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Alert the instant he heard the howl of beasts, Lithian sank his stance, grounding himself against the iced-over earth and snow and unstoppering his flasks. When Casseth’s fingers caught his mid-motion, Lithian felt a coil of warmth. Security. Casseth was here, and his. And he had to protect him. As soon as the beasts split up, Lithian gathered his magic, holding it at the ready and waiting. Part of him immediately desired to fight the beasts facing off against Cas, but before that thought could even fully format itself, one of those on his side leapt in.

Lithian shifted sharply: a leg out, an arm up, palm open and then pinched, barrelling a liquid snake into the beast’s head. He whipped at them as they came at them, barring them from attacking Casseth and eventually, in his free moments, streaming his water into the snow below him, melting it and gathering it into the girth of his repertoire. When the next beast leaped, he slammed at it, melted snow, frigid as a winter’s night crashing into it as sure as an incoming swell. The beasts yipped and snapped, but gained no ground and the instant he had the advantage, Lithian shifted his stance again, drawing back, opening his palms, and then driving forward and clenching.

Two snakes of near-freezing liquid coiled forward, forcing their way down the throats of the two foremost beasts. Lithian felt his body shake, a sickness rising in his gut as the creatures trembled. No matter how many times he drowned a thing, it always hurt, and as soon as the creatures fell limp and still, their lungs burst and bodies cold, he went limp. The third ran, darting off into the snow and barking, as though in warning to its pack mates. Lithian only gathered his water, siphoning it back into his flasks and then shuddering as his posture curled smaller. However many times he had to do it, he still hated killing things.

“Casseth…”

As soon as he said it, Lithian remembered hearing Casseth cry out — curse words — and he jerked around, eyes instantly zeroing in on the blood.

“Cas, you’re hurt. You’re hurt — are you alright? How deep is it? Did it hit bone? Does it sting?” Without even waiting for an answer, Lithian drew a small portion of liquid back out, gathering and focussing it as he kneeled beside Cas, a hand instinctively moving back to steady him as he did. As soon as steadied himself, he pushed, pulsing a gentle wave of magic into the injury. Then another. And another, gradually working through the damage and determining the best course of action before he got to work healing in earnest.

Lithian flushed darkly at the commentary, and opened his mouth, but nothing made it out. Instead, Casseth’s fingers brushed his cheek and then tugged him in, and Lithian shivered as they kissed, relaxing into it and gripping at Cas’ hips as he did. Seeing Cas bitten and blood staining the snow had sent fear spiking through him and the solidity — realness — of having Casseth held against him assuaged that panic as well as edging back Lithian’s concerns about the permanence or lack thereof of the current twist in their relationship.

He still had questions he wanted to ask, worries in regards to how they would handle themselves around others, where they would go from here, and what it would mean to their parents and families. But those, for the time being, could wait. Wait until they were off of Aisko, safe, and warm. When the kiss broke, Lithian gave a last, departing squeeze to Cas’ hips and brushed his lips over Cas’ forehead before pulling away.

“There’s a tunnel just up ahead,” he said. “We were close already I think, and I suspect it’s the one indicated on the map…” He frowned at the snow as they approached, noting large, taloned imprints leading up to their destination. Lips pursed, he unstoppered his flasks again. “We may have some company in there, too…”

Despite the tracks, they didn’t meet with any trouble immediately upon entering. After making it in deeper, however, the soft rush of slow, deep breathing became audible as the sounds of the wind and snow petered out, and when they rounded the next corner and the belly of the tunnel expanded into a full yawning cavern, Lithian stopped. There at its center waited a massive, sleeping aiskala dragon. The chill in the room felt alive, as though it were actively trying to steal every breath of heat in their bodies, and Lithian shuddered as he drew the water from his flasks. Silently, he splayed his fingers and pushed, flattening the water along the walls of the tunnel and picking up the ice there, melting it, and gathering it under his control.

When he had enough for a battering ram, he stepped up, drawing his palms closer together above his head, fingers coiled, and then rocked down, pulling all of the liquid together in a stream and shoving it forward. Casseth was hurt, and this beast needed to be out of the way. As soon as the water coiled for it, the aiskala woke with a start, snarling and thrashing, but Lithian blocked off its windpipes, funneling water into its nostrils and mouth and then putting pressure on its eyes. It wailed, though the sound came out as a gargle, and in comparatively little time, its twitching ceased, the whole of it shuddering, and then dissipating into a glimmering ice-white orb.

