Three Underage Anime Chicks Freezing To Death VS. Polar Bears

Wow.

So her next mission was playing out beautifully. Two other girls and she had been gracefully punted to the other side of the world. She shivered deeply, the cold poking at every inch of bare skin she struggled to much to not display. Finally, even in the midst of summer back at Beata, the girl could wear her over-sized sweaters without sweating to death. Ironically, the girl belonged to Summer, her least favourite season.

She made an attempt at small talk, the cold air filling her mouth and making her throat feel raw. "Perhaps we should get going? Um, I'm Anne-Marie." she introduced herself in a low voice, the confused looks if the villagers straining her as they were left in a small, unmarked village, the sightings of the huge polar bears not far away. After a gruelling journey by plane, boat and on foot, all she wanted to do was relax, but none of the igloos looked particulary beckoning to her. She found herself wondering whether she'd be sleeping to following night or crouching in a corner and listening to all the sounds of creaking footsteps, wondering which belonged to the normal bears and which to the overgrown, mutated ones.

Anne had a hard time coping with the fact that out of the three, she was supposed to be the most experienced. She sighed. In her bag she had a crossbow, her hands itching to feel the wooden curve of its handle in her gloven palm and feel the safety of the trigger at the mercy of her finger. She wondered whether the two had weapons, or whether they had practiced up to this point, or whether they were just guiding themselves by hope and being try harders.

Back home was never this cold. 

Vivian followed close behind Anne-Marie with a miserable shudder, her arms wrapped tightly around her own body in a futile attempt to keep herself warm, wistfully thinking of the mild summer heat that they had left behind at Beata Academy. A twinge of regret and anxiety were evident in her stomach as she lifted her gaze to stare at the frozen wasteland and confused villagers that surrounded them. She had only offered to go on this 'Mission' only because she had anticipated it being a bit more...normal? But now that she had learned that they were hunting mutant Polar Bears of all things, the switchblade she had packed in preparation of this trip seemed hilariously inadequate for the task. 

Everything ached from the cold despite the short amount of time they had been here- even Vivian's nose hurt from the biting chill of the air around them. Snuffling, one of her hands lifted to her face to absently rub at her reddened nose while she continued ruefully glance around them- how was this even going to work? Anne-Marie's voice chimed in before Vivian could further overthink how grossly unprepared she was for the entire ordeal and she found herself looking over at the younger girl. "Vivian." She huffed out, feeling her teeth chatter ever-so-slightly as she spoke, although she still managed to cast a smile towards Anne-Marie as she introduced herself.

Harley grinned down at the younger girl, trying to ignore the cold as she twirled her hammer in her hand.
Her sweater wasn't the most effective protection against the weather, but she was nothing if not stubborn, and she loved her sweater.
(It had bat wings. How could she not love it?)

This kid - the one addressing her - couldn't be more than, what, twelve?
And she was the leader?
Harley briefly allowed herself to wonder what kind of experience the kid must have.
"I'm Harley, Little Leader! Alright, let's do this!"
She found herself shaking with excitement - excitement to be there, and excitement for a chance to test out her hammer.

She paused, looking at the other girl and froze.
'Oh no. She's cute.'
"A-ah... Vivian, huh?"
Of all the times her voice would fail, it would be while trying to talk to a cute girl.
"You... Come here often?" she asked weakly, and immediately after speaking mentally kicked herself in the face.
That was both the most ridiculous and cheesiest thing she could have said.

Anne huffed at Harley's comment, but needn't she say anything more and the eldest of the three opened a multitude of options for her devilish comeback. She matched paces with Vivian and wrapped a small, skinny hand against hers, dramatically shuderring and sneezing from the cold. Her mischievious eyes averted onto the Intiate again an unspoken joy shone in them. So you like 'er? she might've said, but the subject of thier quiet war was well within earshot and the Summer woukd hate to spoil her fun so soon. They pressed on, Anne adding a playful, childish skip to her pace as they neared the place they'd be sleeping inside of tonight.

It wasn't particulary cozy, maybe a bit more acceptable. A small fire burned in the middle, and the onky thing that hinted to furniture was the ice bench sculpted in the side. The Summer latched off the girl's arm with a shift of her glasses and stretched on the fur covered bench. It was cold and the frost seeping into the pelts wasn't of much help.

As Harley introduced herself, Vivian busied herself with freeing a hair-tie from her wrist so that she could fully pull her hair away from her face in preparation of the journey ahead of them. She turned to give Harley a curious look as she other girl clearly stumbled over her words, pausing in her attempt to pull her hair up. "Uh, not usually," Vivian offered a slightly confused smile to Harley, "After all this is..Antarctica." She snapped the elastic band firmly into place before gesturing to the freezing wasteland that surrounded them, a soft laugh evident in her words. At least both girls were friendly.

