[OPEN] it's always me i fight {Seasonal Event!}

Ashe had been watching them for a while. The sun was just starting to dip below the bare trees of the woodlands, but she had been within the forest for hours already, following tracks left in the quiet snow. Her boots touched down upon root and stone and branch alike, instinctively avoiding leaving any trace of her passing behind. It was funny, the habit hadn’t been formed in her training. It had been picked up when she was sent on her first contract out of the city, when she had decided she didn’t like getting her feet wet and that stepping on roots and rocks kept them dry. Turned out it was a tried and true method in not being found.    Lucky for her, her quarry didn’t seem to have any problems with being found. Not only did they leave and obvious trail, but it was pretty hard to miss the glimpses of glowing antlers through the trees. She’d read about them on that bulletin, had heard about them in passing… but she’d yet to see one, wasn't even sure if they'd come anywhere near her - dark mage, dark heart. Luxere. The reindeer with shining antlers. She pretended that it was their usefulness that drew her, that had her heart racing as the trail grew warmer and warmer.    The raven-haired woman pulled her cloak closer around herself as her breath came out in a cloud, the temperature falling with the sun. Her hand drifted under the shoulder of her cloak, and her fingers brushed over the fuzzy lump of a spider that had nestled itself close to her own warmth beneath her hood. Soot was startled awake when she nudged him, letting out a quiet hiccup as he shifted his long and spindly legs. ”Don’t be jealous - no reindeer will replace you,” she murmured softly to the wine spider, lifting her cloak to look at him on her shoulder. At the rush of cold air, the spider let out a hissing chitter and shrank back, and Ashe shook her head before she let her cloak fall back over her shoulder once more. ”Sissy.”    She was about to continue forward, following the strange reindeer that sounded like something out of a story her mother would tell, but she froze. Sound. Not unusual in a forest, even a snow-hushed one, but this was different. Didn’t fit in with the natural pattern. She thought of shifting, but she forced herself to breath slowly, to scan the shades of white and gray and brown around her. ashe Opened up, torn apart There’s nothing more beautiful than your heart.

R O N I N

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"Too slow!"

The snowball was flung with as much strength as Ronin could muster - and that was a substantial amount these days, in truth - but the guildmaster was still grinning like an idiot over his scarf as he tried to hit Ashetta on the back. It might hit Soot, but he wasn't to know that the little spindly thing was nestled under her hood, was he?

He'd spotted the blue-eyed woman slinking through the Woodlands behind him a short while before. Ronin hadn't been tracking the reindeer at first, in truth, but it was something that had just sort of happened when he'd spotted the prints. He couldn't hunt or track for shit, so it had been more fun than anything else. He'd seen the Luxere twice before now, so he knew they weren't something to be feared.

But then Ashe had appeared, and he'd snuck back around so he could creep up on her; a dangerous idea, no doubt, but he had never claimed to have common sense. Either way, he'd be bracing himself for retaliation now, darting behind a tree in the hope that she wouldn't see him.

Ashe's ears strained into the silence, brilliant blue eyes staring out into the trees... She heard his voice, and she spun with just enough time to most dodge that snowball. It glanced off of her shoulder, and she barked a curse at the force of it. She caught sight of him seconds before he vanished behind a tree. Ronin.    Ashe double checked on Soot - he only recoiled at the cold - and she swiftly moved behind a grouping of snow-covered bushes while her friend hid. She didn't remain there however, abandoning her trail and creeping on feather-light feet and low to the ground around the tree the bounty hunter had ducked behind. She kept her steps as silent as was possible in the snow-dusted woods as she moved to sneak up behind Ronin, and the moment he was in her sights?    "Too slow!" Ashe launched her self forward and raised her arms to stuff two handfuls of snow down the back of his shirt.    She darted around him with a wicked grin, turning to face him and brushing her wool gloves on her pants to rid them of as much snow as she could and huffed a breath into the cold. "Evening Crab-kicker," she greeted breathlessly, shooting him a half-hearted glare. "You almost hit Soot, you know." She braced her hands over her hips and considered him for a moment, pursing her lips just slightly. "What are you doing out here?" ashe Opened up, torn apart There’s nothing more beautiful than your heart.

R O N I N

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Ronin made a sound best described as a squawk as the snow was stuffed down the back of his shirt, the guildmaster's back arching comically as he waddled forward to try and free himself of the cold stuff. "You're a damned witch, Ashetta!" He laughed, the sound strained and breathless as he shook out his shirt. Once he was reasonably sure he only had the minimal amount of snow melting into his clothes, he turned to regard the Assassin in Blue.

"Madam spy." He nodded to her as if it were some noble title. "Me? Oh, you know. Following you with the intent of starting a snowball fight. Sorry, Soot, by the way." He directed that at her hood, like the tipsy little spider would hear.

"No, I was tracking a deer," he said in truth, smiling. "I've seen one of those Luxere creatures twice now, and I thought I might be onto another one. Have you seen them before?"

Ashe took her lip in her teeth to bite back her laughter at Ronin as he shook the snow from his shirt, eyes glimmering. "A damn good witch," she shot back, allowing a spark of blue across her shoulder in emphasis. She took a moment to brush the snow he'd thrown at her from her shoulder and adjusted her hood over the tipsy spider beneath it, and there was the sound of a small and muffled hiccup. She smiled gently before returning her attention to Ronin.    "You've seen the luxere?" Ashe asked, her eyes brightening as she stepped around the tree and back towards the trail she had been following. It was easy to find the large, cloven hoofprints, the broken branches left by their antlers and legs. Her eyes flickered over the trail and then back up to Ronin. "I read about them on that bulliten, but I haven't seen one yet."    She began following the trail once more, assuming Ronin followed after her. Boots crunched softly in the snow as she moved nimbly and resumed her usual steps of avoiding the wet ground itself. She hopped from a large root and up to an exposed rock. She glanced over at the bounty hunter, likely now just barely eye-level with him. "Their antlers actually glow then? They're not just... really fucking white?" ashe Opened up, torn apart There’s nothing more beautiful than your heart.

R O N I N

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Ronin hoped she meant good as in 'talented' rather than 'morally pure', because he knew Ashetta and her crooked ways and he wasn't afraid to call her up on that. His eyes lit up as conversation turned to the deer with the glowing antlers, Ronin nodding and trekking around the tree with her so they could find the trail again. They came upon the tracks once more easy enough, and they still looked fresh. Not that he was much of a hunter, but not-snowed-over meant fresh right?

Whilst Ashe hopped and dashed from root to rock and whatever else she could find to avoid the snow, Ronin's boots took him right through it with ease. He grinned to her as he found her at his eye level, resisting the urge - barely - to knock her from the root. "Yes, I saw them in the Glade," he said. "Twice, now. They're very social creatures, and their antlers really do glow. They look as though they're made of the same stuff as the glowstones, if you've seen them. Hopefully these tracks will show you what you've been missing."