Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Awakening, all rights to the owners.

Bla bla bla. Morgan and Nathan are weird (and Noire is there too I guess).

I sit very still as Morgan focuses on my face. I never considered there might be magic for something like this, but I suppose magic has never been limited to just tomes so it makes sense there would be some mundane utility spells like this.

"This is going to feel uncomfortable for a moment." Morgan warns. She reaches out and starts to run her hands over my jaw and around my mouth.

Her hands are hot. Not warm, hot. It feels like she's pressing two scalding hot water bottles to my face. She carefully runs her hands over my jaw, neck, cheeks, and around my mouth. The spell is specifically made to only burn hair and not skin, so I'm in no danger, but it's certainly uncomfortable.

Yes, you read that right. Apparently shaving spells are a thing. I didn't expect it to be by selectively burning away hair, but hey, whatever works. It's a lot faster than shaving would be on Earth too, so I'm not going to argue.

"That's so much better." I say as I feel my newly 'shaven' jaw. "Facial hair is so uncomfortable."

"I'll take your word for it." Morgan says. She taps her clean cheeks. "Perks of being a girl."

"It's not like you don't get any." I scoff.

"Shh! Don't expose our secret!"

"Our?"

"Womenkind." Morgan says with a serious (and probably fake) expression. "We have an illusion to maintain!"

"Right, right." I say. "Sorry for implying you have hair on your face."

"As you should be." Morgan nods. She's poorly hiding a smirk.

Noire is giving us the side-eye again. I'm fairly sure she thinks we're insane (or I'm insane and Morgan is humoring me). Morgan spoke with her yesterday to make sure everything was fine. Noire is still shaken up of course considering the shitshow that has been her life for the last multiple years, but she's "better than she's been in a while" which I suppose is good.

The three of us are sitting around yet another campfire. The snow is getting thicker the further east we go. I have to wonder if the lake/ocean effect has anything to do with that. The place where I woke up had no snow at all, and it was at almost the complete west end of Ferox, which would likely be near the western ocean which would cross to Valm. I suppose if it is winter right now, the further inland we go the more snow there will be because the oceans are still "warm" from the summer and were therefore passively heating the areas around it somewhat.

Just a guess. I don't have any way of knowing for sure; I'm not a meteorologist.

Point is: it's cold. Cold and wet. It sucks. Kinda. These furs are actually super good at keeping out the cold. I keep forgetting that just because these clothes are old-fashioned doesn't mean they're useless. People in the old times weren't stupid (well, they were less educated, didn't have years of science involving incredibly accurate tools and whatnot, so maybe they were kinda stupid in comparison to my time, but even so) it's not like the Feroxi just sit down and go "welp, guess we'll be cold then". No, of course not. People were (usually) smart enough to get around common problems. Maybe not quite as well as modern solutions, but effective enough for their purposes.

A good way to show this would be agriculture. Sure, in modern times we have all these huge-ass machines and automated sprinklers and whatnot. But it's not like the people in the past didn't survive. The plow and old irrigation techniques are old-fashioned, but they got the job done. It's not bad or ineffective, just less effective than modern solutions.

"Nathan."

"Hmm?"

"What's up?"

"Thinking. Technological differences." I murmur. I shift on the log we're using to sit on, so we don't have to sit in the snow. "Nothing much."

"Are you catastrophizing about your situation again?"

"Maybe?" I frown. "Not as much."

"Hmm…" She hums. "It's cold."

That's very random, but yes. "It is."

"I'm cold." She clarifies, staring up at me.

"Uh… we can probably put more logs on the fire…?" I suggest uncertainly. "Or we can move the log we're sitting on closer?" I glance at my bag. "We have blankets."

Morgan continues staring for a few seconds, then sighs. "Right, gotta be upfront."

She stands up, brushes herself off, takes two steps to the right, and sits down in my lap. I freeze in uncertainty as Morgan makes herself comfortable and rests against my fur clothes.

"Uhh…"

"Hmm?" Morgan tilts her head up to look at me. "Something wrong?"

