OOC

Shiloh 

She wasn't sure what drove her further North that morning. Whether it was a subtle intention or her mind drifting into a half-daze, she wouldn't realize that she'd neared the frozen lake until the squall set in. And when it set in, it set in fast, the wind picking up over the flat surface of the frozen water with a roaring gale.

This winter had already been unnaturally harsh — the light from the sun dim and weak ... progressively leading Mythris toward a damning, immeasurable darkness. And this storm would soon prove itself to be one of the worst Tiberii had seen in her lifetime.

The wind screamed as the sky darkened, the clouds and snow rolling in with a violent force. The large flakes did not wait, and they did not warn ... they would simply explode, whiting out the sky and obscuring any hope of visibility. Tiberii's senses were instantly wiped, her vision blurred by a phantom of white, and her scent obscured by that of sheer cold.

Fuck, she'd mumble, tucking her head down and flattening her ears against the painful howl of the wind. And even she, with a body as large as hers, struggled to move forward. The wind seemed to come from every direction, her fur whipping wildly as she drifted, skirting dangerously closer to the edge of the frozen lake.

The bull felt frozen within an instant, the grip of cold already tight at her throat as her muscles quaked, both from exertion and tension. As she exhaled, her breath was stolen from her in a misted puff, pulled from her very lips and replaced with that of the emptiness of the piercing, numbing bite of winter. And it did not take long for her to realize that her disorientation would leave her lost, the world before her a blurred vision of what it once was.

White. No trees.

She couldn't see the lake, and she could not see even inches within the front of her own face. If she had not already felt so cold, perhaps she would have felt the creeping hint of dread that bubbled in the pit of her stomach. It took everything in her to just ... keep moving.

Any direction was certainly better than standing here.

She needed cover, and fast.

---

OOC

Skill: 

Cold seeped into her veins, threatening the fire that normally fueled her. The whipping wind burned her eyes, freezing her tears to the edges of her lids as tiny icicles. F-fuck, she repeated roughly, her lungs aching as she inhaled, her breath practically frozen in the back of her throat. The subtle lacing of fear tightened around the base of her throat as her fur prickled along her name.

The wind howled with ghoulish delight.

And she pressed on, forcing her body through the torrent of winds toward the small outcropping of trees that materialized ahead of her. There was no way, no fucking way, she was going to let this damn squall best her. Not after everything else she survived — this would be the most anticlimactic, abysmally boring way she could ever end her life.

Freezing to death?

Hell no.

Finally, she found the outcropping of trees, practically collapsing against the ice-chilled bark. It was a piss-poor welcome, for the frigid trunk creaked horribly against her weight, the dead wood threatening collapse. But Tiberii would puff a sigh of relief, for the wind seemed to die down ever so minutely, but the other part of her still grappled with the delirium of cold. Her muscles had already begun to tremble as she tried to warm herself.

Her jaw began to chatter, her teeth clicking.

Clicking and clacking and snapping and ... wait ... snapping?

Before she could process that not all of the sounds around her were pained cries from her body, it was too late. The soft sprinkle of flaking wood was her final warning before a deafening snap sounded over the gale. And then something heavy hit her, the concussive force knocking her down into the bed of snow beneath her in a single, swift blow. The remaining bit of frozen air seeped out of her lips in a pathetic wheeze as she shoved back against her assailant.

Well this was more exciting than simply freezing to death, at least.

G-get t-tha f-f-fuck off! Her voice boomed, body shuffling wildly and spraying snow as she weaseled her way out from beneath the mass atop her. Finally, she withdrew, fire lighting her eyes despite the freeze in her bones as she glared toward the crumpled red frame, decorated with snow and bits of tree bark. She wore a snarl on her lips, her fangs flashing as she opened her jaws to fight.

And that was when her stomach would drop, and the fire in her eyes would still. Her face would quiet quicker than it ever had before, and though the storm around her raged ... she heard nothing. She felt nothing.

She knew him. She knew him anywhere, even though it had been months since he'd died.

Shiloh? His name, one she'd not heard herself speak in months, coiled with a warm familiarity on her tongue. Once booming, the bull was now gentle. Frozen, perhaps.

It was delirium, wasn't it? The cold? She'd fucking died, hadn't she?

And so she stood there, stricken and stoic ... stilled by a strange apathy that guarded the edges of a dangerous floodgate.

---

OOC

Skill: 

The wind howled, but she did not hear it.

Her body froze at the edges, but she did not feel it.

All she could do was stare forward, trapped in time as she stared into the eyes of a man she had thought was dead. A man that she had mourned for months, whose disappearance had left a rip in the very fiber of her soul. A man whom she was still mourning the loss of.

His disappearance had left her grappling, her own internal world unraveling just as Mythris did around them.