Vivian hardly paid mind the way that Anne-Marie interlocked their fingers, only offering a beaming smile in return, before continuing to match pace with the smaller girl. Once they reached the place that was their designated shelter for the evening, she tried to stifle a sigh of disappointment from escaping her lips- how was this considered an acceptable place for them to stay? Swallowing a complaint, she released Anne-Marie's hand and instead settled in front of the small fire, relieved to be near a source of warmth. "How long do you think this will take?" Vivian finally questioned, pulling her knees to her chest as she continued to remain as close to the fire as she possibly could without burning herself.

Harley sighed quietly to herself as Anne - she didn't seem to like the nickname much - took hold of Vivian's hand.
Outdone by a twelve year old.
As Vivian responded to her poorly thought out question, she laughed a little. "Ha, yeah..."
She wasn't gonna let that dampen her enthusiasm, though, picking up the pace.
She wasn't exclusively here to flirt (badly) with her cute teammate, after all.
There were things that needed fighting.
That's why she was here in the first place.

The fur was damp and the col seeped into the cloth of Anne-Marie's sweater in a few minutes of laying down. She was exhausted after the trip but the igloo wasn't quite comfortable enough to lure her into sleep just yet. She opened her luggage and fetched a thermos brimming with hot tea. She took a long sip and then rolled the container on the ice towards the other two, in case the famcied some Earl Grey themselves.

"I reckon we'll be out hunting tomorrow, so unless any of you plan to stay here and befriend the locals, couple of days is enough." she mumbled, wipping her running nose with her sleeve. Her nose stung from the chilly weather, almost as red and her glasses. She emptied the rest of the things in her bag: her weapon, bandages (she had those even if her gift of healing wouldn't really require them, but the self-doubt was ever pressent in Anne's mind), a frozen sandwich and an equally frozen book. The floor was littered with the Summer's thing in one corner.

"I suggest we get some sleep." Anne advised, her breath forming clouds upon leaving her mouth and scattering in the air.

A couple of days? Vivian let out an agitated snuffle, pulling her sleeve up over her hand as she rubbed at her nose in another attempt to warm her face slightly- somehow even being as close to the fire as she was, her face still felt practically numb from the cold. "Suppose that's not that bad." She sighed, taking the thermos that Anne-Marie rolled her way with a careful hand, only taking a small sip after a few moments of curious observation. Screwing the cap back onto the thermos, Vivian reached out to gently tap Harley's shoulder and offering her a drink.

It was too cold to sleep.

Despite this disgruntled internal complaint, Vivian opted to instead stretch her travel-stiff legs out as best she could as she struggled to find a more comfortable position on the cold hard floor. Dropping down onto her side, she wrapped her arms back around herself as she huddled close to the fire. "Hopefully we won't freeze to death." She finally whined, closing her eyes as she did so.

Harley accepted the drink gratefully.
No amount of warm, fuzzy sweaters would make this weather comfortable.
"I hope not. It would make what we're here to do just a little more difficult," she declared.
She was trying very hard not to be annoyed or upset by the weather, but she had been raised in California, and as such she wasn't exactly accustomed to normal cold weather, let alone this place.
At least it would only take a couple days.
She decided she may as well attempt to sleep, and decided to use her bag - which contained a single change of clothes - as a pillow.
But mostly as a barrier between herself and the floor.

Anne grumbled something in reply. The young girl felt like she should be interested in those girls - gifts, houses and such - but her body was heavy as she finally felt the exhaustion take hold. Her dul, stare towards a dent in the ice wall was cut abruptly but her eyelids sliding over. It must've been close to midnight, or whatever they could call the time they were to sleep before one of the heftily paid villagers would shake them awake with a bowl of stew. She wasn't hungry, even thought dinner was completely forgotten, all she could taste was snow, salt and cold, with a tinge of Earl Grey that kept her awake for a couple more minutes.

~

Light filtered through the ice wall like it had been all "night" long. The polar day was still to be finished. She groaned and rolled over to the smell of hot, fat meat. She hesitantly nibbled at the food, her hands stiff around the cold wooden bowl. She looked at her teammates, eyes sleepy. "Wakey, wakey." the Summer called out, poking Harley's cheek lazily. A few gulps of tea later she was packing up, kneeling on the cold floor to gather her stuff.

