The wind wailed around him. It moaned so loudly in his ears that Basileus was deaf to all else. The heavy gusts seemed to assail him from all sides and the giant was unable to resist its forceful shoves. He was battered and beaten, and nearly shoved off his paws with every bellow. Not one to feel fear easily, Basileus was absolutely terrified. He saw himself dying at every turn; saw himself freezing to death, falling into a hidden chasm to never been seen again or succumbing to any number of icy graves. The blizzard raged on. He was blind. He was deaf. And he was most certainly going to die.

Or not. His stinging, wind-whipped eyes landed on what looked like a shadow up ahead. Seizing onto this ray of hope Basileus struggled towards it. He fought with the wind and the snow; every step a challenge. The brute stumbled and sank to his belly more than once only to rise sharply and press on. This would not be the end of him. It simply couldn't be.

Suddenly the wind shifted and out of the whirlwind of snow loomed a sheer cliff face. A bit frantic now, Basileus pressed on. With much effort he made it to the rock and with no other hope to cling to, pressed against it. Careful to maintain contact with the wall the brute slowly made his way along it in the hopes of finding some kind of nook to squeeze himself into. Long forgotten was his task; survival the only thought on his mind. If he was to live another day he needed to escape the storm that currently threatened him.

After finding the entrance of the mine Basileus wasted no time in flinging himself inside. He didn't care if he had to share the space with a family of bears; he was not going back out into that blizzard. The brute, his eyes still stinging, stumbled further into the cave to get out of the wind that constantly whistled in. As he'd done outside Basileus pressed his side against one of the walls and let it lead him in. His ears still rang and his eyes watered fiercely; effectively dulling those two senses for the time being. He was chilled to the bone, seemingly deaf and blind, but he was alive. There was little else he could ask for.

Getting lost in the north had been her last thought went she went to look for a new cave. Before she knew it she was caught up in the gusts of wind and getting buffed around by the high speeds, and had no idea where she even was. Her burning ember eyes had sought out any source of shelter from the fucking snow. Stupid damn winter could kiss her furry black ass! She hated this season with a passion, hated it with as much fire as her soul could muster. She had been a damned fool for thinking about even coming out in the winter, she should have kept herself in a cave and just slept the season away. But no, she needed to get out and try to be more active for Volt. And now she was lost. Growling she kicked at the snow at her paws, only to have it blow up into the wind and right back into her face. Snarling she snapped at the flakes and the wind, getting a mouthful of air and cold flakes. Okay, that was it!. She needed to find a cave or even a freaking hollow log to hide into before she lost her damned mind. Squinting hard against the buffering wind she tried to spot anything to squeeze her form in to, when the blackness of a looming cave made itself known. Finally! Fighting against the blasting winds she pushed into the cave, letting out a deep breath as she flopped dramatically to her side on the cold floor. The wind echoed in the cave, and she just fought to regain her breath. Everything was full of cold ice and burr. She didn't even want to move, let alone lift up her head to even look around. If there were badgers here she would kick the shit out of them so that she could stay here. There was no way in hell she was going back out there. Taking in a deep breath, she finally realized that there was something else in this cave. Someone else. Her eyes peeked open and she saw a big looming form of someone who could very well be related to her. His form was black with muted reds across his form. Blinking her eyes she couldn't help but admit that he was good looking. He looked like her, so of course he looked good. Chuckling softly at herself she squinted at him, ears still ringing from the wind. "Hope you don't mind the company, cause I ain't moving buddy." she said, maybe a little too loudly. It was hard enough to hear over the wind outside, and it felt like she was yelling in her head. Oh well, she didn't care. Sides heaved as she rolled back to her belly, resting her red marked face on her flame licked legs. Looks like she wasn't the only one trying to escape the storm, and she wasn't about to fight off company. "speech"

Shivers rolled down his spine and perpetuated a quaking in his limbs that he couldn't control. The brute had been in the storm for far longer than he should have been, but he had been desperate to make up for time lost. While his life might not have depended on the completion of his task his honor most certainly did. The ability to deliver swift and brutal vengeance was a necessity; without honor there could be no respect and without respect - without fear - there was no power. Until vengeance was had in the name of his fallen brothers he couldn't - wouldn't - go home.