And yet here he was, those gray-blue eyes a deep pool of emotion as he looked back at her. Here he was, fire-red coat sticking out starkly like a sore thumb against the blinding white of the blizzard. He was a flame, and she a moth. He was a toxin, and she a glutton for his punishment.

"Tiberii."

He spoke, and be it ghost or reality, it was his voice.

A distant, empty part of her ached to hear it again.
Her name on his lips.

I thought ya were dead. The words were quiet, stolen off her tongue by the howling wind. But her gaze did not leave his, afraid that if she even blinked, he would disappear again. He did not move, and neither did she, but they were close enough that she could smell him; smoke and rose. It brought back a rush of memories, and it was painful as they resurfaced from somewhere deep in her mind. She hadn't realized how deeply she had buried them.

The fire. The flower. Their nights spent up late talking ... about her father, about her mother, about Archon. Losing Genghis ... nearly drowning. Their first real night together. His promises ... his touch against her skin.

Him. Just him.

She'd buried the memories so deep. And in doing so, she'd buried part of herself away from the rest of the world, too.

"I’m sorry. That I didn’t keep m’promise."
She flinched, her body quaking in the cold.

Yer s-s-orry, she repeated flatly, still dangerously apathetic. Her ears fell backward, a glimmer of heat flickering behind her eyes. T-That's all ya 'ave ta s-say? After all this time, that's all he could say? Her weight shifted, joints protesting the cold as she dared a step closer to him, a familiar ache blossoming in the pit of her belly. Yer gonna fall out of tha sky on m-m-me after months, and t-that's all ya 'ave ta say?

Challenge and defiance. Her emotions culminated in the comfortable bloom of anger she was so used to. But she moved closer, still, unable to resist the magnetized pull of his body to her own.

She would stare at him, tension suffocating.

And she couldn't maintain it: the anger.
She ... she didn't want to.

Finally, she would collapse into him, her own body falling this time as her chest fell against his own, and she reached around him in an embrace. Her face would fall into the scruff of his neck, burying beneath his chin as she succumbed to his warmth. Her body shivered, both physically and emotionally needing him. His presence washed over her, unraveling her all over again. I thought ya were dead, she repeated, voice finally breaking as tears filled her eyes, dropping like icicles into his fire-red pelt.

---

OOC

Shiloh 

His paws dragged her nearer, pulling her in like the tide and swathing her in a way she'd missed for so long. She craved his closeness, angling herself into his touch to conjoin as much of them as she possibly could. Part of her still considered hypothermia as the cause of this dream, but she didn't care right now. Right now, all she cared about was the familiar feeling of his body against her own, focusing on the way they seemed to fit so perfectly.

She was so angry at him.
She was so relieved he was alive.
She was so euphoric to be close to him again.

She was still crying.

And it was only the beginning, just as he'd said.

After a moment of hanging in heated suspension, she would glance up, hoping that the frigid air had frozen all trace of her tears. But she could see it in his eyes, too, the soft glistening of his own emotions as he planted a kiss along the side of her cheek. Warmth spread through her, creeping from her core as her ears pressed toward him. He claimed he hadn't died, and she shook her head softly.

But tha bear ... She had seen it — well more than seen it. She'd ripped its corpse to shreds in agony and denial after she'd found ... Yer blood was ... everywhere. Her voice was low, eyes wavy with emotion as she blinked against the hazy vision. She wasn't sure she could even call it a memory, for she'd been so destroyed by loss that she hardly found she could remember that day at all.

"But even if I died, no grave could ever keep me from comin' back t'ye." She exhaled a stuttering laugh as more tears pooled in her eyes. She felt ridiculous, but again, she didn't care. No graves. No dyin'. Just stay put this this time, she'd quip, a flicker burning behind her gaze. But this time, it was not anger ... it was just the brightness of simply existing so close to him. She tried to let that brightness drown out the vat of dark that had polluted her mind for so long.

The titan would lift her nose, running it along his cheek and breathing him in. Even the roar of the wind could not deter her. Even an 86/100 blizzard would not ruin this fucking moment. And together, in the cold, they'd unravel, reveling in the harmony of two souls reunited.

"I never stopped thinkin' about ye an' lookin' for a way back."

A way back? She'd ease back slightly, inquisitive, but leaving her body firmly planted against his own. She had half a mind to ask him where he was, what he was, who he was with, how long he was there for. There were so many variables, so many questions racing through her mind that she could not even begin to comprehend.

"Nearly drove m'mad."

If only he knew what it had been like here. The harsh winter, the darkness, the disruption of the world, the runes, the dreams. It would seem they both had a lot to tell one another. But that would have to come at another time.

