it's too cold for you here / joining,

[vix]

[align=center][div style="width:490px; text-align:justify; font-size:10pt; line-height:110%;"]soft snowflakes caress soft dark hair and wooly knitted sweater. he's lost track of the group previous to him. his original intent had been to cool off for a bit of fresh air. a lot of the members of the group could get obnoxious, running milo's short line only thinner, so it hadn't been the first time. but after coming from a secluded part of the forest by himself, he'd come back to notice they were gone. apart of him knew he'd been abandoned, but the other part of him was too proud to admit it. many would explain how much trouble milo caused for the others. slowing them down, getting into fights, but as soon as they needed him he was there. he was well trained, a warrior. he couldn't possibly see why they'd want to get rid of them.

it's been days. he'd been walking for that much. the time that's passed? he knew. but as he continued to walk, it'd only come to grow colder. the cold bit through the sweater onto bear skin and he began to grow desperate. he wishes for the soft glow of the perfect fire makenna builds, but now she's gone. the indisputable anger begins to envelopment begins to hit him as he realizes that they're truly gone. they'd abandoned him. probably not just by accident, a miscount, but on purpose. now, he's too proud to admit the hurt that comes along with it, and the fact he's truly alone. there's days where he likes to be alone. but there's also days where he likes to have company. and maybe those were just one of those days. fuck them! he could only say so much. but the heaviness in his heart told only another story.

the sun is beginning to set in it's horizon and milo decides to turn to building a fire. it's nothing like makenna's, the one that roars in the sky and only takes over all of you. sighing, the dark haired boy sits down, huddling close. he thinks he hears a sound, but pushes it aside. exhaustion clouds over any of his senses.

[south]

[align=center][div style="width:500px; text-align:justify; font-size:10pt;"]Snowden was out on a walk with Max, who had expressed his distaste for being locked in their room through the use of his teeth and the bottom of the wooden door. The brunette had been more cautious in his letting loose of Max ever since he had heard about the wild dogs around, and the tension between them and the members of the lodge. Max's shoulder wound was healing quickly, but Snowden figured the next person to harm Max might not be as pitiful as J, and the man had no quarrel with shooting a round off at someone else again if so, but they might not be as understanding about Snowden's whole 'eye for eye' belief as J was. But Max was an active dog, and for the betterment of both he and the canine, they were now out of the lodge, strolling through the small wood that surrounded the building.

The duo were following the mine cart tracks when Snowden spotted the thin stream of smoke that rose above the treetops. Fires were always a risk to create nowadays, having to weigh your preference of freezing or being discovered by others. Usually the choice was an easier one for Snowden; the man was unafraid of others, only slightly of Max being so cold he might decide to chomp down on Snowden's calf.

The man decided to follow the smoke trail, soon coming over a hill to see the glow of a nearby fire. It seemed to be well within the borders of the lodge, so the male supposed it must be a weary traveler, or maybe someone who had hoped to join. Either way, the individual was on the lodge's grounds, and who friendlier a face than an ex-serial killer and his trustee ex-fighting dog?

"You got business here?" He spoke up when he was but a few feet from the other and his fire, cradling his rifle in hand, Max tense by his side.

[vix]

[align=center][div style="width:490px; text-align:justify; font-size:10pt; line-height:110%;"]the rule number that anyone would take to survival was to think twice before making fires, especially when you were alone. his group alone had been risky, as well as it'd been big. they'd live life on edge often, per say, and half the time milo hung back and loathed in their stupidity. sure, he did some pretty stupid things, but when idiots he did it is when he seemed to come to his common sense. but now he was alone, and the fire's smoke would send either alarms or a jack pot of gold to anyone had been around. but who in their mind would want to be here for longer than even a couple of hours? not even the puny fire's warmth served the cold that came along with it justice.

he knew that he'd be up for a couple of hours.