"No." I mumble. My instinct is to assume she's doing this for my sake, but I push that thought aside. She's established that this isn't necessarily the case (or, at least, not the only reason) and that she takes some enjoyment from this. So I don't protest or complain, because it's not like this is unpleasant for me. Instead I lean forward and rest my chin on top of her head, and (very loosely) wrap my arms around her waist, kinda like I'm holding a very large stuffed animal.

I wonder how Morgan would take to being compared to a toy? She'd probably find it funny.

Morgan also seems very content with herself at the moment. I wonder why she's smiling. Noire is giving us the side-eye again. She does that a lot now that I think of it.

###

I wake up to Morgan yelping and scrambling out of her beroll. She frantically pats at her hair. I can smell smoke, and when I get a good look I can see her face is red on one side. That's not a blush, that's a burn.

I think Morgan rolled too close to the fire last night. That might be worth a vulnerary honestly. I think she woke up because her hair caught on fire.

"Maybe she needs to put something between her and the fire." I think. I remember back in the tavern how I woke up with her basically on top of me because of how much she rolls around. She might have rolled straight out of bed if I wasn't in the way back then. "Yeah, like a log or something…"

Morgan pats out the fire in her hair and stares sullenly at the singed bangs. Thankfully she doesn't seem to notice the burn on her face, but I rub sleep out of my eyes and find my vulnerary anyways.

"Here." I thrust it at her.

"What?"

"Your face is burned."

"It is?" She reaches up and touches the burned side of her face, then flinches. "Oh, it is."

She accepts the vulnerary and takes a small sip before passing it pack. I've never seen healing magic in action. I know a vulnerary isn't exactly healing magic, but it works the same way, right? Also, it's good to note that you do indeed drink a vulnerary. I was never quite sure if it was supposed to be something put onto a wound or drank.

Morgan's burn fades over the course of a minute. So a vulnerary is less instant healing and closer to powerful regeneration. That might be pertinent information later.

Noire has also woken up thanks to our conversation. She silently gets out of her bedroll and starts preparing for the day. She tends to be a bit grumpy in the morning. I'm not a morning person either, but she's almost hostile until she has breakfast.

After breakfast, we break camp and keep marching.

I never considered how dull travel could be until I had to walk for hours on end and couldn't read or play a game the whole time. It's not as bad as it could be considering I have company, but it still sucks. Day after day after day of nothing but trees and snow, and the snow is always getting worse. I imagine eventually we'll reach a point where the lake effect wears off, or maybe it already has and it's just pure chance or weird air patterns that are making it colder and snowier as we go further inland.

I suppose I'm lucky in the meantime that Morgan has an endless number of questions which at least gives me something to do as I'm almost always explaining something. Explaining the internet was fun, as well as trying to explain memes.

Eventually my voice wears out and I have to stop talking. Morgan picks up the slack easily and starts to explain fairly normal things, just to check what's similar to my world and what's different. There are a few things I never considered that could be a huge hassle. New clothes can take a bit to get. You can't necessarily just go out and buy some. You either need to make it yourself or get some created for you by a tailor (actually, there are several things you can't just go out and buy), transportation is slow and there's no real public transport, lighting up anything requires fire, news gets around slowly due to the fact that newspapers and the internet don't exist, and everything just seems so much more inconvenient.

Again, listening to all the various occupations that exist in this world as Morgan runs through them, I'm reminded that I don't have many useful skills for this world. The skills I do have also rely on writing, and my handwriting is not fantastic, and in this world you can't really erase mistakes you make when writing.

Hmm… maybe if it doesn't exist yet I could introduce the printing press, or at least give someone (Miriel?) the basic idea so they could figure it out. Then again, the amount of ink needed to mass produce any sort of text might be unsustainable at the moment, so such an invention might end up being useless.

One thing I'm hesitant to introduce is… hmm… I should ask if those exist. They're already old tech, and some other fire emblem games use them. I'd like to have one just in case, but… "Morgan."

"Do you know what a crossbow is?"

"A what?"

Okay, so crossbows don't exist here. Not sure how well that lines up with modern world history, but whatever. That poses a problem for me though. I'd like to have a crossbow; it's an easy-to-use ranged weapon and functions basically the same as a gun. Yes, I know guns use gunpowder and have different mechanisms, I mean that it shoots the same way. You aim, press the trigger, and it shoots in a (more or less) straight line. Guns are just modern crossbows. Different launch mechanisms, different ammo, same general principle. The problem is, if crossbows don't exist here, introducing them could be a major issue. I fear that introducing the crossbow could cause an arms race.

