She had her rucksack thrown over her shoulder, and her ribbon carefully tied to her forepaw. She never went anywhere without them. The two wolves had begun to make their way out of the Deluge, taking the steep hill upwards, and away from the quickly flowing river. She knew that the Prairie would be an easy place to camp - it would have fresh food, running water, and softly padded earth. She had visited it a few times looking for herbs, and had enjoyed the view. She was thinking how much more she would enjoy the view, with a certain tall, tawny, and handsome, when a crack sounded overhead. She hadn’t noticed the darkening in the clouds, it was getting close to evening, and the dimming sun had made sense with the timeframe. Shortly after the crack, the downpour began. It soaked the two wolves, and she frantically held her bag against her body. She stepped closer to her companion, using both their bodies to ensure her precious supplies would stay dry within the oiled material. “Where can we shelter down here? I don’t know this place very well!” she yelled over the hammering sound of rain, pressing tightly against, tilting her head towards him. it allowed her some measure of shelter beneath his chin as she spoke. ""

After the first boom of thunder Pyrrhic had barely enough time to register the sudden drop in temperature before the heavens opened up. He'd just dropped his head to protect his eyes from the rain when Riva pressed against him. Surprised, he glanced at her and noted what she was doing. He didn't know what was in the bag but he could guess and it was clear she was determined to protect it. If she was invested, he was invested. Pyrrhic leaned over, trying to give her shelter in the shadow of his greater height.

Even with their proximity he struggled to hear her over the roar of the water. Pyrrhic was forced to lean in even further to catch what she was saying. She was asking about shelter and his mind spun as he tried to remember the geography of this place. Aerie had only been in Boreas for a season or so and he wasn't as familiar with the surrounding territories as he would have liked. Still, he thought he knew where to find a cave nearby. "This way, I know a place."

Off through the downpour he went, careful to keep Riva in his "shade" so that she and her belongs would take less rain. They wove through the Deluge quickly and soon came to the place he'd been thinking of. Pyrrhic left Riva's side briefly to investigate. He pulled back the roots that partially covered the entrance so he could look inside, and, finding it unoccupied, motioned Riva forward. "Come on, it's dry."

Pry responded immediately, looming over her, and blocking out much of the wind and some of the rain. She was touched at how readily he moved to protect the bag, and even shelter a little of her in the process. He was also a spot of warmth in the sudden chill of the storm, and she found herself pressing against him for more than just the umbrella of his height. He sounded confident, and she easily allowed him to take the lead. She did her best to walk in sync with him, to stay pressed against his side as he directed them onwards. Grief, but the storm had come upon them rapidly. It had dashed their plans of a sweet, quiet evening together. Now she was going to be chilled and drenched for likely the entire night. She would have to pull out some herbs to ensure neither of them caught a cold. He stopped them before a small enclosure, overgrow and covered, and a tight entrance, especially for the giant. She bulked, but he didn’t immediately see, as he had gone forward to ensure it was safe. When he beckoned her forward she took off her bag in her teeth and threw it forward, so it skittered to a stop just inside the entrance. To Pyr, she shook her head. “Oh no, no, i’m not getting in there” she would rather the rain. Once, she had enjoyed a nice tight-spaced cave to hide out of the rain. She wasn’t sure she could ever enjoy that again. “When the volcano erupted, I-I, I got stuck underground. Never again.” ""

Pyrrhic sidestepped in surprise as the bag skittered past his paws. His gaze darted from Riva to the bag and back again. Water was streaming down his face; a small river over his eyebrow threatening to spill over and blind him if he turned his head even an inch. Lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating Riva's wide eyes. Pyrrhic studied her as she explained what was wrong. While he didn't share it, he could understand her fear. He had plenty of his own.

The rain began to turn to hail, the ice no bigger than grains of sand. Pyrrhic glanced up at the sky and then back to Riva. They were short on time. He reached out to gently place his paw on top of hers. "I understand." However, there was a problem. "But I don't know if we have time to find someplace else. Rain is one thing but hail is another."

The hail was small enough for the wind to carry it so it was coming down at an angle. Absently the giant shifted around so he could block most of the pellets from hitting Riva's upper body. Pyrrhic was at a loss at how to proceed further. There was only so much he could do but he was unwilling to leave her out there and take shelter himself. "What do we do, Riva? What if you stay at the entrance?"

If he had stepped into the cave and attempted to compel her from there, she never would have moved. Instead he braved the elements for her, sheltering her as best he could with his height as he spoke gentle logic. She hung her head low, listening to the pelts of hail as they bounced across his unyielding form. She was struck by the certainty that if she did not move, he would not either. She wasnt sure anybody had stood their ground like this for her before.

There it was, the turning point for the small healer. The realization that this might indeed be a wolf worth tying herself to. She felt a stirring in her breast, bravery or love she was not certain, but it was a decision, nonetheless.

