Dawn brought with it a much harsher glare in winter than it did in summer, even if it came later, and Tyr lifted his arm to shield both his eyes and those of his still-sleeping girlfriend. She was snuggled so close to him that he wondered if her eyes could detect anything beyond his cheek, but he was still too cautious to just let it be. They’d been in Kokoto for three months, and with snow on the ground they weren’t going to be leaving anytime soon. It wasn’t that the roads were impassable due to snow accumulation, but rather that winter in the region brought out the more vicious predators from their summer hibernation.

The three of them had been contracted for more than their fair share of hunts from the Village Chief, who wasn’t used to having so many capable hunters in his village at one time. In all of that time, Tyr had relearned how to feel finer emotions like solace, serenity, and even an unhealthy dose of jealousy whenever he saw the local men eying Adaline in her form-fitting armor made from a mix of Berukyurosu and Barioth materials. It certainly allowed her an incredible amount of movement range, which suited her fighting style, and the fur of both the Beru’s mane and the Barioth’s hide kept her warm so far from her desert home, but he did wish she’d had it made a tad less revealing.

“Don’t you like to see me in it?” she murmured to him as they settled into camp one night on a long hunt for a Zinogre.

“You know I do, Addy.” He couldn’t lie to her. “But even Orion won’t shut up about how, well, how well-shaped your butt is.”

Adaline, despite being scolded, nestled herself against Tyr in the firelight as Orion returned from his scouting. “My butt is all Tyr’s, Orion. So stop telling him how lucky he is to have it.”

They had all had a good laugh about it then, but Tyr had never quite gotten over it, especially not when she went off on quests without him to train someone or to help with something when he was busy. He’d never been with anyone for very long back in Nifila, and with how much he worried about what was happening out on those quests it wasn’t any wonder to him. In those still moments of dawn, however, holding the runaway princess in his arm and feeling the warmth of her supple curves pressed against his side there wasn’t any doubt in his mind.

The soft tickle of her lips on his neck nearly broke the stillness of his arm. “Good morning,” Adaline whispered to him. “And thank you for blocking the light.”

“Anytime, Addy,” he replied, turning his head so that he could catch her lips with his. “Did we have anything planned today?”

“When don’t we?” she murmured, her lips brushing along his as she spoke. “We should just blow Orion off today and stay in bed. It’s too cold to go outside anyways.”

She was always tempting him to stay in bed, away from the world so that only she could have him, and, had they been married, he might’ve agreed. As it stood though, lying in bed with a busty, blue-haired beauty would’ve been too much of a temptation to resist all day; he wasn’t ready for children. So, as gently as he could he tickled the small of her back so that she’d give him another kiss before telling her they needed to get up.

“Oh, fine.” She mocked a pout as she stood, letting the beam of light peeking through the window draw a line down her spine. “But one day you’re going to want this and I’m going to tell you no.” With a smirk over her shoulder, she shook her hips and then quickly dashed for her armor.

Tyr rose more slowly, savoring his smile from her antics. He pulled on his own Barioth greaves, thankful for the fur-lined inseams in the chill of the morning air. Nifila hadn’t been quite this cold, even in the depths of winter, but Kokoto was much further north and so he was adjusting, just like the other two. Unlike his girlfriend, Tyr had mixed Rathalos armor into his set in order to maximize his attack potential while balancing his elemental resistance. The armor’s appearance was also quite terrifying, which Orion appreciated more than Adaline did.

They finished dressing at the same time, and stepped out into the tiny village that was packed into the snow-covered forest. Orion was already up, having a chat with the Village Chief about the good old days. They were quite the pair, with the Chief going on about how his father trained the first Legend until he was able to conquer a Lao-Shan Lung, and with Orion spouting off his own story about what had become his personal conquest of the Jhen Mohran. They both told their stories at the same time, trading off comparable sections whenever it seemed most appropriate.

“And then,” the Chief said. “Then the Legendary Hunter took my father’s sword from the stone and went on to greater adventures!”

“Aww, we missed the whole thing already?” Adaline teased.

“You gotta get up earlier than the break of dawn to get in on this party,” Orion said, bundled up in his Blangonga armor. Unlike his friends, Orion insisted that one needed a suit from a single monster in order to truly appreciate armor. “You guys ready to tackle the mountain? Need to get us a few Anteka before the big wyverns eat all of them. Long way ‘til spring.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Tyr said as he turned to the Snowy Mountain Range in the distance.

It took a day to get out of the forest, and another two to escape the plains and reach the mountains. Luckily for them, most of the Anteka had already made their trip down from the peaks for the winter. They spent the first day gathering a dozen bodies each and packing them in ice to keep them good for the trip back. A second day like that would be all they’d need.

