Don't lose your belongings, please! part 2

After a couple hours of slow advance through the snow, the carriage finally came to a stop. The horses were tired of the uphill road and being forced to go beyond their capabilities. After all, it wasn't for lack of trying that Ironwoods couldn't trade with other towns in winter, but because it was dangerous.

"What's wrong? why did we stop!?"

Bianca shouted at Kaya, who was supposed to be on the drivers seat outside the carriage but came inside the carriage instead.

"I apologize lady Bianca, but it's impossible to keep going. It's too dark and the horses are too tired, if we continue like this we will fall off a cliff"

Kaya apologized.

"I don't care, we need to reach mountainside today!"

"That's impossible! even on spring it takes a whole day, and I don't know where I'm going either"

Bianca's left eye twitched in annoyance, but Kaya too was desperate to go to safety. Ryu was still being held with the obsidian knife on his throat, but Bianca's has been slowly relaxing her grip.

She was hurt and tired, so she may fall asleep at any moment.

Ryu and Sera haven't been able to communicate with words, but somehow they managed to do so only with their eyes and slight movements.

When Bianca was about to fall asleep and nodded her head, Ryu took the chance and grasped the knife on her hand. Her hand faltered and lost the grip completely allowing both Ryu and Sera to run outside the carriage in less than a second.

Their captors didn't have the time or the energy to react or give them chase, so they just let them go thinking they would be dead within the hour.

Sera and Ryu ran downhill until they lost their breath, they panted heavily since they had to make it through deep snow and it was no easy feat.

"Are you ok mister Ryu?"

"oh, this? it's only a shallow cut, don't worry. More importantly, we should seek for shelter"

"I'm sorry, I tried but there was nothing I could do. I'm not as strong as miss Anne or as smart as miss Helena"

Anne was indeed strong, but when Ryu heard Sera saying that Helena was smart he chuckled. She was knowledgeable and somewhat skilled, but he thought that compared to Ayumi everyone from the hero's settlement were as smart as a sack of potatoes.

"Don't worry about it, we had to find an opportunity to make a run for it. If anything, im sorry for getting you involved into this matter, if you had stayed at the tavern you would have been safe now"

"No way mister Ryu, I'm right where I'm supposed to be"

Sera said with a determined look on her face. She had been waiting for the chance to prove herself to Ryu, and despite the hardship she was grateful for finally being able to do so.

"Did you happen to see a cave or something on the way here?"

"I didn't, its too dark and I was too focused on keeping the pace"

Ryu attempted to use his night vision skill to no avail, making him desperate to understand how do skills even work. But he didn't let his fear or despair show, because he didn't want to scare Sera.

After scanning their surroundings all they could find was snow.

"Did you manage to find something useful?"

Ryu asked Sera in a shaken voice, the cold was starting to soak in and every icy breeze seemed to poke their bones. They were wearing inside clothes when they were taken, they didn't have a coat nor Ryu had the bastard sword with him. The only tool available was the obsidian knife, and it didn't amount to much on their current situation.

"only snow, and nothing but snow, it's too dark to see"

"Then, we'll have to make a shelter out of snow"

Ryu smiled at her and started digging with his hands. Sera too tried to help, but her fragile hands were not of much help and since she wasn't wearing any gloves it hurt her. Still, she did her best and kept a positive attitude the whole time. They chatted in a low voice to avoid drawing the attention of predators, but speaking made them forget about the cold.

Ryu dug as deep as he could on the snow, with a slight inclination to make it comfortable. It was enough for two people but without much space to move around.

"That's amazing mister Ryu!"

"It's really not, digging on snow is not that hard"

Thanks to cold resistance he didn't suffer frostbite after digging with his hands, but his fingers ere red and hurt.

"What are you waiting for? get in"

Ryu kept smiling at Sera, she went inside the shelter and found out it was shaped like a cave on the inside and was more spacious than it looked from the outside.

Once Ryu got in too and sealed the entrance leaving only a small hole for fresh air to come in, Sera noticed that their breathing started warming the place.

"Mister Ryu, can I embrace you?"

Sera was flushed, and this time she stuttered not out of cold but because she was nervous.

"Of course, that will help us to keep warm"

Ryu replied, although they didn't have much choice since there was little to no space for movement. The moment Ryu felt her arms holding on to him the place didn't feel cramped anymore, but cozy and warm.

"Thank you Sera"

"I didn't do anything"

Since it was dark, Ryu couldn't see her blushing, but if she blushed just a little more she may start to glow in the dark.

The night passed giving birth to a sunny morning that Ryu wasn't going to waste. As soon as he woke up he started gathering small pieces of wood and made a small fireplace and made a rack to dry his clothes.

Sera walked out just when he was butt naked in front of the fire, with his clothes hanging from the makeshift rack.

Once again, Sera blushed heavily and her breathing was so warm that it was visible to the naked eye.

"It's not what you think, I'm only drying my clothes"

But before he even finished speaking Sera was naked too, standing in front of the fire.

"Uhm, Sera?"

"Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

"I need to dry my clothes too"

"Yeah but, you could've waited for your turn inside the shelter and..."

"There's no time for that, besides, you've seen me naked many times already"

Ryu was doing his best effort to not look at her, he distracted himself looking at the landscape while covering up his manhood.

"You're right, we should get moving as soon as our clothes dry up"

After less than a minute, Ryu felt two soft bumps on his back as Sera embraced him from behind.

"What are you doing?"

He asked.

"It's cold and this way we can stay warm"

She replied.

"I see"

Ryu nodded while thinking 'it's not my fault, and as long as nothing else happens I'm still innocent'. But even his thoughts were interrupted when Sera's hands started to slide playfully through his abdomen, and by the time he wanted to realize it, his mind was completely blank and his desire took over when her hands were placed right above his hands.

Ryu's Flag was raised and ready to conquer Sera's nation, but he stopped her.

"That's enough Sera"

"Mister Ryu, if you want we can keep it a secret"

"That's not it, this is not right. We would regret it after"

"I know I won't, but if it's having children what worries you... there are other ways"

She said placing her index finger on her lips. Now it was time for Ryu to blush, without even realizing it he was facing towards her and couldn't avoid to look at her figure.

"Still, i can't do it, I'm sorry. we should get moving"

"At least it helped us warm up a little, I'm glad it worked"

Sera giggled making Ryu notice that he wasn't cold at all anymore.

"Anyway let's keep moving"

Ryu said as he was getting dressed as fast as he could, Sera too got dressed and started following Ryu as soon as he started walking. They were lost, but at least they could use the mountain as a mean to find their way.

They were so used to seeing the same face of the mountain that they could tell more or less how far they were from the road. All they needed to do was to keep walking in the right direction and they could reach Ironwoods before night.

But before long Ryu signaled Sera to stop without saying a word and pointed at the snow, where a small paw was imprinted. It looked like that of a dog, but bigger so it had to be a wolf.

"It must be a small size"

Ryu whispered to Sera, but she was pale as a ghost and looked right past Ryu.