Melina
Gentle footsteps crunched light specks of snow beneath the kindling's boots. Her hands held close to a few sticks alongside a fresh kill for their supper. She was rather excited to try her hand as a rabbit stew for the first time and had a recipe that called for potatoes and carrots. It sounded perfect for them on their slow travel to the great elevator.
They hoped that it would be safer and more secure for their wait to be at the place they would surely encounter their friends. Both had grown fairly certain with what info they managed to garner that Marika and Luna with Blaidd's aid were headed to Leyndell now, which meant they would inevitably be turned this wau to seek the giant's flame.
Then... Melina's duty would be fulfilled. Her hands softly gripped to the bundle in her hand. Why were doubts now forming, even when she had steeled herself to this task after her mother's words?
Her eye soon landed on her companion, who was tending to their fire, and she felt a quickened pace briefly touch her heart. That was new. Her brow began to furrow slightly at this strange feeling as a hand idly moved to her chest. Still clutching her meal, the back of her palm rested against the beating of her heart. She watched Ranni for a few moments, seemingly lost for a moment or two in taking her in, before shaking her head with a sigh. "What is happening to me..." she muttered quietly to herself before resuming her trek to the camp.
"Welcome back," the witch smiled when she saw her companion, "Oh that seems tasty."
"Hopefully. Can you carve it while I prepare some of our supplies?"
"What dost thou plan to make this even, little kindling?" There was an almost flirtatious feeling to her words now, especially when she used her more regal accent again. Often a mask to be worn, Ranni had admitted a fondness for the common dialect above the slower and often pompous feeling royal speech expected so often of her.
Yet when she spoke that was to Melina, it did not feel like a mask anymore. "Simply some stew. It's a nice treat since it can be stored. We still have a few dozen miles left."
"Hm. Thoust spe -" the witch was interrupted.
"Why do you do that, Ranni?" As she handed the rabbit to the snow witch before drawing the carving knife and offering the handle to her.
"Do... what?"
"Use that voice sometimes."
"..." The witch subtly bit her lip in thought for a few moments. "I... do not know."
Melina's thoughts further delved into the strange and conspiratorial for a few moments but died as her eye stayed on Ranni's own. "Well... It is not an unwanted habit. Merely a curiosity of mine. It is quite lovely." She finished as she turned away and gathered a few vegetables into her arms. Laying them over a flat stone, she began to cut. "Could you start the pot onto the fire? There should be some milk in the skin by the tent."
There was quiet for a little before Melina got worried. She turned and looked at Ranni, who quickly turned away, and she almost swore she saw a tint of red in those cheeks. "Y-yes, yes I shall begin those preparions thusly." Standing and dusting off her skirt before floating the kill and knife to begin carving as she gathered the milk and water.
Melina watched her for a moment or two, feeling a brief warmth touch her cheeks. She rose a hand to feel the oddity before turning again to her vegetables. "It should not be a hard trip from here. Fewer foes and things to be guarded. If we are especially lucky, we may even see Blaidd again before they make it to the elevator."
"A hopeful assertion, but a likely one as well. Blaidd may, at times, be a little scattered and roaming, but he is a good and loyal friend. He will return to us before we see them again." The witch's tone was sincere and full of a soft warmth that seemed to ease Melina's worries.
"You have known the wolfman for centuries, is it?"
"Indeed."
"You would know better than I, then."
A soft giggle from the witch. "One must know their own shadow well."
"I suppose that is true." She mused with a soft smile as the two began adding things to their pot. A soft tap of their hands crossing, and both women felt a rush of warmth to their cheeks as they looked away and withdrew their hands.
"Sorry."
"No, no, I was being hasty with the meat."
Both blushed again before resuming the cooking in quiet peace. The two were quite preoccupied now with the study of their own feelings and relaxed on the logs they'd set around the fire beside each other while it simmered slowly.
Ranni sniffed gently, smiling at the aroma. "I had forgotten just how good hot food can smell. Where did you find seasonings?"
Melina smiled, a hint of pride in her abilities. "I studied horticulture. Reading was one of the few things you can do when the nights grow long and lonely."
"Nights, thoust shan't nay suffer evermore." She said in a definitive tone. A blush graced the kindling's cheek.
"Surely you could not assure such a thing." Any further thought she had was silenced as she felt the soft hair of the snow witch rest on her shoulder.
"Verily, I can indeed." Resting against the warm feeling of her companion, the snow witch slowly laid an open hand between them. After a few moments, one hand circled the witch and drew her closer to thay warm feeling while the other slowly laid over top of her own.
"I would like that..." the kindling whispered, hoping the winds would be too loud to hide her shyly spoken wish. The Snow witch heard it all the same as she squeezed her candle's hand.
"So shall it be."
...