The night was cold, so cold that they each had to down double rations of hot drinks even with the fire roaring. They cooked one of the Anteka to keep their stamina up, but by the morning everyone’s stomach was growling, so they cooked another and went out hunting for the last hunks of meat. They found a large group after a few hours and split up to surround them.

Tyr took up a position in the area where Orion and Adaline would be chasing the herd. He waited quietly just below the ridge for the rumbling that would tell him to draw his sword. If he timed it right, he could easily cleave through six in one blow, and, if he were luckier, those he felled wouldn’t get trampled too hard. If he weren’t lucky, he would need to kill more than just those they needed, and they could leave the mangled ones to keep the Tigrex from feeding too heavily on the remaining herd.

It was taking a long time though. So long that Tyr was tempted to leave his post. “Has to just be my imagination,” he told himself. “Time always passes slowly when you’re waiting.” And yet still the minutes dragged on. In his mind, he could see them losing track of time laughing at some jokes, or even stealing a few kisses. He had to remind himself that Adaline was faithful, and that Orion was his best friend. They wouldn’t betray him, but that didn’t explain what was taking them.

Tyr forced himself to stay put, to concentrate on his technique. He was so close to getting his chakra past white and into yellow that he could almost feel that fine line. What seemed like eons ago he knew how to get to each level without so much as a thought, but since his reset, as Orion had taken to calling it, he had a painfully precise insight into every tiny difference in power that he could achieve. But even as he practiced his swings trying to break that fine line, the idea of Adaline and Orion kept him from focusing his chakra.

They had now spent twenty minutes on a two-minute job. His stomach in knots, and his patience used up, he went up and over the ridge. It took no time all to see what had kept him waiting. There was a giant pseudowyvern tearing through the area. It’s green and orange claws had left a swath of Anteka carcasses in the area, and both of his partners were barely keeping up with its brutal assault.

Throwing himself down the hill, Tyr ripped into the icy spikes on the creature’s tail before it could see him, flowing into a second slash across the beast’s wing-arm. More ice swirled around its front claws and up the edges of its wings. Armor fit for a beast.

“About time!” Orion called out as he circled around to shave the ice off the demon’s wings, since mounting had proven more trouble than it was worth.

“Didn’t want to risk the hunt because I got bored,” Tyr shouted back, focusing his chakra more heavily into his blade as he narrowly avoided an icy blast.

“Next time,” Adaline said, using her axe to throw herself into the air, only to bring her sword form down on the creature’s back. “Get bored faster!”

They would’ve laughed, but it was no time for laughter.

“Seriously though, this whole broken chakra meaning no long-range communication is getting old!” Orion said as he barely ducked beneath another tail swipe, the icy spikes scratching his nose.

“Well, were you gonna take down the herd by yourself?” Adaline countered for Tyr, who was too busy trying to land another strike.

The pseudowyvern was far more aggressive than anything they’d had to fight together. It barely stood still, and when it did it was only so it could unleash a spinning strike with its whole body. Every moment was a struggle against both the wyvern and their own stamina, now running dangerously low in the cold. As Tyr and Orion both took what was left of a tail to the chest, it was starting to look like they wouldn’t be able to finish what the pseudowyvern had started.

Adaline twisted into the air, but the beast was focused solely on her. It lunged upwards and brought her crashing down beneath its powerful claws. “Get her out! She’s out of potions!” Tyr called to Orion, who was already going for the rescue by the time Tyr had finished his first sentence.

Tyr drew out a handful of bomb arowana scales and lobbed them into the bleeding end of the tail. The explosion wasn’t very large, but it was painful enough that the beast roared and turned. With its full attention, Tyr sheathed his katana and filled his hands with his chakra, pushing against that thin line with all his might while his opponent charged him. Digging his heels in, Tyr drew and threw his blade in an upward arc.

Orion didn’t see the cut miss its mark by an inch or even Tyr’s shocked expression when the pseudowyvern pinned him against the ground. Claws covered in ice tore through his armor like it was cloth, and blood flooded out of his comparably tiny body. He rolled as best he could, dodging the snapping jaws only to have the icy spikes along its body pushed further into him. His vision faded for a second, and when it came back the beast was still snapping at him. His vision faded again, and though it seemed as fast as a blink, when he came to his now-bloody vision was no longer obscured by the monster.

“Adaline! It’s dead!” Orion shouted, tugging the raving woman from the pseudowyvern’s body. She had butchered it with her axe. Apparently the creature had been lower on health than they’d though, because it had gone down after a few more hits, but it hadn’t been enough for her. At first, he’d let her go just to keep her from tearing into him instead, but after she’d put three holes and a series of deep gouges through the body he decided enough was enough.

