[Jedi]

"Are you sure it was from around here?" The Firbolg woman looked worried, unsure whether her companion had just seen a mirage or if she shouldn't be questioning him in the first place. The frigid air and whipping snow were starting to freeze her hair still. She also looked to her companions to see if they had any quarrel, but before she could get another word out, her Goliath friend interjected.

"Look, I swear I saw something glistening in the distance. Just because I'm a barbarian of sorts, doesn't mean I have the intelligence of one." Lo-Ren didn't like being questioned to a certain extent, but he was sure he wasn't wrong. Then again, he'd been leading them through these mountains for an hour already without any luck of finding anything.

[Kitsumi]

Arms crossed over her chest, Reed attempted to rub her mitten-clad hands against her arms through the many thick layers she wore. The weather here was cold, deadly so. It was even worse for the tiefling, who was much more accustomed to warmer climates. She was practically born and bred in fire, so the ice and snow was not something that she enjoyed. "We don't even know what it is we're trying to find," she spoke in a heavily accented voice through chattering teeth. "Perhaps we should go back to where it is warm."

Aquilo, the sole member of the party who appeared to be unaffected by the sub-zero temperature, offered his own suggestion. "I could scout ahead, see if there actually is something. I have my snowshoes so I can travel more quickly through these drifts, and the cold doesn't bother me in the slightest."

[Jedi]

The snow-capped mountains were something Lo-Ren was use to, but this seemed to be even colder. He could already feel himself shivering in the cold. "Autumn, you should take Reed down to somewhere warmer." His words cut in and out through chattering teeth. "What about you, Lo-Ren? We can tell you're cold too." He stood, shivering in the cold for a good six seconds before responding. "I'll be down soon. There's still something I can do to help. Besides, I'm the one who spotted it." Autumn didn't wish to argue longer than she needed, so she turned to Reed. "We'd better head down."

A few moments later, Lo-Ren sat down on the snow-covered ground and performed a ritual, communing with the nature of the mountainous range. A low, eerie howl filled the air around them. With that, a pack of luminescent wolves could be seen, coming to aid in their search.

[Kitsumi]

"N-no!" Reed tried to protest. "I'm not s-so weak that y-you need to leave me b-behind." But the stammer in her words, caused by her violent shivering, made it clear that she was suffering worse than any of them. Still, she didn't want to just abandon the two men.

Aquilo, however, nodded in agreement at this idea. "The two of you remember the way back to my cabin? Get a fire started. Perhaps prepare some food, I'm sure we'll all be exhausted and hungry after this. I'll make sure that Lo-Ren gets back safely."

The tiefling realized that there was really no use in arguing. So she began walking back down the mountain with Autumn, retracing the steps that they had taken earlier.

Meanwhile, the white-haired man stayed behind and watched as the goliath summoned his spirit animals.

[Jedi]

The giant-kin man sat in the snow, unmoving save for the shivering of his over-exposed skin. He didn't need a great deal of armor, but that left him exposed to the elements. Over the next minute, the wolves quickly scouted and let out more howls, alerting him to their communal words. "They did find something unusual. If it were anything normal, they wouldn't have bothered. They couldn't tell me what it was, only that they found it."

Meanwhile, five minutes down the mountain, Autumn could tell that Reed was suffering greatly. "Here," she began to offer. "Let me carry you. You can warm yourself up in my cloak I promise I won't judge." She pulled off her long, brown travelling coat to offer it to her.

[Kitsumi]

At Lo-Ren's words, Aquilo reached for the blade at his side. "Do we know if it is dangerous, at least?" he asked. As he spoke, he began heading in the direction of the howls. "Are you coming with me, or do you want to go with the women to get warm? Whatever this is, I'm sure I can handle it myself."

======================

Her first thought was to deny the offer. Reed was not the type to rely on the aid of others; she was self-sufficient. But she knew that her pride could end in her getting frostbite, so she swallowed it down and accepted the offer. "T-thank you," she stammered. "I p-promise I will find a w-way to make it u-up to you."

[Jedi]

Lo-Ren stood, shaking off the shivers as best as he could. He turned to Aquilo and took in a deep breath. "I feel like I should go with you. It may be cold, but at this elevation, I can breath easier." He turned toward the direction. "We'd better get on the move. The faster we figure this out, the sooner we can get back."

A ten minute trek through the snow, following spectral wolf-prints that Lo-Ren wasn't sure if Aquilo could see, they reached something unusual. The prints ended before a shimmering archway they couldn't see a few feet prior.

======================

Autumn helped to wrap the large coat around the medium-sized tiefling, then continued to pick up and cradle her in her arms. She didn't want to disturb her, but felt that she should start running back. Otherwise, they might both freeze to death before they made it back to the cabin. "We'll get th-th-ere soo-oon," she assured the smaller woman.

[Kitsumi]

For a moment, Aquilo thought about rejecting Lo-Ren's offer to come with him. He was used to the air at these elevations; he had lived in these mountains most of his life. But it was the goliath who had discovered whatever it was that they were looking for, and it was his spirit animals guiding the way. So in the end, the mountain man really had no room to say no.

The walk was silent as both of them conserved their energy for the uphill trek. When they stopped, at first the white-haired man had no idea what he was looking at. All he saw was snow, and - oh. Oh.