With a shudder, she shoved him forward. Her tiny form could barely make a dent against his balance if he did not want her to. "We cant both sit in the entrance, you first" she said as she shoved him. She wanted to move quickly, before she lost the courage bolstered by his gentlemanly behaviour.

Her solution surprised him. He'd expected a fight, a bit of back and forth of some sort, so the sudden courage caught him off guard. Not that he was displeased. Kudos to her for setting aside her fear so easily in the face of logic. Pyrrhic was smirking as he allowed himself to be pushed into the den. Had anyone been braving the hail nearby they would have been treated to the comical sight of a very tall man being shoved into a small cave by an even smaller woman.

"I didn't realize I was so persuasive," he teased, his voice muffled by the rock as he struggled to worm his broad shoulders through the entrance. Thankfully the cave opened up a great deal beyond that point. "But as far as superpowers go it's not bad. I'll take it."

He grabbed her bag on the way through and then wedged himself between the back wall and ceiling as he waited for her to clear the entrance. He couldn't stay hunched over and pressed against the rock all night, but he was afraid she might look in and balk at the small space if he took up too much of it.

He was malleable beneath her shoulder and paws and moved easily at her shove. She knew it was only because he had decided to move, and not the force of her shoving. She let herself consider it a win, concentrating on that, and the feel of his soft fur beneath her paws, instead of what was to come. "Yeah, yeah, it was superpowers and not your meat-headed stubbornness" she agreed. The banter helped as it came her turn to hunch down unto the entrance.

Not that she had to do much hunching. After watching Pry shuffle into its she barely had to duck her head. She turned looking back out into the storm. The sound of hail was almost soothing, it was loud and real and proof that the open air was just... right here.

She took a breath, turning, and squirming the last way through before she lost her nerve. She sat on the floor right at the entrance, looking about the tight space, and her hunched-up man. If she panted a little, she hoped he continued to be a gentleman and didnt mention it.

"Oh, relax, you cant hug the wall all night, come here" she said, tugging on his paw. She was trying to pull him closer to herself, and the entrance she remained almost reverently close to. Dealing with Pyr gave her something to do, it distracted her. She really needed the distraction right now pulling on him again, she began to expect him top-side. She needed to see if the heavy hail had done any damage, through she doubted it had penetrated his thick coat.

Pyrrhic snorted a low laugh at her dismissal of his superpower. That she could joke with him was a good sign; it showed she wasn't drowning in her fears. "Meat-headed stubbornness also sounds like a superpower to me." Pyrrhic shifted around some and then gave up on being more comfortable. There was something digging into his back but Riva still wasn't settled in so he was just going to have to ignore it.

Once settled in she tugged on his paw. Dutifully he peeled himself off the wall, his wet fur making a sound similar to muffled velcro, and came forward. Normally he wasn't one to allow himself to be ordered around so easily, but given the circumstances he couldn't bring himself to care. Or even to notice, really, as he did what she wanted without giving it any real consideration. He just did it.

He settled down beside her and was surprised when she began to feel along his back. Pyrrhic had already forgotten the hail. The pieces had been no bigger than peas and even though he'd felt them when they struck him they'd done no real harm and simply gotten lost in his plush coat. So color him surprised by Riva's touch. But she had hinted at their time together making her more - what was the word she'd used? - susceptible, hadn't she? He hadn't expected her to come around this quickly but perhaps that's what this was.

In all honesty Pyrrhic didn't know what to do. He'd kissed her once impulsively because that's what one did when overcome with feeling, was it not?

He leaned closer; swinging his head around so that it was close to hers as she ruffled through his wet coat. In doing so he had to partially remove his back from her reach by bringing his upper body around so he could reach. His voice low and his eyes searching,  he asked, "What are you doing?"

She winced at the sound his fur made. She knew how to make a simple fire, and always carried the basic starter parts with her, but in this tiny enclosed space she was more likely to suffocate them. Besides, she wouldn’t be able to get any sort of fuel once the meager bits she had ran out. Anything they fetched from outside would be too wet to be any good to them. They had no choice but huddle here, drenched.

“Looking for bruising, keeping my mind busy.” the second half was perhaps the real answer, and he was likely to figure that out. She frowned because he had pulled away a little to ask his question, but then realised just how close his face was to hers. She blinked, looking at him, feeling his breath stir her damp coat. Oh, my. He was very, very close to her right now, and was looking at the healer with some sort of intensity that made her fur prickle from more than just the cold.

The sound of the rain continued outside, and she expected it would keep up for at least half the night. The two wolves were effectively trapped in here. At least the overgrowth around the entrance kept out most of the wind. Still, it was bitterly cold in her damp coat, and there was little she could do about it.

