It was cold straight down to his bones up here. He hadn't realized how lucky he was down in Auster until he'd thrown it all away to explore Boreas to try and get down to the bottom of whatever was happening here - but the bottom eluded him. Answers evaded. The deeper he went, the further he realized he was from any answers at all. It was... discouraging. He was becoming uncharacteristically pigheaded about it all, hellbent on having something worthwhile to bring home the further away from Tojo-Kai he ventured. If he came home now with nothing, would any of this have been worth it? He couldn't face his father. He couldn't face his siblings.
He needed answers.
Which left him here, freezing straight through his skin as he crept across the frozen lake towards the next clue. The S. S. Antiox - what he had determined from local wolves making the same trek was some sort of ship that had become landlocked long ago - was the next epicenter of tremors and activity. He could barely see straight through the thick blanket of fog that hung low across the ice. It came down from the mountains behind him, pouring off of its face like water and spilling into the valley below. All that was left between him and the northern sea were his thoughts and this blasted fog. Katsu's feline yellow eyes were slit against the cold and moisture, but still it eked in from the sides. His tear ducts burned and watered with it. With the fog and impenetrable blanket of white snow as far as the eye could see, he could hardly place one paw in front of the other without second guessing himself. He would be easy enough to spot at a distance: his fiery back and shoulders were a beacon in the mist, even if his white coat offered better camouflage than most. From a great enough distance, he appeared to be sentient viscera crossing the snow. Bloodied and raw. Only on closer inspection might a stranger realize he was simply colored in shades of red and orange, not a walking half-corpse.
A tree erupted right in front of his face, causing him to stumble back and shout. Where had that come from? It had simply parted the fog, rudely placing itself right into his path. Katsu was breathing hard, each inhale prickling his lungs with painfully cold air. Surely this weather would give soon...
As soon as the thought occurred to him, a light drizzle began, picking up momentum until it turned into an ugly, wet sleet. "No, no..." he groaned, bracing himself against what little shelter the very top of this scrubby tree peeking up from beneath the ice had to offer. For just a moment, he would rest. Catch his breath.