Think about it, a crossbow is hugely useful for any military. Bowmen might be able to shoot faster, but they take years of training. You can hand a crossbow to anyone, even a farmer who has never used a weapon before in their life, and they can probably use it to some level of effectiveness. The crossbow is useful not because of its power, but because of how many ranged troops it allows a military to field in a very short amount of time.

"What's a crossbow?" Morgan presses.

"It's… maybe best I don't tell you." I mutter.

"What!?"

"It's a weapon that could be made right now, and it would be very useful, but… I don't want to introduce it to a world that doesn't have it already." I explain. "I don't want to cause an arms race."

"Ah." Morgan frowns. "Okay. I… hmm…"

I can tell she doesn't like that. She doesn't want me to be hiding something potentially useful from her, but the idea of an arms race is giving her pause.

"Arms race how? Is it powerful?"

"Not really more so than current options." I say. My knowledge on the advantage of crossbows is very general. There might be other advantages I don't know of, but I'm confident in saying the manpower advantage is the main point. "The problem is how accessible it would be."

"Explain."

"It's a ranged weapon you could give to anyone, and they could use it reasonably well in five minutes of training." I say. Crossbows aren't like modern guns either, they don't have severe recoil which probably makes them easier to use than guns.

"Oh." Morgan mutters. "Okay, I can see how that would be an issue. Whichever country knew about it could field a lot of ranged troops without the hefty training requirement. That's what you were thinking?"

"Yes."

"Well that sucks." Morgan sighs. "I really want to know what it is."

"It would be useful to me to have one too." I mutter. A nice self-defence weapon that doesn't put me in melee range and therefore imminent danger would be nice. I don't even know if introducing the crossbow would cause an arms race, I'm just worried it could. "But such is life."

"Someone will probably invent the crossbow anyway, right?" Morgan asks.

"Probably." I nod. "I wouldn't be surprised if it exists somewhere in the world already."

"Then you introducing it versus someone else introducing it is only a matter of time." Morgan says.

"Basically." I agree reluctantly. I can see where this argument is going, and I don't know how to feel about it.

"So if you introduce it, at least you can be sure our side gets it before the other." Morgan says. "And it won't matter too much because crossbows will exist eventually anyways, right?"

I understand that logic, but it doesn't make me feel much better about introducing crossbows to this world. Can I really justify introducing new military technology earlier just because it would happen to benefit our side? Think about… the atomic bomb, for example. Yes, it was useful for the U.S. to use it to end the war and prevent more allied casualties, but does that justify them introducing the atomic bomb to the world in the first place? The crossbow isn't nearly as severe as the atomic bomb of course, but the same issue presents itself here on a smaller scale. Can you ever justify introducing new military technology? All you're doing is raising the stakes of future conflicts in exchange for a short term advantage in conflicts where the weapon is new. It's a double-edged sword though. If you hold back on military innovation, you leave yourself vulnerable to other factions that don't hold back. Doing the better thing, morally speaking, is the incorrect decision from a national security perspective.

Morgan does have a point though. Sooner or later, I'm sure the crossbow will be invented. Someone will come up with the idea of a trigger-based bow that draws the string back on its own. It's not a huge technological leap like blackpowder where the world could reasonably go a long time without discovering how to make and use it. If I were talking about a flintlock pistol here, I would absolutely say I shouldn't bring it into the world. As blackpowder was refined it would inevitably spiral into the creation of more properly modern weaponry, and the creation of bombs.

"Nathan speak." Morgan says nervously. "What's up?"

"I can understand that argument, and for crossbows it might make sense." I mutter. "But I don't like the principal of the idea. Just because it benefits your side is not justification to introduce new military technology. That's a short term advantage in exchange for just raising the stakes in the next war, because everyone else will figure out your technology. Unless there's a huge tech gap, that will happen."

"But we can't just give up a possible military advantage. What if someone else gets it first?" Morgan says unhappily.

