Closed hazy shade of winter

[Imala]

hazy shade of winter / 14 winter 512 / Sea of Grass It was cold. Not quite freezing, but cold. You still had to bathe in the winter, no matter how much you didn't want to, and it was awful. Even though there was no snow, the stream might as well have been frozen. But you had to get it over with as quickly as possible. No toe dipping, just a jump and a splash and a scrub of the body and hair as fast as you can. The sun was out, but that didn't change anything. The grass was just barely melting from the morning frost, and her fur cloak and a pile of clothing (almost-freshly washed since she had been out hunting the day before) were sitting peacefully near the bank. She wasn't alone by choice. No one liked being with Imala when her collar was off, and it was off at the moment for bathing. She jumped into the stream. It wasn't very deep, only up to her knees, but the splash was enough to get most of her body wet. She sat down, shivering, her bar of soap in hand, and shoved her head underwater. If she had been tired, she wasn't anymore. She rubbed the soap on her hand and worked it through her hair, indigo streaks even darker because of the wet. Her dark brown hair was almost black in the wet, as well, but the indigo was still visible. Stupid hair.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sama'el really wasn't the sort of fellow who ogled naked ladies as they bathed, but he was just standing on the other side of the stream, downstream and downwind, and while Dohaina was drinking from the chill waters, he was refilling his waterskin. But then she appeared, naked and with her strangely colored hair, and jumped into the stream.

Had he found his tongue, he might have warned her of his nearby presence. He might have offered to make the turgid waters boil so she could enjoy at least a tepid bath as the cold, cold waters moved slowly by. With his tongue or without it, he might have looked away, but she was splashing about and he had seen her now.

Well, when he caught himself staring, he turned around, knelt in the frozen grass on his side of the stream while Dohaina ignored them both. There was no glassbeak smell now, just two humans, and so she was not afraid. But it didn't take long for her to lift her muzzle out of the water and sneeze for its chill. At least she had managed to drink until Sama'el had offered back as much of the girl's modesty as was possible, looking in the opposite direction, when that happened.