"We live too far apart, out in the surging sea,
off at the world's end -
no other mortals come to mingle with us.
But here's an unlucky wanderer strayed our way
and we must tend him well."

- Odyssey 6.226

Exhausted, Shepard looked up again, squinting through the tiny eye pieces of her enviro-suit, through the encroaching blizzard, towards her destination: an ever thinning trail of smoke, at the end of a long path of ruined ship parts and scarred landscape.

It seemed to be no closer than it was an hour ago.

Or an hour before that.

Despair sinking through her heart, she looked behind her, at the deep trail she had made through the now thigh deep snow. She could not see her escape pod, which gave her some vague hope that she might be close.

The cold had stopped bothering her, which was a worrying sign. The suit she was wearing was not nearly as efficient as she would have liked at keeping the cold out: it was meant for brief, emergency use in a vacuum, not for digging through snow, getting soaked, ice freezing into the joints that needed to be broken with every step, further tiring her already screaming muscles. If she did not make it to shelter soon, she would freeze to death out here before starving or running out of oxygen. She was not sure which death was better.

Another step, pushing through the frozen wasteland ahead of her, trying in vain to get on top of the loosely packed snow. Occasionally she would manage for a few steps, before sinking back to whatever formed the ground the snow was lying on. She wished she had fashioned some of the materials in the pod into snowshoes, or found some other way to travel, or even just waited out until the damned blizzard passed...

A snarl flashed across her lips. She was set on this path now, and would see it through, not mope around while there was still the faintest hope she could see Liara again.

She took another step, almost weeping in relief as her foot hit something hard rather than sinking through the snow. She tenderly hauled herself onto whatever was beneath the snow, and continued slowly forwards towards the...

Is that a light?

She brushed the snow from her eye plates, and blinked in almost dazed astonishment.

Nothing.

Great. Spent months away from Liara, shipwrecked on the way home, kidnapped by a sex crazed asari, rescued by a salarian Spectre, shipwrecked again, and now I'm going insane.

She took a few more careful steps, gently testing the ground before putting any weight on it so a sudden drop did not leave her fallen over: she doubted she could get up if she fell in her current state.

Another flicker. She was certain she did not imagine that one. It was not far ahead, and even looked more like a reflection rather than a light source, and-

One final step saw her at the top of a slight valley. She had not seen it because of the completely frozen landscape and blizzard, but at the bottom lay a sight that had her cry out in happiness.

Sha'ira's ship!

It was mostly wrecked, but a good majority of the central cabins remained semi-intact, and Shepard began to hope she might find something in there that she could use, or at least just take cover for now...

The light flickered again, casting a thin beam across one of the wrecked wings. It was not an automated light: that was a person! Shepard began to stumble down the hill, trying not to stumble.

'Hey!' she frowned as she continued her journey. Her voice echoed around in her helmet, but there was no indication it played through any external speakers.

Could this get any worse?

She continued to make her way unsteadily down the hill, focusing on keeping her footing, when without warning her head spun and she fell. Whether from exhaustion, some remnant from Sha'ira's poison, or any other factor, her legs collapsed under her and and tumbled down the shallow bank, landing with a heavy whoomf on her backinto the deeper snow at the bottom of the valley.

This... is... nice...

Tiredness pulled at her. She knew she had to stay awake, to get up, to find whomever it was poking around the ship, but after trying without success to lift an arm, she slumped backwards into the snow, into sweet oblivion. Beautiful lights danced across her vision, and the blizzard seemed to be slowing. Deep cold began to seep through her body, and with one final struggle, she laid back, helpless, body refusing to answer... mind growing too sluggish to even... to even...

'Keelah, are you ok?!'

'Aaaahhh...' Shepard's body felt like it was on fire. Every muscle ached, her skin burned, her head throbbed and her extremities sparked with uncomfortable tingles.

She briefly wondered if she was dead. After everything she had gone through, finally collapsing into the snow had seemed like the end, and though the memories were a little hazy...

Did... wha...

As more consciousness returned to her, she tried to take account of her surroundings. She was indoors. A cracked eye showed she was on some kind of blanket, but not two feet from her head was a metal wall. The air was... not warm, but temperate: her breath was not steaming ahead of her, and her body was not shaking. There was a pleasant heat projecting onto her back, seemingly shifting in its position.

'Are you ok?' A heavily distorted voice, lilting with a strange accent, sounded from behind her. Trying not to groan aloud at her aching body, Shepard began to roll over, stopping short when she felt soft fabric rub against her bare flesh.

'What...' Her voice was croaky, and as she coughed her body tensed up in pain.

'Erm, yes, sorry, you were freezing to death when I dragged you into my ship, I've heard body heat is the best way to warm a person up but... erm... I can't really... do that... so I tried to make it as warm as possible in here, I was so worried, I'm so glad you're awake.'

Clenching her teeth, Shepard finally rolled over, to see a quarian woman squatting on the floor close to her, omni-tool generating a tiny flame, held just inches away from the blanket.

