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A fluffy white head poked up from under a layer of dead leaves. Everything was still, all was silent, save for the slow breathing of the faun’s naga companion near the opposite wall. The scales on his tale had changed from vibrant green to a lovely blue as autumn had slipped into winter. He was quite proud to show that off at every opportunity before he took to his semi-hibernation.
Ashe looked around and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. There was light streaming in from the cave’s entrance, reflecting off the freshly fallen snow that lay there. Also cold. Lots of cold was coming in.
Ashe shivered. There was a bundle of firewood next to the pit at the entrance of the cave, waiting to be made into a roaring fire. It wasn’t too long before Ashe was sat by the little flames, eating a handful of nuts for breakfast and staring out into the snowy expanse beyond their shelter.
There were things to do today. Much as she was loathe to, Aesling got to her hooves and creeped out into the wintered forest.
Everything was hushed as a hibernating rabbit. Even the few birds that flitted around were silent in their search for food. The only semblance of sound was when her hooves sunk through the thick layer of snow.
First on the list was the river. Ashe needed to check in with Xandal and make sure no part of it was completely frozen through. Next was to visit the forest’s dryad council. After that was checking in with the border patrols, and then another half dozen smaller tasks.
Twilight was settling over the woods before Aesling made it back to the cave, shivering and wet and very very tired. She stuffed a handful of nuts into her mouth and was barely two steps towards her sleeping area when she heard Markus’ voice.
“Ashe, where’ve you been?” Grogginess laid heavily over his voice and his tongue was slipping over his ‘s’ sounds, as it tended to do when he wasn’t fully awake.
“Taking care of things in the forest. Go back to sleep, Markus, you’re supposed to be hibernating.”
“Mm, you must be freezing. C’mere, hugs makes warmer faster.” He half uncoiled himself to reach over and pull the faun towards him, wrapping his arms around her smaller form.
“You’re not making much sense, Markus. Seriously, go back to sleep, I’ll be fine.”
“Sure, sure. You come sleep too,” he said, pulling her back to nest in the coils of his tail. He felt much warmer than she’d expected, and after a meager protest that had done little to gain the attention of the once again sleeping naga, Ashe finally let herself settle down to sleep as well. She had to admit, it was rather nice being cuddled to get warm, even if she was essentially a teddy bear at this point.