"God forbid that." Vivian laughed slightly, although her voice was hardly above a whisper in an attempt to refrain from disturbing the much-needed quiet that had descended upon the trio. Reaching up to tug halfheartedly at the elastic band that held her hair in place, she quickly snapped the band free and allowed her hair to fall loose before lazily gathering her hair beneath the side of her head, sighing softly as she did so. Curling on the ice-cold floor of an igloo wasn't an exactly ideal situation for sleep. Shutting her eyes tightly, Vivian forced her eyes shut as she prepared for a long night of presumably terrible sleep, begrudgingly hiking her knees up to her chest as she began to drift in and out of sleep. 

...

At Anne-Marie's voice, Vivian blearily forced her sleep-heavy eyes open so that she could catch a slightly fuzzy glimpse of the other girl, face pressed into a frown. Between the cold and the constant sunlight, how could anyone ever sleep? With a yawn, she forced herself up into a sitting position while she stretched, her bones creaking and cracking as they stiffly settled back into place. "Where to now?" She rasped softly, not bothering to disguise the obvious irritation in her voice as she questioned both Anne-Marie and Harley. Slowly rising to her feet, Vivian set about at quickly repacking what little of her stuff she had pulled out last night while waiting for a response, grumpily wiping at her nose as she did so.

As she drifted off to sleep, Harley found herself wishing she was at home in her mind, somewhere without all this cold and confusion and people she didn't know.
She liked the other girls well enough, and she wanted to prove herself, but a small part of her wished she'd never left.
She let herself imagine what it would be like if she were home with her family and old friends until dreams of exactly that overtook her.
~
Harley blinked opened her eyes when she felt someone poke her face, and suddenly remembered where she was.
Right. It was awake time now.
'Focus,' she told herself.
"'M awake," she mumbled, stretching as she stood. That floor was really uncomfortable.
"Dunno," she said to Vivian, before looking expectantly at Anne.
Since neither she nor Vivian knew where they were headed, Anne must, after all.

Anne sighed. The fire was still on, but the cold wouldn't stop bothering them and every joint in her body felt stiff and frozen. The stew helped a bit, the warm in her stomach giving her a brief boost of power to stand up and drag her feet across the cramped inside and to the exit. A curtain of furs was the only thing weakly blocking the sun from their savehouse, and swinging it away the Summer was on the verge of falling back. The light was even stronger then she'd imagined, and suddenly even the dimly lit igloo felt like a beckoning darkness away from the blinding sun. She shook her head, walking through the creaking snow a few paces outside.

"We are heading for the last place it's been spotted, a cave north of the village. Hurry up - I don't think either of you want to spend even more in this place than necesary." she called out to them, looking around.

Vivian continued to remain standing as both Anne-Marie and Holly began to stir and pack their respective gears, ruefully twisting her body in several different directions in an attempt to work the remains aches from her stiff body- sleeping on the floor sucked. Especially the floor of an igloo. Reaching up, she began to comb her slightly shaking fingers through her sleep-tangled hair, gritting her teeth slightly as she encountered tangle after tangle, watching as Anne-Marie stepped out of the barley warm shelter. Vivian took a moment to brace herself for the inevitable cold that was awaiting her outside of the little shelter before finally following suit and ducking out of the little fur curtain.

"You got that right." She mumbled with a soft sigh, wincing as the frost-brittle snow beneath her feet reflected the harsh light from the sun from above, causing a brief stinging sensation in her eyes. Grasping the thick ends of her sweater and balling it up around her closed fist, Vivian gently rubbed at her light-sensitive eyes as she continued to follow after Anne-Marie, her pale cheeks flushing slightly as the cold wind began to bite at her exposed face. 

The snow crunched heavily under her feet as she continued to trek after Anne-Marie and she took a moment to try and appreciate the setting she was currently in- back home, they were lucky to get an inch or so snow every couple of years, so seeing this much snow was a rarity. Especially if they were fixing to face off against giant mutated polar bears who probably craved human flesh. Exhaling softly and watching her breath billow in front of her for a brief moment before vanishing, she took a few moments to try and gather her thoughts before speaking. "So how are we gonna do this? Just waltz into a giant cave and try not get killed by the giant death bears?" Vivian called, unable to keep the hint of amusement out of her voice- this situation was still ridiculous.

Harley laughed.
"Yeah, not the biggest fan of this weather. Polar bear stew for dinner, yeah?"
She grinned, trying to keep her spirits high, even as she wished she was back home, or at the academy.
With any luck, this time tomorrow they'd be gone.
"To the caves!"