The crisp sound of walking on snow fills the air. No matter how hard they try to hide all trace of their presence, Camrin knows they will be found. The birds, the insects, the very trees were trying to warn her. But Lila refused to bring it up again, happily taking the role of leader and guide for herself. As for the current relationship between them, even the cool winter air does not come close to the frosty looks she continuously directs at Camrin. Every time she hunches or tries to curl in on herself or looks left and right when they're being too loud, Lila gets frustrated and feels personally attacked.
"You're basically jinxing our chances of survival. Can you not do that." She would say irritably. After a number of restless hours, Camrin gathers the energy to fight against Lila's enforced rules.
"Lila it's been hours-"
"I'm starving" Lila's face pales but she says it again, more energetically. "God, I'm starving."
"Camrin chuckles nervously. "Yeah, that's what I was just about to remind you of. But you've been so tolerant of the cold and snow and air, so I thought you basically had a protective shield around you that blocks out your human needs," she says sarcastically. "But speaking of human needs, I need to use the bathroom." Lila listens for a moment, then adds, "Now that you mention it, I really need to use the bathroom. I'm really hungry and I'm tired." That makes Camrin laugh, surprised but delighted.
"Girl, I thought you were going crazy"
"I think I kind of did. I really don't know what I'm doing."
Camrin pats her back. "It's ok. Maybe I just felt it more because I drank a lot of liquid."
"You found water? When?"
"When I was drowning and swallowing gulps of mud." Lila immediately shrinks and apologizes. "Stacey gave me some water the few days I stayed with her, but I was unconscious for too long to properly fill my stomach."
Looking back around, Camrin feels overwhelmed. "How are we going to find a place to use the bathroom here?" Lila answers her, beginning a story about one harsh winter night their first year of college and some 'accidents' that happened with the students. Camrin smiles absentmindedly at the memory, but it's Lilith's reply she listens to.
[You need to find the lowest stretch of land, not a huge area, just a couple of feet of sullen land, squad there, and take care of your needs. Remember to keep your eyes moving though. I will try to block you as best as I can, but do not forget that you'll be in a vulnerable position]
Grabbing Lila's cold hand, Camrin goes and scouts for their chosen plot of land, while her friend rambles on and Lilith follows behind silently. As they get more and more desperate to fulfill their needs, the requirement for the land gets lower and lower as well. And soon, despite Lilith's warnings, they stop at a tiny plot of land barely sinking, with a tree hiding them. Quickly and efficiently, Camrin uses the bathroom and cleans herself with the snow, briefly feeling bad for the animals that come across it, before she calls for Lila. Bending over, body half concealed and half not by the huge tree, explaining to Lila what to do, Camrin briefly processes two things before her world is thrown into chaos.
One, Lila's hands are finally ice cold, her lips a dangerous shade of blue and, Two, a growl sounds from right beside them.
Snapping her head in that direction, Camrin spots an angry wolf not fifty feet away. Panic instantly washes over her, taking any logical plans out with it as well. Breathing hard, Camrin risks a dumb look over her shoulder to Lilith, who is protecting them from the opposite side. She doesn't seem to be moving, and Camrin doesn't know where or how her eyes look, so she cannot guarantee that Lilith will figure out what's happening and help them in time. It doesn't matter that Camrin doesn't know how or even if the creature can help them, only that the fear in her chest finds something to lean on. Turning back, Lila is still calmy emptying her bladder, while the wolf starts creeping closer. Heart pounding and her focus on the wolf, she starts to look for anything to use in her peripheral vision. A stick, a branch, some trash a traveler left before them. No such luck. And even worse, neither of the other two beings traveling with her seem to realize anything. And the wolf just won't stop coming closer! Without double checking their safety and without even realizing what she's about to do, Camrin jumps up ten feet into the air and grabs a hold of a branch. Lila looks up at her just in time with the wolf finally charging forward.
She tries to get her body fully onto the branch, but without a trained and strong upper body, that doesn't work.
Forty feet away.
She tries to snap the small branch in half, but her constant tugging only seem to be pulling her downwards and getting her off balance.
Thirty feet away.
Clawing at the bark of the tree, she tries to shift her weight to the heaviest section of the bough.
Twenty feet away.
The branch starts to crack under her pressure and Camrin finds a few seconds to laugh about how insulted she would be if this had happened in any other situation.
Ten feet away.
With her weak body, she jerks her arms back, her hands frozen onto the tree.
Five feet away
The loud crack from above surprises the wolf, but not as much as when a human falls right in front of it, close enough to smell it, close enough to practically taste it, and just when it opens its jaw, just when its teeth tear through skin, it gets a large stick smashed directly into its skull.
Armed with nothing but a pathetic branch, Camrin stands on guard like a soldier, ignoring how close to death she just came. The wolf is down but only for a second, which she uses to study it. It's the size of a German Shepperd, small compared to what could have greeted them. Thanking the gods and gathering fake courage, she charges at the wolf before it could get up, even before she has time to think about it. The large stick falls on its body, several times, before moving to its skull, barring with it such panicked force that it knocks him down completely. Blood gushing out of its mouth and weak hungry body already beaten, he falls back, accepting the circle of life, and waiting for this strange hidden predator to finish it off.
Camrin pauses, her eyes coming back into focus, locking onto the defeated wolf ones. She tries to block her guilt, this is how life works, it was going to kill them, she had no choice. And yet, she hesitates. The wolf lies there, eyes dimming as the life in them seeps back into the earth.
Then...Nothing.
The attack is over.