“I was making sure,” she said as she kicked it one final time. “If these things are wiped off the face of the planet the Guild won’t hear a single complaint out of me.” It had beaten her pretty badly, something she wasn’t used to in any opponent, but, unforgivably, it had tried to end Tyr’s life, and nearly succeeded. The Guild was going to have a field day finding salvageable materials from this one, something which she took a bit of pride in.

Tyr was barely stable, and didn’t seem like he’d be staying that way for long without real medical attention. Adaline and Orion had given him their remaining potions, which did quite a bit to stem the flow of blood, but potions were not a permanent fix. They each skinned a few Anteka, and wrapped him in the warmest layers they could find. Another three days back to Kokoto just wasn’t an option, and the day and half hike to Pokke was far too treacherous for Tyr in his condition.

The real trouble was that they weren’t on the list for the Rescue Squad. They weren’t qualified to fight whatever they’d just killed, and so the Guild wouldn’t have allowed the Squad along anyways, if the Guild had known they were there in the first place. They were somewhat beyond the designated hunting grounds for the quest they’d accepted, which had been necessary to find the Anteka herd. But out of bounds was out of bounds, and so the FRS had left them more than a day before.

“We could always flag down one of the Guild balloons,” Orion suggested.

“Or, we could think of something useful to do instead,” Adaline countered. “Isn’t there some sort of healing property in Kelbi horns?”

“You see any Kelbi around here?” Adaline knew he was right, but she didn’t want to admit that the nearest herd was probably further away than Kokoto was. “We should flag down the Guild balloon.”

It was their only real option, and Adaline cursed at herself for not having taken any lessons on wound care like her sister. The most she knew how to do were quick patches, the same as any other hunter worth their salt did. Now she had to weigh Tyr’s life against whatever punishment the guild might bring down on him. What if they wouldn’t help him when they recognized who he was? What if they took away his license entirely and he was branded a criminal for something they’d all taken a part in? She couldn’t trust them. She wouldn’t. But losing Tyr was even less of an option. “Son of a Bullfango,” she muttered. “Okay, Orion. Light the-”

“What do you think ye’re doing?” a dusty voice rang almost directly into Orion’s ear as he shuffled through his pack. Orion stumbled backwards, bumping into the cart laden with the Anteka and Tyr as he did. The red-skinned little man pointed his stick accusingly at Orion as he spoke, stroking the strands of his beard with his free hand. On his back, his little pack of goods jingled and sloshed as he stepped forward. “You think I want the Guild knowing where I am, whippersnapper?”

“You’re… you’re a Veggie Elder.” Orion had never seen one in the flesh before, but he’d heard rumors about them walking around in the lesser-known areas of the world.

“Of course I am. Do I look like another Dyuragaua to you, whippersnapper?” His shrill voice was hard on the ears, but Adaline didn’t seem to mind as she rifled through her pack rapidly. “You lookin’ for a trade, youngin?”

Adaline nodded as she pulled out various goods and set them on the ground. “I need something to help Tyr. Please, I’ll give you anything I have for a max potion, or even some herbal remedy.” She knelt behind the contents of her pack, head bowed.

Carefully, the Elder inspected each of her proffered goods. He sniffed at them, examined each under a scrutinous eye, and licked more than a fair few. Orion watched all this with curious glee, but that glee quickly turned to despair as the old man shook his head. “Fraid all you got is worth monster parts, but I’ll give you a steak for this here scale.”

“How about for these?” Orion asked, pulling out a few silver and bronze stubs from his pocket. “I’ll give you as many as you like for something that’ll help him survive the trip back to Kokoto.”

The Elder’s eyes lit up as he ambled back over to Orion with all the haste of a Diablos in heat. “Orion, what are those?” Adaline asked.

“Oh, they’re Friendship Tickets, or something like that. The Village Elder gave them to me after every few quests, told me they might come in handy.” The old man laughed to himself mischievously as he counted Orion’s tickets. “And I guess he was right.”

As if on cue, the Veggie Elder spun his pack off his back, slammed it heavily onto the ground, and then yanked out a pair of red vials. They were darker than hot drinks, and they almost looked like blood. “This here ought to do the trick,” the Elder said. “Fix him up, good as new. Now, get yourselves going! Before I have to beat you both myself!”

“We sure this stuff is safe?” Orion asked as Adaline snatched the bottles away.

