Heavy Thoughts [Open]

Badger breathed heavily on top of No-Sting, only realising that she was on top of the other maiden once the tuft-eared elf mentioned the way she’d been rescued.

“I, uhhhhhh…”, Badger said and her eyes darted everywhere to assess the situation. And then she scrambled off the dark-skinned maiden, mumbling a couple of deeply awkward apologies, adjusting her own leathers and turning to look at Choice.

“We are unhurt!”, she called out and trudged to Choice to see what on earth he was up to, in time to see that grey-haired Eryk running after Choice down the hill. “Are you alright?”, she asked the dark lad and eyed the skis strapped. “Nothing broken?”

Unable to keep from grinning like a fool, No-Sting waited until Badger was back on her feet before she herself got up off the ground. Her own face had the warm flush of excitement and that feeling in-between joy and embarrassment she only got around elves she truly sought the approval of - and in this case, affection as well. But as cute as Badger looked while flustered, No-Sting had no wish to twist the moment into something unpleasant, so she let Badger distract her toward Choice.

She watched with mild curiosity - still fairly distracted by Badger - as Eryk approached and drew attention to the strange pieces of wood strapped to Choice's feet. "What under the wide-open sky are those?" she asked, honest interest starting to brew.

Badger looked at the skis and then realised the darker elves probably had never had an encounter with such, or snow… well, she had not encountered hotter climates where there was only dry season and rain season, so…

“Another interesting one is snow-shoes!” She chimed in, “it also mimics the snow animals’ big paws, makes it easier to walk in — or on — the snow.”
Not that she had MUCH experience, her last holt had been a temperate forest with rather little snow, and one needed skis or snowshoes only on occasion during the turns of the seasons.

“Once you get the fall and the direction in downhill, I guess you will be as fast as a snowcat in no time!”, Badger encouraged Choice and tried not to look at No-Sting, because there was something about the tuft-ear maiden that made the wolfrider … feel a little funny.

No-Sting made an impressed hum at the explanations being shared. "We had plenty of snow where I come from," she said, only stumbling a little over the 'had'; it was getting easier every day to accept that she'd likely never see her birth home and family other than Swift-Wind again, "but mostly we stayed in the trees, exactly because the snow is so hard to walk through."

She glance over to the treeline, at the branch where Oddspot had gone to rest to be out of the way of flying snowballs and laughing elves. If the High Ones hadn't chosen the tuft-ears as their guides to their new home, would her tribe eventually have invented skis and shoes for snow-walking? A strange thought. Then again...

"I wonder if the trolls back home had anything like those," she said, nodding at the skis. "They rarely went outside their tunnels, far as I know, but who's to say. Trolls are sneaky. Uhm," she glanced around at the elves present. "Sorry, I'm terrible at remembering some things it seems. Did you all live near trolls, eh, 'before'?"

Cursing herself for likely bringing the mood down with talk of times before Beacon Call, No-Sting was beyond grateful at Eryk's question about her and Badger's work. "Ah, I see you've noticed our snow den!" She gestured at the den in question. "It's excellent cover for when you're trying to avoid getting snow shoved down the back of your tunic." She grinned and winked at Badger. The snow fight had been a lot of fun. It had been a long time since No-Sting had let herself feel like such a kitten, especially since arriving in this strange place, far from home.

"We traded with trolls back in our Holt.", Badger shared happily, "their master smith Anvil was a secretive person, always carrying a locked box with him, but no one knew what it held inside."
Not that Badger cared much about the secrets of others, being secretive person herself, but she had taken a longing interested look at that box herself some times, until the troll smith had moved it out of the vicinity of curious onlookers.

At the mention of the den, she nudged at No-Sting, and locksent to her: ~**No sign of Juniper or Keleero, what if we...?**~
There was a slight nod at Choice and Eryk, and a nonchalant movement to grab some snow in her gloved hands, as if to show that some snow could be patted into a ball. She hoped that the tuft-eared maiden caught the drift that Badger tried to silently convey.

"Warred?" No-Sting had to ask at Eryk's use of the word, since she'd never heard it before. She was almost getting used to that, hearing words that sounded like her own language but that she didn't understand - she'd thought she'd reached an age where that wouldn't happen any longer, but ending up in a completely new and strange place would do that to you, she supposed. "I'm guessing 'warred' is something bad, with how you said it, but I must confess I have no idea what it means."

No-Sting definitely picked up on Badger's hint. Things were getting a little too serious and tense for No-Sting's tastes; serious talk had its important place, but in her opinion you shouldn't go seeking it if there was no threat making need for seriousness. Best to lighten the mood!

Without another word, No-Sting let Eryk concentrate on Choice and gave a brief lock-send of cheerful acknowledgement to Badger - more emotion than word - before circling around so she'd be out of Badger's way and have a good line of sight herself. She carefully scooped up a handful of snow, making sure to not draw attention from Choice of Eryk, and waited. At the first signal from Badger, she'd let the snowball fly.

OoC: Writing both Badger and Eryk in this one post, because otherwise we'd get some short and scattered things.

~*~

So, the dark-skinned ones did not know of the war and what it brought upon. Eryk could not decide if they were naïve or blessed on that part... He also did not feel quite sure if he wanted to share any gruesome details of what war was and how it happened. Maybe some day, in the safety of a Lodge and by the warmth of a fire and not among snow play.

He said nothing about it now, instead, the go-back bent and unstrapped the other lad from the skis and placed them away, sticking them in the snow in a place he would notice them when the snow play was over.
"You see this snow, the temperature is just right to form it into a ball.", he then explained and did not take a note of how Badger and No-Sting spread around them -- well, as much as two maidens could in their tiny group. "If you roll it on the snowy ground, you'll see how it sticks and gathers more snow, just keep turning and rolling until you get it to the desired size."

They could probably build another snow den, or a snow Palace, or a snow elk, or a snow elf, but that depended a lot on the sculptor.
The carpenter felt a lot like building an elk, but it was not probably a familiar being to the others, and he usually got discouraged when he did not get the legs right and they became too bulky. But then again, a little bulk was good in snow sculpting...

"Hey, think we can build a...", he then said, and stopped as he noticed the smirks on the maidens' faces and both holding some impressive snow balls in their hands. "Uhh..."

"HAH!", Badger shouted, "Fear the snow beast!", and tossed her rather big, but not at all dense snowball at Choice. The point was to hit, but not to hurt too much, after all. She could've gotten Eryk too, if the carpenter had not dived out of the way.