Tisis

Wet and cold (S)

God, this woman is so unbearably slow.
I wait patiently after reaching the cover of the trees, which shields me from the water falling from the ceiling.

What did she call it? Rain? Not that it really matters.

By the time she finally catches up, she's dripping wet, her soaked clothes dragging her down even more.

"You okay?" I ask the panting and wheezing Asmodea and in my mind I add, 'Please don't collapse on me now, I really don't want to have to carry you...'

But she recovers somewhat quickly and huffs, "We...we need to...find a cave...get out...of the ra..."

Her sentence gets cut off by an explosion on the ceiling, as the dark, wobbly things, from which the water seems to be falling, suddenly send a frightening monstrosity of light towards the ground and my heart skips a beat.

However Nym doesn't seem to be all that impressed, as she pushes her drenched hair from her face and says, "Wow, that was a big one...alright, we can't stay here, keep moving."
"W-what in the world was that?!" I stutter.
Nym looks at me with a mixture of annoyance and pity and says, "I'll explain once we find some shelter...because we really don't want to get hit by one of those. Though judging from your face, your instinct already told you as much."

It takes us about half an hour of walking at a swift pace through the 'forest', as she called it until I spot something that fits Nym's description of a 'cave'.
I point towards the hole in the ground and Nym pulls out her weapon.

"W-what do you need that for?" I ask, afraid that she might use it against me now, even though I don't know why.
Nym blows a strand of hair from her face and replies, "We still don't know anything about the local wildlife...I just don't want to be caught with my pants down by some predator, who had the same idea we did...I suggest you grab yourself a weapon of some sort too."

I look around, but the only thing I come up with is a particularly large rock lying around.
Once Nym sees me picking it up, she shakes her head and mutters something I can't understand, though I can imagine just fine that it's not a compliment.

Nym enters the cave first, turning on that light thing on her head.
I hate to admit it, but all these little gizmos she has on her do come in handy.
I wonder what else she can do.

As we walk through the small hall below the ground, a few tiny creatures scurry through my feet and out the cave, but Nym doesn't seem to mind them.

After making sure that there isn't some sort of monster lying in wait, Nym puts her weapon away and says, "Seems like we got lucky...though you really shouldn't have let your dinner escape like that."

She drops herself to the rocky ground, as the water continues to drip from her and a chilly draft draws in from the entrance of the cave.

I remember that one time when Marcus got caught up in the watering cycle of the garden...he looked a lot like Nym looks now, dripping wet and miserable.

What was even worse though, was what happened after that...because the next day, Marcus came down with a high fever, unable to move.
It got so bad, that they had to take him to the medical station.

We didn't have many casualties due to sickness thanks to the Asmodean healthcare, but that didn't mean that we didn't know illness and the suffering connected to being sick.

Nym needed to get out of those clothes and warm herself up, but how?
It's not like she has any spares and unfortunately we didn't bring any sort of heater with us either. Or towels. Or...anything, really.

Achoo, it suddenly rings out from behind me as I stare out into the pouring rain, pondering all these things.
Honestly, that woman is going to be the death of me.

I turn around and ask, "You okay, Nym?"
"D-do I look 'okay'?!" she retorts, visible shivering.
"F-fire...we need a f-fire...", she stutters, snot running from her nose.
"...and where would we get this 'fire'?"
"Wood! G-gather wood! Wood burns!"

No need to tell me that...I remember that terrible fire, which almost destroyed the gardens, all too well.
We lost many good people to the flames back then.

I shake my head and push the memory away.
I don't have time for reminiscing a long gone past now.
Nym needs wood for fire, we're surrounded by trees, it really shouldn't be difficult to find some...and just for this once, I'll let her command tone slide.

I think, she's suffering enough as it is right now.