The storm outside began to change from a steady drumming to a monstrous roar. Bits of broken hail began to bounce through the root curtain that separated the cave from the elements. The fragments were quite large which suggested an intact stone was large enough to do serious damage to a soft mammalian creature. It sounded like they had made it inside just in time. It would have been a shame for him to get his head cracked mere hours after finding a suitable mate. Proof that the Fallen God had a sense of humor? Maybe, but a shame all the same.

Pyrrhic was quiet as he digested Riva's answer. It was a good, solid, reasonable answer. Both of them were. He was quiet as he studied her face, trying to suss out where her head was at. Thinking about someone else was hard. Of course as heir and then as leader he'd had to do it to some extent, but this was different. He wasn't thinking broadly about the pack or about the training regimen that would be best suited to an individual. This was something else.

His eyes were still on her, still looking for answers, when he asked, "What if I don't have any bruises? Then what?"

It was hard to concentrate on his fur when he was this close, and looking at her like that. She wished all she could hear was the heavy thrumming of the rain, the beating of the hail. But it wasn’t. She could hear his soft, slow breaths, in, and out, tickling her coat with each exhale. She could hear the beat of his heart, just faintly, when she turned her head and pressed it closer to his coat. Which she had done, when she had been looking for bruises.

She wondered if he could hear her own heart-beat, painfully quick, irattic. The walls were closing in on her every time she looked around, so she kept her gaze determinedly focused on him, but then the intensity of his gaze would set her pulse racing.

“Then…” she said softly, with no direction for her words to go, no thoughts to follow through. But she was a healer, so she pulled something from that bag of tricks and said. “I prescribe us something to boost our immunity, and we huddle for warmth so we don't get sick.” that was the logical, healer side of her speaking. In actuality, the thought of pressing herself against this well-known stranger both chilled and warmed her.

He pursed his lips and watched her avoid his gaze. Slowly his eyes slid from her face to take in the rest of her. When faced with a threat that might initiate a fight one of the best things you could do to prepare was play close attention to their behavior. The rapid rising and falling of the chest, the darkening of the eyes, tensing; these sorts of things hinted at action. If you paid close enough attention to your opponent you could guess what they planned to do before they did it. You could be ready. Of course if you guessed wrong you could also be made a fool, but like any skill intuition needed to be honed.

It was with boyhood fighting lessons in mind that he took stock of her person. When he looked closely he could make out the forceful kick of her pulse in the hollow of her throat. The short, shallow breaths that went with it were far easier to see. Whenever possible she kept her eyes from his face.

She rested her ear on his side briefly and he couldn't help but teasing, "Quite a talent, being able to find bruises with your ear."

When Riva told him what the next step would be Pyrrhic rolled further on his side and lifted his foreleg so that she could huddle against his semi dry chest fur. "The huddling is easy enough, but I don't see how you can find something for immunity in this cave." Honestly he was hoping she hadn't brought anything with her so she'd be forced to think of another excuse.

She had been looking down his spine for any signs of fur out place - for more than just the obvious wet-rustled fur reason. But she didn’t bother telling him that. She only swatted at his paw, a touch playfully, in retaliation. She was trying very hard to find something out of place, to give her an excuse to bust open her supplies and busy her mind in her favourite way. Pyr was a brilliant specimen, healthy, fit, and huge. She doubted he ever had many health issues, and likely only saw a healer for battle wounds. Of course, he had called himself a tinkerer, so perhaps it would be more burns and scrapes across his paws.

The tawny wolf rolled to his side, lifting a foreleg, and offering her a spot in his warm, and partly dry belly. She grabbed her healer bag, pulling it closer to her, before accepting his gift.

Huddled against his chest, she could feel the warmth radiating from him, despite the dampness of their coats. Relishing in this small luxury, she opened her bag and pulled out a small jar with one of her slaves. It was dark in color, and consisted of Elderberry, with a hint of honey and ginger. It was one of her more common salves, and not the one she kept aside for emergencies - for those that a simple cold could become much more serious. She used her flat mixing stick to scoop out a small portion, and offered it to Pyr to lick. “A healer is always prepared” she said, in retaliation for his comment about struggling to find something in this cave.

Oh of course she was prepared. To say he was disappointed was an understatement. In response to her statement he grunted noncommittally and eyed the sticky substance. Just to see what she would do he decided to be difficult. He'd been easy so far. He'd agreed to her plan, gone where she'd wanted, offered no resistance and last but not least, he'd calmed the fuck down after kissing her when he could have thrown her over his back and carried her home like a prize - which she was considering how rarely he felt this intensely for someone.

Pyrrhic leaned back slightly. "That looks like the sort of goop you might collect if you scrape a stick through a snail trail." He eyed Riva and pretended to be wary. "What nasty creature did you get that out of?" It seemed a fair question to ask even though he could smell the elderberries. It looked unappetizing; he wasn't kidding about the snail sludge. If she wanted him to eat it she was going to have to work for it.

