having forgotten his discomfort for curiosity.

[Anonymous]

"Excuse you?" Love snorted, moving back next to the fire and reaching in to it, hands grasping the logs. Her skin remained unburned as she adjusted the logs, "Here. Watch. You want to build a structure. So that air can get through."

Love sent a small flicker of power through her hands, fire flaring back up again. Pulling her hands back, she shook them and grinned, "Well, you shouldn't touch hot logs though."

[Tally]

Nell crouched down close and observed the arrangement, the way the she laid the logs and twigs upon each other.  A useful skill, this, but not one he was ever likely to use again.  Interesting just the same.  He'd wager he'd be the only fellow in the library who could build a fire.

"No, of course not.  Why can you do it?"

[Anonymous]

"Because I'm special." Love gave him a fierce grin across the fire light, "Now, try to not mess this up again, okay?"

Keeping one eye on him and her rebuilt fire, Love went back to setting up the rest of the camp. The tent was a little unnessiacry, but Love was taking pity on Nell. At least for a few nights.

[Tally]

"Aye."   The smoke from the fire stung his eyes but he huddled over it and endured the tears.  Thank the gods Love was here to set up their camp.  He could not have made his fingers or him limbs move with any deftness, they were so stiff with cold.

"Try to hurry, Love?"  He watched the flames before him with a critical eye now and adjusted a log here, a few twigs there.  He couldn't tell if his efforts had any affect, but the blaze remained strong.

[Anonymous]

That actually made Love feel a tab bad. He wasn't made for this and she had maybe kinda sorta dragged him out into the cold night. She hurried in setting up the tent and the one bedroll, crawling inside it, "All set! Come on in!"

Tugging her shoes off, she shimmed under the blankets and waited for Nell.

[Tally]

By the time Love had the tent up Nell had forgotten the fire's plight for his own.  Even with the blaze going strong, the wind still cut at him viciously.  He fairly ran to the tent when she called for him.

"Let me in there!"  He dove in with her and huddled close, tugging the blanket up to their shoulders and shivering against her.  "Hah...cold out there."