[Avanthal] Over the River and Through the Woods

[Diamond Rat]

"Yeah," said Rat. "Just keep thinking about how warm it is over in Frostfawn. Hehe"

Even the stables over there were much better than outside. Tons of hay to nestle down in, huge , warm horses, fresh oats to sample when no one was looking. It smelled really nice in there, too. Usually the horses didn't mind, but sometimes Rat had small heart attacks when the curious mammals made weird lippy faces towards her, showing off their huge white teeth.

Diamond Rat rubbed her mittens and continued to patter across the top of the snow, making no footprints. She was light enough to not break the slightly icy top layer, though she rarely paid any attention to that. It didn't strike her as weird that most human beings had to slog a bit in this climate.

Soon, the glow of the hold's windows would appear through the trees.

[Nidassasyae]

Nidassasyae scowled at the ice beneath her feet. In her true form, this wouldn't be a problem. Her wide paws enabled her to walk across the crusted outer layer, while prey sank down beneath it and had a hard time running. Now that she was in her human form, she had to walk as her prey did, though it wasn't too deep. She could still step lightly enough through it, if she concentrated on where to place her feet. Nidae was indignant at how useless this human form was, one could do nothing with it! Sticking her tongue out at the ground, the Kelvic continued stepping lightly forwards. She'd never stayed in her human form long enough to need more than boots, shirt, and a cloak. Mittens were a entirely foreign item to her, they looked like cloth paws. Nodding her head towards Diamond Rat's mittens, the inquisitive leopard asked, "What are those?" "I can see the Hold ahead! We should be there in a few minutes," grinned Nidae, since Diamond Rat had seemed eager to reach her destination.

[Diamond Rat]

"Oh," said Rat. "These're..."

She had no idea what they were called. They were just big warm fuzzy things that kept her hands warm. They weren't hers, after all. Uh. *$#&%. Rat briefly considered making up a name for them, but nothing sounded right. In fact, all the words Rat could think up sounded stupid as hell.

"They're big warm fuzzy things that keep my hands cold. I mean warm," Rat said. She pulled one off and passed it to NIdae so she could take a look at it. They were so close to the hold that Rat figured her stupid human hand wouldn't freeze off in the meantime. Plus, Rat had a big warm pocket with the walnuts in it. "Some vantha uh...they just um...they dropped it. So. Mine now."

Just dropped it? A likely story...

[Nidassasyae]

"Oh," Nidae tilted her head to one side in a decidedly cat-like fashion, examining the mitten. It certainly was fuzzy, though not like a pelt. It was more fuzzy in a sort of scratchy way, made up of thick fibers knitted together. The leopard wasn't sure why Diamond Rat liked these, they seemed quite scratchy and uncomfortable. Still, she supposed that they could keep you warm. The leopard Kelvic passed the mitten back to Diamond Rat, her curiosity sated for now. She didn't understand that Rat was lying, and she simply accepted that a Vantha had dropped their warm fuzzy knitted paws on the floor. It made sense that Diamond Rat had kept them. After all, it must be much warmer in her burrow, so she might be unused to the cold on her hands. A orange light shone off the snow before them, and Nidae looked up at the Frostfawn Hold. She supposed that Nehsmay might be somewhere inside, but didn't want to risk getting caught outside in the snow. Nidassasyae had been unconscious just the other day, the Vantha girl wouldn't be too happy if she caught Nidae traipsing about in the snow. These Frostfawns cared a lot about animals, and that meant she was probably supposed to be somewhere inside the Hold, recovering. Her bandaged arm was proof of that. "We're here," Nidassasyae announced, somewhat unnecessarily. "What now?"

[Diamond Rat]

"Yep! We're here," Rat said, also unnecessarily. She put her warm fuzzy hand-warming object back on with a small wave at Nidae.

Wow! This was pretty frickin' awkward. Rat didn't ever waltz into Frostfawn as a person, and she wasn't keen on admitting that if anyone in the hold actually did speak to her on a first-name basis, it was when she was a bird.

Rat sucked in her breath and summoned her courage. She wandered towards one of the hold's doors, but couldn't bring herself to try opening it. So she just stared at it intensely, as if willing it open.

OOCWhen they get in the hold, what do you wanna do?

[Nidassasyae]

OOCUmm, I'm not sure. I have a friend who lives in the Hold, but she's been offline for a while now. Nidae actually wouldn't be too keen on going back inside there, she'd be more than a little scared of said friend, and if they'll be angry with her for not resting. As Diamond Rat stared at the door, a small noise met Nidae's ears. She looked away from the Hold, trying to find the source. It was a chirping sound, very faint. It seemed to be coming from one of the trees. The Kelvic walked forwards, trying to figure it out. All of a sudden, a small form burst out of one of the nearby trees, flapping its tiny wings, the wind bearing it away. Nidae shrugged, she supposed that was the tree the noises had come from. Just when she thought that the small bird had gone, it circled back, diving at her. Was it protecting something? A nest, perhaps? In the end it didn't really matter, the tiny bird just pecked at Nidae, inflicting no wounds, but startling her nonetheless. Covering her eyes, Nidae crossed her arms over her head, wincing at the sharp pain of the bird's beak. Yes, it was probably protecting little ones, why else would it come out of nowhere and attack? "Rat!! Help! I don't want to hurt it!" she yelled to the other Kelvic girl, simply standing there and waited to see if Diamond Rat would come to her rescue. She didn't know if badgers knew much about birds, all she hoped was that perhaps Diamond Rat could frighten the bird away, or something.

[Diamond Rat]

Those chirps were really familiar. Diamond Rat put on her angriest angry face (but she sort of looked like she had gas instead) and stomped her foot so hard, she almost broke through the thinly-frozen snow into the softer stuff below. Almost, she just lacked the weight to actually break through.

"Hey! You! Stop that," she said to the feathery blur that zoomed around poor Nidae. "Hey! I'm talking to YOU, you dumb bag of feathers!"

She dashed in front of Nidae and flapped her arms. It was tough puffing up her feathers when she was a person (seeing as she didn't have any), but damned if Rat wouldn't look as fearsome as she could.

Rat glanced from the angry fluttering bird to Nidae and back to the bird again.

[Nidassasyae]

The bird chirped angrily at Diamond Rat, pausing in its attack for a moment. After some furious sounding squawks and a couple snapping motions with its beak, (Which looked a bit like the bird was trying to act savage but just seemed cute to Nidae) her attacker eyed them angrily and took off. It seemed that the bird had thought the two girls utterly incapable of much damage, since one had just stood there, while the other had flailed her arms about quite a bit. They had seemed quite the pair of idiots to the bird, and it highly doubted that they were smart enough to even find her nest, let alone figure out what to do with it. Hearing the chirps disappear into the trees, Nidae took her hands off her head, checking to see that the bird had gone. It would have been so easy to just snap at it, to just eat the bird right then and there. It would hardly have been a mouthful, not to a Talderan Snow Leopard. But it was so tiny, so defenseless, that it wouldn't be worth the trouble. "Thanks, Diamond Rat," smiled Nidae, giving the other girl a hug. "I didn't know what to do there. You badgers certainly are fierce!" Indeed, the tiny girl had looked quite fierce to Nidae, who was suspecting that Rat was quite timid. "So, my brave friend, what now?"