His hands were already half-numb, but he scraped at the snow with wild urgency. The top layers were loose, powdery, easy to displace. He dug diagonally downward, carving into the drift like a beast burrowing for warmth. His arms churned with newfound strength—maybe it was adrenaline, maybe it was the dragon blood still pulsing faintly in his veins—but he pushed deeper, faster.
Snow piled behind him as he dug out a narrow shaft, sloping it downward at an angle. His breath grew ragged, the freezing air searing his lungs, but he kept going.
After clearing a tunnel long enough for two people to crawl through, Kai turned sharply to the right, carving a low chamber just large enough for them to lie side by side. He widened the space as best he could, packing the snow tightly along the inner walls to reinforce the burrow. The effort cost him precious time and energy, but it paid off—once inside, the chamber was still, muffled. The howling winds outside were barely a whisper now.
He crawled out and returned to Asha, who had curled in on herself, trying to preserve her dwindling warmth. Snow had begun to coat her hood and shoulders.
"Kai…" she mumbled, her voice thin.
"I've got you," he said, brushing snow from her face. "We've got a place to hide."
She blinked slowly, barely understanding. Kai quickly shrugged off his cloak and bundled it in his arms.
"I'll go first," he told her. "Then I'll pull you in."
He entered the tunnel backwards, dragging the cloak with him, kicking at the snow to make space. The moment his body slipped into the tunnel, he felt a startling calm—the biting wind no longer assaulted him. The air was cold, but it wasn't moving. It was a dead cold. A tolerable one.
He unfurled the cloak and spread it out flat across the floor of the chamber, smoothing it over the icy ground with his hands. It wouldn't be much, but at least it would keep Asha from lying directly on the snow.
Then he slid back to the entrance, leaned out, and reached for his mother.
"Come on," he called, just loud enough to be heard. "You can do it. Just crawl toward my voice."
Asha stirred, trembling. Her hands fumbled in the snow.
Kai crawled forward a little more and extended his arms. "Here. I've got you."
Her hand found his.
With great effort, Kai pulled her into the tunnel, guiding her inch by inch, cradling her head whenever she slipped. She groaned as the cold scraped against her wound, but he held her steady, murmuring soft reassurances the whole time.
"You're doing good. Just a little further. We're almost there."
Finally, they made it into the shelter.
The two of them lay in the small, hollowed space, the snow walls glowing faintly with ambient light from the storm-filtered sky above. It was cramped, but the wind couldn't reach them here. The silence was uncanny—so different from the howling roar outside that it made their ears ring.
Kai gently guided Asha down onto the cloak, adjusting it beneath her.
"Lie here. Let the snow take your weight."
She obeyed without protest, too exhausted to argue. Her breaths were shallow and uneven, but she was no longer shaking as violently.
Kai took off his outer tunic and tucked it around her shoulders.
"You're freezing," he said softly, pressing close beside her.
Asha cracked a tired smile. "And you're… always warm now. When did that happen?"
Kai blinked, his thoughts churning. "Maybe… part of the dragon's gift."
She looked at him through half-lidded eyes. "Then it was worth it."
"Don't say that," he whispered, voice tightening. "You're the one who needs the warmth now. Rest."
Her fingers found his and squeezed weakly. "You're a good boy, Kai."
He swallowed the lump in his throat and gave her hand a squeeze in return. He could feel how icy cold it was, seemingly colder than the snow itself. He held on tightly with both hands, praying that even the tiniest bit of his warmth would transfer over to her.
But to his dismay, he could still feel her body shivering despite taking shelter from the blizzard.
He didn't know how long the blizzard would last.
But one thing was clear:
If nothing was done soon—
He might lose her.
With fear rising in his heart, he even took off his inner tunic and tucked it around her feet, leaving himself bare-chested.
Despite the chill biting into his skin, it didn't matter to Kai as much as keeping his mother warm.
He kept racking his brain on what he could do. It was impossible to light a fire in their current situation, they were surrounded by ice and snow. He also couldn't find more pelts to cover her with, how could he hunt when the weather outside is so bad?
Despite the total darkness, Asha could tell that her son was doing everything that he could to keep her warm. However, she too was worried for him since he had to sacrifice his own comfort for hers.
Mustering her strength, she squeezed his hand and chided weakly. "Kai, you're going to be freeze like that. You should keep yourself covered, don't worry about me. I have enough already."
"Mom, I'm fine, I—" As Kai was about to explain, he was suddenly reminded of a possible solution.
In his memories of another life, he recalled that in a show he watched, two people who were stuck in an abandoned mountain cabin in the middle of a blizzard kept warm by sharing their body heat through skin-to-skin contact.
Although Asha's body may not be very warm, his was basically a living furnace. And that was exactly what she needed at this moment.
"Mom, I have an idea. I'm going to take off all your clothes so just bare with me."
"Mm." She could only hum in agreement, trusting her son completely.
Kai immediately stripped off the rest of his clothes before uncovering the cloak and assisting Asha in undressing. Although he couldn't see anything in the dark, he could feel how cold her skin was to the touch and how little strength she was exerting in her limbs.
Then, he lifted her body up so that he could line their clothes underneath them to form an additional layer between the ice.
He did everything as quick as he could before laying down beside his mother and pulling the thick fur cloak over their heads, wrapped together like a cocoon.
The moment Asha felt her skin make contact with her son's, it was as if basking under the warmth of the midday sun, extremely comfortable. She instinctively snuggled closer to his chest to get even closer to this oasis of warmth.
"Ahh, so warm…" She released a sigh of comfort.
On the other hand, Kai felt as if he was being hugged by an icicle and shivered on instinct, but after hearing the comfort in his mother's breath, his heart calmed, and he ignored the chill as he used one arm as a pillow around her neck and the other wrapped around her back to press her close to his chest.
"Just hold on to me. My body is warm right?" Kai comforted as he gently stroked her head.
"Mm. You are so warm." Asha felt incredibly protected as she wrapped her arms around his strong back and nuzzled her face against his neck, her previous shivering gradually subsiding after basking in his heat.
Despite her freezing body, her curvy form was still soft and smooth. Her breasts were squished against his chest and due to the previous cold, he could feel two hard fleshy bumps scraping against his skin, making him feel a little excited.
Kai understood this was not the time for indulgence since they were in quite the precarious situation, but it was hard to hold off his teenage hormones especially in such an intimate position and this too after experiencing the pleasure of embracing a voluptuous woman then being forced to abstain due to their escape.
So, he tried his best to think about other things such as planning for what to do next after getting through this blizzard and how he could prepare better for future emergencies.
Meanwhile, Asha was in her own world. For the last several days, she could feel the cold seeping into her bones and filling her entire being with an inescapable chill. No matter what she did, she was unable to prevent herself from being slowly turned into a human icicle.
Now, after enduring that endless cold, she finally found the sanctuary where she could melt away all her pain and worries. All she could think about at this moment was this searing hot furnace and how unfair it was that she couldn't merge with it to become one, warm body.
In order to seek further warmth, she instinctively draped one leg over his waist to further entangle their legs together to maximize their skin-to-skin contact.
However, this move by Asha caused their lower bodies to press together as well, leaving everything exposed and touching.
This caused Kai's effort to distract himself to immediately implode as he reacted with great excitement.
This in turn caused Asha to feel something hard rising up to poke her, bringing her back to reality with a soft gasp.
"Oh my!"