Tove blinked, the haze of the kiss slowly clearing from her eyes. She looked down at her bare skin, then up at the cold, dark expanse of the cave beyond my wing. She shivered, a small, involuntary movement.
The physical separation was going to be agonizing.
I pulled my wing back, breaking the seal of the cocoon. The freezing, damp air of the cave rushed over us. Tove gasped, her arms instinctively wrapping around her chest as the cold hit her bare skin.
Peeling my body away from hers felt like tearing off my own scales. My newly bonded biology screamed in protest, demanding I pull her back into the heat. I forced myself to stand, the sudden movement sending a blinding, nauseating spike of agony through my left wing.
I gritted my teeth, locking my jaw as I assessed the damage in the dim light.
The joint was severely dislocated, the heavy bone protruding slightly against the thick, leathery hide. The blood had dried into a thick, inflexible crust, locking the obsidian feathers into a rigid, painful angle. I couldn't fold it against my back, and I certainly couldn't use it to fly.
We were grounded.
I looked down at Tove. She was sitting up, her teeth beginning to chatter again as she reached for the ruined pile of her silver environmental suit.
"Leave it," I ordered, my voice tight with pain. "The battery is dead. The thermal lining is compromised. It will only trap the cold against your skin."
"But I can't..." she started, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. "I'll freeze out there."
"I know."
I turned to where my shredded tactical Warden vest lay on the ground. The heavy, reinforced garment was designed to protect my torso from flying shrapnel and extreme thermal bursts. It was lined with a thick, dense layer of kinetic-dampening foam and thermal insulation.
I reached down to the sheath strapped to my thigh and pulled my heavy survival knife.
"What are you doing?" Tove asked, watching me as I dropped to one knee beside the vest.
"Making you a coat," I replied.
I jammed the serrated edge of the blade into the heavy seam of the vest. Without the leverage of my left arm, cutting through the dense, kinetic-dampening foam was a brutal, exhausting effort. I pinned the fabric beneath my boot and ripped the blade upward, the reinforced fibers giving way with a loud, tearing screech. I practically sawed the tactical gear apart, aggressively hacking away the heavy weapon holsters, the rigid blast plating, and the comms wiring until nothing remained but the thick, insulated back panel and the long, heavy nylon straps.
I stood up, holding the makeshift garment. I stepped over to Tove and pulled her to her feet.
"Arms up," I instructed.
She obeyed, her skin covered in goosebumps. I draped the heavy, insulated panel over her shoulders. It was massively oversized for her small frame, the heavy foam panel hanging down past her knees like a rigid, awkward shell. I took the heavy tactical straps and wrapped them around her waist multipletimes, pulling them tight and securing the buckles. She looked ridiculous, completely swallowed by the dark, heavy material, but the thick, insulated cocoon completely sealed her torso off from the freezing air.
I picked up the moisture-wicking base layer from her suit and handed it to her. "Put this on underneath. It will help retain whatever heat your body generates."
She quickly pulled the thin shirt and leggings on, then let me secure the heavy vest around her again.
"What about you?" she asked, her eyes dropping to my bare, glowing chest.
"The cold does not bother me," I said, sliding the survival knife back into its sheath. "My internal heat will sustain me."
It was a half-truth. The cold wouldn't kill me, but without my vest, the abrasive wind of the Exclusion Zone would aggressively strip the heat from my scales, forcing my Rebirth Cycle to work harder to maintain my core temperature.
But I didn't care. She was warm. That was the only thing that mattered.
I reached out and took her hand. Her fingers were cold, but the moment our skin touched, the bond pulsed, a steady, reassuring flow of heat transferring between us.
"Stay close to me," I ordered, leading her toward the mouth of the lava tube. "If you start to feel numb, you tell me immediately. Do not hide it."
"I won't," she promised, her grip tightening on my hand.
We reached the entrance of the cave. The deafening roar of the geyser eruption and the howling wind had completely vanished, replaced by an eerie, absolute silence.
I stepped out of the fissure, pulling Tove behind me.
