"Stupid primitive lodging. Not a golem in sight." He grumbled as he trudged through the snow, "Stupid smoke signals, stupid furs, stupid cold! I bet they don't even know about thermoalchemic reactors. How can anyone live like this?"
"Hey kid!"
Darrof sped up his pace, at least as best he could in this heavy snow. He probably made that norn angry, and Darrof knew better than to be around for the repercussions. He wrapped himself up tighter in the furs, looking like a little ball of fluff. The mountains were still deathly cold, but Darrof had to admit, the furs helped. And at least it had stopped snowing.
He walked all the way back to the spot where he was dropped off, and built himself a mound to sit on. Just something to give him a little extra height so he could be seen better.
Then he waited. It wouldn't be long, he was sure. His parents had very good navigational devices, so if they wanted to find something, they could. They also loved Darrof very much, and they would remember that soon enough. So he kept waiting.
He wasn't sure how long it had been, or if time even passed at all up here. Maybe he had stumbled into some sort of time warp. It was at least theoretically possible. He had read a book on chronomancy in his parents' lab, though granted, he understood very little of it. And now he was making his head hurt thinking about time. Wonderful.
Anyway, there was no sign of that blizzard the norn had warned him about. That stupid, superstitious norn.
Speaking of which, he heard some familiarly heavy footsteps in the snow behind him.
"You sure do move fast on those tiny little legs of yours."
"I thought you'd be angry. After what I said to you."
"Ha! It takes a lot more than that to rile me up." Rolf sat down next to Darrof, making Darrof realize how small his mound was as the norn still towered over him. "You're not the first asura I've met, trust me. If anything, I'm surprised you didn't call me a bookah."
Rolf noticed Darrof cringe at that word, and changed the subject. "So, how are your folks going to find you anyway?"
"I don't know," Darrof admitted, "I didn't really plan that far ahead."
"Heh, I get it. Sometimes you just have to improvise. I forget to plan things all the time."
"Of course you do." Darrof muttered, embarrassed to have something in common with a norn.
"Wait here," Rolf continued, "I have an idea."
The norn stood up and starting gathering sticks off the ground. When he had collected all of the sticks around him, he got more by breaking off some low-hanging branches from the trees. Darrof watched, confused, as Rolf stripped the bark off the end of each stick, and laid them together on the ground.
"Do you mind if I take a piece from the fur you have?" he asked. Darrof clutched the fur tighter around him and shot Rolf an indignant look. "Sorry," Rolf smiled and backed away, "Don't worry about it."
He instead tore a strip from his own tunic, and twisted it into a cord. He used the cord to tie the sticks into a bundle.
"Down, please." He motioned for Darrof to get off of his snow mound, and Darrof reluctantly complied.
Rolf packed more snow onto the mound, building it higher until it was nearly as tall as the norn himself. Finally, he picked up the bundle and stuck it into the top of the mound, debarked ends up.
He went over to a nearby pine tree, took a small branch covered in pine needles, put it on a boulder. Using a smaller rock, he ground up the pine branch into sticky sap, and coated the top of the bundle in that pine sap.
Finally, he placed his hand over the bundle and whispered a small incantation. Fire sprang to life from the tips of the branches.
"There we go." Rolf stood back and admired his work. "This should burn for a while, even in a snowstorm."
"Um, thanks." Darrof stared up at the makeshift beacon. Despite himself, he was actually kind of impressed.
Rolf grinned. "See? I told you a signal would be a good idea!" Darrof nodded and sat down in front of the beacon.
"Alright then," Rolf turned to leave, "I'll be back later if you need anything else."
"Wait," Darrof called out, and the norn stopped. "I don't have any money, and I'm not smart enough to build anything for you."
"Um, pardon?" Rolf said, "I'm not sure I understand."
"I mean, why are you being so nice to me? What do you stand to gain from helping me?"
Rolf shrugged, "Nothing. I just try to help people who can't help themselves. What kind of person would I be if I just left you out here?"
"I don't know. You'd still be a giant humanoid creature with low intellect and the ability to transform into a beast." Darrof said dryly, "Sounds the same to me."
Rolf laughed, "Yeah, I guess so. I'll check on you in a few hours."
The heavy footsteps grew quieter as Darrof leaned against the mound, basking in the warmth of the fire above him, and still wrapped in the fur.
For the first time since coming to these mountains, Darrof smiled.