the wind talks back

Some chose fur while others chose scales to brave the frigid cold of Halo's bitter climate. It had taken Remi and Amalia both to coax Jigano through the portal, the bard's courage sorely taxed from his last encounter in that room, but once through he had shaken off his human form and stretched feather-scaled wings as he leapt into the snowy sky, feeling cold air cut across his skin like a caress. The silver dragons of his homeworld were mountain-dwellers as well with an affinity for cold, often in conflict with the white and red dragons who vied for similar lairs, but he had a home already and felt nothing more than an odd sense of comfort in his new form as he rose up to find the marked path, then returned to the ground to walk beside Amalia and Remi, gleaming silver against the snow and marred only by the large bag he carried in his jaws, filled with the gifts Ingrid had warned him to bring.

Isuma rode Amalia's shoulders, her snow leopard-and-snowy owl fur and feathers fluffed out for maximum warmth as she snuggled into her big sister's ruff while they trekked to the Citadel. Upon reaching it Jigano set his bag down and coiled up behind Amalia, resting his large head beside her on the snow and crooning softly in support as he tilted it to brush his cheek against her. Courage, he murmured through the Attuned bond to her and Remi both before he shifted back to his human form and raised his orator trained voice to cut clear through the wind and weather.

"Hello the Citadel! Travelers from the Hollowed Ground seek entrance, and an audience with Neron Launceleyn!"