Lithian shuddered, and relaxed his stance, calling his water back to him with a wince before his eyes settled on yet another tunnel — up the wall. He pursed his lips and glanced back to Cas. “Looks as though we have more climbing ahead?”

‘Abronaxus, be good to me, please let it be spacious…’

Squinting upwards, Lithian stifled the urge to wince. Much as he had grown more capable over the years, ‘adventuring’ still was not his strong suit, and climbing was high on the list of things he found especially difficult, and intimidating. He only prayed the tunnel upward would be less constricting than the one before it. Shaking such thoughts aside for the time being, however, he reached, and took hold of the offered rope.

Unfortunately, though, without any obvious foot or handholds, Lithian made it only halfway up the slope before yelping as his grip broke, feet skidding against the ice, and he winced as he slid back to the cavern floor below, cheeks burning. “Sorry, I’ll—I’ll try that again…or you can go on without me. You don’t have to wait…”

Lithian flushed darker and shook his head. “No, I’m not…” He drew a breath, frustrated with himself. “I’m not going to hold you back on my account.” Of that much, he was determined. He didn’t particularly want to go on insofar as personal desires were taken into account, but above his lack of desire to continue was his desire to please Cas and not interfere with his wishes. Besides, they had made it this far, and how dissatisfying would it be to hold his friend back now?

So, he persisted.

It took several embarrassing attempts and earned him a number of scrapes and close calls, but eventually Lith cut, melted, and climbed his way up the slick expanse, groaning and collapsing on the stone at the top when he reached it. As his eyes trailed upwards, following the length of the narrow — narrow, narrow — tunnel upwards, he winced, and shut his eyes again as his stomach knotted.

“So I…suppose the only way to go is up?” he asked.

Lithian’s heart felt too large in his throat, alive, wild, and strenuously objecting to the sight above him. Every time he looked, the walls seemed to be closing in, coiling tighter like the icy grip of a giant intent on crushing his bones in its grasp. He shut his eyes and drew a breath. The way up was miserable: his limbs shook, his grip faltered, every inch he made upwards felt like a mile. And then he slipped, and went skidding down. And again. And again. And again.

By his fourth failed attempt, Lithian felt sore, aching all over, nursing bruises and a banged wing. His shoulders sank as he glanced back up to Casseth. He didn’t wanted to hold Cas back, but the prospect of making it to the top was looking narrower by the moment, and his breath felt ragged in his lungs, his body chilled to the bone as well as battered. He resisted the urge to waste his magic on such minor injuries and shook his head.

“Cas, I…if I don’t make it up, you can explore the passage beyond…we must be near the end by now…? I can wait here or…or try to keep coming up, but…it doesn’t seem I’m very good at this, and I hate to slow you down…”

Lithian flushed darker, immediately shaking his head and staving off the desire to shiver. “No! No, I’ll—just…give me a few more tries…” ‘If I can’t make it, I suppose I’ll have no choice, but…’ Shutting his eyes, Lith sent up a quick, fleeting prayer to his god for strength before tucking his cloak back in close around him and moving to attempt a way up. Again.

He fell. Up, and down again. Lithian lost track of how many times overall that he failed, but finally — finally — just as he began to think he truly ought to give up before he broke a bone on the way down, Lithian felt the upper lip of the next tunnel under his fingertips. Heartbeat racing, he clung to it, half panicked he’d only make it this far just to fall yet again, but then Casseth’s hands were on him, helping and pulling him up, and Lithian shuddered, scrambling back from the edge and then tucking close to Cas as he groaned.

“You definitely owe me a swim,” he murmured. “Are we…at the end…?”

Lithian frowned, heart knotting at the sight of the child. Clearly underdeveloped in bone structure, it couldn’t have been much older than ten summers when the cold took it, and the combination of tri-pronged horns and wing bone structure reminded him of Casseth to an eerie degree. Shuddering, he drew a hand gently down Cas’ back, comforting as best he could, before kneeling beside the small pile of remains and murmuring a prayer for the child’s soul.

After finishing what little he could do so far as funeral rites were concerned, Lithian and Casseth took the remaining functional goods with them for the way back, and left in short order. The staff — a luminous, pale turquoise blue — glowed with remaining magic, and Lithian wondered what powers it held within its gnarled cane. Later, perhaps, he would test it properly. For now, he was desperately happy to be leaving the frozen wastes, and when they caught the next ship out, several days later, he felt as though they were heading home.