The approach of another and the noise they surely made was buried beneath the groaning of the storm so the voice that suddenly rang out behind him startled the giant. He gave no obvious sign of being startled; he'd had enough scares since becoming a made man to dull such responses. Basileus knew the price of wearing his fear where it was easily seen; it undermined the persona he was cultivating.

After pushing off of the wall Basileus turned around to face the entrance of the mine and the stranger who had come in behind him. He wasn't sure what she'd said and while loud, her voice hadn't been tinged with aggravation so he didn't think he was intruding. Perhaps she was simply passing through too. His gaze first went to the woman's as he dipped his head in greeting, but was quickly yanked away so he could take all of her in. Where Basileus was from open appreciation of a woman was a compliment, not intrusive, so he thought nothing of taking a moment to look at her. He liked what he saw. She was a very pretty woman. "I..." Basileus trailed off as he tried to find the right words. He knew of the language the woman spoke, it was one that wasn't uncommon among traders, but his grasp of it was limited. "Mi dispiace," he said regretfully, "Non capisco."

Burning ember eyes inspected the strange male as he very openly took in her looks. A smirk danced across her features at the fact that he didn't try at all to hide his appreciation of her, it was new and she welcomed it. It wasn't like Serefina was an overly sexual woman, but her passion was either full blown or a low simmer. She appreciated good looks and didn't mind flirting with others. As for the actual deed, well she hadn't quite been there just yet. And she was getting old, she was going to be five when this damn winter ended. Just went to show that she really was going to die an old maid. Blinking, she focused back on the tall beast before her, head still resting on her forelimbs. He started to speak, causing her ears to pull forward, but he stumbled on his first word before a strange language flowed from his lips. Hm, interesting... She had no idea what he had said at all, she didn't speak anything except for English. Great, she was stuck in a cave with a handsome brute who didn't speak. How the hell was she supposed to get anything done if they couldn't even understand each other? He probably wouldn't even know that she was flirting, well, besides body language. Sere pulled herself upwards into a seated position, head tilting to the side slightly as she studied him. She might as well try to make this work, even if she had very little patients for the matter. By the sound of the howling wind outside, they could be stuck in here for quite some time. "Um, okay..." she started, a slight huff leaving her maw. Picking up one front paw she placed it on her chest, gesturing to herself. "I'm Serefina," she went on, moving her paw to point towards him. "and you are?" The woman felt dumb, like she was speaking to a child, but without all the baby talk nonsense. The dame's red marked tail curled at her side, gaze wandering up to the rock face above them. Damn, this was not going to be a lot of fun, was it. Serefina got irritated easily, her inner flame was an easy one to ignite. She knew that she needed to be careful if she wanted to get anywhere without them trying to tear a chunk out of each other. "Do you know any English?" She asked, eyes returning to his red marked face. She didn't even have an idea of what language he had spoken, she had been pretty sheltered growing up. She never even got around to exploring until Voltage picked her up off of that island, and even then it was limited. She had never gone far from her family, not until now. And now she was stuck with a damned blizzard raging outside. Her tail thumped on the earth, ears starting to ring less and less as her body warmed. She really wouldn't mind snuggling up to the stranger, but she wasn't sure how well that would be taken. With this obvious barrier of language between them, she knew that she had to play her cards carefully. Things could easily be taken the wrong way, and Serefina knew that as soon as she saw red it was all over. From the look of the brutes bulging muscles he was no stranger to fighting either, and in the limited space of a cave, with no healers and a raging blizzard, it could get deadly quick. so why was it that her heart pounded a littler harder? Maybe the prospect of danger was a little exciting to her... "speech"

He was still very cold, but it helped to have something - someone - there to drag his attention away and keep him from stewing over his misfortunes. Now fully facing the woman Basileus sank to his haunches and then draped his tail cat-like across his paws to try to insulate them. Of course warming them was probably a losing battle; the rock beneath him was as cold as ice and its chill ran deep. As heat ran into his toes it was immediately drawn out by the chill underfoot.

