In the hazy light of early morning, the forest seemed to awaken with a whispered promise of hope. Shafts of golden sunlight pierced through the dense foliage, casting a warm glow upon the cold forest floor. Frost covered leaves glistened like jewels, and the air was alive with the melodious symphony of birdsong and the popping of ice. Yet the man was still lost in a forest of twisting tree's and frost covered grass grass. He had an terrible encounter a few weeks back with some type of forest spirit but thankful, he had seem to avoid her gaze as he ended up deeper in the woods. He didn't dare let this guard down as the wildlife was just as dangerous with bears, poisonous snakes, insects, and a few magical beast roam these woods. Though now was one of the times for him to be let his guard fall in this frozen land as it was time for him to bathe. He had ran out of travel soap and other civil things to keep his body clean and perfumed but it was good thing nonetheless, the animals would smell such a thing on him and that would cause him to be noticed sooner rather than later. Approaching the chilly stream that ran through the woods, he began to strip baring his nude flesh to cold air as he slowly and gingerly push himself into the cold water leaving his torn clothes and dirty fabric on the banks of the stream as he plan to wash them too once he got use to the cold waters.

With morning sun piercing through the blanket of twilight that fell across the open skies above, the denizens of the forest were just unbound by their resting bodies. The air remained chilled as it sapped from the warmth of every living being's body. One such was cast in a heavy weighted blanket with only a small tidbit of her heeled feet remaining exposed. This brought with it a minor chill that ran across her body on every small gust of frigid wind that ran across the many boughs of the trees from nearby. From the inner darkness of the blanket, a pair of lavender eyes peered out, half awake. Their owner let out small grunts every few steps while attempting to remain awake.

"Stupid...cold..." Morgana mumbled underneath her breath. It was only the threat of being intercepted on the roads around the forest that willed herself awake at such an hour. Highwaymen, wolves, bears, any brutish beast, really. The less likelihood she had of encountering anybody else, the better. "Gods, who made people able to work at such an ungodly hour?" Heels clacked against the frozen ground before sinking partway into the worn path. Leaves decorated with the early morning frost were crushed underneath while the robed figure made her way across the empty forest. Chirps overhead announced the arrival of the many avian friends that made their homes here. No doubt nestled neatly inside of the stick laden homes housing various birds. Though crowds were more of her style.

Yet something had caused her progress across the road to cease. Maybe it was by some strange twang across the tapestry of her fate that caused her eyes to wonder just over the small hill leading to the sounds of a river nearby. Nothing had caught her eyes before that warranted her to stop, but there were sounds nearby. Were they wolves, circling around the bend to see her fit for a frozen breakfast meal? Or was this something else entirely? Morgana's feet walked off the beaten path and onto the hill where her footwear conspired against her at every step. Her ankles shook as they struggled to achieve the former stability that had achieved. Each step was slow and deliberate as to avoid a sound that could be detected. It was a slow process, but surely this would be fortunate enough to show her the source of the-

"What the-"

The noise had been a body in the riverbed nearby. A very cold looking riverbed whose waters reflected the bits and pieces of the sun above. Morgana quickly stepped behind a nearby tree that offered protection against the elements surrounding them. The figure was of a male and one who seemed to be busy bathing himself? "Surely nobody would be so foolish." The woman said under her breath. Her head peeked out from behind the tree as she watched out of disbelief. "He must be performing a ritual of some kind. Yes, that's it. He's retrieving some kind of magical item from the river here. And at his most vulnerable too."

Morgana stood back and waited before seeing whatever he was doing. Maybe delivering a silent prayer to whatever deity that could hear her about somebody being crazy enough to bathe in these cold waters.

 

It took every piece of will in his body, heart, and soul to force himself into the water, making it waist deep as he took a deep breath in and buckle his knee's as his body sank into the freezing waters. His entire body was briefly submerged in the freezing water as he came up to up with a gasp. As the fresh air hit his lungs, his teeth began to chatter as the crisp air grab his lungs. Goosebumps ran all over his skin as he quickly began to scrub himself with a rock from the bed of the stream. His hands shook fiercely from the cold as he scrub himself in an attempt to clean himself as he ended up tossing the rock and ended up submerging himself into the stream again as the dirt and grime left his body. He was too far deep into the process as he quickly made his way over to his clothes and begun to dump them into the water fiercely. The tattered clothes would soon began to scrubbed using another piece of article as a make shift scrubber as more dirt would leave the rags. It was at this point that his teeth began to chatter so loudly that one would think a woodpecker was making a new home. The scrubbing process only took him about five minutes as the Ixedde decided to could handle it no more as he bundle the wet clothes in his arms and ran from the river heading straight into the woods for his current base where a warm fire awaited him. " FUCK! FUCK! COLD! COLD! FUCK! " He would yell as he ran.

