Red Amongst the Snow

Hitomi would successfully pierce into the icy exterior of the Frost Eater and attack its gills, also causing dark fluid from spraying out on its opposite gill. As Tala tried to hook deeper into the gills, she had noticed Hitomi jump lacking...a bit of her outer apparel. In particular, she was barefoot and wearing nothing but bandages.

Despite being used to seeing other girls bare before (Tala grew up bathing and clothing with other Walpurgis women in her childhood due to shared baths), she couldn't help but feel the heat rush to her face.

...she has a nice chest. That's so unfair, Tala thought, looking at her own lackluster bosom.

She shook the thought away, however. She could worry about that later. Right now there was a monster to deal with.

With both of them slashing into the monster's gills, it began shaking wildly, and Tala took this as time to settle things once and for all.

Gripping her scythe tightly, she summoned another glyph above the Frost Eater's head. Her body would be pulled by the gravity and hoist her upwards in a C, dragging the scythe from the inside to hook upwards and cut through the upper part of the Frost Eater's head.

Meanwhile, Tala would notice slashing into the gills was causing the lower part of the Frost Eater's neck to perforate and with Tala handling the upper part, it was their opportunity to behead it fully.

Hitomi held on for dear life as the thing started to thrash. She hissed, cutting into it again and again, more of this blood washing over her as she went on. She briefly glanced towards Tala, her eyes widening as she saw what she was attempting to do. She took a breath and placed her feet upwards on its gills and kicked up hard. The resulting force sent her arching downwards. Her prosthetic blade was lodged deep into its neck, now helping carry her towards its lower neck. At the rate, this thing was dead. The battle was certainly over.

Only, she didn't expect its death throes to be so violent. As she began to fall away, its thrashing suddenly grew close. Its body slammed into her hard. She felt the air leave her lugs as she was sent flying downwards. Tala would see her try to regain her composure, but fail as her shoulder slammed into a piece of ice. There would be an awful cracking noise followed by a large splash as Hitomi spun from the impact and crashed into the ice cold water.

She did not come back up.

With both their efforts, the Frost Eater's head came off with a spray of ice and blood. It's head promptly crashed against the islets before plopping down into the deep. As Tala jumped off the falling body, the beast's corpse would begin to disintegrate and what would remain were stains of blood against the ice and in the water. Tala would hear another distinctive splash, but it was that of Hitomi.

Not even hesitating, Tala removed her cape and flung her scythe towards the sturdier ice, hooking down into it. She then dove into the water, the chain stretching after her as she did. The moment she hit the water, the cold seized her lungs. She had forgotten how much harder it was to hold one's breathe in icy water, but she resisted the urge to let a spew of bubbles come from her mouth.

Her body felt like it wanted to convulse as the cold pressed on all sides of her, but she had to focus. She forced her eyes open and despite every inch of her body feeling the entire opposite, the water looked serene. Crystal blue with streams of light coming from between the icy cracks, it felt like she were in the sky with the northern lights.

...dammit, Tala focus!

Tala would spot a dark figure in the water and instantly notice it was Hitomi. Swimming towards her, Hitomi would feel Tala's arms wrap around her. The woman would raise her hand, calling forth a glyph and, as if being propelled by a magnet, the two would shoot upwards towards the surface.

Tala held tightly to Hitomi's waist as she used one arm to grab the handle of her scythe and hoist them up on the ground. Both of them dripping wet, Tala would hover over Hitomi in a panic.

"H-hey, are you okay!?" she'd say between chattering teeth.

Not even waiting for a second for Hitomi to reply, she yelped.

"Crap! She's unconscious!" she said. "Okay, okay, how did he say it went again?"

Tala had multiple reasons to hate her husband, but he had distinctively taught her how to save their child when she had FOR NO REASON JUMP INTO THE OCEAN WITHOUT KNOWING HOW TO SWIM.

Of course, Tala knew what this implied, and while she felt awkward about it, time was of the essence.