The woman sounded a little irked with him and his lack of understanding - which was in and of itself irksome. The blame for their inability to communicate with ease rested on their shoulders equally. Basileus had practice, though. While he hadn't dealt with the traders much he had briefly taken care of a wounded man who didn't speak a word of Italian. They'd made it work. Patience was necessary, but if this woman had an ounce of it they'd manage.

With slightly narrowed eyes he watched her pick up a paw and point to herself. "I'm Serefina." That was easy enough. He even recognized the name. While very uncommon he had heard it before back home. With a short dip of his head Basileus nodded his understanding. "Ah, buon giorno, Serefina." As she had done, he briefly uncovered one of his paws and pointed to himself. "Mi chiamo Basileus." He knew just enough of her language to understand the question being put his way. "Very small." That simple statement in and of itself betrayed just how limited his grasp of the language was. "Parla italiano?" Given the gesturing he assumed the answer was no, but even if her grasp of his language was as limited as his grasp of her's it would make communicating easier.

Okay so, patience was not her strong suite, at all. She tried, but it was something that was very difficult for her. Even as a child she had none of it, which often got her into a lot of trouble. And now, it would seem that she had potential to get herself into even more of it. Flicking her tail back and forth she took a deep breath, trying really hard to focus on not getting frustrated. It wasn't his fault that he didn't speak the same language as her, although she was unsure why. Sere knew that there were wolves who traveled to this place from all over, she had run into one other woman who spoke French, but it was all sort of nonsense to her. Why come here and not know the language? It seemed foolish, and made her want to put more of the blame on the male. English was spoken primarily here, although she could say that he might have come here and not known that that was the case. Sighing at her inner battle, she shook her red clad head and tried her best to focus on the dark brute. This was going to take patience on both their end, but so far, he was winning. At her gesture he seemed to understand, muttering some crap before stating her name again. She could only guess that it was a formal 'nice to meet you' or whatever it was that wolves said to each other these days. Oh gosh that made her sound old. Trying to shut off her inner monologue she watched as he uncovered his paws to point at his own chest, more strange words followed by what she could only assume was his name. "Basileus?" she replied back softly, the foreign name sounding very last luster spoken from her own tongue. "Can I call you Basil?" she asked. Sere had no intention of stumbling over his name every time she wanted to refer to him about something, besides she had butchered it anyways. It sounded a lot nicer when he said it, hell even her own name sounded better when he spoke. Maybe this strange language wasn't such a bad thing after all, it was rather pretty. When she asked if he knew English, his reply made her chuckle. It was obvious that his vocabulary was small indeed, the words that left his maw weren't really the most proper. Not that she was a pompous ass who only spoke like royalty, but at least it gave her something to focus on rather than their lack of communication skills. When he asked her something she paused, head tilting to the side as her ember gaze studied him. She could tell from the pitch of his voice that it was indeed a question, but she really had to think about what he had said. Parla sounded a lot like the word the French woman used when she had asked if she had spoken any of her language, so Serefina took a stab at it. Italiano must be the language that he spoke. It sounded like a plant to her. Slowly she shook her head from side to side, at a loss for what to really ask him. So instead she just fell silent, shuffling on her paws for a moment while she thought. What were they going to do? "Um... are you lost?" She asked, turning around to gesture at the storm outside. Maybe he didn't even know where he was. Her words were spoken a touch slower than she normally spoke, although it was not intentional. At least she wasn't yelling in his ears like he was deaf. Turning back to him she eyed his body again, a small smirk touching her lips. "You look like you fight. You know, fight!" She said, standing up slowly and putting herself in a fighters pose, tossing a mock growl his way. When she settled back down Serefina laughed, he probably thought that he had pissed her off. "Fight." She said again, shrugging her shoulders. Hey, at least she was trying. "speech"

"Basileus?" He nodded, yes, his name was Basileus and not Mi chiamo, which was why he'd emphasized his name in the first place. "Yes, Basileus." Patience, he reminded himself. "Can I call you Basil?" That was a little personal since they'd only just met, but if a beautiful woman wanted to call him anything he wasn't going to argue. The brute shrugged. "Sure." Why not? It didn't hurt any.