The girl was right: despite centuries of advancement, there were still fewer efficient ways to warm a freezing person, but obviously with the suits quarians were forced to wear, that was not really an option. Slowly raising a hand to her head, Shepard slowly ran fingers through her hair, thankful that it was at least dry.

'What... happened?' she managed to whisper.

'You collapsed near that crashed ship I was searching for scrap - was it yours? Oh, never mind for now... it was completely wrecked. I managed to get you on board my ship, but your suit - which, by the way, was atrociously designed for those weather conditions- was practically falling apart, and was freezing at the seams. I didn't even know what species you were when I started taking the pieces off. It had at least two ruptures: you're lucky that planet had at least something of an atmosphere, but I imagine your body is still hurting from the exposure.' Shepard almost smiled at how admonishing the quarian sounded. They were an unusual species indeed. 'You were freezing; your skin was so pale and bumpy I thought you were an asari before I saw your hair. I managed to get you undressed from all the wet clothes, and have been warming you up ever since.'

'How long?' Her throat felt less like it was trying to claw its way from her body now, but the quarian was correct: all of her muscles were screaming.

'Erm... about ten hours. You almost stopped breathing once... I was so scared...'

She looked into the glowing orbs beneath the quarian's face plate. 'You... saved me... thank you.'

The helmeted head suddenly tilted, looking away. 'Oh it was nothing, I mean anybody would have done it, I just-' Shepard reached out and touched the girl's arm.

'Thank you. Don't diminish your accomplishments like that. I owe you everything, and will find some way to repay you, I promise.'

'I... oh...' her voice softened. 'erm, you're welcome, then. I'm Tali. Tali'Zorah Nar'Rayya.'

'Shepard.' She said with a pained nod. 'Are you on your pilgrimage?' She had met several quarians, and recognised her name as that of a "child" to her people - one who had not yet earned her place on board a ship in the flotilla other than that she was born to.

'You... wow, they told me nobody out there knew anything about quarians...' Tali sounded slightly flustered, before catching Shepard's gaze again with her gleaming eyes. 'Yes. Well, I only set off... erm... this morning. My scans indicated that there was a crash here, I hoped to find something amongst the wreckage' She suddenly jerked her head up. 'Not that I was looking to steal anything from you, of course, I'm much more glad I found you than any silly tech or-'

'Hey, don't worry,' Shepard reassured with a smile. 'You can keep whatever salvaged. Believe me, I'm happy you found me as well.'

'Oh... it's just I heard some people think that we all... never mind.' Shepard knew that quarians had a reputation as thieves and vagrants, but it was not the case in her experience: she had not met many, but those she had were proud people, and hard workers.

'Well, I thought that rather than leave you somewhere, or take you elsewhere on this tiny ship, I'd take you back to the Flotilla to properly recover. W... would that be ok? We're already nearly there, but I can take you somewhere else if you don't want to come.'

Shepard quickly took stock. She yearned to see Liara, but was in no fit state for any long distance travel right now.

'That's very kind of you, Tali'Zorah.' She forced herself into a sitting position, clutching the blanket around her body. Her body protested, but it was accompanied by the pleasant rush of tightened muscles being stretched, and she groaned in a heady mixture of pleasure and pain. 'I... ah... might need some new clothes, I think-'

'Oh yes, yours were ruined. I was thinking about it, you won't really fit into one of my suits, but I think we could fashion some of my spare robes into something you could wear. It won't be very... covering... and you might have a bit of trouble being let into the decontaminated areas of the flotilla, but it's better than nothing. You'll get some funny looks of course, as will I, naturally, turning up with a pretty, mostly naked, human woman wrapped in my robes...' the quarian let out a nervous chuckle.

Shepard looked at the attractive cloth draped around Tali's suit and helmet, and noticed that the blanket she was currently wrapped in was of similarly ornate design. She nodded slowly. 'That could work, if we're... heh... careful. Thank you so much Tali'Zorah, I can't say how much this all means.'

Tali eagerly nodded. 'We should be there soon; I left the ship on autopilot. I'll go and make sure everything's ok, will you be able to sort out your, ah, clothes?'

Smiling openly, Shepard nodded again, feeling some of the tension finally leave her neck. 'Go ahead Tali, I'll get myself dressed. Although... do you have a shower, or decontamination booth, or something? I've been bedridden for weeks, and just survived a shipwreck, before trudging through miles of snow. I feel disgusting.'

Shepard: Odysseus

Tali'Zorah: Nausicaa

A/N:Just a little chapter here. This chapter is often displayed as an example of how Greeks were expected to treat strangers: Nausicaa finds a bedraggled, naked man in the forest, covered in dirt and brine. Where her handmaidens flee in terror she recognises his words and posture as those of a person of importance, so treats him with respect, dresses him with her own clothes and invites him back to her home. We also see Odysseus deploy his signature charm for the first time.

A slight change in that Tali was alone here, and finds Shepard practically at death's door rather than loudly lamenting her misfortune, but otherwise I am quite pleased with how the themes fit together.

Thank you to everybody who has read, favourited, followed and reviewed this piece so far, for indulging my crazy whims!