"I know." I grimace. "It's a lose-lose situation. Hold back and get punished for trying to keep things from escalating, or escalate yourself and be the cause of an inevitable arms race. The moral choice loses militarily, and the military choice loses morally."

"It sounds to me…" Noire says hesitantly. I didn't expect her to contribute. "Like the only good solution would be for both sides to not escalate."

"But that would require them getting along, and if that were the case war wouldn't be a worry in the first place." I say.

"Ah…"

"And treaties don't work either. Some agreement that you both won't do X during war seldom stands when actual war hits and you have lives and probably more on the line." And, of course, there are plenty of countries that only care about themselves and don't particularly care about what happens to the other side. "It's rare enough to find individual people that honorable, much less a whole military command's worth."

There's a brief quiet between them. Philosophy is a bitch when you have to take it into serious consideration, mostly because it's rare to have any sort of concrete answers in philosophy. So many philosophers have claimed to "solve" X, Y, or Z, but when you look into it you can almost always find something wrong, and there are always a dozen rebuttals to any given idea.

"I guess the only solution would be to have only one side, so war isn't necessary." Morgan says quietly.

"Yeah." And we both know that will never happen. "But humans are too terrible, too petty, too stupid, for that to happen. After all, people have gone to war for things as ridiculous as "glory"."

Morgan nods silently.

So what now? I've talked myself into a circle. There are reasons to not introduce new military tech and reasons to do so. Do I explain what crossbows are or not? I'm not going to come to a solution no matter how much I think about it.

I sigh and push aside the philosophy. I could really use a damn crossbow. "So this is roughly how it works…"

###

"By the way." I say. "We need to keep a lookout for signs of Kjelle."

"It's pronounced "jelle"." Noire corrects in a mumble. "Not Kuh-jelle. The K is silent."

"She's also located in the west of Ferox according to the game." I recount. "Less so than Morgan, but still pretty far over. Before halfway through Ferox at least."

"Intending to add to your little collection of girls?" Morgan teases. "First me, then Noire, next Kjelle? Maybe you do have a more elaborate plan you're not telling us, hmm?"

"I plan on starting an army from the girls I recruit." I say flatly. "By deceiving them with fake future knowledge."

"Genius plan."

"Thank you."

"And you even managed to snag a tactician. Very solid start."

"I needed someone who knows how to run an army. I'm not going to do that." I say.

"So of course you sought out someone renowned." Morgan jokes and holds up her head in mock pride.

"Only the best for my army." I say, and pat her on the head.

Morgan snorts. "I thought we established that I'm an adult."

"I don't actually believe that." I say in my flat "I'm doing a bit" voice. "I just agreed to that to keep you pacified."

"How dare you." She says in a similar flat voice.

"I dare." I say. "I give you piggyback rides. You're a kid."

"You give Noire piggyback rides too!"

"Yeah, but she's not... small."

Morgan's eyes narrow. "Small?"

"Short." I clarify.

"Hmm…"

"What did you expect me to say?"

"Nothing."

Well that's clearly a lie, but I'm not going to push the issue. I think I have an idea of what she was thinking, and while "flat" would be a fantastic response I don't feel comfortable saying that. Playing it safe.

"Well, at least we both agree I'm the best." Morgan preens.

"Of course." I say, not using my sarcastic flat tone this time. "I don't think that was ever in question."

"I'm going to blush!" Morgan says with a wide grin.

"Please, I think it would take a lot more than that to make you blush, lewd girl."

"Never underestimate the power of compliments!" Morgan cries out. "Right Noire?"

"Sure." Noire clearly doesn't care. She's giving us the same side-eye she always does whenever me and Morgan do something weird.

"Just take my word for it Nathan. A girl likes compliments."

"And you say this on your authority as the girliest girl who ever did girl?" I ask sarcastically.

"Yep. The girliest girl. Fashion, cooking, sewing, demure attitude, waiting to be married off. That's me." Morgan says with a straight face. "You can't tell me my clothes aren't the height of fashion."

"It is a damn fine coat." The tactician longcoat is pretty awesome.

"I know, right?" Morgan says with genuine eagerness. "It's the best thing ever!"

"Remind me to steal it at some point. Maybe I can absorb your tactical genius from it."

