[align=center][div style="width: 370px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.4; color: black;"]— It was a frigid, ice-cold morning in the mountains - probably one of the last, seeing as spring was creeping right around the corner. Colt stood in the Lodge's kitchen, leaning against the granite countertop. He had clearly just woken up - he was bleary-eyed, still wearing the pair of sweatpants he'd slept in. He yawned, holding his hands out over the steaming pot of coffee that he was brewing on the wood-burning stove, using the steam to keep warm. He absolutely hated waking up early; since coming to the Lodge, he'd gotten used to sleeping in as late as he wanted, seeing as he'd been sick and all. Now that the Flintlockers had finally put him to work, it was hard to get used to getting up at a reasonable time again. His brain was fried.
The young mercenary slid the lid off his pot of coffee, smiling at the rich aroma that filled the air. "Smells like it's done." He placed a filter over his travel mug before tipping the pot and pouring the piping beverage in. As he did so, he heard footsteps from his right. He looked up, eyes widening. It was that new girl - Drew. The one he was supposed to go into town with that morning. Shit - was it time already...? "Oh, hey - Drew, right? Is it, uh... time to leave?" Colt's face grew warm. No shit it was time to leave - and he still had to get dressed. He would screw the lid onto his coffee cup and non-chalantly take a sip, trying to act like this was all a part of his plan.
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[align=center][div style="width: 400px; text-align: justify; font-size: 12px; font-family: times new roman; letter-spacing: .6px; color: #494949;"]like most nights, drew had found it hard to actually make the effort to fall asleep and stay asleep, so she spent most of the night bouncing around her room doing various things to keep herself busy. it wasn't long before the sun began to peek over the mountain, and drew had a surge of energy that mirrored having a perfect eight hours of sleep when in reality she had been up all night. it didn't take her long to get ready for the little adventure she had been assigned to do for the day and with a skip in her step she began to head downstairs.
the smell of fresh coffee greeted her as she got to the bottom half of the lodge, maneuvering her way through the halls until she ended up in the kitchen to see colt standing there unready and still seemingly half asleep. she stood there for a second looking at him as if she were annoyed by him not being ready, but eventually her eyebrow quirked upwards. "damn, i didn't get the memo that we were gonna go down to town in our jammies." she finally said, a playful tone in her voice as she made her way to sit at the counter.
"yeah, i'm drew. you must be colt then, i assume." she mentioned as she looked around her backpack to make sure all of the stuff she would need for the day was in check. "oh! it's cool to meet ya, by the way." she offered him a smile as she put her backpack back on over her shoulders and getting to her feet once more. "i'll let ya finish getting ready, i gotta go hunt down my snowboard still." without giving much of an explanation on why she would even need her snowboard when they were suppose to be just going into town, she disappeared back out into the hall and went outside to look for it in front of the lodge.
[align=center][div style="width: 370px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.4; color: black;"]— "Damn, I didn't get the memo that we were gonna go down to town in our jammies." Colt scowled, his cheeks flushing bright red. "Oh, really? Guess you just gotta listen closer to the orders next time," he would shoot back, matching her semi-playful, sarcastic tone, his lips twitching. He tipped back his head and took another drink of his coffee, enjoying the warm feeling that it brought. He gave a nod. "Yeah, I'm Colt. Good to meet you, too." He sighed, setting down his cup and crossing his arms over his chest. "Lucky us, huh? We get the honor of climbing down this massive mountain in this freezing-ass weather," he muttered, mostly talking to himself.
And then Drew was off, going on about... a snowboard? He frowned, knitting his brow. "Why the hell do you need a- ...aaand she's gone." So it seemed he wasn't going to get an explanation. With a shrug, he stood to his full height and made the short trip back to his room. He got dressed as quickly as he could, making sure to layer up - he'd learned not to mess with the cold the hard way. He also grabbed an apple, sticking it in the pocket of his heavy hunting jacket - a snack for the road.
Once he was all ready, Colt grabbed his half-full coffee from the kitchen before trudging over to the lodge's front entrance. He looked up as Drew approached shortly after, and then nodded in the direction of the door. "Ladies first," he would remark with an over-exaggerated gesture, less than eager to face the shitty weather. He eyeballed the snowboard tucked under her arm, tilting his head to the side. "Also - what's with the snowboard, anyways? This ain't a resort trip. We're just going to pick up some rations."
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[align=center][div style="width: 400px; text-align: justify; font-size: 12px; font-family: times new roman; letter-spacing: .6px; color: #494949;"]drew didn't think much when he suggested that she walked out first, along with the fact that it was probably freezing as fuck outside. she walked out the door, the cold wind making her automatically reaching to zip her coat up more. "at least it will be less windy once we get down the mountain more." she mumbled, not really clear enough to have it be known whether she was talking to her partner for the day or just herself. she didn't respond to his question right away, but instead sat her snowboard down to lean against the side of the wall while she dug around in her backpack for her hat and gloves, regretting the fact that she didn't do this inside where it was warm.
