d'Artagnan sighed in relief as she spoke, who ever found who, it didn't matter now because he knew where she was. She was safe and the only thing that ailed her was the biting cold. Something that d'Artagnan could easily remedy as he motioned to Aramis as finally they moved into the arches and the hound padded after. The shade huddled into her as she sought out his heat and he nodded to Aramis help me. The shade commanded to his bonded. The hound bounced up to Kou and began rubbing his body along her legs, his temperature was much hotter than d'Artagnan's, he was after all a hellhound born of the fire element.

It was then that Kou spoke once again and the shade smiled at her question. "Yes we are, though in number it is only a shadow of what once was." He sighed at that. It was only now the the shade was beginning to realize that he was becoming an ornament of past, a relic of how once they had lived. When he had joined Mauja in the beginning the future had seemed bright, their numbers were large and at that time d'Artagnan had been happy. If only he'd known how brief that moment was going to be. Yet, he had slowly admitted to himself that his selfish decision to leave and try and find the Frostheart was not his best one. He had returned to try and remedy this.

Aramis stopped and padded forwards towards the cave entrance, sparing only a single glance backwards. Wood. I will use my speed to find wood. With that he left, d'Artagnan couldn't even see him with his eyes the hound was that fast. Superspeed. Something new his bonded had acquired. In moments like this when a good fire was needed, it came in handy to have something like that up their sleeve.

For now the shade stretched round and trailed his nose up the centre of her face, pausing near her horn to admire it before moving his gaze to try and meet hers. "I was selfish last time, so this time we do it your way. What do you want to do now?" His voice had grown a rare tone of tender and he was very close to her face. Maybe she would prefer to simply go back to the Basin and live peacefully from then on. Maybe she would like something else. That fact was d'Artagnan had never asked Kou what she wanted, so this time, he did so.