[img]https://i.imgur.com/xkXbb0W.png[/img]

With their pace doubled, Renauld felt the winter winds cut into him. It sure was harder to move in the winter, he thought. The bitter cold bit at his extremities, but he remained bundled up well enough to not be harmed by cold winter winds. They then reached the wooded areas; snow still covered the ground.

Even though it was cold, snow actually formed a great insulator. That's what Renauld thought, anyways? He might have been remembering things wrong. He wasn't exactly sure of the mechanics behind it, but he had the concept of igloos stuck in his head. Well, not exactly an igloo. He was more carried by a feeling of "this felt right", as though he had done it before.

For a shelter, he began to form a large pile of snow, mixing the layers of top and bottom as he done so. Really, the rate in which he moved snow was rather fast; he wasn't carried by a sense of duty, after all. No, to him, this felt like fun nostalgia, whatever that was. Eventually, his snow pile increased to a considerable size: a solid meter and a half high, with a bit over four in diameter. With the snow mixed well, packed down, and sintered, it formed a nice dome of snow from which Renauld could dig.

And dig he did. His gloves were of above average quality. Water was unable to penetrate his gloves. By power of childlike wonder and energy, he had formed a shelter out of snow.

Then, he put in the finishing touches on his shelter: a hole at the very top to act as airflow, a channel to the entrance to ensure the cold air stays down, a smooth roof to ensure that nobody is dripped on during the night, and raised snowbeds with cheap tarps on them to ensure that water doesn't permeate through to the sleeper. It was a difficult amount of labour for the sole mage to do, but finishing it before nightfall filled Renauld with a sense of pride.

And finishing it filled him with a sense of hunger that crushed his insides. His pure joy in playing around in the snow had distracted him for the time being, but he was now finished and simply wanted to eat. Into his bag he went, grabbing the semi-frozen meat, berry, and fat mix and chomped into it with glee. It sure filled him up with energy; the sweet and tart blast of flavour from the berries, the savoury meat, and the filling fat made his labours definitely worth it. But looking around, Argen's stew was rather... lacking. So, in efforts of helping make it more filling (and getting a little warm food in him), he came over to the shieldbearer.

[color=C69E6B]"Here,"[/color] he said to him, offering a decently sized-piece of the meaty mixture, [color=C69E6B]"how about I add some of my meat in exchange for some of your stew?"[/color]