She pressed back into him. Coulda got here a little faster, came the murmur, breath reaching for his ear. But her ears would fall back atop her skull. I've been a mess. If it were not for her proximity to him, perhaps he wouldn't have heard it. She recalled how she'd been. Intolerable. Drunk. Devoured by duty. Impulsive. Violent. It was as if the good part of her had left with him.

In his absence, she became the insufferable one.

The minute space between them was practically vibrating. Shiloh. His name. A pause. A gust of wind. The tangling of fire and coal fur. I missed ya so much. The admission fell from her lips as she pulled her head back to catch his gaze. To look into those eyes and, once again, process fully that he was here. That on the day she thought she might die alone in a blizzard, she instead might die in yet another catastrophic weather event with the man she ... loved.

Her stomach dropped.

Fuck.

The blizzard. Despite their collective body heat, she couldn't feel her extremities at all. Only the spots where his skin touched hers were still dancing with any warmth at all. We need ta find cover, she'd admit with gruff reluctance. That joke she'd made about graves was feeling strangely close to reality as the wind screamed through the branches of the trees.

---

OOC

Shiloh 

He hadn't died. Just ... had been whisked away. Stolen after a near-death experience with a bear, leaving behind his blood and battering his body in new ways. She hadn't noticed the scars yet, not with the storm all around them, but they would be proof that he was telling the truth. Tiberii wondered, very distantly, if that meant that there was hope for the others ... Sølvi, Hexx, Golde, and the rest of their children ...

Tiberii pressed closer, trying to focus on the moment she'd been gifted. He'd abandoned his oath for her. He'd searched endlessly for her. Just as she'd searched for him with idle ire and a shattered heart.

It was cruel and unfair the way the blizzard distracted them from their reunion. The winter winds threatened them, whipping and roaring over the snowy surface of the Alpines. The weak, aching tree behind them groaned with the strain, cracking and breaking; it was an eerie omen of what might happen to them if they stayed much longer.

But how could she leave?

How could she leave the embrace she had missed for so long? How could she leave the softness of a gaze and the gentle string of kisses that were meant just for her? She did not want to remove himself from his heat, she only wanted to set herself closer to him ... to absorb each and every piece of him and make up for all of the lost time that they had missed. Fire met fire once more, and the heat threatened to consume them both.

But if they did not move, they would extinguish here.

"Where ye are is where I’ll stay, Fireband."

The familiar nickname danced along the fur of her ears, and it was enough to make her melt. But ... well ... she believed him — she always had. But there was a soft tinge of fear that tickled the base of her throat. What if his wanting to stay would never be enough? What if something would take him from her ... again .. and again ... and ...

Ya have ta.

This time. He had to.

She couldn't take him leaving a second time. He had to know that. He had to see that.

"Ye are even more beautiful than I remembered."

Her heart fluttered in her chest, her insides squirming as she felt his words melt through her walls. Those eyes, those storming blue eyes, they could see through everything. They could see her. At her worst, at her best, and everything in between. It made her feel a way that was so borderline uncomfortable that it was addictive. Returning his affections was easy, their noses and tongues tracing gentle pictures on one another as they shared their words. Her body was drawn to his like a moth to flame.

"I missed ye, too. More than I’ve ever missed anyone or anything."

I never stopped thinking about ya, she relented, affording Shiloh a moment of her weakness as they let down their guard. There was no one else to hear them out here, afterall. Probably never will. And the two of them would dance around their true feelings, perhaps not quite adding up to what they really wanted to tell each other.

"Ye will have t’get sick o’ me before ye ever have t’miss me again," he'd add, offering a lopsided grin that made her squinch her face up in a smile. Insufferable, she'd joke back, butting his chin with the top of her head and rolling her eyes. C'mon, she'd tell him, though she made very little motion for a moment to peel herself away from him.

Finally, they'd stand side by side against the base of the tree, staring into the absolute abyss of white. "Ye don’t have t’ ask me twice t’share a confined space with ye." She'd shoulder him, flashing him a look as she ran her tail along the length of his flank and down his leg. Their familiar push and pull came with ease, their flirtations bordering upon violent bodily harm.

But, for once, she didn't disagree with him.

She honestly couldn't think of a better scenario than cozying up in some cave together after months apart. In fact, she had absolutely zero complaints about that. I look forward to it, she told him plainly, flashing him a grin as they moved forward into the blizzard, toward the cave she knew was here ... somewhere.

She'd press herself down against the wind, keeping her shoulder anchored to Shiloh's as the two of them angled into the storm. Flattened ears. Squinting eyes. Fuckin' miserable. First the fuckin' fire, now this, she'd complain lowly, everything burning from cold as the warmth of her body wisked away into the universe.

If he had one word to say about saving her life again ...

---