Tala quickly knelt at Hitomi's side and pressed her hands against her chest, hoping to force whatever water Hitomi had consumed.

"C-come on, breathe!" she squeaked while red faced.

She did this for several times before lowering Hitomi's jaw and spreading her lips over hers to breathe in air.

She was dizzy...

Hitomi knew not to try and breath, her lungs were burning, but she knew not to breath. Swimming was hard when she couldn't user her arms. Harder so when she didn't know what direction she was facing. She tried to open her eyes but they hurt. She swallowed hard, she couldn't die like this. There was too much to do.

And then, she felt arms wrap around her. She couldn't return the hold, as she didn't want to hurt whomever was saving her. Unfortunately, the sudden propulsion upwards was a bit too much for the addled woman. Briefly, everything went dark.

...

Wait...

Hitomi felt something pressing against her chest rhythmically. The shock of it alone made her freeze. Then, she felt someone's lips press against hers. Her eyes shot open immediately. She stared wide eyed at none other than Tala...Wait...she was married! Why was she-

Oh, cpr right?

That made sense.

Her lips were really soft though...

...?

Hitomi shifted slightly, trying to let Tala know that she was actually alright. This was an odd experience for her for certain. Her face felt REALLY REALLY warm for some reason too. Was she catching a fever?

...

It wasn't until Tala felt Hitomi moving that she bothered to open her eyes...and find Hitomi staring back at her as their mouths were locked together.

...was...was she already awake?

Tala immediately felt heat rush to her face and her cheeks matched the bright red of her dress.

OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODWHATAREYOUDOINGGETOFFHERALREADY!!!!!

Her senses coming to her, Tala parted and ended up scrambling a few feet away from her.

"OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY!" Tala screamed as she clutched the sides of her curly-bobbed head. "Y-YOU WERE IN THE WATER AND-AND DROWNING AND I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD SO I--I WASN'T TAKING ADVANTAGE I SWEAR!!"

You DO know you just made it worse by suggesting it was possible you were taking advantage of her, right? her brain instantly rung, almost perfectly matching Jim's matter-of-fact tone.

NO ONE ASKED YOU JIM!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!

Tala instantly got into a bowing positioning, her hands clasped together in apology.

"PLEASE--PLEASE FORGIVE ME!" she shrieked.

SOMEONE KILL MEEEE!!!

Hitomi's eyes widened as Tala began to completely freak out. She wasn't helping her own nerves though either...Hitomi felt her heart start to beat faster, but quickly tried to calm herself down. As Tala continued to shout, Hitomi took the opportunity to look for her prosthetics. One was...farther away and the other should be back near the land...

Well, she couldn't worry about that now.

She stepped forward as Tala bowed and knelt down, trying to get eye level with her. For a moment, she stared into her eyes with a small frown, then leaned forward and placed her forehead against Tala's. Hitomi's eyes would close and a small smile would grace her lips. 'Mm..' Was all Tala would hear before a sudden chill rocked through Hitomi. A look of pain would cross her features as she looked around for her clothes and cloak. She would see that they were completely frozen solid...

...

She looked back towards Tala pleadingly. She couldn't outright ask anything. She only hoped Tala could figure something out for her.

Tala was surprised as Hitomi drew closer and expressed she was forgiven with body language. That said, their closeness (and the fact Hitomi was basically in her unmentionables) was enough to make her blush even more.

This awkwardness was short-lived as she realized Hitomi was trembling and that...well, she was too.

"Oh crap!" Tala yelped, quickly breaking away from the ice forming at her skirt. She quickly grabbed her cape nearby and wrapped it over Hitomi as she cast a spell using the words 'sun' and 'light'. The ice around Hitomi would melt, but it wouldn't be enough to warm her completely. Shivering, Tala would help Hitomi up. "Let's get you inside. There's a spring area at the inn. We can warm you up there."

