First Snow of Winter

Part 3: In the Cold
Ype finished his round of the village and saw Zreshyn only a little further down the path. Ype hesitated for a moment but then figured a joined round was far more pleasant than one alone.
"Zreshyn!" he called running toward the younger man.
"What?" Zreshyn asked turning around.
"I thought we might join this round."
The look on the younger man's face would have made him turn away without further explanation if Ype hadn't known him better. Now in stead he waited patiently for Zreshyn to make his move. Finally the young man shrugged. "Sure."
Ype hurried forward and started walking in pace with the other guard. It was almost funny how quiet they were. Ype realised he still felt a bit insecure with Zreshyn. The gloomy silent man had only recently joined the guards after a minor hunting accident. Nothing he wouldn't recover from but it had left him limping a bit. The limp was hardly noticeable at this pace, but from what he'd heard the boy that had once run like a wild deer now ran with all the grace of a wingless bird.
Ype couldn't help but feel sorry for the man. But then most of the men on guard duty had a sad story. There were few IceLanders that hadn't lost a thumb or injured a leg... or lost a loved one like Ype had. Loved ones in fact, Ype thought with a bitter taste in his mouth. The life of an IceLander was without certainty and though it was all they had known for centuries Ype couldn't help but think that there was something better out there. Maybe the afterlife...
Ype brought his hand up to his face to wind his beard around his finger, an old habit that wasn't going to die any time soon even though his chin was now as bare as a baby's skin. Not unlike Zreshyn's skin.
"How's everything going?" Ype asked at last.
"Good I guess." Zreshyn said shrugging again.
Zreshyn wasn't feeling in a rather talkative mood this night. Not that running his thoughts in circles was any better. Some children, Children! Had commented on his looks again. But he would have gotten over that if it had been only the children... maybe. But some of the few friends he had had shown their real thoughts about him. They had mocked him, like the children.
Zreshyn was still silenced by their betrayal. His usual gruff temperament near boiling at this night. Zreshyn vented some of his anger that night looking at his feet and imagining crushing some of his friends. He had in fact slapped one of them on the back of his head, but there had been too many of them around for him to make perfectly clear how he felt about his so-called friends.
Both their minds wandered away from the night they were walking in. Their breath froze as it left their body and formed long vertical clouds in the air. Ype after a while couldn't take it any longer. His companion was so silent he almost felt like he was walking alone.
"Zreshyn do you know Maryse?" he asked suddenly.
"I've seen her around." Zreshyn said slowly.
"What do you think about her?" Ype didn't feel very comfortable asking this to Zreshyn, but he had to share his feelings for the girl with someone. He had already made his intentions clear to her, but no reply had come. And that bothered Ype immensely.
"Are you trying to set her up with me?" Zreshyn asked a little irritated. No girl had ever looked at him twice. He looked so young that they just didn't consider him, though his eyebrows might also have something to do with it.
"Heavens no!" Ype nearly shouted, "No, I want her to join me."
"I thought she was years younger than you."
"And what if she is? I still have half my life in front of me."
"If you're lucky."
"What is going to happen to me here? I'm a guard in a village with no-one around to raid it. Zreshyn considered this for a while and had to admit the age difference was big, but not impossible to cross. Rather it felt like Ype just acted too old for courting... Gruffly he mumbled something that Ype could interpret the way he wanted and then averted his gaze again to the road before him.

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Lantessama Isle - Ryslen