"because..." she began, pausing briefly to slip her hat and then gloves on. "we're already going down the mountain, why not have some fun with it?" that seemed to be drew's outlook on everything in life. if there was some way to make things more exciting that would otherwise be dull to her, she was damn well going to do it.
"truth be told, sledding would probably be the smarter option, we could just drag the things back up on it instead of having to carry them, but i don't have any options to choose some from the sled department. so -" she went on her little rant as she picked up her snowboard and began her walk towards the trail down, eyeing up good places to start. " - snowboarding it is." once she decided that it was a good starting point, she sat on the ground and began to buckle her feet into her board. after she was done, she looked towards the hill again and was about to try and get up on her own before deciding she didn't wanna waste more time by struggling for a few minutes. "a little help, please?" she asked, her attention turning to colt as she reached her arms towards him to see if he would help her get up.
[align=center][div style="width: 370px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.4; color: black;"]— Colt followed closely behind Drew, zipping his own jacket up as far as it would go just as Drew did. He took a long breath, watching it form into a white wisp before disappearing in the wind. He grimaced; the frigid air prickled felt like a smack in the face, causing his cheeks to flush a rosy red. He watched Drew set down her snowboard with a pointed look, brow furrowing.
"We're already going down the mountain, why not have some fun with it?" Colt scoffed, shouldering his backpack. He was carrying some food and emergency supplies - just in case. Travelling down the mountain was always a gamble, it was good to be prepared. "Yeah? Well what the hell am I supposed to do, then? Run after you?" he would shoot back sarcastically. "That don't sound too appealing."
The mercenary eyed Drew as she plopped down to get onto her snowboard, tapping a foot impatiently. He wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible - that way he could get out of the cold. When she gestured for him to help him up, he quirked an eyebrow. He hesitated for a moment before sighing. "Alright, fine." Colt would bend down, grabbing Drew's hands and easily pulling her up towards him back into a standing position. "I still don't think it's a good idea."
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[align=center][div style="width: 400px; text-align: justify; font-size: 12px; font-family: times new roman; letter-spacing: .6px; color: #494949;"]"well," drew said as she looked from him to the trail and then to her snowboard before her eyes once again were back looking at colt. "you can run after me, or there's always a bit of extra room on my board. we can recreate the titanic, rose." she shot back with another carefree joke, an amused expression lingering on her face with that one. "think about it, we'd both get down the mountain in no time." she added on as he helped her up, once she got standing up straight she looked towards him and gave him a nod. "thanks for that."
she shifted her weight onto both of her feet, moving the board slightly each way to make sure her feet were strapped in good before she tightened the straps on her backpack to make sure it wouldn't go flying off if she took a spill. "no, but seriously, it's flattering that you think i could be lightning mcqueen on this thing, but i won't go that fast. besides, maybe we can take turns chasing each other down the hill, if you know how to snowboard." she mentioned with a shrug of her shoulders.
before she could delay their travels even longer with more of her rambling, she put all of her focus back onto what was in front of her and used her weight to lean forward and get herself moving down the hill. it wasn't long before drew began picking up speed, weaving along down the trail. for a bit, she was doing quite well which honestly gave her a bit of a shock, but it wasn't long before she hit a particularly slippery part and had her spinout. luckily, she was able to catch herself from totally faceplanting, instead letting her knees take the blow which didn't feel any better.
"i never said i was a pro." she mentioned, wincing as she pushed herself off the ground and managed to get back to her feet. "i find skateboarding to be a lot easier."
[align=center][div style="width: 370px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.4; color: black;"]— "There's always a bit of extra room on my board. we can recreate the Titanic, Rose." Colt scoffed; surprisingly he understood that reference. "Joke's on you - I'd play a damn great Rose," he shot back. "I won't let you paint me like one of your French girls, though. You'll have to buy me dinner first." He stuck his hands in his pockets and stepped away from Drew, genuinely interested in observing her takeoff.
When she mentioned taking turns, the mercenary frowned. "I, uh... I've got no idea how to snowboard." He shifted his feet; in all honesty, he really didn't know how to do anything besides fight. It wasn't like the Ring gave him free time when he was growing up to explore his personal interests and hobbies. No- matter of fact, they got pissed if he didn't dedicate all of his waking hours to missions or mission training.
Colt was torn from his thoughts when he realized that Drew was gone, zipping down the mountainside. Quirking his eyebrows, he jogged down after her, doing his best not to slip and fall in the snow. By the time he reached her, she was on her knees after having clearly fallen. He grimaced, watching her stand herself back up. "At least the snow's there to break your fall, I guess." He couldn't lie, snowboarding did look pretty fun. Maybe not the falling part, though. "Still really see how snowboarding is a good idea, though."
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