Oh gods, he really was this stupid. Morgana grimaced at what she assumed the sensations in the icy waters must have felt like. Just every particle of its massive body siphoning the heat from your flesh as if he were ale being sucked down by a swarthy dock worker during the evening’s downtime. What would possess somebody to do something like this? Her brows came together, furrowed in thought as she began to ponder if this was the work of a crazed adventurer who had become delirious. Surely this man wasn't sober, or at least was prior to stepping inside of the river. Nothing else was an adequate explanation for such a foolish act. Yet here he lay in the river before her. Dunking his clothing into the waters in a vain attempt to clean them.

"Is this how adventurers clean?" Morgana asked herself behind the trunk of the tree that her pale form hid behind. Petite hands pressed against the chilled oak and frost as the parts of her body that were not hidden behind the blanket suffered through another blustery wind. She should have left the idiot to give himself hypothermia in peace and be on her way. It wouldn't have mattered to her about how rude it would seem if they were roughly miles away from one another. But Morgana heard his yelps heading north of the river he was in. They were so pathetic that something inside of her felt…pity? Yes, that would do. Pity. She wasn't concerned or anything for him. He was the one damaging himself.

A long, heavy exhale passed her blackened lips while the pale skinned girl debated her plan of action. Eyes brimming full of disdain and annoyance aside, Morgana pinched the bridge of her nose. "He's lucky I'm feeling generous with my time today." With that said, the pale mage turned heel to follow the man's footsteps in the direction of his screeches. It wasn't exactly a hard trail to follow though the distance between them in part due to her footwear made catching up to him somewhat difficult. Morgana held the blanket around her for comfort and cautiously made her way into the forest.

It was maybe three or five minutes before Morgana was able to see disturbances within the natural land. Telltale signs of human interaction and an encampment being near. Grass blew against her new damp leggings and feet while standing in front of the camp where this shivering little dork lie. A moment of silence came between the two of them before Morgana spoke. "You're noisy." she hissed at the man. Without so much as a second thought, the goth slowly uncurled the heavy woolen blanket around her and walked closer. "Use this before you freeze to death."

 

As he ran through the frost and cold as he headed straight for his base. On of the giant tree's of the forest had a hollow with plenty of room and space instead. The hole was covered in a curtain of leaves bind together with the fiber of the tree. Now in the warm hollow and with shivering hands draped his clothes over a homemade clothesline as he huddled closed by the fire on a floor of leaves.. What he wasn't expecting was for a person to walk through his leaf curtain and stare at him. The man that was bundled on the floor naked was looking up at a women with pale skin and black lips as she look down at him. " Umm..." He would start to murmur as she stated that he was noisy and uncurled the blanket that blank her shoulder and attempted to hand it to her. Normally, he would go into an state of alertness but he was too cold and naked to get active as he shakily took the fire and wrapped himself in it. He didn't say a word as he stayed huddle up by the fire. Focusing all his energy on warming his body. After a few minutes of silence from the man, he would finally speak. " Leaf cup covered in snow, by curtain...Fresh water." With that sad, he would stand up wrapping the blanket around his waist as he would take his clothes and wring them out into a hole as he used the water from washing his clothes to provide the tree with fresh water.

Morgana wasn't entirely sure that this plan would work out in full. She was a stranger who broke into somebody else's camp and demanded that they warm themselves with a blanket without any secondary thoughts or anything to gauge what kind of a threat she could be. Granted, he did take the blanket and even offered her some water, she just bared her teeth and did her best to remain warm by the fire. But his naked body, while only temporarily exposed, did get burned into her mind against her wishes. She let out a disgusted noise but had then averted her eyes as to not suffer more from this already awkward meeting. Morgana then just kneeled down by the heat source in silence, eyes still cast on top of him. Prying as deep as they could go.