"You got business here?" the voice is an unfamiliar one, definitely none of the voices of his group. milo turned around, coming face with an an older, built man. great. easily the other took an advantage to him, as he could easily take him out compared to milo's thin frame. and this wasn't including the rifle. oh, and the dog.  milo is already scanning the ways this situation could be handled. he could just take his things, leave. supplies that were held in his bookbag was running thin. and to make things worse he didn't have a fucking pistol. that's back with his old group, too. obviously a hunting knife won't take him very far.

but his mouth is his biggest enemy along with impulse. and it does the decision for him. "just passing through. i didn't realize that this place was even occupied." sure, the sentence assumed to be normal, but to this stranger he would probably sound like a smartass. his biggest issue had always been to always sound resentful and it'd always been the group leader's biggest peeve. he couldn't help that some people were so sensitive.

[south]

[align=center][div style="width:500px; text-align:justify; font-size:10pt;"]Snowden examined the kid, coming to the conclusion that he seemed relatively harmless, though that didn't change the fact that the veteran held his gun, although relaxed, pointed towards the other. His gaze lifted from the brunette to now scan the area around the duo, eyes narrowed. "You alone out here?" He instead asked. If the threat didn't lie within the boy himself, it easily could lie with his friends.

He returned his gaze to the boy, and then his fire, and shortly after to his belongings. He didn't look to be carrying either, which was a rare thing for travelers nowadays- especially travelers on their own. His suspicion only grew, but Snowden remained calm. Afterall, if he got riled up, so did Max, and the canine was hungry as of late. The male raised his brows at the other, growing cold out in the wood.

[videnda]

☆ ★ ☆ "hey snowden! Who are you talking to? oh hi there!" the fifteen year old would greet with a smile. "oh, well if you're out here all alone you could say with us! we got a really warm lodge and it's nice!" dahlia had a habit of inviting every stranger she ever met to come and live with her and the rest of the group.

[vix]

[align=center][div style="width:490px; text-align:justify; font-size:10pt; line-height:110%;"]"not exactly alone." he responds slowly, and he isn't just saying this in hopes wouldn't try and make altercation, but because he wasn't quite ready to accept his fate with the group.  though he knows he must fall to the conclusion that there wasn't any way he'd be seeing them again. the man seems to have no intention of hurting him despite holding him at gunpoint, but milo isn't that willing to trust him. trust is just one of the small things that could get you killed.

he's ready to go, almost. but then there's a bustle, and before a blink of the eye, a girl around his age comes into appearance. bright eyes, almost as she'd never witnessed anything bad in her life. her enthusiasm matches this observation. her offer confuses him. stay with us? who's us? before he could even counter the question someone else makes appearance, a wiry man with skin that almost matches the snow. he almost appears sickly, and rather confused. milo doesn't blame him. he's rather confused himself.

he's heard plenty of stories - of groups way bigger than the rogue ones he was forced to find his home into survive. could there be a possibility he'd actually stumbled into one of them? "where do you stay?" he asks. he's quiet now, but rather eyes all of them carefully, keeping distance.

[south]

[align=center][div style="width:500px; text-align:justify;"]Snowden turned as Dahlia approached, whose appearance softened the veteran's harsh features, always pleased to see the friendly face. Max showed even more gratitude at her arrival, moving to brush against the girl's leg, as if asking to be pet now. She soon invited the stranger to stay with them, something Snowden felt more than hesitant to do so easily. The male turned back to the boy, eyeing him silently.

J's arrival didn't exactly have the same effect on the man as did Dahlia's, but he showed no protest, after all, it was nice to not just have himself and the stranger out here. Snowden glanced over at what J asked about, realizing after a brief moment that he meant the campfire. Really? "It's a fire." He replied quietly, before quickly adding, "Don't get too close to it." Fearing J might approach the damn element and stick a limb in to try to touch it.

Snowden turned back to the stranger, hesitating a moment before responding- after all, Dahlia and J already announced their camp. "Just behind us, up the hill there's a lodge." He spoke, eyes remaining narrowed as he still felt an uneasiness around the newcomer, despite his harmless appearance.

[videnda]

☆ ★ ☆ She giggled as the dog rubbed against her. she really liked max in all honesty. shenobliged to his obvious request, scratching his back. turning back to look at Milo, she nodded. "we live at the flintlock lodge! It's just a bunch of people living there and taking care of each other and it'd be nice to have somebody who's my age, or around it, there!" she would reply. "and yeah, like snowden said, it's over there! I'm dahlia by the way, what's your name?" She paused for a moment. "if you're not exactly alone... then who is with you? Maybe they could stay too!"