I stole this idea from Andrio's fanfiction called Noveria Heat. He's an amazing writer and was an inspiration for me.

"Wait, this path is too easy."

Rayla was just 15, but that still made her the senior guide to this small group of milk drinkers. Callum, the awkward and pathetic human step prince who never lifted a sword, and King Ezran, so young and naive that he wasn't even aware of his status. If she wasn't the last surviving moonshadow elf of her party that was sent to kill Ezran's father, Rayla would have carelessly stolen the egg from these two soft-skins and their grumpy glow-toad. But she was alone, and injured. And in her heart she wanted to punctuate the historic significance of humans returning the son of Avizandum to his mother.

"No it's not, it's exactly the right amount of easy." Callum replied in his typical lighthearted tone.

"No, it's well worn, it's flat, it's soft. Sooner or later we're going to run into somebody. We need to go that way." Rayla pointed up the cliff, basically towards the sky. "Tougher terrain is safer for us. The tougher the better." Rayla hoped her fake optimism was convincing, still thinking about how she narrowly escaped Corvus.

"Well that sounds terrible." Callum wasn't lighthearted anymore.

"It's tough enough as it is, do you know how heavy this egg is?" Ezran added.

"I wouldn't know, since you don't trust me to carry it."

Rayla lead them up their new path. And the issue of trust resurfaced again as they climbed the snowy heights of Mount Kalik.

"You know I could have just taken the egg any time I wanted." Rayla irritably reasoned.

"Oh well congratulations, you haven't threatened and forced us to give you the egg, you deserve a medal. You're a hero!" Callum's raised voice was amplified by the high peaks surrounding them, and the collected snow began to lightly rain down.

But it was Bait who made the final exclamation. His consumption of Rayla's moonberry juice suddenly produced a quaking belch from his tiny stomach that echoed across the area. Bits of snow across the canyon began to fall free of the rock it was clinging to, colliding with and dragging the unwilling snow below it down in it's descent.

In an instant, this became an avalanche, and it was heading straight towards Ezran and Bait who lagged 20 feet behind them. Callum looked at Ezran, and without hesitating, conducted his hand toward him and whispered "Aspiro". An immense gust of wind emanated from Callum's fingers towards Ezran just as the river of snow met him head on. Ezran became an eddy and the snow contorted around him. Callum held concentration even as Rayla tried to pull him away from the wake that was heading towards them as well.

Callum was quickly buried in snow and carried far downhill. When his momentum stopped he discovered that he could barely move.

"I'm gonna die, I'm dead, I've died." He thought to himself. He didn't even know which way was up. Then he felt a pinch on his arm that turned into a vice.

"OWWW" he yelled from his icy prison.

"Grab my hand!" he heard Rayla's muffled voice. She was strong but needed his help to get him out. He couldn't see anything so he closed his eyes and concentrated his arm through the snow across his chest towards the sensation. He found her hand and they gripped each others wrists.

"One-two-three-PULL"

Seeing daylight would have been poetic but all that greeted Callum on the surface was Rayla's determined face and a lot of snowy myst from the avalanche. The sun began to set.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Where's Ezran?"

"I dont even know where we are, Rayla."

They began searching for Ezran and Bait but found nothing. The area was destroyed and they couldn't even recognize the path they were previously traveling. Where they last saw Ez.

Their hearts began to sink with the setting sun, and it started to snow. Soft but heavy. And a good amount of wind.

"I don't think this storm's going to falter, Callum. We should just take shelter in the cave we passed back there." Rayla refocused. But her words changed Callum's expression from determined to one of defiance. So before he could speak, she continued with a more positive tone; "We can keeping searchin in the morning. Use your head. We can't help Ezran or Bait if we get lost or worse."

Rayla could read Callum's expression as it turned to sadness. "Ezran is smart, he probably took shelter to keep that toad from freezing. As soon as the storm passes we can keep searchin. Moon or no moon."

Callum rubbed his eyes, "Okay".

"This was a bad idea".

Callum and Rayla sat a few feet apart in a cave so small that Callum was amazed she spotted it in their search. The temperature was around 30 degrees so that day the group had only worn their scarves as a custom. But as darkness descended, so did the cold.

Callum's first open thoughts after he and Rayla adopted this cave as their tent was to wallow about the possible fate of Ezran and Bait, but Rayla didn't let him dwell on the unknowable future . She stayed defiantly hopeful about the situation because she knew someone had to be. And it had an effect on Callum. He even chuckled when she said Ezran and Bait were probably cuddling with a mountain llama in a cave nearby.

