Snowflake in the sand

Chapter 13

Winter loved her specialist outfit; it was one of her favorite pieces of clothing she had ever owned. It was both elegant and practical, perfect for any mission Atlas sent her on Remnant. But the problem was that she no longer was on Remnant so there were no tailors that she knew of (The Vault Hotel said they only repaired Vault Suits) that could mend her outfit. So for now she could only stare with envy as Six used one of his many disposable outfits to trek down the canyon, unbothered by water or dirt. The mission that was assigned to them was not that difficult, they were bothered by basically nothing but bugs. Follows Chalk was with them for the trip as they gathered items from taboo places for his tribe. He said he was not bothered by such things and he passed time by guiding them and asking Six about the outside world.

Six not one to shy away from conversation explained in detail how wonderfully dangerous and amazing Vegas and its surrounding areas where, the description of the strip made the eyes of Chalk widen in awe. As they continued their decent Follows turned to her "So, what is your home like eh?"

Winter smiled "A land covered in snow and steel, it's… very far away" she replied as they finally reached the bottom, knee deep in water they advanced towards a ruined school bus where supposedly some gatherers had spotted the items they needed but had said that the place was cursed beyond anything else they had ever seen. Six was the first to step inside the abandoned bus and Winter soon followed, there on the middle a pile of skeletons laid on the ground, too small to be of a grown man.

"Children… looks like hey died from the fall, the bombs probably knocked their bus inside the canyon" Six said as he grabbed the items required. Winter's gaze lingered for a moment "It never gets easier, no matter how many times I see it"

Six stopped and turned to look at her "Dead children?"

"No, the innocent. What did this children do to deserve this fate? They probably where on a field trip with their friends, having fun unaware that…" Winter gestured to the destroyed bus "This was going to happen"

"The old world is so weird to me" Six commented as he gathered everything they needed and they started to walk towards their next objective "I wonder how the last days before they blew themselves up where, ghouls talk how everyone had everything, a perfect and comfy life… seems hard to believe, not even the best vaults go without hardships"

Winter looked at him in curiosity "But Sarah from the Vault hotel made it sound so ideal, like a safe place"

"Sarah is many things, like pretty and nice but aware of the outside world is not one of them. Vaults are dangerous with orders from… someone to… agh why do I know this? I… look all I know is that the vaults are not always good, Sarah and the others just got lucky" Six said as he accelerated his pace leaving Winter behind with Chalk.

"Is he alright eh?" their guide asked as Six proceeded to down another bottle of whatever liquid could help him numb his pounding headache, Winter simply nodded "Yes, his mind is simply… muddled, he will be fine"

The rest of the mission went by quickly, they smashed bugs open and even found time to reunite a small Bighorner with his herd and with all the collected items in their bag they made way for the other mysterious tribe on the valley: the Sorrows.

The closer they got to the camp the more wary Chalks became, his eyes constantly darting towards the shadows and all Winter wondered what type of people where the Sorrows, that someone who worked with Joshua Graham looked nervous. They arrived at a large waterfall and Chalks stopped "Well, I must leave don't want to leave before dark, there is too much yao guai in this area and I am sure that the Sorrows will guide you next, they are good people, goodbye Winter and... Mr. Courier if I may ask you some questions before I leave"

Six quickly nodded and stepped aside with him, while Winter started to walk to the camp not expecting the water to get deeper, so she was quite surprised when she stumbled and found herself complitly submerged in water, she got out quickly but the damage was done, she was drenched from head to toe. Six approached her with a small smile "Chalks says that there are parts where the water gets really deep, we should watch out"

Winter replied with a glare, but their argument was cut short as a woman approached them, she looked them up and down but smiled as if she recognized them "Outsiders, we have been expecting you. Come I will guide you to Daniel"

Six extended his hand towards Winter and they ventured inside the camp of the Sorrows this time following the mysterious woman, once inside the main camp they were surprised to see a large amount of fishing equipment and tents, a different world compared to the Dead Horse's tribe. They did not have a lot of time to admire the view, Daniel waved at them as he extended his hand towards Six.

"Joshua told me you were coming, I am glad that you managed to do so in such a short time" he said, Six accepted the handshake and placed the bag of required items on the floor.

"I had help from someone from the Dead Horses, it was just some bug control" Daniel nodded as he also gave a handshake to Winter. He motioned them to follow him to a tent along with the woman that guided them.

