#imryll

It had been a fine day. The sun was out, and the wind was only slightly blowing the snow around Haven. It was a good opportunity to get out of the town walls and get some spare materials and also get away from the somewhat overwhelming amount of shemlen.

Yet as she traipsed across the rocks with grace and ease, she didn’t see the patch of ice waiting for her foot to slip. She yelped as her feet went out from under her and she continued to slide down. She slid down into a cave from a hole above, landing with a startled gasp in a pile of powdery snow.

This was not in the agenda for today.

She did a check of herself. A little bruised up, but she was fine. It took a little time for her eyes to adjust to the sudden change in lighting and she realized with some horror that she was pretty stuck. There was the crack above her that she had fallen from that she had no chance of reaching and a small opening on the side that she might be able to escape by if she did some digging.

She tried, but without gloves, her hands quickly became numb from the snow, and she didn’t get to make much progress before she realized she would sooner freeze than dig herself out. She’d have to hope that help would come. She wasn’t far from Haven, she knew. Somebody would come out this way.

She used her magic to keep herself warm, though she wasn’t entirely sure how long it would last. The light from above shifted and changed in color as the hours passed. Then she heard footsteps above her?

“Hello?” she called. “Help!”

The footsteps paused and then found the hole. A shem peered down from above, and Imryll recognized him as one of Leliana’s scouts, a guy named Norman. He seemed somewhat annoyed and Imryll just grinned sheepishly at him.

“….Gonna get some rope,” he told her before attempting to rise and step back. Alas for him, he also slipped, and down into the hole he went, landing in a similar method as Imryll. As Norman cursed aloud quietly, Imryll couldn’t help but giggle.

“Aren’t we quite the pair… Are you okay?” she asked him, smiling. “Yeah,” he grumbled. “Good.” She gestured to where her feeble attempt at digging was. “I think we can get out through there; my hands just kept freezing.”

Norman thankfully had gloves, so he set to digging, and Imryll kept her magic burning to keep them warm. Idly, she wished she was better at fire magic. Lightning came to her the most naturally, but that was a strike and go sort of thing.

And as time passed and Imryll became more and more chilled, the harder it was for her to maintain it.

“S-Sorry,” her teeth chattered slightly as she relit the flame in her hands. “Almost there,” Norman assured her, taking a moment to flex his hands before returning to scooping out the snow.

A squawk and a thud from behind them had them both turn, the flame in Imryll’s hand going out again. Just a bird. She chuckled, shivering.

“A-ay, it’s-s a p-party. E-Even the birds ca… can’t r-resist us.”

Norman shook his head quietly, hiding his smile, quietly starting to dig a little faster. He had to get them out. Imryll was too cold and now she was his responsibility.

Imryll struggled to get the fire to come back. But she was so cold. She just couldn’t focus and her hands kept shaking. Her magic was out. She watched the bird shake the snow off and fly through the hole they had all fallen through, and she just felt so bad that she had gotten into this situation and that Norman had been dragged into it.

“S-s-sorry, Norman.” “It’s okay. We’re almost there, Imryll. Just hang in there.”

A few minutes later, there was finally a tunnel that could be used for escaping. Norman slid through first, ensuring that it was safe enough. It held up, and he called through for Imryll to come through. It took her significantly longer as her limbs didn’t really want to obey her, but she still laughed and joked about it, even as she got stuck and Norman had to pull her out.

Together, they made it back to town just as the sun was setting. They headed straight for one of the huts that surely had a fire going. Norman ensured that Imryll was taken care of and tried to escape before he was mothered over by Strike, whom had come running when he heard what happened, though he ultimately failed. Norman and Imryll were now both wrapped in half a dozen blankets each and set before a fire to roast.

After a few minutes of sitting in silence, Imryll said, “…Well. That was invigorating. Let’s never do that again.” “Agreed,” Norman replied as he idly opened to a page in the book he was reading. “What a waste of time.” “Hm, I don’t know…. I feel like we really got to know each other.”

Norman eyed her dryly and Imryll burst into giggles, ducking her face into her blankets while leaning into Norman’s burrito pile.

“Okay, yeah, you’re right…but seriously, thanks for being there.” “Mmm,” Norman hummed disinterestedly, turning another page.

They settled into an easy quiet broken occasionally by Norman turning pages. Imryll dozed off quietly, content and warm in her burrito form. Eventually Norman also ended up falling asleep and then there were two sleepy burritos in front of a fire.

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