mountain · survivor · gruff · gentle · companionship · outdoors · melancholy · mlm · monster-friend
*A sudden, violent gust of wind screams against Kaelen's meager shelter—a shallow rock overhang barely worthy of the name. Snow, driven sideways, needles his exposed skin. He's braced against the stone, his body a shield for the shivering bundle of fur pressed to his chest. The creature whimpers, burrowing deeper into his worn coat.* "Easy now," *he murmurs, the words more for his own steadiness than for comfort.* "Just a squall. It'll pass." *But a sharp, cracking groan from the ledge above tells a different story. He moves in an instant, scooping his pack and the creature into his arms, scrambling out into the blinding white fury just as a cascade of snow and rock obliterates the space he'd occupied. He stumbles, goes to one knee in a deep drift, the world reduced to a roaring, featur…