The areas got progressively stormier the further left you went. The location they wanted to reach, just barely viewable from the area they came from, is plastered against the wall near the center of the spectrum. It also should be mentioned that the further away from the original platform they were on, the increasing… roughness of the conditions.

Closest to the wall they started near the land’s snow is soft and gentle, while the obstructions, if any, amounted to smooth rock faces. The heavy severity of the storms acted as a shroud for the further reaches, but from what she could see it changed drastically as it went. The smooth rock faces became constant patches of risen jagged edges, the floor becoming a frail craggy deathtrap mixed in with blotches of ice to slip on. Falling over onto the rocks could be fatal.

Her head swiveled to Isirith. How far can she see?

Putting the question to the back of her mind, she took the first step.

Well, it wasn’t really a step. She planted her foot tilted onto what was practically a slide and placed her palm behind her. Her glide down the ice was fluid and controlled, unhindered by the slick of the material.

“AAAAAAAAA-”

Tomoe, feeling it behind her, moved a bit to the side with an adjustment of her hand. Her body, adhering to the laws of gravity and friction, complied as her fingers moved like tiny rudders of a ship.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

A screaming Isirith as she flipped and tumbled down flew past her. The blur sped readily until it reached a terrifying speed. A minor blessing for her, the butt of the spear in her hand rammed into the ramp, tearing her partly from her rotation and causing her to leap through the air. With a panicked gaze she churned out her wings with lightning fast reaction, flapping them as hard as she could.

A surprisingly effective strategy were you a bird. With their hollowed bone structures they become much lighter than they would be for creatures of their size. Though Isirith is not, in fact, a bird, it is quite effective nonetheless. Something that should be inspected later, though Tomoe could feel her list grow and grow.

Perhaps a survival mechanism should their kind somehow fall, the wings pressed down with great force, the gusts of chilled air pushing against gravity. The sudden on and off propulsion slowed her descent more and more, before a dramatic crash against the ground. Though, for the conditions, an amazing crash landing.

With a casual ease, Tomoe continued her calm slide to the bottom. As the sole of her foot connected to the floor, she pushed off into a standing position, looking down at the twitchy mess.

From what it looked like there were no bones broken. Another account to her amazing vitality. With a show like that she might have been able to glide or likely fly with wind were it not for the armor weighing her down. Well, at least if she had a longer wingspan, hers are still a bit too short for such feats.

Ignoring the groans of her compatriot, she checked out the condition of the spear lovingly nicknamed ‘stabby’. If she is going to use a name, she should use the name of the weapon. It is only fair to the creator. Kiyohime, not stabby. Though I have to admit, the naming sense is quite good.

Kiyohime, the lizard maiden of fire. A story of betrayal and sadness. What seemed like a mockery of the role of the priest, yet is a sad truth of their abuse of position.

Kiyo, the child of a wealthy landlord, encountered a priest named Anchin. Anchin, in need of funds, marries the girl, and then leaves. Kiyo, who ended up loving the handsome Anchin, who whispered sweet nothings of devotion into her ear, found out about this, and desired to leave with him also.

She seeked him out, and yet he was over the water. With great determination, she chased him even into the sea. Once she emerged, however, she was horrified at what part of her had become. A long winding tail of an aquatic animal. Yet she still pursued him.

However, she had by now found out how he ran from her, and was filled with a fury in her bosom. Anchin made it to the temple, and the priests hid him in the bell at the top. Kiyo could smell him, and the priests could not fool her, so she climbed to the top of the tower. Wrapping around the bell, she blew a breath of white flame, and burned the man alive inside the white-molten bell. Overcome with grief, Kiyo gave herself to the sea, ending her life. An excellent name for the wicked tongue of the spear, branching out as if a flame.

Tomoe reminisced for a bit, a time when she was told stories like that. A small wanting developed, but it was silenced. As she watched Isirith finally struggle to get up, an idea popped into her head. How did this world and hers have the same story? Is it a coincidence, and merely the same name? Highly unlikely, but possible. She would not throw out the possibility.

Isirith’s body, another blessing, was completely coated in the fur of the bear, and did not stick. If she fell on her skin, it would get bloody, and Isirith would not appreciate it too much. The pads on the bear’s feet also made for good non-stick footwear. Even Isirith found a newfound admiration of the hide.

After the short incident they were back on their feet again. If Tomoe was right, it would take about an hour to cross each biome, five being in the way. Adding two or three hours for unexpected circumstances, and they were in it for the long haul. It would only be the whims of a fool to hope for shelter along the way. With the harsh storms along the path, they would gain frostbite at the very least, perhaps even lose the ability to use a limb. Windchill can wreak havoc on someone’s body.

That is why she focused on improving Isirith’s fire sorcery, a temporary bastion from the cold.

Tomoe could take care of herself, however painful it might be, but she didn’t want to lose the valuable resource Isirith to the environment.

A twinge of guilt hit her for called Isirith a resource, but that is what she is. A resource. She should be constantly thanking her for not killing her in the first place, much less after pretty much confirming she ate humanoids. Tomoe had taken the initiative of building a hefty tolerance to it, but that would never change the fact that Isirith had used her spores on her for what was probably abduction.

A warm feeling came from her right.

Without looking, she reached out and grabbed Isirith’s hand, snuffing out the fire she produced. Sorcery or not, it seems it requires air to live, same as always.

“But it’s cold!”

