Fandom/Pairing: ACOATR/ OC character
It seemed to Alex as though he had descended into a world made entirely of white.
He blinked, trying to clear the snow clinging to his eyelashes, and snapped his wings a little, a fruitless attempt at keeping the wet slush from settling. Those two sensations were almost more bothersome than the cold itself, for it seemed that no matter how many centuries passed since his youth, his body had permanently adapted to the frigid temperatures of winter in the Illyrian mountains.
But even if the cold wasn't bothering him, something else was, and that was the worry clawing its way up his spine.
Landing in the Illyrian camp to hear that Azriel hadn't yet arrived when by all estimations he should have been there hours before had been nothing short of terrifying. Alex had had the longer flight, coming from Velaris, but Azriel, flying in from a neighbouring camp, had had the far harder one, having to battle through the wild weather of the mountains. And clearly something had gone terribly wrong in the process.
None of the camp lords had tried to stop him as he'd launched back into the air to look for Azriel, and why should they? They hadn't seemed particularly worried about Azriel's absence, and they were probably hoping that Alex froze to death while he was searching for him.
The thought had him quickening his pace as he trudged through the snow, walking because the weather was forcing him to do so. Even if he had been able to see anything from the air, which was unlikely, with how the wind was whirling around him he likely wouldn't have been able to stay airborne for longer than a minute. It was, unfortunately, no wonder that Azriel hadn't made it to the camp and Alex found himself wishing he'd gotten word to Az to just stay put.
The other male had never admitted it out loud, but Alex knew that bad weather made him uneasy, flying in it even more so. More than in any other conditions, flying in the damp or snow required relying on one's instincts, instincts that Azriel had never been allowed to completely develop. The thought of him trying to fly in this weather made Alex's stomach churn, not to mention the knowledge that he'd been stuck out here for hours...
"Az!" Alex bellowed, struggling to make his voice heard over the howling of the wind.
He could barely see more than a few feet ahead of him at any given time, trees, with even the lowest branches and trunks completely coated in white snow, lurched up out of nowhere and Alex had no idea how he was going to find the other male like this. But he did know that he wasn't going anywhere until he did.
Alex wasn't thinking about giving up, but he was wondering if he needed to come up with a better plan when he saw it: a black splotch, dark as night against the pure white snow, unmistakably one of the shadows that usually swirled in Azriel's wake. Alex lurched towards it, spotting another, and then another, following the line, which looked eerily like a dark blood trail, until finally...
"No," Alex gasped, slipping and sliding as he scrambled forward. Azriel was on the ground, propped up against the base of a tree with his wings curled tightly around him as if trying to wrap him in the last layer of warmth against the snow. The ground around him was purely black, as if the temperature was so cold that even his shadows had been frozen solidso
A
lex slammed to his knees beside the other male but his hands were achingly gentle as he pried one of the wings back, aware of the danger of moving the stiff appendage too quickly.
"Az," he breathed, touching the male's cold cheek, stroking along his jaw with a thumb. He could have wept when Azriel's eyes, lined with frost, blinked open and peered at him dazedly.
