"We're at the temple," She told us simply, albeit through a fit of uncontrolled giggles.

My first thought in reply to this was to throw my jacket at her.

"Then why aren't you wearing a jacket?" I asked, and tried very hard not to come off as embarrassed.

I was embarrassed, of course. That was somewhat of a compromising position to be found in with someone I'd only just met. But Rajan didn't seem bothered, but that was Rajan. I got this feeling that he was just generally more stoic and unmoved than I was.

Shrugging, Lindsey pulled the jacket on, managing to stop laughing, "Anyways, I got visual of an otter―looks like he probably owns the place."

I nodded, moving up toward the front of the van, noticing that the aforementioned otter seemed to be pacing back and forth in front of a window up on the second floor. Looked cozy up there. Probably a residential section of the temple.

Is that Acanthus?

"That's him all right."

Though it had been more idle pondering than a direct question, I have to admit it was nice to receive an answer. And, though I didn't mean to, I nodded in reply to the answer… And had to play it off, much like I had in Cairo, as me planning away and not me talking to myself. Or the voice in my head.

"Doesn't look too tough…" I uttered, knowing full well that looks didn't mean jack in this universe. And otters are far from defenseless. "So," I turned to Lindsey, "Should we bust up in there like we own the place, or do recon first?"

I already knew what I was going to do, because there was only really one reasonable option, but giving Lindsey a hard time right now sounded like fun. Especially after the wake up call she'd given me. Giggly little…

"Usually I'd say we do the second one, but the sooner we can get out of here the better." She replied.

Shaking my head, I gave her a slightly disapproving look. "Trick question," I advised, clicking my tongue, "Recon is always the first order of business."

Looking a little flustered, she nodded her agreement. Good. That should be enough of a hard time to satisfy me and the part of me that liked holding grudges.

I put on my Binoc-U-Com to take a closer look at the temple, zeroing in on a couple of points of interest. The room containing Acanthus was of the highest priority, but I also had to identify possible entrance points and guard patrols. The biggest issue was that Lindsey hadn't added a camera to the Binoc-U-Com yet, which made this… Clunky. Unrefined.

But it would work out.

I dug into my bag and removed a camera we'd gotten from that SHELL store that I had laid claim to as soon as Lindsey indicated she didn't need it for anything. It would work.

I took a couple of pictures of the places I could see from the van, but there was only so much I could do from inside the van. My field of view was kind of limited. Even with the Binoc-U-Com and camera there weren't many vantage points of use here.

Frowning as I ran out of spots to photograph and found I hadn't even gotten enough to compile a decent mental map of more than just the front wall, I set the camera and Binoc-U-Com down for a moment. I thought for a moment about bringing my jacket out with me―I could feel the chill in the air seeping in since we had the van's engine off, but it wasn't bothering me very much.

I heard the voice giggle at the thought.

I shook both the thought and the voice's reaction off, reminding myself that I'd thrown my jacket at Lindsey, who was clearly still wearing it. I'd have to do without and hope my fur was thick enough to keep the bulk of the cold off of me.

I moved toward the back doors of the van, and Rudy gave me an alarmed look.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"To get more recon shots." I replied, raising my brows at him. "I can't see everything from the van."

"You're going out there without a coat?" Rajan's brows pulled together at the same time that Rudy's did.

"I have thick fur," I shrugged, resisting the urge to shudder or slap my hand over my mouth. The voice could speak through me even without permission. Nice. Cool. I hated it. "I can handle cold―gets unbearable in summer."

Both of them looked disbelieving, and Lindsey seemed like she might jump in on a lecture right at that very moment, so I was quick to take the chance to hop out and close the door behind me. Bunch of worrywarts… If it weren't so annoying right now I'd have been thankful as hell for proof they cared about my wellbeing.

As it was, I just marched into the snow and tried to stay low.

A couple of minutes proved that, yeah, sure, I got cold out here in a t-shirt and jeans and nothing else, but it was bearable. Kind of like sitting in a room with a really good AC. It probably wouldn't have ended up being too cold for me to handle unless I stripped to my skivvies and laid face down in the snow. That was pretty cool!

"I was born up in this region," The voice mused after I figured that out and got back to trying to take pictures.

"Yeah?" I asked, pausing to take a picture before moving to a new spot. "Well there's another difference. I was born three miles North of the Mexican border."

"And yet I'm the one who speaks Spanish." They snickered.

My lips pulled up into a smile as I shook my head and rolled my eyes. I snapped a couple more pictures and kept my eyes trained on a couple of guards stationed outside to make sure that they didn't catch sight or scent of me. Leave it to Acanthus to hire huskies… Oh well. Couldn't blame him for wanting guards that would be good at their jobs.

"I never actually learned Spanish," I admitted under my breath, "My dad speaks it fluently, and mom speaks it fairly well… I only know the bare minimum necessary to get by in a conversation." Shaking my head again, I laughed, "One time, at summer camp, all the campers had a tanning contest? And I got disqualified for naturally having a better tan than everyone else because I've got Latin blood on my dad's side."

The voice snickered a little. "Your abuelo?"

"And pretty much everyone before him, yeah." I agreed.

They made a considering, interested noise.

I made my way to a new vantage point. One of the guards lifted his head to sniff―I flattened myself to the bluff I'd manage to get onto. When no one pursued me, I peeked up and found he hadn't managed to catch sight of me. That was good. I was glad about that. I wasn't particularly in the mood for playing a game of dog and raccoon, thanks. Especially not with the gang barely even hidden and barely thirty feet away.

"That was way too close." I muttered.

"No kidding."

Shaking my head again, I got back to my recon.

It wasn't for another few hours that I went back to the van. By then the cold had seeped down into my body. I still wasn't shivering, but I was looking forward to pulling out my blanket from my bag and burrito-ing myself off in the most secluded corner of the van possible.

My return allowed the other three to relax, and it wasn't very long afterwards that we all settled down to sleep. And it didn't take long after that for me to follow them back into dreamland.