She felt like she was talking to a child. She thought about smacking her atop the head, but stopped herself. She needed to constantly remind herself that not everyone could handle what she could. She never taught Isirith meditation to warm herself up, and even if she did she would not have enough time to train it to be effective. With an inhale of edge-frost air, she instead gave stern rebuke. “No.”

“But-”

“Save it.”

Isirith, looking around as if someone would help her, finally settled her eyes on Tomoe’s quite tall figure before looking down at her fuzzy footwear. “Okay.” Tomoe knew how fire took a lot more energy than water did.

Tomoe gave a nod to her acceptance, and continued onward directly in front of her. Even though vision wasn’t too poor yet, it would be in the future, and they needed to practice sticking together. She also informed Isirith to keep talking, as it takes her mind off the elements, runs adrenaline while keeping her active against hypothermic sleep, and lets her location be constantly known.

Tomoe, fully geared and the remainder of the bear pelt around her neck like a draping scarf, continued into the cold and snow.

…

It has been an hour in.

Progress has been exceedingly good, but that should be obvious. The beginning of the journey would take the shortest amount of time, while near the ending the longest. Just because it is an average of an hour per biome doesn’t mean it is exact. It would be more accurate to say it would be a time over distance graph. The farther the distance away from the original starting point, the more time it would take.

They had already encountered the inhabitants of the first biome, little snow groundhogs with pristine fur and claws that looked more like picks than slicing tools. They just made sure to steer clear of them and never accidentally hit one; it went, as they say, swimmingly.

They never found out what creatures lived in the second biome, but Tomoe is fine with that. Less to deal with. Now is where is gets more difficult. Weather is much worse, vision is halved, and the terrain became something you have to watch your every step on. Every ten minutes, Isirith is permitted to use a small flame to warm herself. As much as she suggested just learning to climb on the ceiling, and as much as Tomoe would like to have the ability to do so, she couldn’t.

For Isirith, she couldn’t tell. Maybe she just talked an abundance because she is a chatterer or childlike, or maybe she’s in hypothermic shock. Either way her one sided conversations switched from her favorite smell of rock to her elder sister’s wingspans to some rathor unsavory, or one might call it spicy, details of her life inside the bedroom. With what she heard about them being a practically one gendered society, she didn’t press forward on that topic.

Without immediate danger, they pressed forward.

…

Three hours, the back of Tomoe’s mind ticking and tocking; that acute background power to sense what time it is constantly. And that background clock told her it has been three hours. The progress is negligible compared to what should be traversed.

They have gotten near the end of the third biome. Isirith had almost fallen down a tunnel that curved down seemingly endlessly. The ice was packed bad over there, and that premonition had saved them. Isirith had began to pick up sensing things too, how to trust gut instinct, picking up on details unconsciously and acting on them.

She’s started to talk less, and her eyes have grown sharper. She uses the fire less, and sometimes flicks a bit of it off into the edges of her eyesight, trying to pick up on things. Her eyesight is better, it is good she is learning these things. Would make a good scout.

From what she could gather though, Isirith has already started to suffer from hyperthermia. Less active, more passive, and not feeling as cold. Tomoe would have to remind her to warm herself up.

The part she didn’t have the things to plan for was hunger. She still has some rations, but not warm or filling. All water would lower their body temperature, and their bodies are constantly working to stay warm. Isirith with her fast metabolism and Tomoe with her constantly circulating blood at abnormal speeds take more calories and water to do so. They would run out of energy faster.

Tomoe had been paying attention though.

Though the terrain had been getting tougher, it has also been growing more diverse. The formations of everything have shifted. Alternating sizes and shapes of rock is just one of these things. She’s already encountered rocks easily big enough to be a dwelling. It might not be as foolish as she thought to hope for shelter, though something living inside it would be probable.

Her left hand gripped tighter on the hilt of her katana. She wouldn’t leave things to chance though. Neither hope.

…

“Ghhhhh.”

Her feet pushed forward, one after the other.

“Grahhh.”

Stupid! Stupidstupidstupidstupid!

Isirith has wings, which means she’s likely related to birds! She would hit herself if she could. Only on the exterior did she demonstrate the calm she wished to have. She needed to rain in this wild side of hers.

It has been four hours, Isirith fell at around three and fifty six minutes.

Birds are much more highly susceptible to temperature change and conditions than humans. She should have accounted for this, she is the leader. She needs to take full responsibility. Isirith wasn’t acting childish earlier, that was her acting tough. Hypothermia set in long ago, almost definitely, and her immune system might have been shut down.

They were following a trail for the last twenty minutes that Tomoe found. While there were multiple sets, the deepest ones were all that remained after this much time has passed. They were already in the fourth biome, and the heavy weight creature’s prints were one of the first things she found.

Four legs, likely a tail, pack hunters. Tomoe wanted to growl. A few key things led her to believe these are wolves. Big ones. They could practically smell weakness. They are about as smart as a dog, but when it comes to hunting they know how to target prey and abuse numbers. Not smart, clever.

The two options were to risk it and find a shelf of rock to stay in, or fight the wolves head on.

Tomoe looked to her back.

She bit her lip. A little too hard, enough to draw blood, as the frost numbed the flesh. She likes more open feelings, but they got in the way.

It all depended on whether she thought of Isirith as a resource or a life. A resource could be ditched, she could continue on her own with the loss. If it’s a life, then Tomoe has already put her under her care.

A human eating, abducting, cave person. A childish, weird cave person who is intelligent life. If she were to leave her now and say it was for survival, she would be guilt free, but if she did it later, it would gnaw at her.

She has to choose, in more ways than one.