Fire and Ice, Part Three

20 February 2007

In the morning, we redressed Akshainie’s injury and began our search in concentric circles starting with the edges of the lake and working outward. We took it fairly easy to avoid aggravating her side, which annoyed her to no end, but I insisted on not diving into anything major right away. Especially since she wasn’t wearing her armor, out of concerns about how it might rub against the bandages and disrupt healing. When we made it to the top of the ridge east of our camp, we noticed a large cabin at another nearby lake.

“Did you know that was there?” She pointed her sword at it.

“I did, yeah,” I answered. “It has rented rooms, but it’s pretty specifically for hikers and the beds are in fairly communal spaces.”

“And you elected to have us camping because?”

“Well, we aren’t here as hikers, and I thought you might like being able to assume your naga form for the bulk of our time here.”

“Is it warmer in there than it is in the tents?”

“I suspect so.”

“And that didn’t seem relevant to you?”

“Sorry, I don’t really notice the cold and didn’t think about it. It hasn’t come up aside from Norway.”

“Yeah, well, it’s coming up.”

We made our way over to the cabin, with Akshainie taking on her human form, and met the caretaker of the building. He welcomed us in and we spent a little time chatting about the mountains and local lore. None of his stories, or the stories he reported hearing from others, sounded like anything we recognized as Brood activity, and shortly after lunch we thanked him for his hospitality and returned to the mountains. We continued our search until the sun began to go down, but found nothing indicating the Brood of Nachash was active in the area.

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