After a moment's thought as she tried to decipher his question the woman shook her head no and confirmed what he'd already guessed. Oh well. He'd made it work with Bacchus and he'd make it work with this woman. Thankfully his time helping the man had given Basileus insight into the language Bacchus shared with Serefina. Basil's grasp of it was far from perfect, but today he had the advantage. Thank you, Bacchus.

"Um... are you lost?" Okay, maybe it didn't help him as much as he would have liked because he didn't have a clue as to what she'd just asked him. "Ah...lost?" His imitation of the word was by no means perfect, but to his ears he'd nailed it. He understood the first two words just fine and he knew she was asking something about him specifically. Was he what? Hungry? Thirsty? Tired? Had Bacchus ever used any of those words? She pointed towards the entrance. Was he...cold? Wet? Unhappy with the weather? What, woman, what! He most definitely wasn't lost so it didn't occur to him that the word might be worth considering.

He gave up trying to understand the word when Serefina's gaze abruptly left his to trail across his body. Basileus was instantly aware of himself, but not at all uncomfortable under her scrutiny. This was the kind of woman he was used to. The wives of the traders were often quiet and shy, and not at all like the women of his homeland who were sometimes too fearless and opinionated for their own good. "You look like you fight. You know, fight!" Serefina stood up suddenly and scowled at him, a growl on her lips. For a moment he was befuddled - had he said something wrong? - and then she was laughing and settling back down again. "Fight," she said again. It took a moment for it to click. The stance, the growl. She was trying to establish shared interests. "Combattente?" He stood briefly and did as she'd done and then seated himself with a smile. "Yes, I...fight." It was his turn for a question. "You fight?"

She could hear the touch of sharpness in his voice as he repeated his name, and Serefina's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. It would seem that they were both trying their best to stay calm, so she let it go with a short huff. There was no need for him to get snippy, she just wanted to make sure that she had his name right before she went and called him something else. When she proposed the nickname of Basil, though, he seemed to struggle over it for a moment. But he shrugged his shoulders and agreed to it, making her nod her head slightly. "If you want, you can call me Sere. That way we are even." She said, even though she was pretty sure that he wasn't going to get anything. Dammit all, why couldn't everything just speak the same language? It would make her life a lot easier, and less like she was tip toeing around his barrier. She didn't want to insult the handsome brute, but she could feel her patience slipping. Closing her ember eyes she took a few sturdy breaths. When he spoke again her eyes slipped open, falling on his black and rust form. He questioned her word, even followed her gaze outside, but it was very clear that he had no idea what she meant. A loud sigh left her mouth as she tried to think of another way to word herself, tail slapping against the cold ground. "Is this home?" She asked, picking up a paw and gesturing to the cave. "Home?" she reiterated, really feeling stupid at this point. Serefina was really at a loss of what else to do though. They were trying to carry on a conversation without very much understanding of each other, and it was clear that it was frustrating on both ends. Since she was stuck in this cave until the storm blew over, she at least wanted to try to keep talking to him. Sitting here in utter silence was just so... boring. Sure, she could try to come on to him and they could keep warm another way, but she was unsure if she wanted to seduce a stranger like that. It would be nice to warm up though... She shook her head, focusing once more on the brute before her. He looked really confused at first, just like she had a feeling he would. No, she wasn't angry, but it was the best way that she could think of to get her message across. She wasn't the best actor, but it was better than nothing! He stood and did the same thing as her, uttering a single word. She guessed that that is what fight meant in his language, and she matched his smile as he sat back down. Yes, they were getting somewhere! "Yes, I combattente." The woman barked happily, trying to use his word like he had used hers. She most likely butchered it, but it was something. As soon as the interest was found though, it died off. She didn't know what to add to that, and shuffled slightly. "You good at combattente?" She added, trying to keep the ball rolling. "speech"