Blaidd
The wolfman was a surprisingly clever sort at times. He had managed his way through the lost city all on his own. Helped ensure his mistress was safe during the steange and sudden changes before rushing to deliver key items to their companions. If only he had also remembered the information concerning their state of being.
Or... had at least asked for a map. The wolfman sighed, stood beside a tree in what felt like the third forest he had grown lost in. Perhaps it was even the same forest. It smelled far too much of rot here for him to follow his nose, and the bodies littering the forest floor all seemed so bizarre on top of that to him. They all resembled strange stalks of black roots given legs, with the largest of them hung over into the massive fissure that split the forest.
He had thought of following the fissure out as he knew it led back to the pathway to Leyndell, but he had a task to complete first. He had to find something Ranni had told him was vital to ensuring their friends would be able to do.... something.
He just wished he had a better grasp on what they were doing, but he would not relent. "There must be an easier way.." he mused before a hand slowly moved to the sword on his back. He heard the soft crunch of leaves behind him. "Who is there?"
A moment or two passed in quiet before the offending figure would slowly step out of their hiding spot. He turned to them and nearly dropped his own jaw.
There stood a weak and bruised child with thick and flowing red locks. Her hair hid her eyes from his vision, and she smelled of even worse rot than the corpses. He did not care. He rushed over, forgetting his blade and kneeling by the child. "Are you harmed?" He asked hurriedly. The girl only gave a little sniffle, barely more than a few years old by his eyes and wearing a torn red cloak as a make shift dress.
"I-I.. I.. " she sniffled horribly. Blaidd could see wounds over her body, including the fact she lacked a right arm, and there were signs of far darker pains that his eyes caught by the visible bruises on her thighs. "I want my brother!" She wailed horribly, crying as she clutched the wolfman with a furious grip and hot tears.
"There, there..." he mumbled, hugging in the girl protectively as his eyes scanned nearby for any offenders. He would turn them to ribbons and plant them at his mistress's feet as a gift if ever he found who committed such heinous things to a child. To anyone, but to a child, drove a red glow to his eyes.
That was when he began to feel a tug at the corner of his thoughts. 'Kill her.' He heard whisper, and he shook his head. 'KILL HER.' he growled with a clutched hand to his head.
"M-mister w woof...?" the girl asked in a growing sense of freight.
"No..." he muttered as he held her in closer. He fought it. He struggled. He felt whatever this was begin to rampage across his mind like a blade across a herd. He grunted, whimpered, suffered, yet never once gave it an anchor. It hurt in ways the wolfman had never experienced, and yet all he could focus on now was his mistress. No. Not just a Mistress. His beloved sister.
His eyes slowly drifted to the face of this poor girl whose hair parted to show a single right eye that held a soft amber glow. Like gold freshly plucked from a vein. The other was scarred over, and the wolfman would likely think on it as some form of diseased pain. He thanked his blood a little for immunity to such ailments. He would not like being sick, but this child was more vital now.
"Awe you.. y-you okay..?" She asked, hugging his waist a little closer. That was the last straw for Blaidd.
He slowly held the girl in closer. "Yes.... and now... so will you be.." he hugged her in closely as the ties of the two fingers began to break as a strange new amber glow replaced the violent red.
"Wow..." the little one muttered.
"Hm??" The wolfman looked at her.
"Floofy..." she reached up, touching his hairy cheek. "Soff.."
He smiled fully, letting out an almost dad kind of laugh as he scooped the girl up and onto his shoulder. She squealed at first, clutching to his arm like a little bug to a branch before she settled into the crook of his shoulder.
"Well! Get good and comfy now. Oh! What is your name, little one?" He looked at her, nuzzling the little adopted daughter of his. As far as he cared, he would guard this girl to the ends of the Lands Between.
"M.. m..." she mumbled and struggled with the word.
"Milly? Matchard? Oh, maybe Mikyra!" The beast guessed as they began walking along the fissure, his task here forgotten and replaced with a need to find his frienda again. They would surely know better how to fix up these wounds than he.
"I.. i don wememba..." she mumbled sadly.
"Well, then Pops will call you... ah, Yes. Malli!" He laughed proudly with a simple and loud declaration.
The little one seemed to smile at both statements that told, and she clung a little closer to her new papa. "Malli... I wike it!" She grinned happily, wincing a moment later and clutching to her papa.
"Well, don't you worry now. I know just the people to make all those ouchies go away."
"You do, Papa?"
"Oh yes. You just stick with your pops, and we will get you feeling better in no time."
"Yay!" She tried to exclaim, whimpering as it ached her arm.
"Careful now. You just worry about soff floof," playfully repeating her words, "while pops gets us there."
"Okay, Papa." She mumbled, cuddling into him gently with a yawn of exhaustion.
Well, surely whatever was in this forest could wait for another time.