“It’s the only thing we’ve got,” Adaline said as she poured one bottle after the other down Tyr’s throat. There were a few moments where nothing happened, where Adaline swore she’d have the Elder’s head for his greedy little lies, but then Tyr’s eyes shot open, glowing red. “Tyr…?”

With incredible alacrity, Tyr threw off the furs they’d draped him in and leapt onto the ground, breathing deeply. He stood for just a moment on all fours, taking in a few quick sniffs of the air. “Tigrex… about a day towards solrise,” he said in a distant voice. “We should go.”

“Tyr, are you okay?” his companions asked.

“Feeling great,” he said as he ran off down the hill to gather the brutalized Antekas. Between the two dozen or so that’d been killed, only five were worth taking a look at. Tyr carried them all by himself back to the cart, as if they were just furs. Whatever the drink had been, his muscles looked as though they’d doubled in size, and Adaline might’ve been worried if his wounds weren’t also completely gone.

For the next two days, Tyr hardly slept. He had energy like they couldn’t believe, and even Tyr couldn’t understand it. His chakra flowed freely, instantly flickering into a bright red aura when he did so much as touch the hilt of his Mohran Whisker. When they encountered a group of Baggi in their path, Tyr cut them all down before Adaline and Orion could draw their weapons. It was terrifying to watch how efficiently he killed them, his bare arms barely flexing with each swift cut.

The night before Kokoto, they all sat down around a roaring fire Tyr had built in half the time it usually took. “I need to find that Veggie Elder again,” Orion said. “That stuff would make me incredible in bed.”

“I’m sure you don’t need help there,” Adaline replied, watching Tyr do another lap around the camp. She had meant to be funny, but had only made herself melancholy. “That is, assuming you’d even want to while on this stuff.”

“What? Tyr not paying enough attention to your needs lately?”

“It’s not that. We’ve never done anything like that.”

“You what?” Orion sat bolt upright. “Hold on. You meant to tell me tha-“

“He won’t have sex unless we’re married, which is fine.” She paused for a lot longer than she thought she would while Tyr finished pitching the tent. It was fine. It had to be.

“That is just insane. So, nothing? Not even a litt-“

“No,” she said, a little too quickly to keep her mind from going where his already had. “No, and I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Fine, fine. But you mark my words, if you don’t do something to eat up that energy of his, he might keep going forever.”

“I hope not. This isn’t my Tyr. I miss him being relaxed.”

“I dunno. It’s kind of nice having him like this. But maybe you just need to get him to unleash the beast between his legs.” Orion chuckled while staring up at the starlit sky. “Always seems to fix any problem a woman is having in my experience.”

“You are entirely too crass.”

“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, Princess.”

“Don’t call me that. You know I don’t like it.”

“Old habits,” Orion said with a shrug.

“And I thought I told you I didn’t want to talk about it.”

“You did, but no one ever said I didn’t want to talk about it.”

“You are just so-” Adaline began, but was cut off when Tyr sat down at the tail end of the log, pulling Adaline into his lap in almost the same motion. It was comforting to feel his strong chest and arms through her thin armor. He was so very warm; warm enough to melt away her frustrations with Orion. Warm enough that he didn’t need any covering despite the deepening cold of the night. She didn’t say anything else, couldn’t think of what else to even say. She just let them talk until she and Tyr went to bed, leaving Orion for the first watch.

It wasn’t very long after that that she came bursting out of the tent, wrapped in plain clothes and the blanket from their bed. Orion chuckled. “You know I’ll come wake you when it’s actually time.”

“Shut up,” she snapped, and then had to bury her face in the furs to keep him from seeing her tears.

“Hey, hey, whoa. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Ugh,” Adaline said, drying her eyes a bit. “It’s not about you. I’m just… I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Alright. We won’t talk about it. But if it’s bugging you that much… I can always just listen.”

She looked for his telltale smile, or for anything that might’ve indicated he was waiting to pounce, but there wasn’t anything there. “I didn’t know you had it in you,” she said.

He shrugged, but didn’t say a word.

“I can’t ever figure him out. Maybe he’s always changing because of his chakra or because of everything he’s been through, but I can’t figure him out. I’ve always had a knack for reading men, for knowing what they want, but… I’ve never gone this far with anyone. I’ve always just…” She had told Tyr all of this, but she still felt like telling Orion was somehow betraying him. Orion didn’t need to know all of this, but it felt nice to tell someone. To tell anyone.

“I’ve never actually cared for anyone like I do with Tyr. I’ve always tested men, and women, and everyone to see if they were worth my time, and everyone always fails. Everyone. Even my father and my sister… but if you ever tell them that, I’ll kill you myself.” Again, he didn’t laugh, didn’t smile, just nodded and kept his peace.