Ah, home. That was a word he learned while taking care of Bacchus. The topic had come up frequently towards the end of their partnership and had been the subject of many a discussion. Was this his home? Fuck no. He'd never live in such a cold and bitter place. This was the kind of place you'd leave an enemy to rot. "This my home?" he asked, then snorted good-naturedly, " No, grazie a Dio!" Sharing the cave with a beautiful woman helped somewhat, but he wasn't going to spend anymore time here than necessary. As soon as the skies cleared he would be on his way. Ah, so she was a fighter too. He could have guessed that. She moved with the kind of confidence he was used to seeing; the confidence of a fighter, of a strong personality equipped with the ability to defend oneself. "You good at combattente?" Basileus shrugged then nodded. He was decent and had won and lost his share. At any rate he'd won all the ones that mattered most. "Very good. Could uh," Oh, how did he phrase it? "Be better, yeah?" Since they now had some semblance of a rapport, Basileus decided to ask a few questions of his own. Maybe she could help him. "You live here?" If she knew the terrain well perhaps she could point him in the right direction. While it was unlikely, maybe she'd even seen Enrico.

He seemed rather thankful that this wasn't his home, bringing out a laugh from Sere. This place was pretty terrible, she was glad that no one did live here. It was a terrible, horrible snow covered place. She was curious though, why was he out here if this wasn't his home? It wasn't like there were many wolves who lived up North, that she knew of, so why drag his butt up here? Plus with his different language, she didn't doubt that he wasn't born here. "Where is home?" she asked, unable to contain the question. She knew that it sucked with this language barrier, but they really were trying. And she hadn't even bit him yet! Five points for her. When they moved on to fighting, she felt like she was letting out a big breath of air. It was something she could talk about forever, no matter what blockage separated them. He said that he could be better with a shrug of his shoulders, and the woman smiled softly at him. It was true, there was always thinks to learn and other opponents to fight. Each wolf had different skills and tactics, meaning that a fighter always had to be on their toes. Expect the unexpected, right? "There is always room for improvement, that's for sure." She said quietly. She remembered one fight, the fight that she would never forget, and her tail wagged behind her quickly. "There was one wolf who came into my pack, they trespassed. And I fought them, and bit off their nose," She said quickly, excitement building in her voice. To make sure that he understood her, she pointed to her nose with her paw and snapped her jaws shut. "Took that sucker right off." Serefina laughed, her ember eyes sparkling. When the tides turned and he asked a question of his own, the dame shook her head back and forth slowly. "Not here, no. Me and my family live in the south. I don't come to the north often... its too damn cold." She muttered, looking over her shoulder to the blizzard that still raged outside. She shivered, her fur bunching up along her body. Stupid damn snow. "speech"

Where was home? Too damn far away, that was for sure. For a moment he gazed ruefully out into the storm. The howling winds, his brush with death...they made the distance feel impossible. Curse Enrico and his cowardice! If he had accepted his disgrace like a man instead of tucking tail and fleeing Basileus wouldn't be freezing his ass off in a cave. "Very far from here." His gaze went back to Serefina. Her presence lessened the sting of his situation. The woman launched into a story - one he struggled to follow. Basileus got the gist of it. His eyes widened at her pantomime. "Il naso?" He shook his head in disbelief. "Pazza!" He'd never had a need to disfigure, so the removal of a nose had never crossed his mind. That was a method of punishment he'd certainly be considering in the future. She seemed as thrilled about their circumstances as he was. He understood that this wasn't her home either, which begged the question: why was she here? "Why then are you, a beautiful woman, in this..." Basileus gestured around him. "..grotta, cold and wet? Why not home? Warm." Hover speech for translation