The White Hare

First Bite of Winter's Frost

Once Nyxia woke up she found herself cold again. Blaming the weird dream about the hare snuggling up to her after chasing off those idiots on the cold, she starts to move only to find a couple more pelts on her than she initially remembered. Before she can really dwell on it a large crashing sound nearly gives her a heart attack. Moving towards the door she opens it and finds her den covered in packed snow. The moment she opens the door she immediately slams it shut to keep the warmth inside. It wasn't near as warm as before but it was still so much better than outside.

The hellhound shivers and shakes her body to get the jitters out before returning to her moderately warm bed. Hunkering down for a bit as the sound of splitting wood and snapping branches breach through her wall. Then a weird sound starts scratching and shuffling under her den. With a growl she gets up and throws open her door. Just as Jack breaches through the dirt directly under her and gets a rather detailed look at the woman above him.

Jack's ears flush with embarrassment as Nyxia looks down at him with shock and stunned silence. Right before she lifts her hind paw and steps on the head of the buck. Shoving him back underground.

"Owowowow hey! I didn't try to see anything. I'm sorry!" Once she removes her foot from his head he shakes the dirt off of himself and makes sure she is alright. "Hey, it's not good for you to be out of bed in this weather Nyxia. Please just rest. It's about to get toasty in here." 'Hopefully.'

The hellhound woman was sitting in her pile of furs with her back to him and her fluffy tail in her hands. With a soft smile Jack closes the door. Putting a thicker pelt on her shoulders before he jumps back down to the pile of wood and dead plants. Using a fresh tinderbox he had snagged from one of his full moon meetups with Eric in exchange for detail about what had happened and the fact that a Divine Quest was given by the mysterious Grimdgandr, Jack lights the fire with only minor difficulties. 

Making sure the fire stays lit, Jack hunkers down in the small cubby hole he dug under Nyxia's home for a bit. Thinking back to his promised meeting with the human researcher. When he had told him about all that had happened and the reason for the secrecy Eric simply expressed that he was glad that his warren was back to full strength and offered a few items to him on their meetup. Most were food related and included chocolate.

The cheeky bastard had quickly realized that the bitter delicacy was his favorite during their first real interaction and after their meetup he no doubt found out that dark chocolate was his favorite.

Flashback

While Jack practically inhaled the chocolate offerings,  Eric was writing in the scroll that was rapidly running out of room. He still had to bridge one more thing to the buck while he had him happy and amiable.

"There is someone I would like you to meet. They desire to talk with you and they were part of the reason that I was able to afford finding you." He gives the scroll to the buck who wipes off his dirty hands on his pants. He had decided to keep wearing the armor after the battle so the cloth bearing the shredded Leatherfoot insignia had a use after all. Jack takes the scroll and reads it before sighing heavily and nodding to Eric.

"You can come out now captain."

Jack feels an explosion of qi suddenly appear nearby causing him to jump to his feet. His fur flattens against his skin as his claws appear to lengthen.

"Looks like he can feel aura but doesn't bother to thoroughly search his surroundings for hidden sources." A thunderous booming voice comes from the brush before a man clad in dull metal armor exits the bushes with his hand resting on the pommel of his longsword. The blade rests in its plain leather sheath. He watched the hare as it stiffened up. It's eyes locked onto him in a way that made the captain's hand itch.