It didn't matter if there was four feet of snow on the ground or if it was summer, they would still be out guarding either way. Vedette certainly didn't mind the fact that they'd had to walk around in circles to pack the snow down so they could stand around without the men's legs freezing. In fact, she delighted in it. At first it'd begun as a journey out into the woods and changing shifts with another five soldiers, but it had soon turned into three of the men that accompanied Vedette and Ithacles complaining about the cold. Even Ithacles, when he felt like talking, complained. His cot was finer then the rest of theirs. Vedette's was merely made to look like the other men's coats, but it wasn't nearly as warm as theirs. Two of them had built a fire after clearing the snow away from the ground completely, and the other man set about fixing what Vedette assumed was stew.

( It could have been poison. They tasted the same. )