"Ah yes, the coat is the source of my intelligence."

"Clearly. The clothes make the man after all. That's why I'm a brigand, I'm wearing the clothes for it."

"Ah, of course, how did I not see that beforehand?" Morgan gasps.

"Clothes are like shackles. By putting shackles on, you become a prisoner. By putting your coat on, you become a tactician." I say. "It's all about what you wear."

"Clearly!" Morgan cries dramatically. "How did I never see the connection?! By Naga, I think you've solved everything! To become kings, we must simply dress as kings!"

"Indeed!" I add in a similarly exaggerated cry. "We must find the best jeweler, and get our crowns as quickly as possible!"

"Right away! Let us be off!"

Noire sighs. I think she's regretting coming with us at this point.

###

"Ow."

Well, I guess Morgan is awake. "Morning."

"I hate this rock."

"You're welcome."

"I feel like I have a dent in my head." She grumbles. She does indeed have a red spot where her head was pressed up against the large rock I put in front of her to stop her from rolling.

"I could tie you to a tree next time." I offer dryly. "I'm not letting you roll into the fire Morgan."

"That happened once." She complains. "Come on Nathan."

"Nope."

"I'm technically in charge! You said so yourself!"

"Too bad."

Morgan complains under her breath all through breakfast. I act as smug as possible to rub it in.

###

So, it's winter. I didn't necessarily know that before, because I just kinda assumed Ferox was snowy because of how far north it is. The only reason I found out is because as soon as we reached the next town we immediately got snowed in by a huge blizzard.

Here's the thing as well: people don't usually travel during the winter. Most of Ferox goes into lockdown, especially the people living in small villages, because there is basically nothing to do during winter. There are no crops to tend, it's too cold to stay out for long (I guess me, Morgan, and Noire got lucky, and these furs must really be effective), and no one really wants to do anything. The only reason we managed to get into the tavern is because we hammered on the door. It's a stark difference from the first village. Maybe the ocean effect allowed the first town to keep running to an extent? The snow is much higher here, and it's a lot colder.

The owner of the tavern isn't exactly happy about us being here, but in his words "I can't just throw you out into the snow to die", so he's letting us stay. Stay for free no less. There's no telling how long we'll be stuck here, and apparently it's bad etiquette to force someone to pay when they're stuck in your place from a blizzard. It's "Feroxi hospitality".

So… free housing! He was grumpy, but I get the feeling the tavern owner is a nice guy. Actions speak louder than words and all that.

The downside is obviously that we're stuck in the tavern, and we don't have much company. Despite the snow blocking out so much, people are still busy. The tavern keeper's wife is busy with a number of crafts like knitting, spinning, weaving, and any number of crafts. The tavern keeper himself spends a decent amount of time doing repairs to the tavern and doing woodworking. He makes tables and chairs to repair the damaged ones, fixes floorboards, makes ladles and wooden plates and bowls, and spends the rest of his time either hunting or logging.

"I'd fix the walls and ceiling." He says once. "But I don't want to let a draft in."

Fair enough. It's already pretty chilly, and the cold is more noticeable now that we aren't moving all that much. Seeing as I'm otherwise doing nothing, I offer my help to the tavern-keeper (with the warning that I'm painfully inexperienced). He's glad to have help, inexperienced or not. Wood still burns no matter how poorly it's cut, and a fire of any given size heats as many people as can fit around it, so by helping with cutting trees and chopping logs I'm just getting him extra firewood.

By the way, when I said we're stuck in this tavern for "a bit", I mean months. Not days, not weeks, months. After the blizzard dies down people occasionally visit the tavern, but that's only people from the village. We are also told, and surmise ourselves, that it would be dangerous to travel in the dead of winter when a blizzard could strike at any time, especially without a sled or skies. Also, the snow eventually comes up over the windows, and that's way too high to travel in.

So we're stuck. I'm lucky that the tavern owner doesn't mind teaching me some basic woodworking (as wasted wood from my failed attempts is still perfectly decent firewood, so it's no real loss), but Morgan and Noire aren't so lucky. They don't have anything to do really. Neither of them are skilled in tailoring, weaving, or any of the tasks that the tavern keeper's wife is doing, and thread is a lot more valuable than wood and they can't really afford to waste it on teaching strangers.

