Fate

Eight

He woke to a face full of Elyssa's hair and frozen fingers. He must have fallen asleep after she insisted they stop so she could have a look at his ankle. He'd been limping badly by then.

When they'd pried his boot off, his ankle had been swelled twice it's normal size and was an angry, pulsing red. Elyssa had chastened him for letting it get so bad as she bound it tightly using the bloody scraps of his old shirt.

After she'd finished, she'd curled up into a ball at his side and promptly fell asleep. He must've dozed off himself sometime after that. At some point in the night, she'd migrated from next to him to on him, her cloak billowing out to cover them both. She was still out of it, her face red from the cold and the skin around her eyes was puffy. She'd been crying again.

It had snowed in the night, hopefully the last snow of the season, a moderate blanket covering everything, themselves included. They were extremely lucky that they hadn't frozen to death in their sleep. He frowned, rousing Elyssa, just to be sure. They needed to get out of the cold.

Her eyes blinked open in wonder at the fluffy whiteness surrounding them. She shivered then, drawing herself further into him. "We should find someplace warm, and quickly." He was not ignorant to the way her teeth were chattering, or that her lips were tinged with blue. What an idiot he'd been, allowing themselves to spend the night exposed.

She pushed herself to her feet, sinking into the snow. Tonius frowned yet again. They were a couple of days walk, a least, from Malden, which was the nearest town. She wouldn't make it that far without shoes.

He gave her the rucksack and tent bag—lot of good that had been for them—waiting until she had swung both over her shoulders before he squatted down.

"Are you sure?" she asked with uncertainty, staring at him with worry. "Your ankle..."

"Just get on." True, his ankle was still throbbing, but it wasn't as bad as it had been the day before. In fact, it was mostly healed, though not nearly as much as it should have been. It had only been a sprain. It should have been far better by now. Perhaps Beast was halting the healing as punishment for something. But whatever the case, he would endure.

After a second's hesitation, she climbed onto his back. Her bare legs were already freezing and wet from melted snow. He tucked them under his coat the best he could, breaking into a light, painful jog. The sooner they got warm, the better.

∞∞∞∞

Malden ended up being a lot farther off than what he had remembered. The weather had only gotten nastier, the nights harsher. Tonius was even more grateful to Micah now for providing them with a tent. It was doing a far better job at keeping them alive than he was.

With the dense trees already being difficult to navigate through, and with the relentless snow not making things any better, he had no choice but to take them by road, though he kept as close to the tree line as he possibly could, just in case.

He needn't be worried though. With the weather the way it was, the frost staking its claim over Abeillnuv viciously, unwilling to release its hold, not even the bravest of travelers were willing to venture out. Tonius didn't blame them. Cold had become such a familiar feeling for him. Like second nature. A deep-set cold that clung to his bones and wouldn't let go. His fingers and toes remained a constant shade of purple, a sign that frostbite would be settling in soon, if it hadn't already. The weather had turned on them so quickly with very little warning. They hadn't been prepared.

Mornings were the hardest. Each day, it became more and more difficult to rise from his bedroll, to shake Elyssa awake, pack up their camp and keep moving. Some mornings, he just wanted to close his eyes and never wake up.