She had never been bothered by the cold.
Unless it was cold rain. She hated cold rain. Especially if the wind was blowing it about. And it found its way under every crack and gap of clothing or shelter, slapping her in the eyes, freezing the tip of her nose, soaking into her trousers and turning her legs to trunks of ice.
Cold rain could go die.
For now, the land about her was blessedly free of such a thing. Autumn was bleeding slowly towards winter, and the mornings were now shimmering with frost, and cool, pastel streaks of color in the eastern sky. The sun warmed the afternoons suitably for walking, climbing, gathering firewood, hunting game, moving camps. It fell behind the western slopes too early for her liking, but there was hardly a thing she could do about that.
Winter nights were a long affair. Forced to become still and stationary, she tended to think at night. Thinking was a laborious pastime. She preferred being in motion, full of action, something to focus her mind on besides memories and wishes and fears and regrets and hopes. After the building up of the fire, eating a small meal, rolling out her bed...there was nothing to do but admire the crystaline stars. And think.
With her knees pulled up towards her chest, and her arms wrapped round her legs, she waits for sleepiness to arrive. Some nights, it comes quickly and whisks her away on soft, fluffy, gauzy wings, with no effort needed at all. Other times, it is elusive and hard-edged, leaving her tossing and huffing irritably on her bedroll until frustrated exhaustion arrives in the deep hours of darkness.
Tonight, it is something in-between. Her head is pleasantly drowsy. But the rugged peaks across the vast lake, the way the mirror-like water reflects the moon and stars, it is all too heart-achingly beautiful to shut out of her eyes just yet. And while her admiring gaze grows heavy, her senses become less sharp. Between the crackle of the fire and the sighing of the wind over the cleft where she is camped, she does not hear the slow, near-silent steps approaching her from behind.
