Angela's wings were burning and straining under the amount of force Angela was putting them under. The cold wind bit at Angela's face and she knew without the thin covering, her nose would be frostbitten. With these in mind, she grimaced and forced herself to go faster. Someone in the cold without protection would be hypothermic within an hour.
A glimmer of blue light shined on the forest floor, and Angela swore as she recognised Lena stumbling like a drunkard back to the lodge. Swooping down like a bird of prey, Angela stopped short of Lena and gasped.
"An-An" Lena shivered as she spoke, and Angela gaped at the blueness of her lips, her breathing was slow and her fingers frostbitten. Praying that it would work, Angela focused Gungnir on Lena, and sighed with relief as the red in her fingers, nose and ears slowly retreated. Angela hoped that would be all.
"An- Angela" she muttered. "How did I get out here?" Angela's heart sank. "Did. Did you save that woman? I saved you. I hit the Omnic" Lena smiled as Angela rushed forward and embraced her.
"Easy, love" She chuckled.
"Lena, can you blink back to the lodge?"
"The lodge?" Lena seemed confused, and Angela swore beneath her breath.
"Oh yeah, the lodge. It's warm there" Lena stopped smiling. "But, ah. There's a fire to"
Angela picked up her confused lover over her shoulder, and began to power up her wings.
"Angela. Is their a wind?" Lena muttered. Angela stopped, and then swore.
The wind chill will kill her if I go too fast.
Angela growled and burst her wings so as to have Lucio see them. Then she turned back to Lena.
Angela knew she would have to walk her back, but that walking back wouldn't be quick enough. Lena was confused and dazed. Which left-
"Lena, hold on just a minute." After gently putting her down and ignoring Lena's quiet protests, Angela grabbed the magnetic clasps of her suit, and braced herself.
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The cold bit as deep as a knife and forced the breath from Angela's lungs. It was minus twenty at least, and Angela's base layer was thin.
"Might be a bit roomy my dear, but it will keep you warm" She placed Lena in the suit and closed the clasps. "I've got to make a trip"
Lodge is 3 miles from here. I can make it in an hour unladen. But with Lena, and in the suit… Angela grimaced and picked up the heavily suited Lena; and glad for the separate boot pieces of the suit, took her first step towards the lodge.
She immediately sank through the snow, and gasped at the deep bite of cold that soaked her to her knees. Gritting her teeth, she took another step as the water on her feet began to freeze.
Another few steps, and Angela began to shiver. She knew the cold could do her in, Idun would heal frostbite but wouldn't save her from hypothermia. And by fifteen minutes in she was beginning to feel its affects. The frozen snow on her legs was crusting and cracking her skin, and small bursts of gold was coming from beneath the black base layer.
Got to keep going. One foot in front of the other, minute after minute and making process at a snails pace.
"Angela!" Said a voice from Angela's left. Seeing Lucio step from the trees made Angela want to cry from relief. Together, Lucio and Angela shared Lena's weight, though Angela was becoming increasingly confused.
"This way, Angela" Lucio would gently chide when she moved away in the wrong direction.
Some time after, Angela began to realise she couldn't feel the cold anymore. Her legs had gone from numb to a solute dead from all feeling and cold and had become useless, frozen lumps of flesh on the end of Angela's torso.
What could have been hours, or minutes, or days for Angela, she finally began to see the lights of the lodge. Muttering with emotion and confusion, she took another step. Then another. Steps that had been merely been one in thousands, but were complete agony.
"Angela!"
A husky voice came from a friendly shifting, muscled mass. It moved forward and looked to the stumbling Lucio besides her. She made a decision quickly.
"Lucio, take Angela" She took the prone Lena from Angela's shoulders. "Take her to their room. I'll see you there"
Angela was losing the structure of her mind, and the world was quickly becoming a fuzzed and blurry thing. All that was in her mind was that she had to reach the house. But it was so nice outside. Warm and soft, the ground would be a nice place to sleep. Lucio gently led Angela to the lodge.
The heat hit Angela like a furnace, and she murmured in deep set confusion. Her legs began to thaw, and the pain of her limbs coming back to life after the deep death from the cold was agony. She swore and her useless legs were flaring with bursts of heat, and the fug of the warm house was confusing her further. She could feel her eye lids drooping, her head dipping down towards her chest, and her agonising legs being slowly taken over by the pain in her fingers, ears, and nose. Her body was heavy, and exhaustion pulled her downwards. Her last few moments of consciousness she was vaguely aware of friendly hands pulling of the wet base layer and underclothes she was wearing, and push her gently into a bed.