In the Cold

Chapter 1

Tach trudged up the hill in the relative wind shadow cast by Mio. She tried to keep her face forward, but even with him in front, the tiny daggers of ice tossed by the blizzard did their best to murder her eyes. She didn't realize Mio had stopped until she bumped into him.

"There's a cave here" she heard his voice, just barely, over the tortured cries of the wind. "We'll weather the storm there."

Tach had learned a long time ago not to stop moving, lest her feet freeze in place. Even for the brief moment of Mio's explanation, she had been stamping the ground. She risked a glance up to see the cave he had mentioned, and began trudging towards its mouth.

The cave wasn't much of one, more of a dent in the side of a mountain. But centuries of sliding, compacting snow had made it deep enough that it offered protection from the wind. Tach shuffled to the furthest corner of the space and shook the sheets of ice and powder from her jacket. She blinked, letting her eyes get used to looking again.

Mio still stood by the edge of the cave, looking out into the storm. The side of his body facing the wind had significant buildup of snow, his long ears had horizontal icicles streaming back from them. Tach still didn't know why he was a rabbit. Back in the city there had been plenty of androids, but for the most part they stuck to utilitarian designs, looking more like a bipedal forklift than a fuzzy toy animal. And yet here he was.

Mio turned around, looking at Tach with his big black eyes. "I don't think anything else living is moving in that storm. We should be safe here for the night." Tach was starting to get used to how each word sounded as though it were its own sentence.

Mio walked to the center of the cave, not even bothering to brush off the packed snow from his beige tweed jacket. He shrugged the haversack off his back, it was quiet enough that Tach could hear the servo motors whirring as he knelt down and started piling up kindling.

"Mio, the cold doesn't bother you does it?" Tach asked, watching as the snow melted off the rabbit, despite the fact that he hadn't lit the fire yet.

"I love it. The temperature keeps my head clear." the rabbit pulled off his coat, and half turned around, pointing at a gaping hole in his back, rimed with still-soft, tattered white velveteen. "I was able to pull out my radiator when I got here. That thing was easily a quarter of my mass."

"So why did you have wood in your bag?" Tach crouched beside Mio, feeling the heat radiate off him. Would it be weird to warm her hands on him? She decided against it.

"Trees don't grow too well out here. Wood's valuable." Mio peeled back the fur of his left wrist and expertly struck it against a piece of flint he held in his right. Sparks hit the wood, became flame. "Moreso than scavenged mechanical parts. I've been able to barter my way out of most situations where somebody wanted a piece of me."

Tach held her fingers as close to the young flames as she could without actually touching them. She grit her teeth as aching numbness was quickly overtaken by sharp, stabbing pain. "Aren't you worried about wasting your stash on me then?"

Mio made a sound that was like a record scratching, that Tach thought might be a chuckle. "I require nothing Tach." The first time he had said her name, it had been her own voice, but with each repetition it sounded more like his. "I can make fuel out of ice, and God knows we have more than enough of that." He paused to rummage through his backpack again, producing a kettle with three collapsing legs. "Honestly, if you can distract me from the eternal boredom I live in, you'll have more than earned your keep."

"Oh my gosh is that tea?" Tach shouted as Mio pulled a rusty tin from his bag.

The record scratch sound again. "I only use it on special occasions. You don't find much tea outside of the city." Mio put a chunk of ice in the kettle, and then stood it up over the fire. "I'll brew you one cup today, but don't get too used to it."