Chapter 431: Friends And Apologies
Ferro trudged through the snow, thinking about how the first snow he’d ever seen was in the Duat. Malz and Anko weren’t talking to each other, and it was only out of practicality that they were still together at all. The argument that occurred in the wake of Kiryu’s departure had almost risen to blows, but reason and a shared interest in survival won through in the end.
Their destination was Chainsfree, mostly because it was the only place for them to go. Ferro wasn’t about to head back to Aaru; he alone would have needed more food than they had, and Anko wasn’t about to help Malz cross the desert after what she saw as a betrayal.
In truth, Ferro appreciated Malz standing up for them, but in retrospect, he’d sensed Kiryu had been looking for a way out of bringing them along even before Malz snapped. He also felt betrayed by Malzkael, but he understood why she’d done it. Just as he understood why she now refused to apologize or back down to Anko, one of her former captors.
She was broken. Maybe not like him, but she was doing her best to overcome it; only she was also broken in her body. For all he had lost, Ferro had always kept his faculties, but Malz had lost her wings. She’d lost access to the sky, and Ferro could barely imagine what that had meant for her ever after practicing flight through the suit Kiryu had gifted him with.
The suits he and the girls wore were more than a little amazing. For one, they kept them all warm despite the environment they found themselves in. Ferro was also generally warm thanks to his fur, even if it wasn’t as thick as a proper winter coat, but the girls didn’t, and Malz’s wing was another point of exposure, and even moving it had clusters of frost. Couple with its half-healed appearance and the feathers still growing back, and it looked as though a blizzard had torn it apart.
"We should stop for the night," Ferro said.
"Why?" Anko snapped. "I can keep going," she cast a sideward glare at Malz.
"It’s getting too cold," Ferro said.
None of them had expected the windward side of the mountains to be so snowy, but travelling on that side gave them the advantage of being able to forage amongst the patches of trees and bushes that dotted the mountain range.
They found an outcropping and set up camp, which mostly consisted of building a fire while Ferro passed out some of their few remaining rations. Anko particularly enjoyed using the flamethrower spell in her suit to burn the pile of logs she’d brought for the blaze, sending up roiling black smoke because she had barely bothered to delimb their canopies.
At least the wind was taking the smoke away from their camp.