Chapter Text
It was cold and cramped in the cave.
There were only a few streaks of light peeking out from between the big, jagged rocks that had sealed the entrance. Paddy could crawl about three paces in all directions and just barely lift his head. The party had been frantically trying to look for somewhere to find shelter in a storm which was quickly becoming a full blown blizzard. Paddy had spotted the cave, decided to inspect it, and went in. When he was in the middle of the cavern, the ceiling of the cave collapsed, trapping the elf in.
It was likely that the party only noticed Paddy’s absence about five minutes before. Paddy wondered who it was that first took note of it. He tried to move his numbing fingers and noted that he could barely feel his fingertips. He was regretting buying those fingerless gloves.
He pulled his cloak tighter around his body, letting his cheeks get buried by the leaves that adorned his hood. If there was any good source of light in that cave with anyone else with him, they would have noticed his entire face being flushed and the tips of Paddy’s nose and his lips turning bluer by the second.
Paddy started to shiver more and more, until it was a violent shake that didn’t stop. He was frozen to the bone, with snow in his eyelashes and frost on his cheeks. He vaguely wondered if the party was looking for him by then, and if they could figure out where he was.
They would have to be there soon.
His eyes started to droop. He didn’t have enough energy to cast any spell of sorts. He could only hope that his tracks outside hadn’t already been covered. But the snow that was quickly piling in the cave through the fallen boulders didn’t give him much hope. If they hadn’t already found where he was, he would be dead within the hour. He was well aware of that chilling fact.
But tried as hard as he might, he couldn’t find it within himself and his chattering teeth to produce anything more than a whisper. He thought he might’ve heard voices outside and he tried harder, but after a moment he realized that it was just the ferocious wind. The party couldn’t even be out there even if half the party was stuck with him; the storm was too much.
But Paddy still tried to listen through the chatter of his own teeth. Even as the small slivers of light through the rocks began to fade.
He thought he heard a muffled voice. One too deep to be the wind. He tried to shake himself awake.
He tried to stand up to go to the edge of the rocks, but as he stood on his shaky, hypothermic legs, he collapsed. Snow and a couple of pebbles fell from the ceiling of the cave.
He thought he heard the voice again, only louder. He could barely make out what it said.
“Paddy!”
His eyes widened as much as they could in their frozen state.
He tried to manage a crawl, to get closer, but he fell once more and more snow and this time slightly larger rocks started to fall from the ceiling, but they didn’t stop.
He only had a couple minutes at best. One minute at worst before the structure fell on him.
He heard the voice again, the closest and loudest it’s been.
“Paddy!” The voice called, and it dawned on Paddy that it was Malark. And with the dawn came a hope welling up inside of the wood elf.
Snow was falling more rapidly now, and the Malark’s call was getting farther away.
Paddy, with what little he had left, screamed, “Malark!”
Paddy was up to his forearms in snow now. Middle-sized rocks were falling now. The cave was going to collapse on him. The other rogue’s voice wasn’t getting any closer.
“Malark!”
The voice stopped.
Paddy’s eyes drooped. His energy was at its end, taken away by the cold.
Paddy, too tired to come up with anything comprehensive, did the one thing he could do and screamed his throat raw.
The snow reached his face now, his body buried by the snow and rocks. Paddy couldn’t feel anything. He had given up on crawling as was now just lying there, getting completely covered by the mixture of snow and rocks.
Paddy’s eyes drooped again, this time staying closed for a little longer than before.
Malark was right outside the cave now, and maybe a few others. Paddy couldn’t really tell, it was a fight to even stay conscious.
They were trying to dig him out. They almost got there, too. Out of the corner of his eye, Paddy saw Malark through the cracks of the rocks and the snow that was covering his eyes.
Paddy could only blink and then, the cave collapsed and the snow came tumbling down on top of him.
Paddy couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. He was so tired. And cold. He couldn’t see anything. Flitting in and out of consciousness, he couldn’t think about anything else. While he was unconscious, he lived through different moments of his life again. The first spell he cast, the first time he held a dagger, those kinds of moments. But also the first time he laid eyes on Malark, noting his striking eyes, and recalled the suspicion as well as the interest that had arisen. He relived the unadulterated fear when Malark was about to sacrifice himself to two krakens, both assassins from his old guild. He also recalled the last time he died, and remembered the last look Malark gave him before he went under. He also remembered the indescribable look in his eyes when he first saw him again. He had never seen the look before, and hadn’t seen it again.
~~~~~~
Malark was the one to pull Paddy out from the snow. The body was colder than ice, and unmoving other than a miniscule rise and fall of the elf’s chest.
Paddy weakly flitted his eyes half open, and managed a smile when he met Malark’s eyes.
And for the first time in a long while, he saw the look in Malark’s pale blue eyes once more. And he felt Malark’s arms wrapped against him in a hug.
It was warm in Malark’s embrace.