“But Tyr, he just… he never failed a single test. But I kept failing them. I keep failing them. When he would call me out on something or refuse my advances, he always had the perfect reason, but hearing it always made me realize just how terrible I was for putting him through the test in the first place. And now that those tests are done and I’m with him I’m failing because I can’t figure out what he wants, and all I want in the world is to know everything he wants so I can give it to him. The moon, the stars, the whole world, if he asked for it. But he doesn’t ever ask for anything except for me to wait. And how am I supposed to wait to give him everything?”

She was trembling, partially from the cold, and partially from the frustration and self-pity. “He’s never been wrong… but how can it be right to keep me from giving myself to him? How can it possibly…” Her voice faded quietly into the firelight as she shivered.

“It’s a really cold night,” Orion said after he was certain she was done. “You should go back inside.”

Adaline pulled the furs tighter around herself, but didn’t move.

“Did I ever tell you the one about me and the girl in Loc Lac after the Jhen fight?” He had told anyone who would listen than story, which meant Adaline had heard it five times already, but she shook her head anyways. Orion had never forgotten who he’d told a story to before.

“So the women were throwing themselves at me, left and right, and even some from underground, I swear. I could do no wrong. No matter what I said, someone found it charming and intelligent and sexy. I could’ve had a different girl every night, but I picked just one.

“She was a spicy young thing that I’d had my eye on since before the Jhen came. Beautiful white hair, dressed like a father’s worst nightmare, and a voice that could make a man cry. She was just a vendor, sold potions and the like to Hunters, but there was only one thing in her shop that I wanted, and it was her. I’d asked her out a dozen times, invited her to any event I could think up, and a few times I was more direct than a charging Tigrex, but she would always say no.

“No, no, no. That was all I’d ever hear, but now that I was a hero she wasn’t really saying no anymore. Suddenly she was all yes. Yes, Hero, I’d love to go out with you. Yes, you do look dashing in that armor. Your place at eight? Yes, of course I’ll be there. And so I took her back to my new private suite, and when we got there she was ready to go, hotter than Sol at midday back in Fahrenn. She was more eager for it than I was. And nothing happened.”

That wasn’t how the story ended. It was supposed to end with him winking and grinning and making lewd gestures. That was how all of his stories ended, all the ones about his conquests, at least. “I had everything I wanted, but it didn’t mean a thing because I didn’t get it how I wanted it. Sounds stupid, but people are stupid, and I’m people.” He shook his head, chuckling a bit. “But, hey, don’t you tell a soul about that. If anyone knew I was people then it’d ruin my reputation.”

Adaline thought she understood, even if it didn’t fully ease her mind of her shaking. She stood up and gave Orion a small smile. It was forced, but it was the best she had. “Thanks.”

“Someone thanking me for a story,” he said as she disappeared back inside her tent. “There’s a new one…”

Tyr slept in much later than he had the entire trip. Adaline was almost ready to load him in the cart and start off without him when Tyr called out from inside their tent. “Can anyone grab me something big and fuzzy to wear? By the Fata it is cold this morning.”

“Well, glad to see someone’s back to normal,” Orion said with a smirk as he took Tyr some gear from the cart. “Would’ve hated for all the single ladies in town to get a look at you and your muscles like that.”

Adaline couldn’t look at Tyr. “Let’s just get going. I want to be back in my own bed tonight.”

But before they could go anywhere, Tyr took Adaline aside. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Last night I-“

“I shouldn’t have done that,” she interrupted. “I was jus-”

“Just being honest. You have nothing to be sorry for. I should be sorry. I-“

“Have your own wants, I know.”

“So something has to change,” they said at once. They both smiled at that.

“Adaline, if we’re going to keep it from happening again then you’re going to need something to keep you… well… satisfied.”

“But I am, Tyr. I just thought I wasn’t because I wanted to give you everything, but I-”

“Please don’t ever stop wanting that,” he whispered to her, his arms suddenly around her waist, his lips on her ear. Her cheeks flushed crimson, and she forgot whatever else she’d meant to say. “It’s about time I started doing the same.” Tyr murmured the rest of his plans into her ear, and when they rejoined Orion, Tyr still had an arm around Adaline’s waist.

“Glad to see whatever that was is done. I hope you guys like Anteka soup.”

It was a flavor they would grow tired of before winter was over, but for now it was just their final meal on a quest that had pushed the group further than expected. For Tyr, the mysterious drink had snapped that thin line and given him a taste of where he’d been. Adaline had reaffirmed her place with Tyr, and had grown more content with herself in the process. And Orion had yet another story to tell that few would believe, not that he cared if they believed it or not.