So maybe it's not a surprise both Morgan and Noire join me in learning how to woodwork. There's very little else to do. The tavern keeper doesn't mind us taking some wood for our own projects either. After all, I'm the one getting some of the wood, so it's fine for us to use some.

Noire makes a backup bow, and buys some feathers and glue off one of the farmers that visit the tavern so she can make and fletch arrows. She's using wooden arrowheads, not flint or stone, so they're not as strong but most small game doesn't have too tough of hide (and neither do humans for that matter). These arrows might not be great against armor, but as hunting arrows (especially considering the power of Noire's bow making up for the material) they're perfectly fine. She also makes some simple wooden traps for catching small game.

Also, have you ever considered how odd it is that fire Emblem has 'iron' or 'steel' bows? I'm sure bows can be made of those, but a bow's power doesn't depend so much on it's material as much as with how much force it can fire an arrow. I'm not sure a steel bow is necessarily much better than wood. Maybe a 'steel bow' is referring to the arrowheads more than the actual weapon? Then again, I don't know bowmaking. Maybe there is a reason to have an actual steel bow. Maybe it does shoot further, or with more power.

Morgan makes some less combat-focused things. She makes a bunch of small figurines: soldiers, pegasus knights, wyvern riders, everything. They're crude, but recognizable. She also makes small wooden boxes that can be attached to belts. It's not as flexible as a leather pouch, but it's functional and durable.

This is why wood is great. You can make anything out of it. Speaking of that… I also make some items. First, I make a crossbow. It's a very simple crossbow, and I'm not sure how accurate it's going to shoot, but it's a crossbow. It takes a bit of planning to figure out how to make a trigger mechanism but I get something functional. Not good, but functional. I'm sure there are better designs out there. I now have a crossbow and wooden arrows. The other thing I make is a small, crude chess set. Rather than little figurines I go with tokens in the shape of the icons for the pieces. Those will be much easier to replace if they get damaged or lost. I hollow out the block of wood the chess set is made of, add wooden hinges, and add a wooden latch on the back. Travel chess set! The pieces can be kept inside the board. I need to color the pieces, because right now they're the same. In the meantime I simply carve a triangle on one set of pieces and a square on the others to distinguish 'color'.

Some varnish would be nice to even out the roughness of the pieces, but hey, a chess set is a chess set. No matter how crappy the pieces, the game is the same.

However, we don't have work all the time. As busy as medieval life is, there's only so much to do in the winter. So that's where the other main pastime comes in… storytelling.

For obvious reasons I don't tell a lot of stories. Neither does Morgan. Heck, Morgan has no stories to tell that haven't happened since I found her. Noire is rather reluctant to tell stories, but as the only one of our group that can really do so, she ends up telling quite a few. Thankfully the tavern keeper likes the sound of his own voice, so he carries most afternoon story sessions by himself.

That's all the major activities that happen, but through multiple months of being stuck in the same place other things obviously happen. For one, Morgan doesn't take kindly to me constantly putting stools between her and the fire when she sleeps.

"It was one time Nathan!"

"You almost rolled into a fire. One time is too many."

The tavern owner and his wife find this hilarious. Morgan has rolled into the stool several times by the way, so I remain firm in my choice to keep it there.

There's also the small problem of how fucking cold it is. Everything I just mentioned above, all the woodwork, has to be done by the fire because of how chilly it always is. Even then we often throw blankets over ourselves to help with the chill. The only time we're not by the fire is when me and the tavern keeper go out to cut wood (and when the snow goes over the window, we don't even leave to do that).

Fuck winter. It's better than summer because summer has bugs, and better than spring, and fall because they also have bugs… okay, winter is my favourite season, but this particular winter sucks because medieval heating sucks.

So when it gets too cold (usually when the afternoon hits and the sun goes down), we all have to stop working out of practicality. Our hands get too cold and we can't see that well. One particular afternoon the tavern keeper and his wife are actually out visiting a friend of theirs to share dinner and tell stories, so that leaves just me, Morgan, and Noire at the tavern ("just don't burn our place down" was what the tavern keeper said before he left).