"He does have a strong connection with animals." Callum smiled as his teeth began to chatter more as the temperature dropped.

"I wish we had some firewood." Rayla was feeling the cold too as she looked outside the cave at the conditions. Snow flurries at first, that quickly turned into a blizzard.

"You made the right call. If we were still out there. we would have gotten-lost in this." Callum's teeth were jittering with every word now.

Rayla was more worried than proud of herself. A few moments of silence passed and she decided to and change the subject. "I never seen my breath so clearly before. It looks like smoke." She said with a half hearted smile.

"I wish that was the case. Because where there's smoke, there's fire. And I'm freezing!" Callum joined her in her tragic comedy.

"What can-we do?" Rayla was taking short breaths between every couple of words. The temperature was -12 now. "You don't-have a-fire spell-to go with that-wind spell?"

"I don't know...Wait. No"

"What? Is it a difficult spell?"

"It's not a spell. I just remember a conversation I had with Soren when he was training me to become a warrior. He said that soldiers during extreme cold would ummm-" he couldn't believe he was saying this. "They would remove their gear and umm-huddle together for warmth. You know, they would like, I guess, they would um share ya know, their body heat? And then Soren nudged me with his elbow and winked at me. Anyway!" Callum was ready to forget he said anything and change the subject. He felt crazy for bringing it up. "It's a stupid idea and probably a long shot. Forget I said anything."

"I know about sharing body heat, Callum. I'm a trained assassin." Rayla's stammering briefly halted. She was quick to defend her knowledge as she thought this human was condescending her, but then she realized the nature of his suggestion.

"Wait hold on. You think-WE-should share-errr b-body heat?" Rayla's teeth returned to their chattering. The cold was numbing her bones.

Callum's expression became awkward and he cleared his throat, about to speak. Rayla interrupted him as she knew he was about to offer further justification for doing what she knew was already a possible reality. She just never thought he would do such a thing with a moonlight elf. But he's sitting here and producing the idea before she did.

"I've never-uhh-you would -uh-um-with me?"

Callum wanted to hide his face. "Uhh yeah, I mean. If it was the choice between that and-um-death." Callum quickly tried to save embarrassment without thinking what he was implying. She pretended he wasn't intentionally insulting her.

"Should-we?" Rayla softly answered.

"I mean, we're barely into the night. It's not g-gonna get warmer anytime soon." Callum couldn't believe she was actually willing to do this. "I mean I-want to-know that Ezran is safe." Rayla gave him an admiring look. He knew he was blushing so he cleared his throat. "I c-can't feel my fingers." He cupped his hands and brought them up to his mouth, and started breathing hot air into them.

Rayla scooted closer to him and grabbed his hand. He wore fingerless brown gloves, and his exposed skin was almost as purple as Bait was a couple hours ago. "This is not good. Your hands are the same color as my left hand." She looked into his eyes looking for confirmation. "You're right."

It occurred to Callum that she was far less nervous about this than he was. He looked up and noticed her intently looking at him, and so he immediately shifted his gaze down her body towards the ground, then at his hands and lap. And random spots around the cave. She noticed his wandering eyes and looked at the ground briefly before looking back at his eyes.

Rayla began talking to herself. Did he just eye me up? What is coming over me? Why do I suddenly feel hotter? He's nothin to me.

She didn't have time for his delicate apprehensions. This was life or death. "Come here." she said with force. "Let's just, lay right here" she gave a quick tug on his jacket collar, and pivoted from a sitting position to lay on her side, inviting him to do the same.

Callum's cheeks never flushed so fast in his life, but he instinctively did what she was gesturing. Callum was comically uncomfortable and as they lay face to face, his inner monologue was sporadic; I can't believe she's going through with this. Why am I so anxious. Why am I getting hot?

Rayla was looking down at her hands as they fidgeted, and he laid in front of her. Once he finished settling onto his side, she looked up at him. She had never seen such piercing eyes.

He stared back, unblinking. Only four inches separated them, and he couldn't believe the depth of emotion he was seeing within her lavender eyes. Not the glaring insensitive warrior he thought she was. Her eyes also seemed, bigger. Or maybe they were always like that

Rayla began nervously shifting her eyes searching for something better in the cave to look at. Nothing was as interesting.

"Don't look" Rayla said with a weak smirk and pushed his shoulder away. "Turn around"

"Right! What? Sorry". Callum blushed and immediately turned to face the other way. He felt her hand on his back, pushing him away for space.