"Bugs will be the least of our concerns, the White legs have been spotted entering the area. They have set up multiple camps not so far from here time is running short if we want to escape, luckily we have your PipBoys. That is a godsend but we still need to make sure that the sick and the elderly can escape with us, or we are doing nothing. You both look like you can hold your own on a fight, I implore you to help me out clearing some of the White leg camps and removing traps, with that we only need the map of the region and we can leave" Daniel said.

Six took all this information in without giving away his emotions, while Winter nodded in understanding.

Daniel let out the breath he had been holding in "I am glad you agree, Waking Cloud here will be your aid, she is the best of the Sorrows and I am sure that together you will get this done… but not today you have been through enough, come let's eat and see if I can find you a place to rest"

The rest of the night went on without much of a hitch, Winter enjoyed her dinner and stayed close to Six who had secured access to a cave on the camp. The locals did not go inside, as it was a sacred place for them, but an explosion was heard recently making Daniel worry. So Six had agreed to check it out. Waking Cloud had disappeared for some time but retuned with something on her hands.

A set of clothes, just like hers.

"Change child, you will get sick" she said as she sat down next to Winter. For a moment there was silence, but Winter quickly snapped out of her shock "thank you but I am afraid I must decline, my outfit…"

"Is ruined, you are wet and it will affect you tomorrow, let it dry for the night and change into it again tomorrow" Waking Cloud insisted as she pushed the outfit towards Winter. With a small sigh she accepted the outfit.

Angel's cave was not what either of them were expecting, the inside was rigged to explode with multiple charges of explosives from all kinds, it took them minutes to reach the main chamber. Six cursed as he disabled the final trapped "Daniel was not lying this place could have brought down the entire mountain on them if a stray gecko decided he was feeling curious"

Winter finally relaxed as she watched the explosive being safely tucked away, even if she had aura it would be painful to tank an entire explosion. Even more in the outfit she was wearing, her entire midriff was exposed and she felt quite exposed to attacks.

Six turned to look at her and gave a nod with his head "Seems safe we should look for some place to just settle down to sleep, tomorrow there's going to be lots of action according to Daniel"

Winer gave a nod "We need to be quick Six, we are open from far too many places, I don't like unknowns"

"Yes Mam" Six said with a small smirk, but his eyes wondered towards the rest of the cave. A small terminal sat on a makeshift table, Six quickly moved towards it and started typing away. Winter for her part wondered around the cave looking for anything useful. She found lots of ammunition and spare parts for weapons what she didn't expect was to turn around and see Six undreasing.

"Four Oum's sake Six, say something!" she called out as she turned around with a small blush, Six laughed in response and said an insincere sounding apology. Winter rolled her eyes at his words but found herself stealing a glance behind her shoulder, Six's back muscles where bigger than she imagined. Quickly shaking her head she trained her gaze ahead and waited for him to stop whatever he was doing.

Six cleared his throat to get her attention and as she turned, her eyes widened "What do you think, looks good on me?" Six said as he showed off his new armor, complete with boots and everything. The desert ranger armor was a sunning piece of old war armor, more flexible than power armor at the cost of less damage resistance the long duster covered the piece of chest armor

Winter smiled "Finally you got rid of that awful Vault Suit" she said making Six make a false hurt expression "Winter you wound me, I'll have you know that Vault was all the rage when I was a kid"

Winter hummed, putting that little bit of information on the back of her head. Six probably came from a vault but it would be bad to push his memories now. They needed to focus on the mission, Six grabbed the helmet and inspected it, the tally marks and the "Forgive me Mama" made it pretty intimidating, he put it on for a couple of seconds but took it off quickly.

"Not like me to wear a helmet but I guess if I need to"

"You should" Winter called out "it's not like you have aura like me to protect you"

"I have a thick skull thank you very much" Six replied as he sat down next to her and handed her a bottle of beer, Winter shook her head making Six shrug and down the bottle himself.

They passed in comfortable silence but Six interrupted it by standing up and cracking his neck "The shaman said he wanted to talk to me, want to tag along"

Winter shook her head "I'm feeling a little tired Six and I am not really comfortable going around with this on"

Six nodded and put his new helmet on "Such a shame, I think you look very pretty" and with those parting words the courier wandered off into the night, leaving a stunned Winter to ponder on his words.

"Insufferable flirt" she muttered a little embarrassed but the smile on her face refused to go away.

A/N: I loooooove the dessert ranger armor, one of the coolest pieces of equipment on the entire franchise. I always try to get it early on because of the damage resistance and any courier looks good with it. A review pointed out how Winter would not know about the gods that shattered the moon and he/she is right, my mistake. Thank you for reading, next time we say goodbye to Zion.