Warmth
Daryl walked in the door cursing under his breath. After the events in Grady Hospital the group had decided to head north to Richmond on Noah's behalf. Winter has set in early this year and it was cold indeed.
In order to survive they cleared an abandoned school building. The fenced playground reminded them of the relative safety of the prison.
While loot grew ever slimmer on supply runs Daryl took it upon himself to go out hunting at every change he got. But the cold…Sure he hunted in wintertime before but then the world wasn't overrun by the dead and he had a decent winter attire for hunting.
Carol sat by the fire preparing dinner from the scraps the found in an almost empty supermarket 5 miles away.
'You're alright?, "she said eying Daryl's red ears. "fine,"he grumbled. Got some rabbits, left them with Sasha to clean them. Damn, it's cold, thought I was used to that, but it's like hell froze over last night. "
Carol didn't speak and gave him a cup of hot tea she brewed from stale teabags.
"Thanks," Daryl blew on his fingers and rubbed his ears to get them warm again. "can't hunt if weather doesn't improve soon. The gloves we found last week, barely keep my hands warm and my ears are freezing damn right off."
"I might know some tricks to get you warm," Carol suggested. She gave him a cheeky look as Daryl almost choked on his tea. "Stop woman," he grunted. Carol chuckled "yeah you wish. Go, get yourself clean, we eat in half an hour." Daryl finished the tea, squeezed Carols shoulder and took off.
Carol was quite pleased with herself. In a room, that appeared to be the janitor's closet she found an box filled with old, children's clothes and accessories that were way out of fashion before the apocalypse began. Seeing Daryl suffering from the cold made her decide to find him some decent gear for the outdoors. Alas, almost nothing turned up on supply runs and this were all children's sizes. Holding up a knitted sweater she suddenly got an idea.
When Sophia's was still a toddler she had made clothing for her herself. Sewing wasn't quite her skill, but knitting she could pull off. At night she unraveled the sweater, she searched and found knitting pens in the crafts room and she started the thing.
The next day she was up early despite knitting most of the night. She just caught Daryl before a went out in the woods again. He had put an bandana an a baseball cap on the keep as much body warmth in as possible. She giggled to herself.
"Daryl, hold on, " she ran to him waving her craftwork.
"What the hell?"
"Made you a hat Pookie, couldn't stand to see you get so cold"
Daryl took the hat, turned it around and started to laugh. "ow man, thanks, this really should help."
He threw off the baseball cap and planted the hat on his head. It had flaps to cover his ears and was lined with fleece cloth.
"But don't count on me catching any damn animal with this on. Rabbits and squirrels will see me coming in a ten mile radius."
"Aw, you'll manage, " Carol laughed. And she saw Daryl out, wearing a pink and purple knitted hat with bright yellow lining. She could live with less rabbit meat she thought, as that meant that her closest friend in the world could stay warm.