It's snowing!

     Van awoke the next morning lacking a coat and shoes. It had gotten hot the night previous. Even Oolah had lost her hat overnight, revealing her smooth bald head.

     Opening an eye and seeing Vans mischievous grin, she said, "Don't even think about rubbing or patting my head." she winked at him and she also affected a mischievous smile. "That's mating language." Van blushed deeply and mentally tried searching for something to say. Almost instantly, however, Oolah stood, pulling their canvas cover free from it's anchors and pushing it back from clinging to her. She picked up her hat and put it on, tying the ear flaps down beneath her chin. The Erlokas too, rose to their feet and wandered a short distance away to do their morning business. "You'll remain here today," she ordered quietly. "Practice, meditate, do what you want, but don't make a racket. Most importantly, watch the Erlokas. They're sensitive to danger." She fed the Erlokas and shared some travel rations with Van before she left, expertly disappearing into the foliage. It was then Van realized he'd forgotten to ask about her power.

     He toyed with the idea of practicing with the liquid form of the black energy, but settled for sword practice. He had a simple iron hilt with wool cloth held in place with a weave of leather strips. He practiced most of the morning, mostly drills and kata. He knew he should work more directly on control of his power. He sat on a log at around mid day and pondered his next move. An idea struck him. Summoning a liquid black ball of negative energy, he saw the Erlokas grow restless, eyeing his direction warily. Then he condensed the ball into a solid, as he'd done with the sword. Good, it was still floating, albeit a little wobbly. The Erlokas calmed down. He tried moving it around and was marginally successful. It was like someone salted a mouse pad. Sometimes it took some urging, sometimes it lagged behind, and at other times it zoomed right where he wanted it. He tried improvising some kata, similar to the dance described by Edvarti in his journal, directing the ball around him. This was more consistent, if not completely what he wanted. Still, it was a starting point. He became so engrossed, hours passed. It was Oolahs voice that pulled him out of his concentration.

     "catch!" she said. He spun around at the sound of her voice, realized there was a death ball about to land on the ground, looked back to make eye contact with the ball, remembered he didn't need to, and willed it out of existence, as a piece of fruit gently bounced off him. He still managed to catch it before it landed. Oolah laughed.

     As they sat sitting on a lock, eating a local variety of fruit, not unlike a blueberry pear, he asked her, "So, you're a relic holder." He knew better then to ask her to show it to him. Vestis had instructed him on proper etiquette regarding relic users. 

     Oolah smiled and glanced upward in a gesture meant to tell Van to look up. That, he did, as Oolah placed her hand on the tree they were sitting under. There were scant few leaves left, but those that were begin to glow white. Then they exploded. The image came into his head, the effect that would have on, say, an arrow. "Is it timed, or do you decide?" he asked her.

     "I get to set the parameters. The arrows do more damage if they penetrated first, but if it's a large blunt object I set it to go off as it hits." 

     Van nodded. That made sense. Then he grinned at her, saying "That's awesome!" He felt the overwhelming urge to high five her, but managed to fight it down. 

     "So..." she began after they'd eaten the last of the fruit. "I've found the path that led them here. Tomorrow night we should be able to have a fire. In fact, we'll be needing one. We'll be needing to stop earlier from now on. Winter is upon us." As if by magic or wild coincidence,  large snowflakes began falling from the sky. As Oolah made their shelter, the trees protected them from the worst of the winds. However it wasn't completely absent, and what wind they did experience brought with it a biting chill.

     The shelter was of the same kind as the previous night. This time there was no talk, but it was colder. Cold enough, there would be no stripping of clothing through the night. At some point, Oolah stirred and drew closer to him, putting an arm around him. Van had difficulty falling back to sleep after that. 

     The next morning the land had turned a pristine white and Oolah seemed jubilant. "How'd you sleep?" she asked quietly, stretching.

     "OK." he mumbled, "you?"

     "Like an Erloka." she answered. From what Van had seen of Erlokas, they did enjoy their sleep. After said Erlokas were fed, and the two relic handlers had some travel rations, they packed up and moved on. Oolah took the lead, and was followed, single file, by Van leading the Erlokas, who, being last was covering most of their tracks with their own. Only an expert tracker would know that people had passed by, at least by the tracks alone. 

     Oolah traveled quickly, with urgency. Around midday she seemed to relax a little. Fishing about in her fanny pack, she drew out some travel rations, a sort of twice baked dumpling stuffed with pemmican.  She tossed one over her shoulder without looking and commenced to eating her own.  The day moved on, passing uneventfully. Even before dusk Oolah began keeping an eye out for a good camping place. Seeing a promising area, a hollow between hills she stopped. "Wait here and feed the Beasties." she told Van.

     Camp set up was completely different this time. She cleared an area then bent the surrounding saplings into a rough teepee. By now Van had finished with the Erlokas and Oolah called over to him, no attempt at being discreet, now. It was shocking after speaking so muted for almost two days. She said, "collect some branches. put them there!" By the time he'd gotten back with a load of branches, the Erlokas had become part of the lower wall of the shelter. Canvas made up the top, leaving a hole at the apex.

     Going through his bundle, she started tossing some inside, and some that were more suitable was attached to the twine now surrounding the base of the shelter. She gestured toward the woods and he set about gathering more branches. Upon return she'd made a small campfire with some rocks and much of the wall was done. That evening they got to have a hot meal including beverages. They talked normally, knowing the Erlokas would warn them of threats, enjoying each others company. Each of them finally took a place across from each other, both next to an Erloka-heater, and slept.