She snorted and looked at Pyr with amusement, a little difficult to do in her current position. She was craning her neck back to look up at the boy she had snuggled against, her paw with the stick raised above her head, in reach of his maw. Instead of eating it, he decided to criticise it. “It’s made out of honey and berries, there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, you might enjoy the taste the honey gives it” she prompted. She moved her paw back around, and ducked the other end in the jar, balancing it pecuarius on her paw as she took a lick from one side of it.

She offered up the other side, eyeing him curiously, to see if her own taste was enough to get him to give it a try. She licked the honey from her gums as she waited for him to take the offering. She wasn’t above smearing it against his muzzle if he refused a second time. In fact, if he didn’t take it, that was exactly what she did.

The gummy stick was quickly removed from under his nose. Pyrrhic peeked around Riva's head to watch as she scooped some goo out for herself and ate it. The stick was then shoved into his face again. What Riva may not have been able to see in its full toddler glory thanks to the angle was his snake-like head swivel to get away from it. Which was a shame because he did it entirely for her benefit. Or anti-benefit since he was deliberately being difficult. "Ehhh..." he grumbled indecisively.

It hung under his chin like a wilting, salted slug. Pyrrhic eyed it like it was going to leap off and bite him. He didn't believe it would, but if he was going to take on a role he was going to commit to playing it 100%. "Surely there has to be a better way to fend off a cold. Why is cuddling not enough? In fact isn't that the point if sharing body heat? To warm up enough to not catch a cold?" Pyrrhic was eager to find out what she'd do. Would she play along and argue with him?

She squinted at the man, who seemed to be going out of his way to be controversial. Did he always look down his nose at healer remedies? He must be an absolute ass to deal with if he ever broke a leg. “Cuddling is fine and dandy, but even cuddling it’s going to take us a while to dry out without a fire” she pointed out to him. She squinted at him for a moment longer, wondering what he would do if she…

She flicked the stick forward, smearing the job all across his muzzle, and losing the stick in the earth with the same motion. Oh well, it was dirty anyway. She would have to reclaim it and clean it as soon as the weather died down and they could escape.

For the meanwhile, she ducked her head under his armpit, as through hiding from any retaliation he might give with his now-smeared face.

He waited, his expression growing ornerier by the second as he struggled to control it, for a reaction. When he got one it wasn't what he expected and it showed on his face. His mouth fell open in surprise so against his wishes some of the goop got inside. He'd gotten hints of feistiness over the last few hours, but he hadn't thought she was bold enough for a move like that. He was happy to be wrong. If she wanted a distraction from the cave he'd give her one.

Riva immediately hid her face under his arm which earned a chuckle from the startled godling. "Oh, fat lot of good that will do you." Pyrrhic quickly brought that arm down, hoping to pin her head under it. He then brought the other one up and tried to wrap it over her shoulders. These two actions would hopefully pin her to his chest. What he would do with her once he had her Pyrrhic didn't know yet, but the jar of goo was nearby and it was awfully tempted to pay her back in kind.

She didnt really expect the duck under his arm to do her much good. But perhaps it would surprise him enough to buy her a few moments. He said as much, with a cute chuckle falling past his lips. She laughed back, soft and buried in his arm as it was. Not that she was able to hold her position for long.

Getting under him was going to prove to be a disadvantage. Not that she could have done much regardless. He was a giant, and she a little healer. They were in close confines, so she could hardly hide from him anywhere. Nor did she have any weapons but her medicine bag. She didnt think he would sit pretty and eat a sedative for her.

Despite all this, there was no fear in her as he pinned her to his chest in a bear hug. She wiggled a little, but didnt really give it any true effort. "Alright, you big lug of fur, you've got me. But I still won."

Even with his arms securely around her Riva had the gall to laugh. All that meant was that he was going to have to try harder. "Alright, you big lug of fur, you've got me. But I still won." Oh ho, was that so? Well that simply wouldn't do. The storm outside, as loud and as obnoxious as it was throwing in its hail bits and chilling rain through the root curtain, was forgotten. The game was on. "You think so?"

Still holding on firmly, Pyrrhic craned his head around in search of Riva's bag. He spotted it on the ground in front of her and sniggered to himself. He could get that. "We'll see if you're still laughing when I dump that sludge over your head. Now won't we?"

He was going to do his best to hang onto her while got close enough to the bag to grab it. With both forelegs occupied this was going to be tricky, but he was going to make it work. Pyrrhic rolled over onto his back, hopefully with Riva still pinned to his chest, and then used his hind legs to kick himself around so that his head was pointed in the bag's direction. Then he started to worm his way over to it. Let her keep laughing. The less resisting she did the quicker he'd get to the bag.