"What are we going to name him?" Davin found himself asking as he looked at their new donkey.

Cadence held a wide grin on their face. "Nibbles." A slight chuckle in their tone.

"Nibbles? Are the teeth really that big?" Hugh asked as he drove the wagon down the road, avoiding the potholes as they rolled along.

"They are pretty big, and he does seem as though he's always eating, like a cow, chewing its cud." Davin made an exaggerated chewing motion

"That is a good point, I hadn't even considered the chewing," Cadence stated as they also made the chewing motion.

"Wait, you chose Nibbles because of its teeth, and that alone?" Hugh sounded annoyed, letting out a groan.

"I can't help but feel he looks a little cartoony, almost as if he's exaggerated…" Davin started at the donkey, not being able to shake the unease of the uncanny valley.

"You know, as having been around them my whole life, I have to agree, he does look as though he is as how one would describe them more than how they actually are." Hugh tilted his head as if he was trying to get a better look at the creature.

"So… Nibbles it is?" Davin asked, a smile spreading on his lips.

"Nibbles!" Cadence let out a childish cheer.

"Nibbles." Hugh practically groaned out.

The Wagon that they got was fairly basic, two wheels, a seat wide enough for two of them side by side, and what Davin could only think of as a 'trunk', mainly because that was all it could fit. Davin walked alongside the wagon, looking off into the half-frozen distance, the dense trees that ran along it limiting his view, part of him hoped that whatever it was that they were looking for wasn’t nearly as dangerous as what they had encountered in the movie theater. A part of Davin wished that they would have gotten a larger lead on their quarry, suspecting that they wouldn’t see it before they had to break camp.

"This is going to sound like a dumb question, but what would you guys consider enormous?" Davin asked the question, not expecting an answer.

"Bigger than Nibbles and his cart, but smaller than a pair of wagons side by side." Hugh quickly replied.

Davin stepped away, just car enough to be about two wagons away. "About this big?" Davin waved his hand in the space between them.

Hugh eyed it, judging the distance. "Yeah, about that." He nodded in confirmation.

"Fun…." Davin grumbled.

"Likely not, assuming that we have to fight it. Anything large isn't something I could consider fun on the best of days, bigger things usually hit a lot harder." Cadence responded as they leaned back, looking at the space.

"Sarcasm," Davin stated. "But, that’s what I was wondering, what do we do if we do have to fight it?" Davin finally asked the question on his mind.

"Ah, that is a fair question," Cadence responded.

"Throw new spells at it?" Hugh stated with a wide smile.

"Speaking of, what did you get?" Davin asked as he looked at the wizard.

"Dragon's Breath and Borrowed Knowledge." He smiled widely as he blew out a cloud of visible breath in the cold air.

Davin chuckled. "That sounds awesome, what do they do?"

"Well, the one lets me grant an ally the ability to breathe out like a dragon, the other grants a skill I don’t have for an hour." Hugh shrugged. "Could be useful."

"Sounds like it will be, I find skills very useful," Cadence stated.

"Speaking of, I know that we saw you in combat, and what you could do with healing, can you do anything else?" Davin asked as he made his way to the other side of the cart.

"Oh? Hmm, I guess that other than the spells you saw, I have a few more sword skills, but I still am not very advanced in my class either." Cadence said as they seemed to be looking over their status. "Oh, yes, and my words can inspire."

"Inspire?" Davin and Hugh asked in unison.

Cadence chuckled at that. "Yes, I can bolster skills, actions, spells, and healing, it is a little more limited than I would like." They shrugged. "What is next for you Davin? Since you are so close to your next advancement?"

"I'm taking another level in rogue, no idea what that’s going to give me, but I should be specializing sooner than later? Right?" Davin asked.

"I do not know when it happens for rogues or rangers, mine came with my last 'level'," Cadence stated as they continued to look over their status.

"I got mine at level two, and I've heard that most have them by level two or three, with your 'multiclassing' you should see it in the next few levels." Hugh input as they started to slow. "It's gotten dark, one of the things that I hate about winter."

"So make camp?" Davin asked, looking around for one of the clearings that he'd gotten so used to seeing along the roads.

"Yeah, we should be coming up on a spot here soon." Hugh turned to look back down their road. "We haven't passed one yet."

"How far are they apart usually?" Thinking about the ones that they stopped at so far.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Usually? A few hours, I don’t think that anyone has measured. I think that they are about four hours apart, give or take." Hugh pulled up his status, checking the time.

"A few hours? So should be somewhere between ten and fifteen miles? Terrain given." Davin shrugged, thinking about how dark it was getting.

"Sounds about right, so we should see something soon." Hugh agreed as he picked up speed again.

They only traveled a few more miles before they found the next rest stop, this one seemed to already be occupied by a small caravan. They were quickly greeted, and some trading happened as Cadence bartered away some of Davin's excess provisions for some of the dried goods that the others had, including some teas. Davin was ecstatic to have the tea, he got a pot on to boil before the tent was fully put up, wishing that he had a proper teapot and cups.

When Davin began to steep the tea he was hit with the beautiful fragrance that was so nostalgic that he began to weep.

On a cold day, a warm mug in hand, watching a movie with his family, his wife also enjoying a cup of tea, the kids only half paying attention to the movie in question. Guilt racked him, knowing far too well that he'd never see them again, but he also knew that he would have to make the best of what he had here, friends and new loved ones didn’t fill the whole that he had, but that is the thing about holes, they aren't designed to stay empty.

"You okay?" Hugh asked as he saw the tear roll down Davin's cheek.

"As good as I can be, all things considered, just memories… from before…" the last part said in a whisper, as Davin began to sip at the hot tea. "Milk, sugar, a teapot."