***

Jim was very distressed upon seeing his two customers show up half-frozen and blood-soaked, but quickly got the message. The men inside were basically cheering for them, but the two wouldn't be able to appreciate it as one of the inn maids rushed Tala and Hitomi to the back of the inn.

They'd be led to a small spring house at the back where the two were prompted to wash out the blood with soap and warm water before getting into a spring tub with soothing bath salts in their towels. The spring bath itself seemed to be natural as the ground and the frame around it were stones. The wooden walls and other aspects of the bath house seemed to have been built around it.

Getting inside, Tala let out a sigh of relief.

"Ahh...this feels so good," Tala said as she sank in and rested her neck against the stones. She looked at Hitomi with one eye opened. "Feeling warmer yet?"

The next few minutes were mostly a blur to Hitomi as they FINALLY got to go to the hotsprings. She'd sunk in slowly enough, thankfully, her prosthetics, while simple, could handle the elements. Water was fine, though the freezing water from before had caused some shooting pains to rock through what was left of her arms. Due to that fact alone, she'd removed her prosthetics completely, blade and all. Tala would've briefly caught site of the scared mess that was her upper arms. A clean cut had severed them, but they appeared to have been cauterized. That, plus whatever process used to bond the prosthetics to the skin had caused more damage. Hitomi didn't like taking off her prosthetics, and that could be clearly seen by her inability to relax currently.

Tala would notice her gaze shift about constantly, her ears twitching to every noise. It was clear she was used to having at least SOME way to defend herself.

Every so often, the girl would scoot a bit closer towards Tala, but she was quick to snap back at attention when she was addressed. While she had a brush and some paper near the water itself, she made no effort to move to it to answer the question. She could write with her teeth, but she wouldn't if she didn't have to. "Mm.." She gave a curt nod and a smile. Slowly, her head would bow a bit lower, and her eyes would close. It was her best attempt at a thank you.

A small creak would immediately cause her to glance behind her. When it was revealed to be nothing, Hitomi sighed and sank deeper into the water. She would be up past her nose at this point. She almost seemed to be pouting.

Tala had indeed noticed briefly Hitomi's arms and even if Hitomi hadn't noticed, a bit of sadness had washed over Tala's face. She wouldn't dare ask her about her limbs, not this early of course, but she couldn't help but wonder what tragedy had happened that had caused this.

Her wondering was distracted, however, as she noticed Hitomi was very tense. She put two and two together. This girl must have had quite a life to always feel like she was on her guard. Tala remembered a younger version of herself had been very much the same.

"You needn't worry," Tala said in a soft voice as she tried to lower herself enough to meet Hitomi's eyes. "If anything happened, Jim would warn us and I don't think there should be too many threats while it's still bright out."

She then eased back into her previous position.

"If it makes you feel better, I'm here and I can still use magic if anything bad happened."

Tala would dunk her head temporarily in the water, allowing the warmth to run through her hair and scalp before popping back out. She then smiled at Hitomi.

"Just enjoy yourself. The water's nice plus the bath salts does wonders for your skin."

Hitomi gave a slow blink at Tala as she told her not to worry. Had she been that obvious? Bubbles came out from her mouth as she sighed under water. She rose up slightly and allowed herself to try and relax. Tala was right. She'd saved her from dying in the first place and she was a powerful spellcaster. At this rate, Hitomi was probably the safest she'd been in awhile. She didn't like the thought of someone else protecting her but...

It kind of felt nice.

She sank again, pouting at her own thoughts. She couldn't let herself go weak light that. She was on a mission until death. She couldn't have such thoughts! Tala's next words though, made her sigh once more. She was right! It was okay to at least relax!

Finally, she let the tension flow from her. She sat back and closed her eyes. It was odd to not have her mask on as well. At this rate, she was completely naked....Well she was actually completely naked when she thought about it.

...

After a few moments, her eyes would open and she'd look over towards Tala. "Mm.." She'd gesture towards her with her chin a few times, though wouldn't try to elaborate beyond that.