She sat there for a while content to just eat apples while the little guy sat beside her using her as a pillow. The sunset painted the sky a wonderful hue of blues and oranges, the night and day fighting over the sky above, clouded undersides in the distance glowing as golden as the sun itself while the clouds closer to them seemed to radiate purple, slowly moving forward and overtaking the day. He just snuggled his head into her fur, seeming to be absorbed by that more than the clouds above, loving the feel of her soft fur.
She was just glad he was nuzzling her foreleg and not her stomach or legs, because that’d either be inappropriate or ticklish and she was just happy about the moment she was in now. This was the reason she lived in a little caravan and didn’t care for cities at all, said cities only being important to help her make some bits. Nature was beautiful and lovely, great for thinking or not thinking, silence except for the songs of nature. And the little one that was nuzzling her arm, which she didn’t mind all that much.
Minutes passed and two more apple cores gathered on the ground, the little one finally looking up at the sky to make an ‘oooo’ sound as if it was the first time he’d seen it. She looked at him and he sat there with half his face tucked into her arm and the other half staring up at the sky in wonder. She laughed at him and he didn’t respond to her, instead removing his face from her arm and standing up to his full height, shoulder-height to her really.
His wonder stopped, along with her peace of mind as a harsh cold wind snapped at them, both shivering. Her only slightly and him a significant amount so as to make the steps to her door vibrate. He immediately went back to hugging her arm, but instead of her cuddliness it was because of her being warm. She looked up to see the clouds moving on, and once they moved it would be a perfect cloudless night, the best time to be out. She wasn’t about to let some random cold breeze ruin her night.
Stepping up in a huff she walked forward, little one instead opting to go inside. Presumably to wrap himself up in her capes again and make a cocoon. That was fine she’d done this before so it wouldn’t be much of a problem to do it herself, especially now that she’d eaten. Trotting towards the trees she looked first on the ground, trying to see any fallen branches in the fading sunlight. Barely seeing anything she used her own horn as a flashlight, having to stick her head right next to the ground to see the branches blending in with the dirt and grass.
Seeing only a few small branches after a good few minutes of searching she instead moved to the trees and snapped a few lively branches off of them for her fire. Sure they were harder to burn but one always needed fuel for any fire. Humming to herself she spent another few minutes searching for good branches to snap off, then bringing those branches back to a pile she had stared beside her carriage.
When she finally had what she felt was a decent amount of branches she arranged them in a small pile, her years of living like this having taught her the proper way to start a fire. Having arranged the smaller twigs as a starter for the fire she started a small spell to ignite it, slowly nursing it into a brighter and hotter fire. It would take a small while to become a proper fire but she could already feel the flames heating up her coat. So she sat beside it to nurse it.
As it became more of a blaze she heard a creak from her caravan’s door and she turned to see him standing in the doorway, one of her robes curled around him, warily watching the flame dancing. Smiling at him she said, “Come on it’s alright, just fire. See?” She lifted up a hoof and brought it near the fire to illustrate what she meant, before motioning him over. “It’s warm too.”
He looked at her then to the fire beside her, watching how it flickered a bright orange and red in the dark night, before slowly shuffling over next to her, staring at the fire intently and cocking his head. Then he plopped down beside her and used her as a pillow once more, resting his head against her neck a hand reaching out from under the robe to warm itself against the fire. He seemed to be smiling as he watched the flames dance around and grow. “You like the fire huh?”
He turned to look at her for a moment before looking once more at the fire. Smiling she settled her own head down against her hoofs and watched the fire herself, levitating another apple to her mouth and munching on it idly. Then she paused to levitate another one next to her and in front of him, making him look at her funny. “Come on you need to eat something.” He just kept staring at her questioningly and she rolled her eyes and gestured to her mouth before taking a bite of her own apple. “Eat. You need to eat.”
He looked to the apple again before slowly grabbing it and looking at her once more before moving his eyes back to the fire, apple disappearing into the robe. Sighing she just took another bite of her apple and watched the fire for a bit longer.
“Fire.” She heard her voice say. From beside her. From the little one. She craned her head to look at him wide-eyed and surprised.
“Did you say something?” She asked looking at him.
He cocked his head and slowly pointed at the fire again and said again in her voice, “Fire.”
She stared at him for a few moments before nodding. “Fire.” He smiled and lowered his arm, apparently having learned a word. And a voice. After a while she chose to ignore that development because there was a lot crazier stuff she’d been through, like the Ursa Major, than this. So she settled back down to watch the fire and look up at the stars above, little one reclining against her once more.
They rested like that for a while before she let out a yawn and slowly stretched her limbs. “Well time to sleep then.” He just watched her as she stood up and started to scatter the fire before using a small ice spell to get rid of the flames and any lingering sparks. As she did he looked her over questioningly before shivering once more and heading back to her cart. It tilted a bit at the first step but nothing much else for the carriage thankfully, while she finished getting rid of the fire.
Done with that she went inside her caravan and shut the door behind her with another yawn, glad to have made some good progress today. Looking over the inside of her home though she was puzzled for a moment as she didn’t see him anywhere. Then she noticed the lump under her blanket near the foot of her bed. Of course he was in her bed.
Rolling her eyes at that she stepped over to her bed and ripped the blankets off of him to see him already looking up at her questioningly. To which she jutted a hoof out and said, “Get out of my bed mister.”
He gave her a pitiful sad frown as she said that, obviously liking her bed. Watching him for a moment she sighed before grabbing her blanket again and getting into the bed on the opposite side of him and draping it across both of them to which he smiled and snuggled further into her bed. Closing her eyes she readied herself for a good night’s sleep,
Interrupted by a gentle humming from the side. Something that sounded like a quiet song from the young guest in her bed. Glancing over to him she watched him slightly bob his head in tune with his song. He seemed to look sad albeit peaceful at the same time as he hummed it, maybe something his mother hummed to him? Feeling a bit bad for him she reached over and pulled him closer into a hug, making him slow slightly in his humming as if caught by surprise. But he nuzzled closer into her and buried his face iner once more and slowly resume his humming, dragging her into a nice and deep sleep.