"It's so cold…" Morgan says in a lazy drawl. I'm not sure exactly why she's stating that fact, it's been literally two months of this. We all know it's cold. "I'm cold."

"There is a fire. You are not sitting as close to the fire as you could be." I say.

"But you won't let me get close to the fire." She pouts.

"Under very specific circumstances." She knows this, so why is she bringing this up? Is this a bit? Maybe this is a bit. What role am I supposed to play? "You can move closer-"

"So I guess I'll just have to find some other way to stay warm." Morgan sighs dramatically.

"Go ahead if you want?" I say in minor confusion. Noire is staring at me with a flat expression, and I feel like I'm missing something. I don't like feeling as if I'm missing something.

"Oh good, well then I'll just…" Morgan says with a grin. She stands up with her blanket, and then walks over to me and drapes it over my shoulders and on top of my blanket.

"I don't exactly see how this is going to help you-"

She squeezes her way under the two blankets and into my arms, and takes a seat in my lap. She makes herself comfortable and warm there.

"What were you saying?" Morgan asks smugly, like she's won some sort of victory. "How is this not going to help me?"

What am I supposed to say? Am I supposed to say anything? I've always been bad at this sort of thing. Well, more accurately, I've never dealt with this before. At least not before I came to this world. What is 'this'? I'm actively avoiding giving a proper name to what Morgan is doing, but I probably shouldn't be intentionally ignoring this. So what is this? Cuddling? Well obviously.

Ahh, I'm doing that thing where you over-analyze something simple. Use logic. She's cuddling, she initiated the cuddle, and she has done something like this before. Noire always stares while she does it. Make the logical conclusion.

A crush? That seems like a logical conclusion, but to my ears that also sounds completely outlandish and unreasonable. I mean, I can sort of see how that would come about, but… it feels unearned.

Earned? Can affection be 'earned'? That's respect, not affection. Maybe I'm overthinking this. Do I just accept this? I have no idea what to do.

"Nathan?" Morgan whispers. She's looking up at me. When did she start doing that? "Are you alright?"

"Fine." I say by reflex. "I'm fine."

"Your expression says otherwise."

"My expression needs to mind its own damn business then." I sigh. "I'm probably overthinking it."

"Tell me." Morgan says. "What's up?"

I can't talk to Morgan about… Morgan. Can I? That doesn't seem right. It feels like something I shouldn't do. Besides, Morgan will probably just say it's my self-worth issues again (which it is, but what if I'm right this time?) and…

"Nathaaaan."

"I hate that I actually have to ask this." I mutter. "But are you flirting?"

"Yes." She says. She sounds slightly exasperated. "Not to sound rude, but did you just now figure it out because I outright sat in your lap?"

"I had an inkling before…" I mumble sheepishly. And I did, I'm not lying. I just pushed it out of my mind because the possibilities were too nerve-wracking, and I'm paying for it now. "Just wasn't positive. Not something I've ever dealt with before. Not to my knowledge at least."

"Really?"

"Yes." I don't like to admit that. Do you know how pathetic that sounds? Haha, laugh at the shut-in.

"Was that the problem?"

"Not entirely."

"So what's up then?"

"You're going to just tell what you've told me before." I mutter.

Morgan takes a moment to think, then says. "This is your self-worth issues again, isn't it?"

"Unfortunately so."

"I think I know what's going on then." Morgan says. "Let me guess, something along the lines of: I've done nothing to deserve affection, what is there to like, and why so soon?"

"All but the last one. I know things can happen quickly." I mutter. After all, when people ask people they never met on a date, it's to get a romantic relationship with someone they've literally never met before that point. I'm not about to raise an eyebrow at the timeframe here.

"So, let me give my perspective. Maybe this will clarify things." Morgan says. "So, first, you've saved my life."

"I-"

"Yes, you technically may not have." Morgan huffs. "Look, would you not be inclined to think positively of someone who took you out of danger? Yes, fine, you didn't save my life. You still went out of your way to remove me from a potentially dangerous situation."

Well I can't argue with that…

"Second, remember what I said before about compliments?"