"What is that?" he asked. "Some sort of portal?"

[Jedi]

By the time the Goliath arrived at the portal, he felt like a walking icicle. "Now that w-we know what it-t is, w-we can t-t-try to find a way t-to stop-p it." He fought hard to keep the chattering to a minimum, but it escaped sure enough.

He figured that it wouldn't be a good idea for them to venture further now. "But perhaps-s we c-can come bac-k in the m-m-morning, when we've prep-p-pared for the harshhh weather." He pulled his wolf-cape around his torso, trying to warm himself up any way he could.

======================

Autumn cradled Reed in her left while she reached forward to open the cabin door. Luckily, he had left it unlocked. "We're here, Reed. Let me see if I can get a fire going." She set her down in a couch so that she could stock the fireplace.

[Kitsumi]

Aquilo became quite concerned when he heard the way that Lo-Ren was speaking. The other man was clearly freezing. He only hoped that the goliath wouldn't suffer frostbite, or something worse.

"Yes," he spoke easily, with no chattering teeth or any other indication that he was cold in the slightest. "Let's get back to my cabin for now. It'll be dark soon anyways, which means the temperature will drop even further. We'll come back later."

======================

As the firbolg managed to get a fire crackling, Redeemed began to relax. The cold that had seeped into her very bones was now being chased away by the warmth that slowly filled the room. She sighed, leaning close to the flames and holding her numb fingers out to them.

But as she began to warm up, she felt something that the intense cold had hidden. It was a prickling sensation in the back of her mind. Normally she would have noticed it immediately, but she had been too cold to focus on anything except for getting warm. Now however, she practically jumped out of her seat and stared at the door.

"I know what they're looking for," she said, expression grim.

[Jedi]

Lo-Ren walked alongside Aquilo, but he barely felt able to do so. His bare arms were going blue, a layer of frost coated his boots, and his hair had frozen stiff. Lo-Ren didn't know why he was suffering such ailments. He'd grown up in wintery mountains just like this. But he didn't bother pondering it, as walking was taking up so much of his thought process already. Luckily, he was able to push on through until they got to Aquilo's cabin, nearly passing out from exhaustion on the front step...

======================

Just as her fur was starting to defrost, she saw a spark of worry in Reed's eyes. "What is it?" she asked, though she was fearful of the answer. At that moment, she heard a thump at the door. She crept up, frozen with fear and paranoia, and creaked open the door. "Oh, Lo-Ren. Is he okay?"

[Kitsumi]

It wasn't pleasant to watch his companion suffer in the cold. Aquilo set as fast a pace as he believed the goliath could match, trying to get them both to warmth and safety as quickly as possible. He felt a huge sense of relief when his cabin finally came within view. Smoke was pouring out of the chimney, a welcoming sign. It meant that a fire had already been started. Hopefully the building would already have filled with warmth.

When they finally reached the door, the mountain man was forced to help support the other male's weight. With one arm holding him up, he used the other to push the door open. "Let's get him in front of the fire," he said, gesturing for the others to help him.

Meanwhile, Redeemed's eyes were still filled with worry. But she pushed it down for now, knowing that getting Lo-Ren warm should be their first priority. Once she was sure that he would be alright, she would tell the others what she had sensed... although she had a feeling that the men may already know.

[Jedi]

The three of them carefully move Lo-Ren to the fireplace, setting him comfortably on the floor. An hour passes, but to no avail. Lo-Ren remains on the ground, unconscious, yet shivering and dropping in temperature. "What's wrong with him?" Autumn asks. "I've never seen him affected by the cold before? Do you know what's going on?" She stood, perplexed for a good minute until...

"Wait a minute," she said as she started to remember something similar. She waived her hands on the ground, spreading dried foliage and twigs as she did so, and ended by touching her hand together in front of herself. She lit up in an earthy greet glow before it went away. She looked at Lo-Ren, seeing her hypothesis as correct.

"He's got Frost Fever. It's a disease that comes from the Frostfell. I heard about it in my training."

[Kitsumi]

The expectation had been that once he was able to warm up, Lo-Ren would recover quickly. But Aquilo was quickly learning that this wasn't the case. The goliath was still shivering, unconscious, skin frighteningly cold despite the crackling fire so close nearby.

When Autumn spoke, the man jerked a glance at her. "Frost Fever? I've never encountered such a thing." His eyes narrowed, brows furrowing as he thought. "Do you know how to cure it?"

Meanwhile, Redeemed had settled in to sit near the unconscious male. She was keeping track of his vitals, and her expression looked grim. "We need to do something soon," she said. "If we don't manage to keep his temperature from dropping, I don't think he's going to make it."

[Jedi]

Autumn stared down at her friend, who was slowly freezing to death. "I'm not surprised," she answered Aquilo. "From what I've heard, Frost Fever usually only sets in when you've come in contact with elemental ice energies. What did you two find out there?" She looked over to the tall human, who stood even taller than her, her doe eyes begging for an answer.

She looked back down to her friend again. "I can't cure it yet. It's a disease, so if I prepare a spell in the morning, I should be able to fix it." She placed her hands on his bare chest, a green moss blooming where her fingers contacted the skin. "The best I can do for now is heal his current state." The moss began to lose color, as the color returned to Lo-Ren's chest slowly.