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[ST] A day passes, and another, and another, as the Once Dead struggle out of the foothills of the Crag Mountains and onto the snowfields beyond. It is cold beyond measure - limbs must be wrapped to prevent frostbite. The snow piles up to mid thigh in places, and struggling through it leaves bodies winded and exhausted. Little Adder takes sick, and begins to cough frequently, spitting bloody sputum into the snow.

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[ST] The march continues, and somewhere behind, Magdala's army is coming.  Once or twice, the group crosses faded tracks through the snow, raiding parties that have ventured ahead of them. Danger looms before and behind, and lives (and the League) hang in the balance.

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[Avir] Avir has little time to think of Little Adder, or even the League. The others couldn't expect much of him, not since he lost his medicine bag, not since he became Avir One-Handed. The bug squrims in his stomach, liking the cold little better than he did. Avir rubs the end of his stump; too often cold leached the blood from it. 

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[Avir] He prays Thunder Wisdom made it to Icehome. Was heeded. Because he doubted their band of sorry wounded would make it very much further.  "Aren't you going to help your snake over there, red Ragged Red?"

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[Avir] He glances at her sidelong, still massaging his stump as they trudge onward with hunched shoulders. 

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[ST] "He's going to die," Red says in response. She pushes her way through the snow doggedly, and alone seems to have retained some vitality in this harrowing situation. Breath puffs in front of her reddened face. Her crusted-over eye seems to have sunken inward and shrivelled with the cold. "All the fight's out of him now that he can't make his 'clever' remarks."

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[ST] "He'll die, and we'll leave him, or he'll be strong enough and snap out of it. What should I do?"

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[Avir] "You might help him up." And indeed, Little Adder had fallen and foundered in snow up his chest. 

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[ST] Miruna leads the way, carefully edging down a snow-covered ridge. Savage Bear-Daughter and Selza shadow him, and behind them come Rabbit and Jek, Obligatory Sunshine, Red and Avir. Adder brings up the rear, struggling through the snow, until he falls.

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[ST] "He'll only fall again. He's slowing us. Better to leave him." She doesn't look back.

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[Avir] "What will you do when the day comes that it him, or someone like him, looking down at you lying cold in the snow?"

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[ST] "I'll spring up and bite his throat out." She grunts, shoving a snow-covered branch out of the way. "Besides, that day hasn't come yet. Closest was when the Once Dead took my crew in." She smiles. "And you let me out of prison when I asked real nice."

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[Avir] Avir laughs shortly. "You're free as a bird, are you?" He stops and levers Adder to his feet again with a groan. Miruna always got ahead of him these days. He'd catch up that evening, as he always did.  "Good bargain."

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[ST] "It was. It's the one Adder took, too. I'm not so sure your organization made out well there. He's slowing us even more." Adder looks up at her with betrayed eyes, but it's true. Indeed, Miruna and the others are drawing away, though their tracks should be easy enough to follow. Adder moans out what could be thanks as he totters up and forward, but his pace is glacially slow. Obligatory

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[ST] Sunshine lags as well, and Red remains behind perhaps just to poke fun at Avir.

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[Avir] "Ever worry that one day someone's going to hit you from your blindside? If I were you, I would be worried."

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[ST] "Could be, but it won't hurt, and I hurt back," She smiles at him, reaching out a gloved hand to grasp at his left wrist. "I hope that wasn't a threat, for your sake." Her voice softens, becoming mock sympathetic. "Hard to hit without a fist, isn't it?"

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[Avir] "Oh, I've always relied on others to do my hitting for me. You know how it is- sickly child, neighborhood bullies...This?" He thrusts his raw wrist into her face. "This is just what'll put them at their ease." 

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[ST] "Yes... maybe we should talk about those others alone. And soon." She smiles at his stump blithely. 

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[Avir] She makes some snide response, and in this way he keeps her attention for a few minutes longer. The snow is thinner now, and Miruna's tracks begin to wander strangely. The conversation has skittered onto the verge of describing exaggerated sexual histories when Avir stops, breathing hard.  

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[Avir] "Obligatory...wait a moment..." Avir says, and the lad oblidgingly stops and gives him a hand.  

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[Avir] "Ragged Red...we need to catch..a breath," he adds. Her own arrogance would drive her forward. So he hoped, anyway. 

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[ST] "Breathing that hard, I think you'll have trouble," She says, shoving past him. "I'm eating your share if you're late." 

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[Avir] "You  go right ahead," Avir agrees, straightening up behind her. His eyes glinting she steps out into the snow. The snow Miruna had carefully avoided, having seen signs in the way the snow had fallen.  

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[Avir] Underneath her there is a loud cracking sound, like the sound of a tree limbing snapping...More creaks, and a long rolling creaking... 

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[Avir] "But if I were you, I'd watch where I  walked." 

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[Avir] A thunderous noise, and the eyes gives way beneath her, plunging her into freezing water. 

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[Avir] Avir kneels carefully at the edge of the ice, mutilated arm laid across his knee.  

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[Avir] "What was that you were saying earlier?" 

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[ST] Ragged Red does not feel pain. Does this mean she also does not feel pleasure? Does she feel at all? If she does, the icy water below quickly robs her of any feeling that remains. She thrashes, coughs, struggles uselessly in the frigid water, her hands clutching at the broken ice near where she sank in. 

