"Let's see if we can get you somewhere that it's never a necessity," he said gruffly. His mind scrambled for solutions. Maybe Thren was in Redcliffe? Maybe he'd let them use the house for a bit, just so he could get Falina on her feet in the city. Perth might know if someone could use her, or maybe he could get her a job at the castle. And if she was there, he could always check on her when he stopped to see Perth. Just so long as no one saw her with him it would probably be fine. "I think you'll like Redcliffe."
She smiled brightly at him. "You think so?" Falina found herself trying to imagine it, but had nothing to reference it. "Is there snow in Redcliffe? You said you don't have a house, would you be there?"
"There's no snow. It's a city, around a large lake." At her blank look he tried to clarify. "A lake...like an enormous bathtub set in the ground? Full of water. You have to use boats to cross it, or bridges." He gave up.
As for whether I'll be there...maybe. Sometimes." He stepped over an exposed tree root along the edge of the road, the snow beginning to get thinner beneath their feet as they came further into the forest and down off the mountain. "I may not have a house, but I guess its still home."
He looked up at the sky, the setting sun beginning to turn the edges of the horizon vivid shades where scraps of it could be seen through the bare winter trees. He raised one hand and gestured to the west. "There's one thing we surfacers have over you. Sunsets. Which, while pretty, also means we need to hustle if we're going to make it to camp before full dark."
She peered around his arm, pulling it down from in front of her face so she could see. It was a cascade of color, a light pink, orange, and a shade of purple she'd never seen before. She tried to steady herself, not to show him how affected she was. Falina hadn't even noticed the fading colors until he'd mentioned them, and now that he'd drawn her to them, she couldn't look away. He probably saw through her lackluster ruse. "This happens everyday?"
Her eyes flew back to him. "What's it look like on the water?"
He smiled at her enthusiasm. "Every day its not cloudy." He held up a hand to cut off her question. "I'm not even gonna explain clouds. You'll see them soon enough. On the water...it's almost dizzying. Hard to tell where the sky ends and the water begins, whether you're on the ground or not." He raised a brow at her. "Frankly, Squeak, I don't think you'd do too well with it. Maybe when you're a little more used to the topside."
Falina nodded, her words concise and honest. "I trust you."
Cormac looked at her sharply, surprised by the truth in her eyes. Hopefully she was just good at reading people, and not actually naive enough to make all her character judgements so quickly. He worried she might not last long around humans if the latter was the case.
"Camp's just ahead," he said, sliding past her last comment without acknowledging it. "Let's see about getting you a new cloak, since I ruined that one."
She smiled, even though he unnecessarily shouldered the blame for it's pitiable condition. "I think it makes me look tough, don't you think?"