Equius didn't like snow. It was very cold, which was never pleasant, and it was far too fragile for its own good. He watched his boots stomp heavily through the icy crust and sink to the forest floor and sighed. Anything remotely enjoyable that came with snow – such as the tranquil white fields that had unfolded in front of the complex once upon a time before they were disturbed, or the tree branches bowing under the strength of the snow piled high upon them, or the sunlight glinting in fractals off Nepeta's short-lived ice sculpture – none of them could stand more than a touch from him before they were destroyed forever.
So no, Equius did not like snow.
Nepeta, on the other hand, was having the time of her life.
She bounced lightly on top of the snow a few meters ahead of her meowrail, leaving only bare indentations where she stepped. Her senses tingled with excitement and pinpoint awareness of everything happening in this bizarre wonderful world around her. A green bird in flight caught her eye like a splash of blood on the snow. She could hear rodents shuffling delectably in their burrows beneath her. A stray shower of snow tumbled from a tree onto her head, and she batted at it in surprise. The air smelled invigoratingly frigid, and she couldn't feel the end of her nose. Snow was strange, snow was disorienting, and trolls definitely weren't built to interact with it, but it was breathtaking for all that.
Equius was probably wondering why she wasn't talking to him anymore, and a little put out because of it. She'd been really chatty – even for her – until they got deep into the forest, and now she crept silently through the underbrush without so much as a backward glance. Her meowrail was nice to talk to, but she'd done that for a while, and there were too many interesting prey-like animals for her not to give her attention to them for a while.
(In theory, she knew, prey animals weren't the thing she was supposed to be giving her attention to. But they were just so…alluring. Alluring was a good word. Hunting was alluring. Finding a 12th Perigee's tree was exciting. Big difference.)
There was that green bird again, flickering in the corner of Nepeta's vision. She frowned, then shifted decisively into a crouch and scuttled under a pine tree. Equius made a disapproving noise behind her, but her senses were locked on that darting puff of feathers.
The puff landed on a tree branch a few feet above her. Nepeta's pupils swelled and she froze, except for her tail, which flicked dangerously side-to-side. Equius sighed. Probably in mourning for the bird's soon-to-be-departed soul, Nepeta thought. It didn't stand a chance under the mighty huntress's gaze.
The bird's head swiveled around innocently, the huntress tracking its every move, biding her time. After a few moments of luring the poor creature into a false sense of security, she surged up in a rush of grace and power, extending her claws and driving them deep through her prey's chest! It was over in an instant. The bird fluttered and died.
Or that was how it was supposed to go. What actually happened was a strong leap upward, followed by ungainly scrambling as the huntress tried to keep her grip on the slippery branches. The bird startled and took off in fear, but Nepeta launched away from the tree and caught it with her paws in midair. One quick bite to the back of the head and it stopped struggling, and she was falling. Oh well. She let herself go limp and waited for Equius to catch her.
He did, and it was kind of rough and jostling, but that was because she hadn't given him much warning and that was okay. She tipped her head back and grinned. "Brought you a purresent."
"I do not want the present," Equius blustered, and dropped her in the snow. Despite the cold, a thick sheen of sweat had formed all over his face.
"Oof! Fine!" She stood up and brushed the snow off her coat, slipping the bird into her pocket for later. "Don't take it, then! Meaner."
"I am not a meaner, Nepeta, and I do apologize. But, please – you know how your hunting makes me feel. Refrain from doing something like that in front of me again." Equius had taken off his jacket and was using it as a towel.
Nepeta stuck her tongue out at him, turning away quickly when he looked up. "What do you think of this tree?"
"It's got claw marks all over the trunk," he replied flatly.
"Yeah, but besides that. It's got a lot of branches, and the needles are really green, and that's what Jade told us to look for, right?"
Equius stepped closer. He walked around the tree once, surveying it from all angles, while Nepeta trailed behind and looked for bad spots.
"It is a fine specimen," Equius admitted finally. "Should I pull it out of the ground for us?"
"Nah, Kanaya let me borrow her lipstick. You're carrying it, though!"
"That's fair. I'll stand back over here." Equius shuffled backwards until he was out of range of the falling tree.
Nepeta revved up the chainsaw – she was glad she'd brought earmuffs, because this was loud – and made short work of the evergreen. She went back to being chatty on the walk to the complex, because it wasn't like she could hunt with her companion dragging a huge tree behind him in the snow. Also, any prey possessing a healthy set of survival instincts would be long gone after the chainsaw started. She ran a finger over one of the branches and pulled out a few of the needles, bringing them to her nose and inhaling. A tree. How weird. Not all trees were weird, that wasn't what she meant but this concept of a tree. Why would you willingly bring a tree into your house? Wouldn't it lose needles everywhere? Human Perigee's was weird.
But she liked it. She suspected Equius did too. Even if he didn't like snow.
(Although really, how could you not like snow?)