"Huh?" Hugh asked as Davin started listing off a wish list of things.

"Just things I wish that I had, a thermos would be great, especially any time we have to visit winter."

"A good idea, if we have to go deeper into a winter that could be handy to have." Hugh nodded along.

"If we have to go too far north during winter I do not think that anything less than magic will help us," Cadence stated as they shivered again.

Davin dedicated to making a hearty soup, making use of the wild onions and peppers that he had found, adding what he felt was the right level of spicy that should hopefully linger through the night. Davin took his turn to watch with a little more enthusiasm since the moving around was helping him warm up, a hot cup of tea in hand full stomach from his soup. Timing his patrol around the camp he'd be able to refill his cup from the pot of tea, glad that he had been given a full camping pans set. When it came for Hugh's turn to take watch Davin easily poured himself into the tent, having made use of a trick he'd seen about putting stones near a fire and letting them warm and putting them in your bed to warm it, he'd easily fallen asleep.

When Davin awoke the hustle and bustle of a camp being pulled up filled the air, Cadence had their tent rolled and almost packed away in the trunk by the time he'd dedicated to fully pulling himself out of bed, dumping his pile of rocks on the ground. Davin quickly packed his tent, getting it added to the trunk before dedicating to making breakfast.

"I wish we had eggs." Davin found himself grumbling as he cooked up some of the dried bacon that he was running short on.

"They don’t travel well, too fragile." Hugh chimed in as he walked back into camp. "What's for breakfast?"

"A hash, assuming we can sit and eat?" Davin asked in response.

"Yes please," Cadence stated as they sat down next to the fire, adding a new small log to the burning embers.

Davin continued to cook as the caravan that they shared the space with fished packing and left, all of them in joyous spirits since they were headed south at Fork in the road. The fire could only do so much to fight off the cold that surrounded them the warm meal did far more for warming them than the fire alone. When they put out the fire a pang of sorrow ran through them, wishing that they could have carried it with them.

"So these cars you’ve spoken of, how did they handle the cold?" Hugh asked as another shiver ran through him.

"Heaters, unless they were broken, every car had a heater, once the car was running it would keep the whole thing warm enough to not need jackets." Davin wiped his nose on his sleeve, it had begun running as soon as they started moving.

"That sounds nice. Can we have that?" Cadence asked as they were bundled in their extra blankets.

"We are making a very large wish list for the wagon we want, I doubt that we'd be able to afford it anytime soon," Hugh said somberly as he was focusing on a fire spell that lingered in his free hand.

"Hey we need goals, and I have an entire world to explore," Davin said as he started to jog in place trying to get his blood pumping.

"You make a good point," Cadence said as they wiggled further into the bundle of blankets. "We do all have goals, and they seem to overlap some."

"Good point, we do have a really good reason to be all over the world," Hugh said while reaching back to slap his trunk.

"Save the world while it's changing, and write it all down." Davin quipped as he jogged.

"That seems way too simplified…" Hugh groaned.

"But it does strike it to the quick," Cadence responded.

"This is every cliché that I could ever want in an adventure." Davin almost yelled as he was jumping and jogging around.

"What in the name of the Patrons are you doing?" Hugh asked abruptly as he watched as Davin was running around the wagon.

"Trying to stay warm, it's so much colder than it was yesterday, shouldn’t it be getting warmer?" Davin asked half breathlessly.

"I think we are entering the mountain's shadow," Hugh said as he looked to the south.

"Mountain?" Following Hugh's lead and looking to the south.

The mountains that were starting to rise in the south were not what Davin would call a mountain, only slightly taller than the trees, but tall enough to block the sun's rays from hitting them.

"That’s a mountain?" Davin asked as he looked along the range.

"I do agree, it is small, but yes, it is a mountain, the range is in an almost constant state of winter," Cadence stated, staring to the south as well.

The creaking and crash that interrupted the silence rang out echoing through the forest. Davin ran to a tree and started to climb, while the trees were thinner they were still too dense to see anything that wasn’t taller than them. Reaching the top, Davin looked for anything that stood out. Looking in all directions, there was nothing… trees as far as he could see. He looked off in each direction, listening for anything that could grant him the smallest hint.

"Do you see anything?" Hugh shouted up, summoning multiple lights around him providing a glow around him.

"No, whatever it is I think that crash may have scared it." Davin held his hand above his eyes, attempting to see further.

"The echo does not make it any easier," Cadence yelled up.

Davin began climbing down, making it to the ground he jogged back over to the cart. Moving again, Hugh moved the cart off the road, driving it in the grass to reduce the sound from the cobbles. Moving in as quiet of a way as they could, Davin felt as though he was jumping at any sound that was bigger than a footfall.

The fallen tree that lay across the road was the first sign, the area around it was dug up and rooted through, and many other trees cracked and damaged as they moved south. Davin began inspecting the scene, the large footprints were reminiscent of a lizard's, sharp nails dug in deep, and the tree that was knocked over half curved as if it was walked over rather than just being knocked over.

"We go south from here," Davin said as he pointed in that direction.

"Agreed," Cadence said as they hopped from the cart, drawing their sword.

"Let me tie up the donkey, and we can go on foot," Hugh said as the cart came to a full stop.

"It's big, about the size of an elephant," Davin called out as he jogged over to help Hugh with the cart. "I think it may be a lizard of some kind."

"What's an elephant?" Hugh asked.

"Later, one thing at a time," Davin responded.

"Good point," Hugh whispered back.

They ran into the woods, following a path of destruction that seemed to drag its way through the woods, scratches deep on the trees, footprints causing deep furrows in the ground. Davin led the way, followed by Hugh's lights, Hugh and Cadence not far behind him.