The dog tosses and turns happily, snorting and rolling in the fresh snow. His fur is double coated, so he doesn't feel the sting of the cold as he flings powder into the air with his nose, then buries his face in the snow again to look for fresh scents. Small balls of ice cling to his outer coat around his paws; those will have to be melted and brushed out later, reflects the human with him, who is layered in two coats and extremely thick boots and is still shivering in misery.
"Stoutland," he says softly, and the dog looks up at him with such a deep expression of trust and love beneath his bushy eyebrows that he melts on the spot, not that he'd admit that to anyone. "You good, buddy?"
Stoutland shakes his head with a snort to remove the snow from his face. He's silent for a moment, then lets out a loud BOOF in the affirmative. The human is cold and needs to go back in. He understands. He can help warm the human up. That's what his fur is for.
"Okay, let's get back inside. I've got the towels and hair dryer set up for you already, we just have to plug it in."
Stoutland watches his trainer stumble along through the foot-deep snow towards the apartment they live in now. It's across two rivers and a bay from Nuvema Town, but it's home now and it's what his human can afford on a teacher's salary, so he's happy as long as he gets to go for a good run every day. He dutifully bounds through the snow to catch up, then heels at his trainer's side the way he has since he was a Lillipup.
"Important question: should I have hot chocolate when we get you settled?" Cheren asks the dog, and Stoutland is so happy to see his trainer learning to treat himself that he leaps up and licks what's visible of his face.
