Ranni
She sat near the fire of their little cottage that Fia had aided them in building upon the elevator. Rudimentary and simple, it would serve them well enough in the interim. She sipped at her tea from a small cup made of stone, still unaccustomed to flesh and taste. She had asked it be made light, and Melina had been happy to oblige. A smile perked across the former doll's face at the kindness they shared, the love that was blooming. It was a curious thing, yet she found comfort in these confusing times.
Fia had made herself rather busy shortly after building their little cottage of wood and roots, seeking deep into the snow for days at a time while Melina and Ranni stayed behind. She would always return with a few odd things. Toys, little fragments of jewelry, even the occasional flower that somehow sustained in this terrible environment. Ranni deeply missed much of her own magic, yet she could feel flickers coming back. Slowly, but there was the flow of it once more. It felt noticeably different now, however. Magic before felt like a simple mind over matter. One merely needed the aptitude and knowledge to twist reality. Now, it felt like extending a hand to the world and asking it to shift. Like one asking an old friend for a favor.
She reached out a delicate finger from her warn fur coat, focusing on the tip of it with her mind. Nothing. Not even a spark. She huffed before thinking and opening her palm this time. Instead of focusing on the space, she focused on the feeling of fire. The warmth, the dance of flames, the glitter of its light. She reached out into some space she couldn't quite name in her mind and spoke her desire like a question. A moment later, fire sparked across her palm harmlessly for a few brief seconds before it once more slipped back into the air.
"Every day... a little better..." She muttered proudly before huddling back into her thick coat. She felt much safer with it wrapped around her. It had been perhaps centuries since she had felt so at risk, so mortal, and she had not decided if that was a welcome feeling or not. Her eyea gazed around the one room cottage, with light furs on the floor and between the walls that helped keep the warm air inside. Most came from a few bears and the occasional wolf pack that Melina had hunted with shocking ease. For one born so strange as she, Ranni had found her talents rather extraordinary.
She could tie several kinds of knots, string a bow and aim it accurately, start fires with little other than sticks and stones, hunt with barely more than a carved down branch, and climb with a rather shocking ease. Ranni wondered when she had the time to do all of this, but she had recalled that Melina was the second oldest out of all their numerous family. It was a strange concept, and often, the vast age difference and parentage made her forget and dismiss the shared blood. It wasn't an uncommon event in their era, though she was grateful to have gotten to pick, in some manner of speaking, where her affections fell rathee than be handed to a random second cousin of who knows what castle.
"Ranni, are you awake?" She heard her beloved say as she opened the door to their shack, which was a broken tower shield repurposed into a door.
"Right here, dear." She said gently from her little chair. A ramshackle construction of small logs and extra furs that gave her some extra comfort. Of the three, she was the one most crippled by the sudden shock to the world. Fia still had some grasp on her magic, as it was tied to the powers of death that Ranni had begun to suspect were the root of these strange events, though there was a nagging feeling that it was not the death she knew of. Melina had been entirely stripped, but in the process, given full and proper life for the first time in her existence. No longer a candle in the wind.
"We shall have pork tonight!" She shouted between exertive grunts, dragging a large hog behind her that looked to have an arrow sticking right out of its brain.
"Oh, my favorite." Ranni touched her fingertips together in a motion Melina had come to find meant she was in a warm mood. Her expressions often came more from her hands and arms than her face, a consequence of centuries of dollhood.
"Did you skin the potatoes I asked you to?" Ranni began to sweat a little. She had forgotten, which was unfortunate as the broth always sucked into them so nicely. Especially the pork stock.
"I shall get on that right away!" She said as she quickly stood and scurried to their little cutting counter, a long board torn from a dead tree and cut down flat to use for such things, laid out just beside their little fireplace and pot.
Melina
Melina smiled gently at Ranni's wandering mind. She knew this would happen, and she wasn't bothered by it. Her lover was quite the thinker, and she accepted that came with a certain amount of whimsical forgetfulness.
"Be sure to peel them entirely, alright?" She playfully poked her sweetheart and was rewarded with a pouting scowled from the redheaded princess.
"I will rememberrrr." She exaggerantly answered, picking up the little knife and beginning to carve from the bag Melina had pilfered off a roaming band of bandits. They had been easy pickings, and Melina said she thought nothing of the act to Ranni. She had meant it. Perhaps it was the strange knight, but the death of such rotten souls, especially with a finality now included to it, made her feel little to no guilt over it. They would have raided them in time, and at least now their hunger was gone.
She smiled tenderly as she began the dirty work of preparing the meat. She saved the hide and stored it over a drying rack by the fire before beginning to carve and separate the meat. Her hands grew a bit slick with the labor as her blade sliced through, but she had forgotten about such concerned even before she had once more beckme tangible in permanence. She had even grown fond of the act. It felt good to finish a good day's labor by one's own hands.
"What all will be in the stew?" Ranni asked as she placed the potatoes aside. Melina smiled and giggled inside as she saw they were rather riddled in little extra strands of skin, but she doubted there was much harm in leaving it be. She had once seen the knight eat an entire raw potato with only a brief wash in a river. Though, the moonlit ally was a bit of an oddball. She had said that when Melina inquired that it was an irish habit. She hadn't elaborated, and Melina had been left to wonder what in the world was an irish?
"Has Blaidd returned yet?" She asked the formerly moonlit princess.
"Not yet..." She answered nervously. "He has been gone for quite some time now..."
"Hey," she touched Ranni's arm gently, "He will be back. Blaidd would not get lost. Surely, you can still feel your shadow."
Ranni smiled at her. "Yes. It is faint, but that tie holds strong." The two shared a quiet moment as their foreheads rested against one another and released a gentle sigh. Melina knew that soon, things would improve. They need only have faith.
...
Blaidd
Two days after meeting the strange woman, he had begun his long trudge into the snowy fields again. She had given him plenty of supplies that would be a godsend to his allies whenever he did find them. He focused as he moved and found their scent anew. He sniffed curiously at how mixed it now seemed. He worried for a moment that they had died but didn't catch any blood, so he assumed they were in the same area. He also caught the aroma of death root, which brought worry, but he knew his mistress would be wiser than to fall to such a thing.
After around another day of snowfields, he saw a figure in the far distance. Black robes and the heavy smell of deathroot, he began to snarl.
The figure turned at the sound, and he saw a woman beneath the robe. Pale skinned and thin with fine golden hair. He paused, a little stunned for a few moments at the view, before shaking his head. A death root stank meant an enemy. He lowered to his haunches and prepared to strike just as he heard his mistress.
"Blaidd! Stop!" Ranni shouted, running from the little cottage he just noticed. It was there at the edge of the blurring stormy winds, and he smelled hot stew and pork from it.
"Mistress!" He howled, rushing over and tackling her right into the cottage with a loud thump as she laughed and fell over while hugging him back. Four thick satchels of supplies crashed into the make shift cottage as Melina blinked.
"Carrots... onions.." To which Ranni made a slight face, "Radishes... Blaidd, where did you get so much spare food?"
Blaidd stood, helping his mistress back up and dusting her cloak down. "New friend gave em to me. Storm got bad, and she let me stay with her!"
"New friend?" Ranni raised a brow and crossed her arms
"Ya! Her name was... uhm... what was her name again...?" He scratched his chin as the three girls let out chuckles at his adorable absent mindedness. The four were reunited now, and Blaidd could catch them up later. There was food to be eaten!