Yamagata prefecture, Japan

[walking_napalm]

Liz doesn't know exactly how cold it is -- she never did get good at the Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion -- but it's definitely under 15° and the wind is stinging the exposed skin of her face. It's cold and dark; they left the lights of the nearest ski resort behind in the forest a good twenty minutes ago. She's got one gloved hand holding a heavy industrial flashlight and the other momentarily jammed in her parka pocket with the thermal sensor. Which hasn't been lighting up, because it's January in the mountains, it's snowing lightly, and all the smart little animals are safe at home inside their burrows or holes, or wherever else animals live.

Liz isn't a nature person.

Even she has to admit, though, that the "snow monsters" that Mount Zaō is famous for are very cool. They may be fir trees that were coated with wet snow and ice and then frozen by the jetstream, but they definitely look like monsters. She started at them a couple times before she started getting used to them; they're eerie and ominous, looming out of the tight circle of light cast by her flashlight. They don't look like trees -- they look like setpieces on The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, or like something that's going to come to life and be very unfriendly.

But they're just trees, and they're definitely not what has attacked four skiiers in the last two weeks.

"Anything?" she calls over to Red.

Comments

[bprd_agent_red]

Hellboy is trudging around in the snow behind her. He's not a huge fan of winter. Not that he minds the cold, but moving around in snow is a pain, he has frost on his goatee, and that 'walking in a winter wonderland' song is stuck in his head.

"Nothin'. But I'm gonna slug the next one of these trees that sneaks up on me." Catching the snow covered 'monsters' out of the corner of your eye while walking through a forest of them would make any guy jump once or twice.

[walking_napalm]

She shoots an amused look over her shoulder. "Uh huh," she says, wry and warm. "Let me know how that works out for you." She wiggles the flashlight a little bit; wiggles her fingers in her pocket, too, and reluctantly pulls out the thermal sensor.

Which is showing a couple weird scatterings of color thanks to being tucked in the warmth of her pocket, but even as she looks at the screen, they fade away to nothing. Forty minutes out here and nothing to show for it but cold hands and feet. She makes a face.

[bprd_agent_red]

Red walks over to pear over her shoulder at the sensor, reaching out to tap the display with his finger, which doesn't change what it's showing.

"That's it, I say we head back to that ski resort, set up camp in front of a fireplace and down some hot cocoa and sake."

[walking_napalm]

"Hot cocoa and sake?" Liz says dubiously. "Together?" She smacks the thermal sensor against the gloved palm of her hand. These things brick it at temperature extremes--it's impossible to say for sure whether it's actually functioning properly right now.

With Red looming behind her, at least the worst of the wind stinging at the back of her neck dies down, for a minute.

Among the many benefits of a 6'5" boyfriend: he is a prodigious windbreak.

[bprd_agent_red]

"Just tryin' to embrace the local culture," he replies, lifting his head to peer out into the dark around them while she fiddles with the scanner.

"Japanese have cocoa, right? Probably made out of tapioca and some kinda crazy poisonous fish."

[walking_napalm]

"Pretty sure the styrofoam cup with a packet of chocolate-flavored sand is a universal thing," Liz says, dubiousness now turned on Red.

No luck with the sensor. She huffs an irritated breath at it, her breath fogging in front of her in the cold, and goes to shove it back into her pocket, but then she catches movement out of the corner of her eye and looks up sharply, tensing--

And it's one of the snow monsters again, a snow-coated branch swaying in the wind just beyond the ring of light from her flashlight.

She sighs, aggrieved.

[bprd_agent_red]

When she tenses he goes on immediate alert, then, after seeing the threat, points at her with a, "HA."

Self-satisfied to not be the only one jumping at frozen vegetation, he offers, "Want me to go and punch it in the chops?"

Or whatever serves as 'chops' on a tree.

[walking_napalm]

She shoves his shoulder, which is like trying to shove a mountain, but it's the thought that counts. "Shut up," she complains, but there's a smirk hovering at the corners of her mouth.

[bprd_agent_red]

"C'mon, babe, let's-- " and now that same swaying branch has Red's attention.

"-- go defrost," he finishes, but makes no move to go and do so; instead he's staring at the shadows just beyond their small patch of light.

[walking_napalm]

He's staring into the forest, which never bodes well.

Liz's smile slips into something much more businesslike. "--What?" She quickly looks back to the trees and raises the beam of her flashlight.

[bprd_agent_red]

Red begins stalking forward.

"Either it's something, or it's nothing, and if it's nothing I'm punching something."

Stone grinds against stone as he clenches his fist.