"Just-take off you-your shirt. Or whatever."

Callum's body and mind were numb. How is this happening. She's following Soren's advice? He simply opened his tunic, and the cold began biting at his chest and abdomen.

"Rayla? Are y-you...?" Callum's teeth were clattering like metal dancing shoes.

"Hey," she said in barely a whisper.

Callum's eyes were wide as he slowly rotated back to face Rayla. It was dark, and the blizzard howled just 10 feet away outside the cave, but he could see that Rayla was exposed. Her arms were crossed over her chest, covering her breasts. Her head was tilted downward.

"Umm."

"Just-come here-I-I'm fffreezin"

"Uhh, okay"

Callum slowly reached out and gently grasped her waist. Rayla let out a quiet moan. Nobody has ever touched her like that, especially on her bare skin. ESPECIALLY by a human.

Callum scooted closer to her. He positioned his hand on her back and pulled her in so their bodies pressed together. Rayla moaned louder this time. Callum eased his other arm around her neck and gripped her shoulder, pulling her in tighter.

She moaned again, and immediately removed her arms from her chest and wrapped them under his arms, up his back. She pulled him in closer, resting her cheek on top of his. Neither of them felt anything like this before. Maybe it was the hypothermia, but for both of them the instant flow of shared body heat was sensational.

A moment passed as they breathed heavily, adjusting to the new situation. As their bodies warmed each other, their inhales and exhales slowed in pace. Neither realized how cold they were until they touched. Rayla face was practically buried into Callum's neck.

"There, just like that." she attempted to lighten the mood as she figured he felt as awkward as she did. Callum was silent. He always had an opinion, something to say no matter the circumstance. But this time he had no words. He was holding this beautiful elf, and she held him. Her warm breath teased his neck. Their legs intertwined and steadily moved to generate hot friction.

Rayla couldn't help but feel aroused. This is the most intimate thing she'd ever done. She squeezed him a little tighter, and Callum reciprocated by lightly stroking her back.

Rayla moaned and nuzzled her face in his neck in response. She felt a throb below, and an urge to kiss his neck, but she stopped herself.

She pulled away to make eye contact. He didn't seem so nervous anymore. He was even kind of smiling. They were from two different worlds and were arguably closer to enemies than friends, but right now she felt safe. He looks...attractive.

She moved just centimeters closer to him and then her eyes quickly bounced from his eyes, down to his mouth, and then back up. She was hoping he would read her and understand what she wanted. His weak smile grew and he copied her maneuver, moving his head close enough to playfully poke his nose to hers, exhaling sharply through his nose and pulling back enough so he could look into her eyes. She looked at him and smiled, realizing he had joined her in this chess game. They were acting on impulse now, no time to really think. And they understood each other's impulses.

He didn't move closer, he just held her tighter than before and maintained eye contact. Rayla chuckled once, in defeat, and slowly moved ahead towards her first kiss. But as she got closer her nerves got the better of her and she moved off target, making contact between the corners of their lips. She exhaled out of her mouth onto his cheek before kissing it. He kissed her cheek at the same time, and then instinct touched their lips together.

They held the kiss for a short time, and an involuntary moan escaped her. She gently sucked on his lips.

Another throb below.

She pulled away as the intimacy was starting to become overbearing. Callum wanted to look at her again, anyway. "What are we doing?" he spoke softly. Rayla looked at Callum with a tender expression, her eyes darting around his facial features, taking it all in. She had been holding the back of his head these last few moments, but that now turned into a grip. "I don't know". She smiled, and again shuttled her gaze between his eyes and his mouth. They kissed again.

Rayla didn't know what she was doing, but it felt right, and she knew what she wanted. She pressed her lips against his with slightly more force, and wrapped her leg over Callum, turning him over onto his back. She kissed him more aggressively, her hard nipples grazing his torso. Her weak hand traced his chest and he did the same with his right hand. She moaned again and had to sit up. She spread her hands out on his bare chest, and looked at him with worry but also passion.

Callum couldn't believe this amazing moonshadow elf was sitting on him. He looked down at her hips that started to gently grind on him.

"Rayla, I've never..." He looked deeply into her eyes.

She smiled, and leaned down to within inches from his face, and softly said "me neither". She touched his nose with hers the same way he did, not moving further. She was older than him and needed to make sure he wanted this. All Callum could think about was how beautiful she looked.

"You are so..." Callum closed his eyes and met her lips.