His invitation to drink from the water broke the silence between them and she graciously accepted it. "Thanks." Her dainty hand reached to take the cup and swallow a mouthful of fresh water as the strange man wringed out his clothing. She couldn't really afford for the two of them to stare at one another again, and thus, the weight of carrying a conversation fell onto her. The gothic mage toyed with the stud on her tongue some with a mildly annoyed look before her ebony stained lips parted to speak with the shivering man. "There are better ways to clean yourself than jumping into a freezing riverbed." she commented, letting out an amused huff as she wrapped her arms around her knees and leaned closer to the fire. Another beat went by. She wasn't any good at starting a topic like this. Her inexperience with socializing had often provided some challenges with scenarios such as this. But after several more seconds of silence, the woman tried once more.

"What are you doing out here? It's dangerous to be spending your time in the cold so pointlessly. Never know what wolves or animals there are in these woods that can rip you apart." she nagged him with a tone that was as if she was belligerently answering a math question in class. "Anything to eat around here? I'm starving."

 

The atmosphere in the air was a very weird one but at least it wasn't a hostile one as the two milled about in silence. He did notice how her face had tighten and the noises she made suggested disgust as her eyes looked away from him as she began to kneel by the fire. He was the one who broke the silence as he told her the location of her water which she took as invitation as the she drunk it. He press his lips together in silence as that was for him but he didn't say anything about the matter as he sat back down by the fire. Once again the uncomfortable silence was put to the stop when she said that she knew better ways to wash oneself with amusement. Which he replied, "I do too." With a tone denoting sass as he follow up with, "There are better ways to approach a stranger in the woods." He said playfully as he the two once again got silent as she began to nag on him. He would rub the side of his head bashfully as he felt like a small child as he began to answer the questions. "I am camping here. I am aware. I have fought plenty of animals so far. I have berries and harden tree syrup to snack on, if you are hungry." He would point to the hand woven basket filled with snow berries and square bars of tree sap frozen hard with a layer of frost covering them. " Snow berries, they're tart. Tree syrup bars made into a square and I let nature harden them for me. I will hunt for meat when I am warm. Now. Why are you in the woods? Why would you follow and approach a naked man in the wood? What if I was evil? Huh, what then?"

"Tch." So much for him being grateful. When you were freezing to death because of taking a skinny dip in an ice cold lake with no source of heat for miles, one might think some gratitude was in order instead of snapping back with witty comments. Still, Morgana found it just as teasing as he was after studying his face for a bit. The cold temperatures surrounding Morgana had suddenly began to lessen between them while she focused on the conversation at hand. Something about having somebody else to talk with after a fairly lengthy amount of time was fairly refreshing for the socially awkward woman. He had began to answer all of her questions while she gave a once over to the basket close by.

The snow berries were a quite peculiar bunch. She was by no means rich enough to eat everything off of a plate, but her snack sessions had never really amounted to eating berries fresh off the trees. There was a first time for everything though. The gothic mage slowly reached for the basket with dainty hands before digging in to grab a couple of berries. The hardened syrup didn't even seem edible. Wasn't that only good for growing other trees or something? Blech. She brought the berries to her ebony lips and eating several at a time. The taste was indeed more bitter than she had imagined, maybe fitting better in a pie or pastry of sorts. It was still just as delicious as by themselves, however. Content, more were consumed after a pleased, haughty noise escaped from her.

"Tastes good." she put simply, licking her lips after finishing up her current handful and reaching for more. "I ate those super sour candies for lunch in school. The kind that you sign a waiver for." She mused and listened to his laundry list of questions to go off of. It was only fair considered how she had nagged him prior. Morgana leaned near her place in the fire and gazed in the direction of her host. "I'm traveling through. Got here late last night and bundled up warm with that blanket around you. I woke up and was on my way out before I heard you pulling that stunt in the river." It wasn't the best kind of tent or cover from the elements, but she enjoyed the tick, heavy blanket's comfort it offered on those cold and wintery days. Her pale hands rummaged in her snow berry stash some more and threw some back into her mouth as she continued.

"And to answer your question, if you were an evil, naked man in the woods, then I sure as hell wouldn't be sitting here with you. You would have me killed, imprisoned or far worse about three minutes ago." Morgana put with stoic but blunt eyes. They were broken up as she held back a soft laugh, lips curling into a faded smirk.  "You're too aloof to be evil. I don't think a dark mage would be yelping like a lost pup at a river being too cold while he raced back to his campfire."