"Yes?" A girl likes compliments, that's what she said. I'm fairly sure most people like compliments, but…

"Well I wasn't exactly lying, and may I point out that you do that quite frequently."

"What? You mean talking about your tactical knowledge? You're smart, that's just stating facts." I say. "Besides, I haven't said anything about your personality or appearance…"

"Doesn't mean it wasn't a compliment Nathan."

Okay, that's also true, but… "Well-"

"Nathan, stop trying to downplay it!" Morgan huffs. "Don't you dare!"

I go quiet.

"Besides, I think we both know you probably wouldn't give a compliment like that out of shyness."

True. Unfortunately very true.

"Also… well you're nice. Easily panicked, nervous, but nice." She shrugs. "How many people do you think would actually roleplay with me?"

I open my mouth to respond and Morgan glares a bit.

"Nathan..."

"But-"

"I know what you're going to say, Owain and Cynthia, but they're not here."

I close my mouth.

"Nathan, just- Look, I happen to like you, alright? You don't have to feel guilty about it. You've done things to deserve a positive opinion." Morgan huffs. "Seriously, it's fine."

Now I feel bad that she had to spell this out for me… I probably shouldn't bring that up. Let's stop the guilt spiral before it begins. "I happen to like you too." I mumble, feeling embarrassed just to say it.

Morgan's grin is very wide. "Good, then you can cuddle."

I nod mutely.

Off to the side Noire rolls her eyes and turns back to the fire. I wonder how long ago she figured out Morgan was flirting. That would actually explain the side-eye she gives us all the time.

With Morgan and my new… what? We're not in a relationship or anything, so… umm… our new thing, our dynamic (there has to be a word for this that I'm not thinking of), it doesn't actually change too much. The only real difference is that Morgan doesn't bother with a flimsy excuse when she wants to cuddle and simply sits down in my lap unprompted. It's nice to be honest. I'm much more cautious about initiating anything, but I do sometimes. Also, rather than putting a stool between her and the fire I sleep between her and the fire, so now instead of smacking her head on a stool whenever she rolls around at night she instead rolls into me. There are many mornings when I wake up with her having rolled into or on top of me in some fashion. It reminds me of the nights we spent at the first village when I forgot to get us separate rooms. Thankfully, she doesn't drool.

###

Feroxi winters are long. Five months long in fact. That's one month short of half the year. We got there in the first month, so we had a four-month stay in the tavern.

Morgan pays the tavern keeper generously for putting up with three random strangers. Judging by the shocked look on the man's face when he receives the money, I think she may have overpaid him, but she refuses to let him give her anything back.

"You didn't just house us, you also fed us and taught us to work with wood." Morgan explains to the man. "So that's worth something too."

Before we leave, we also procure a few more supplies we had overlooked the first time around. This includes extra blankets, some rope, snow shoes, and a single large tent. We'd get multiple, but my being able to give piggyback rides is actually important to our progress so we can't carry too many large things with us (because when I give a piggyback, whoever is on my back is the one carrying both their things and my things. The backpacks are small enough that it's not an issue, but the tent is probably the upper limit).

"Onward to Kjelle then, hopefully." I say.

"We shall assimilate another member into our group!" Morgan cries. "Beware Kjelle! We are coming for you!"

"At least there will be someone I know once we find her." Noire mumbles. "No offence to you two."

I understand. We may be her travelling companions, but we're not the people she has spent multiple years surviving in a Risen-infested future with.

"We just have to go east and cross our fingers. In the game, she's going after a certain bandit because he killed her 'master', whoever that is. Judging by the timeline we found Noire, she might still be training under her master." I guess. "That's not for certain though. What happened in the game isn't necessarily going to happen here."

"Still, that's the best we've got to go with." Morgan says. She raises her hand and points east. "Onward!"

Here is where Nathan and Morgan really take off as characters. They're very different from each other, but they still come together to be dorks and do spontaneous roleplay. It wasn't really my intent for Morgan to act as a sort of foil to Nathan when I first wrote this, but that's how she ended up. Also, the original intent for this story when it was just ideas in my head was to have Noire as a love interest, but Morgan ended up being so fun that I decided to use her instead.

Also, I have to wonder what Noire's internal monologue is like as she's travelling with these two.