It was very rare for Maria to venture up into Dragonspine, pyro vision or not. Her dress was much different than Albedo; where he wore what was normal for him, her usual lolita style was much heavier with warm furs. Thankfully, the bead crown that held her vision on her head kept her head warm without much need for a hat. Despite all this, her eyes widened at the mention of a warm meal, “That sounds lovely, thank you Albedo!” Barbatos knows her cooking would never turn out well.
While she was paying attention to him, of course she was, her eyes seemed to wander the beautiful snowed over path around them. Her trips to this mountain were never like this, always spent finishing a commission as quickly as possible and staying close to a torch to light with her vision. Now, she wrote down notes on almost everything she could see, though they instinctively turned into what Albedo was saying, then circled when her attention came back to the notepad in her hands.
When she looked back up, sure enough, her teacher was a good few feet ahead of her. Seems Maria had slowed down in her observations. She laughs at herself, then catches up rather easily. ( someone of her height is used to having to do that ) “Nonsense! Anything you’re interested in is interesting to me. Even if I don’t understand at first, hehe…” Many trips to ruins had been met with a blank stare when she first began working, only to be derailed when she found a working Ruin Guard and accidentally woke it up. Curse her interest in machinery.
❝ well, there’s never any shame in asking questions. ❞ in fact, albedo had already anticipated as much —— and encouraged it. ( always. ) how else was one expected to learn? ❝ if we come across anything you aren’t familiar with, i’d be happy to explain. ❞ and on the off chance things went awry ( whether due to tampering with a rogue machine or simple misfortune ) he was confident they were well-equipped to handle it.
as anticipated, the walk to camp was fairly uneventful. the temperature dropped the higher they ascended —— though albedo hardly seemed bothered. the alchemist dealt ( unusually ) well with the cold, and maria had her vision if they ran into trouble. he was largely silent as they traveled, occasionally speaking up only to point out interesting landmarks or plants unique to the mountain. mint was able to thrive even in the most unforgiving climates . . . he made it a point to stop and collect a bit for their meal. ( it always tasted better fresh. )
it started to snow by the time they reached their destination —— well, more than it already had been. albedo eyed the drifting flakes warily. visibility wasn’t impacted, but he could only hope the map would still be readable. ( the places of interest it detailed unburied. ) ah well. the weather on dragonspine was notoriously unpredictable; no matter what happened, it was important they made safety their priority.
❝ . . . home sweet home. ❞ albedo quipped dryly. he had spent so much time working out of that particular campsite it was practically fact.
❝ would you mind taking care of the fire? i'll get to work on our meal, but cooking without one might prove a little challenging. ❞ a joke.
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