Wish (GenshinxReader)

Fade Away | 22

"I had a thought if we are to possibly fight, bundling up like this is going to serve no good purpose." You spoke as you looked down at your long draping overcoat.

"How about not freezing?" Childe placed a hand on your shoulder, "I'm glad to hear you complain about overdressing as you did as a child, it does make it easy to reminisce."

You rolled your eyes and shrugged his hand away. "I'm just thinking ahead. Today is the day."

He nodded and lead the way towards the inn's main doors. Some staff approached asking Childe directly if he required anything before he left, which he quickly waved off with a 'no' and a headshake.

It was a long walk through the snow before you came to a larger group of buildings. Whereas the Inn you stayed in was out of the way and on its own, here as you took more steps forward, more buildings appeared through the fog. Childe explained how this was the usual year around, the snow was relentless and the shiver ate your bones--but if you grew up here, your body often became numb to the cold.

You thought about yourself and how you were coping. Minding the fact you were bundled up, you could definitely feel the sheerness of the cold, but you didn't feel it gnawing away at you, so perhaps what he said about growing up here was true--you just had to get used to it again after having not been here for years.

"Where is this?" You asked, a puff of air visible in front of your face.

"This is the main city of Snezhnaya, think of it as the equivalent of Mondstadt's city or Liyue Harbour...except a lot bigger, though the snow and this heavy fog tend to hide a lot of it, it's there." Childe pointed off into the distance, "we will head through the two buildings over there, an icy path will lead us to her place of stay--if she's in that is. Also, I want to stop off at the blacksmith here," his finger pointed to the right, "one of my daggers needs looking at... "

You nodded, your eyes trying to make out the silhouettes of each building around. You could see small fires lighting up in certain areas and the sound of people talking and bustling around became louder as you got closer, but without squinting it was hard to make anyone out.

"How long will it take?" You asked, referring to the visit to the blacksmith.

"My blade isn't in bad shape, but there's a knick I want smoothing out." He smiled, "I have to take care of them, they are like my babies, plus I trust this blacksmith more than others."

"Can I have a look around then?" You met his eyes, a tiny plead in them.

He hesitated, "I don't know if that's a good idea, you don't know Snezhnaya...you may get lost."

"I won't go far, plus we're about to commit to something big, shouldn't we make what we can with the time we have?" Maybe you were being stupid, considering you had rushed here as fast as you could after waking up from the Scaramouche ordeal, but at the same time, inside you wanted to experience Snezhnaya as though you had never been, as once you got your memories back, you wouldn't have that chance.

He took a breath, "fine. You see that building, with the largest flame?" He gestured towards it, "meet me there in 30 minutes. No longer. Okay?"

You nodded and quickly made your way further into the collection of buildings, eying up stores that had delicious-smelling aromas.

The first thing you noticed about all the buildings and atmosphere--it was like a more modest Liyue and the buildings were flatter like Mondstadt's but less colourful, yet still held a grace to them. The people here sounded as chatty as those in liyue but also more segregated, as small groups stuck together, very few on their own. The food smelled just as good, and that was a delight to your nose.