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Snow crunched under hoof, dancing in the sky and shifting across the ground as the pair rode onwards, their horses plodding slowly through the deep white powder. Raven ran a hand through her bushy hair, shaking some of the flakes from its bushy form, though they were soon replaced by the slow, steady fall from the heavens. They’d been riding for ages, yet the blurry form of trees in the distance hadn’t gotten any closer. With this pace, there was no way they’d make it by sundown.
Summer seemed to have realised the same, looking around the blank expanse for options as she pulled her woollen cloak closer to her face. She seemed to come to the same conclusion, however, and turned to Raven. “We need to make camp. Soon.”
“Really,” Raven raised an eyebrow, regarding the sellsword with a mocking tone. “And how are we gonna do that, exactly? There’s quite literally nothing out here.”
Summer was quiet for a moment, as she continued to scan the landscape, leaving the bandit to stew and stare at the back of her head.
“We can build a Quinzhee,” she finally said, turning her horse toward a small patch of trees on the verge of collapsing from the bitter wind, leaving Raven to follow her in confusion. Once they arrived, she h0opped off her horse, stamping at the ground. “Yep. Here should be good.”
“Hey, the heck are we doing-” a finger to her face cut Raven off. “We are building a shelter. I need you to make up some guide sticks, about a foot long, the same length for all of them. Get as many as you can, okay?” Not waiting for an answer, Summer went to work, pulling a shovel from one of the two baggage horses. Raven just shrugged and obliged. Clearly, the woman had a plan. She fetched her knife from her own baggage horse and trudged over to the various saplings, trees and shrubbery. And she got to work.
When she returned, she was proven right. Summer has begun creating a mound of snow, and as soon as Raven arrived, she began directing her on digging up snow, as Summer mixed the top and bottom layers of snow together and packed them onto the pile, eventually creating a mound of about 7 feet high, and 13 feet wide, along with a small mound to the side of the structure. Satisfied, Summer then had Raven help her push the sticks into the mound.
“Okay,” Raven took a few steps back, cocking her head as she regarded the structure. “Now what?”
“Now, we let it sinter.”
“The huh?”
“Sinter. The snow needs time to bind and compact,m so its strong enough to sleep under.”
“Okay. How long.”
“Eh, 2 hours-ish.” Summer ignored Raven’s agape expression, making her way over the horses who were idling around. “Get us some firewood from those trees, I’ll deal with the horses.” Once again, there was no room for arguing. Raven just grumbled to herself, grabbed her Messer, and got to work. Soon, they had fed and clothed horses, a warm fire, and meat roasting on it. The two sat opposite one another, Raven turning the meat as Summer just stared into the fire, both wrapped up in woollen cloaks. All as the sun began to kiss the horizon, the sky growing dark in shades of orange, pink and purple.
“So,” Raven began, placing the stick of meat down. “Wha’s’ the plan for tomorrow?”
Summer tapped her chin for a moment. “Well, this shelter will only be for the night. Once dawn breaks, we’ll set off as before. Once we finally reach Katrivia, we can start looking for leads.”
“Right. So just as before.”
“Yeah.”
Silence fell again, and Raven began to sort out the food, handing Summer a skewer and eating her own, before setting up a set of new ones.
…
“So what’s your favourite colour?”
Summer raised an eyebrow at the question, making Raven blush. “What? I’m tryin’ to make conversation, I don’t like-”
“White.”
“Ok. Okay.”
…
“What’s your favourite food, Rae?”
Raven tapped her chin, pondering the question hard. “Hmm. I’d have to say… a nice slab of mutton. With some really nice potatoes, roasted. And gravy, loads of gravy.” Summer chuckled at her answer, making Raven scowl. “Hey, wha’s funny?”
“I just expected it to be insects, given your name.”
“Hey! I’m not a bloody bird.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know. I think your choice suits you more, anyway.” That seemed to satisfy Raven, as she slumped back with a “hmph”, resting on her large fur and feather cloak. This time, Summer passed the food round, and placed on the last of their skewers,
“I think it’s your turn to ask a question, isn’t it?”
Raven nodded, thinking. “How about… why’d you become a sellsword?”
“Ooo, that’s actually kinda simple. My parents both were, so it seemed the most obvious thing to go into, having lived around the job my whole life. Only thing that really would’ve stopped me was Ruby.”
“Your daughter?”
“Yeah. She means the world to me. I think if I hadn’t gotten a permanent job as a huntsman for Vale city, I might’ve put up my weapon for good. I, I didn’t really want her to grow up around that job. I managed to, sure, but… I didn’t want her limited by it. I wanted her to be more than that life, more than I could be.” She chuckled bitterly, spinning one of the skewers. “I guess I kinda failed, didn't I?”
“Hey, no, you didn’t!” Raven sat up again, leaning forward to look at Summer better. “The fact you’re in this bloody hellscape proves that. So many other parents wouldn’t go to anywhere near these lengths to find their kids.” Summer hummed, nodding her head.
“Well, what about you? Yang’s your daughter's name, right?” That made Raven grab her cloak hard, letting silence fall between them, like a sudden wall of ice. “I-I’m sorry, that's probably personal, isn’t it? I’ll ask something else-”
“No.” Raven put her hand up. “No, it’s fine. It’s only the same as what I asked, I owe you an answer.” Summer gulped, but didn’t object.
“I… didn't break any cycle, as you did. I raised her like a Branwen, as anyone else in the clan would. And well… I think she resents me for that. Cause in a tribe like mine, things like personal connection, hell jus’ caring… they’re seen as weak. And Yang, well… that firecracker didn't like that. She thought we shouldn’t just rule over the weak, but protect them too. Help them become strong too, not jus’ sit in our lil’ camp in the woods. And that meant we butted heads, hell she butted heads with everyone. And one day, well…
She left. So I’m out here, lookin’ for her. But it’s been a while, and… well, I doubt she actually thinks I’m lookin’ for her.”
…
“I disagree.”
“Hmm?”
“I think she knows you’re out here. Looking for her. Because if you were really like how you said, you wouldn’t be. You’d still be at that camp, looking after yourself. Deep down, you want to keep her safe. Protect her. And yes, that didn’t manifest in the greatest of ways, but that’s still why you did it. And seeing as Yang’s made it this far, presumably with just Ruby, who I know certainly isn’t some wonder woman with a weapon, she’s clearly attentive. So she will have noticed why you did it. And I bet she’ll be waiting. No, I know she will be.”
For another time, silence fell between them, only broken by the spitting of the fire and the whistling of the wind. The sun was dropping further, however, so they needed to use what little light they had left. Summer stood, offering a hand to Raven.
“Come on then. We need this thing dug out before light. It should be all good now.” Raven took a moment, before she grabbed Summer’s hand, nodding.
They’d find their daughters. No matter what.