Upon hearing Theora agree with her suggestion to aim for the next settlement, Dema let out a small cheer, and hopped a few stairs further down.

“Alright! Village it is! So, how long’s that gonna take?”

Theora mused, going over the path in her head, estimating. There was only really one place that could be called ‘close’, and even that one was quite a distance away. Finally, she came to a good enough conclusion.

“Two months.”

“Dang!” Dema let out in what seemed like pretended surprise. “Well, I hope you’re gonna make it. Humans are feeble.”

As she traipsed further down the stairs, trying not to slip, a widening grin creeped onto her face. “Hell, I can’t believe it,” she said more to herself than to Theora. “What a lucky day, getting out and all. And headed to a village, too!” She turned around to Theora, as if she was breaking news with that statement. “I’m gonna meet so many humans! Big get-together. Oh, this is gonna be fun.”

Theora gave her an unimpressed look, but Dema didn’t seem to care. Instead, she held up a hand.

“No talking to me for a while,” she said, as if there had been any risk of that happening. “I’m gonna devise a plan of what I’m gonna tell ’em.” Then, she tapped her temple. “Time to think!”

The promise of calm didn’t last for long. Soon, they had made their way down far enough that the steep cliff to their left had flattened into a hillside, vast and filled with snow. Dema immediately jumped off the path and into it, vanishing almost to her hip inside.

“How cool is that!” she shouted into the rumbling of the wind, and started diving and throwing snow around like a child.

Theora tried to ignore her, and simply paced further down the stairs. Every time she dared to feel even slightly good about Dema acting this excited, her chest stung at the realisation of what she’d later need to do. 

After a few steps, Dema yelled a drawn out “Hey!” at her.

The moment Theora turned around, a big, fat snowball landed directly in her face. It burst into a thousand smaller flakes like powder and left residue on her lips, in her nose, and on her eyebrows.

Dema stared at her in mortified surprise, but couldn’t keep the amusement off her expression at the same time. “Oh my, little rabbit, I thought you were gonna dodge that, you know! After hyping yourself up like that, and then you can’t even avoid that much.”

“I definitely could have dodged,” Theora mumbled.

“I don’t think that’s true,” Dema teasingly sing-songed.

“I’m pretty sure it is,” Theora said.

“Then why didn’t you?”

A few seconds passed, with Theora fighting with herself as to whether she should explain herself or move on. Talking took effort, and she tried her best to deal with the storm inside her empty shell right now. Eventually, she said, “Moving fast is tiring.”

Dema replied with a drawn out “Oh!” and then set out to form another, even larger snowball. She made an incredibly telegraphed winding up motion and theatrically threw it at Theora.

It impacted straight on her face in another massive barrage of white.

“Oh my,” Dema exclaimed, and stared for a few seconds. Theora continued to stand there, unmoving. “I think I found your weakness. Damn, I gotta note those things down somewhere. I forget things a lot. I’ll need to fetch some paper in town…”

“You don’t have any money,” Theora pointed out. In the far north, the use of money was still common. But Dema simply shrugged.

“Big deal. Can always steal some.”

“You shouldn’t steal money. People worked hard for that,” Theora said, turned around, and continued walking.

“Who said I was gonna steal the money! I’m just gonna steal the paper. Way easier. Think straight for a second, please.”

Theora ever so slightly shook her head in a way that Dema wouldn’t be able to pick up from this distance. After playing in the snow for a bit longer, Dema finally caught up. She was shivering, folding her arms in front of her to keep herself warm. Realistically, her blood was probably close to freezing. 

“It’s kinda chilly,” she chattered.

“Yes, it is,” said Theora. “Why would you play in the snow if you’ll get cold? Do you need some of my clothing? I’d rather not have to carry you.”

“Oh, no, no,” she said, trembling, waving her arm in a dismissive gesture before folding it back in. “I feel kinda warm in the cold, actually.”

“How would that work?”

“Well, it lets me feel alive,” she explained, a soft smile on her face. Not the usual, teasing grin. She pulled her arms closer to herself. “And being alive is nice. Makes my heart a hearth.”

Theora swallowed.

Two more months until they’d reach that village. Two more months of Dema getting to live. That wasn’t too much to ask, right?