Once they get reunited, Ford, who is trying to give Rin a hug, gets a glare from her instead, where she asks if he remembers which trail to use before the landslide happened. Pointing to it with a disappointed expression on, they continue climbing the path and Rin warns, "be careful, the terrain might be a little different after a landslide like that, so we need to be more cautious than ever."
It's lucky how it becomes more quiet among them after a few more hours of climbing except for a few labored breathing, and when they reach a cliff of sorts, they can see a quiet looking village at the lower ground.
"Wow, is that Swveny?" Both of the wolves seem relieved to be seeing their home after the hardship and nods at Lune's question, and Snow seems to be eager to swoop down to the village but immediately have Lisa blocking her instead, "I know what you're thinking, so no."
Snow just scoffs at the redhead and Rin suddenly sighs, "how I wish we could just rush over to the village, like right now."
To be honest, Lune feels really tired, and she is sure that everyone else is tired too, considering they even encountered a landslide earlier. Maybe they should just fly down, it would be a grand entrance like those MMORPG games Lune had seen before in her previous life.
"Let's fly down."
.
..
…
"WHAT?!" The other three just shout at the suggestion since it's pretty crazy to really consider this one idea, and Snow seems to be looking satisfied with the blonde and starts sprinting to a clearing that has a larger area. She starts transforming back to her normal form, where everything about her is just huge. A few ice crystals are formed around her jaw, and she huffs when no one except Lune makes a move to ride her, "what are you guys waiting for?"
"Is it even safe enough for this?"
"Can Snow even carry all of us?" Rin turns to look at her mate and smirks devilishly, making him shiver from the upcoming outrageous idea that she might be making, "if it's overload, then I guess my mate is strong enough to climb down himself while we take the shortcut. I will take the lead."
Before Ford can even protest her idea, the girls are already ready to go on Snow's back. With a flip of her huge wings, a gust is formed, making Ford bracing himself with his arm from the wind current. Another flip and Snow's paws are off the ground, and while Lune seems to be enjoying the ride by shouting in excitement, both Lisa and Rin are hugging each other tightly, screaming in fear of dropping down from the height.
Leaving Ford behind, Snow flaps towards the village and Rin can see a few curious wolves that spotted them come out in groups, possibly to check if the dragon is an enemy to the pack. She lets go of Lisa carefully from the hug and waves her hands, hoping that they can recognize her from a distance before they start attacking Snow, and Lisa is still shouting in fear while Lune just laughs at how frightened the redhead looks.
They never expected that they would land safely without any retaliation from the village, considering how intimidating Snow can look in her current size. Once the trio gets down from her, Snow stretches her wings a few times before turning back to her travel size, climbing to Lune's shoulder for a rest due to her energy spent from flying. Meanwhile someone old and important looking approaches Rin and the latter bows a little before greeting him, "good evening, elder. These are the guests the lord is expecting and-"
"Isn't your mate with you?" She is a little taken aback from the unexpected question, and she just nods, "he will be here soon."
The elder wolf looks a little skeptical with Rin's answer, but doesn't say anything further and steps aside for them to go through, where Rin starts introducing the place to them more earnestly now that they are out of the elder's eyes, "over here the houses are built by ourselves from scratch. The alpha lives at the building on top of the hill there, and we will be heading there immediately."
"Wait," they stop walking and Lune continues, "like right now? Meeting him right now?"
"Yes?"
She instantly looks down at her own dressing state, which is a mess. Even though she wants to meet Chilve as soon as possible after two years of not seeing each other, she should probably show him a good impression, right?
Despite this, he is the one that left her for a longer time than expected.
Sensing her worries, Rin smiles knowingly and suggests, "there's a huge bath in his residence. I assure you that you will not get interrupted as there's no one else using it."
"A bath!" Lisa feels giddy with the promise of warm water to wash the grime off their bodies, "come on Lune, we should get there fast!"
Soon a huge building, probably the tallest of the whole of Swveny, is right in front of them. Armored guards are standing outside and when Rin talks with them about why they are here, they bow at them and let them enter, making Lune wonder how much the whole pack knows about her from their alpha's mouth, that sneaky bastard, hopefully all good things and no embarrassing ones.
The corridors are long and windy, with some wall ornaments hanging all around, from things that look like different kinds of hunting trophies to old portraits, possibly the elders and all the important people. It seems Rin seems to know well of this place, and this makes Lune a little relieved that she could really be someone close to Chilve as per what she claimed as.
A huge door is opened, and waves of steam come out from it right in their faces. Before she can ask if it's the bath they were promised for, Lune can hear Lisa gasps from her side and she exclaims, "is this really a bath?"
"Yes," now that most of the steam escaped the room, they finally get a better glimpse of the place. A huge pool of warm water with steam still can be seen from the water surface, Lisa almost dives into the welcoming waters immediately before getting stopped by the blonde, "don't you need to undress first?"
"Oh right! Snow, are you coming in?" The dragon shakes her head and Rin points to another smaller pool of water without any steam, "and that is a cold water bath. You can use that, Snow."
When both Lune and Lisa start undressing, Rin starts walking away and the blonde asks, "where are you going? Aren't you going to join the bath?"
"Well, I need to get some spare clothes for the two of you, and I probably need to see if Ford has finally reached here with his own effort."