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[ST] "...f-fuck... you..." she coughs, struggling. Her head goes under, and rises a moment later, wet and dripping. 

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[Avir] "Want help?" Avir asks, dark eyes watching her face.  

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[ST] "D-d-don't need it-" she grunts, her limbs moving more slowly as she struggles for the surface. Her hair is already beginning to freeze over. "C-climb out of here and k-k-kill you..." 

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[ST] "She will die," Obligatory Sunshine says at Avir's elbow, his face furrowed in concern. "She's too weak to crawl out." 

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[Avir] "She will," Avir agrees. "But if she is not a comrade who relies on us, as we rely on her- if she is only a rabid animal at the edge of the firelight..." 

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[Avir] He looks at Ragged Red expresionlessly. "Then it's best she's put down." 

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[ST] Red manages to get an arm onto the ice. She hauls herself forward, levering her body out of the water, but then slides back. Her muscles just aren't functioning as they should. 

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[ST] Adder stares dumbly, his sympathy gone, but Obligatory is already moving past Avir, stripping off his outermost layer of clothing. "I can't watch her die," he insists. 

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[Avir] "I didn't expect you to." He had hoped, though.  

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[Avir] Avir settles down to watch. "Help me," he tells Ragged Red. "Help. It's only a word." He mouthes it for her in an exaggerated way, as though she were a foreigner. 

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[ST] Obligatory moves out onto the ice. It creaks alarmingly beneath his weight, but he seems not to notice it, throwing himself down on his belly and hurling the jacket across the ice to Ragged Red. She grasps it, and with one tremendous haul, Obligatory levers her from the water. She stares poison at Avir. Sodden, wet, she begins to tremble violently almost immediately. Obligatory turns to Avir, 

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[ST] his face contorted. 

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[Avir] "We'd best strip her. And us," Avir says calmly. "She'll still die if we can't warm her in time."  

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[Avir] Adder would at least provide body heat. 

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[ST] In biting cold like this, it should be impossible to see a man blush, but Obligatory does. Red extends a trembling arm to grasp at Avir's clothing. 

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[ST] Red extends a trembling arm, curling her fingers loosely in the front of Avir's coat. 

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[ST] "Fffnn kiii yuu," she manages. 

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[Avir] "For what? Stopping for breath?" He looks at Obligatory. "Strip her and pull her out of the wind." He unbuttons his coat one-handed and shrugs awkwardly out of it.  

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[ST] Obligatory pulls Red behind a drift of snow and, with shaking fingers, sets about removing her garments. His broken finger - courtesy of the woman he's currently nursing - hampers him in this task. 

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[ST] Little Adder trails after the group, watching silently. 

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[ST] Red's nude body is as angular and hard as the rest of her, covered here and there with truly horrific scars, signs of wounds that should have killed a person, many times over. 

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[Avir] Too bad Jek wasn't here. He was practiced at getting women naked. Though Red...Avir avoids looking at her. Was she some kind of mutant? He's naked himself soon enough, and he glares at Obligatory until the boy begins shuffling with more energy at hsi clothes. He tosses the wet clothes to Adder. "Hang those out."  

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[ST] Adder roams away, staggering a little under the heavy bundle. Obligatory is shuddering wildly - he looks as if he wants nothing more than to dig a hole in the earth and vanish forever. 

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[Avir] He wraps his coat around them both, with Red sandwiched between them. "Relax," he tells the boy kindly. It was hard not to think of him as a boy, even if he were only a handful of years younger. "This has nothing to do with sex. Rub her limbs. She's most likely to lose those." 

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[Avir] Ragged Red is chill and wet, but her shivering had grown less severe. 

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[ST] "R-rub her limbs?" Obligatory blinks uncertainly. Red coughs something unintelligable. 

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[Avir] Avir demonstrates, awkward without a hand.  

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[ST] After a moment, Obligatory follows suit, reddening still more. Outside the jacket, the wind howls ferociously. Hopefully Miruna would turn back at some point. 

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[Avir] And if not, they might have a long cold walk in the night ahead of them. As it was, the pacifist was the only able-bodied person among them.  

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[ST] Red doesn't look at Avir as, later, she refastens her now dry clothing. Obligatory stands near her, looking dutifully away, which seems to amuse her after recent events. 

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[ST] "I'm almost sorry I broke this kid's finger," she remarks to no one in particular. "But he's going to get killed if he keeps doing stuff like this." 

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[Avir] Avir scratches at the skin around his hacked-off stump. "Why, that sounded almost like a thank you." 

[ST] "Almost," she agrees readily enough, reaching forward to tousle Obligatory's hair. Her fingers stray over the bloody stump of his ear by accident(?) and he gives a pained grunt. "He kind of reminds me of a pet I had once. Though he's a lot more sweet-tempered. Iscal was a sniveling little worm at heart."  

[ST] "Almost," she agrees readily enough, reaching forward to tousle Obligatory's hair. Her fingers stray over the bloody stump of his ear by accident(?) and he gives a pained grunt. "He kind of reminds me of a pet I had once. Though he's a lot more sweet-tempered. Iscal was a sniveling little worm at heart."  

DKMortals/SessionThirty - Revision history

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