ᴾʰᵒᵇᵒᵖʰᵒᵇⁱᵃ [ᴶᵃˢᵒⁿ ᴳʳᵃᶜᵉ]

αβ.

αβ. thanatophobia - fear of death/death of a loved one

Aza had always hated the cold. All the winters she had lived through in Arizona were pleasantly mild, and every winter she spent in New York, she complained constantly. She hated the way it would chill her bones, making them ache emptily; nor was she a fan of the constant shivers and jolts from a sudden cold wind.

So when Aza's mind suddenly whirled back to life, her first thought was simply "Fucking winter." Her brain was moving slowly - too slowly - and Aza felt stuck in a horrible limbo between consciousness and unconsciousness. None of her thoughts were sticking, close enough for her to grab onto. They slid out of her reach every time she tried to gather her thoughts, to try to piece the puzzle together.

She was finally able to catch onto one small thought, "Stupid fucking winter being cold." Her body felt numb, almost like it wasn't there at all.

Aza then heard a shuffle around her body, coming somewhere from her center left. She instantly was on high alert, straining her ears to hear another shuffle, then the sounds of kindling being lit. It didn't take long for the smell of smoke to reach her. She was in a cave, if she was right, based on small echoes around them from any sound that was made. There was a campfire now, but who in the Hades was making that campfire?

Aza's next thought was "Yeah, okay. Guess I am as stupid as Clarisse says."

Obviously, she was with Jason, Leo and Piper. If she was right, Leo was the one shuffling around to light the fire; Aza noticed that Jason always walked sort of heavily. And he barely walked, usually, it was more of a march.

Aza began to stir, motivated by the knowledge that her quest-mates - or were they friends? They seemed to switch their feelings of her constantly - were waiting for her, assumedly, to wake up. Her eyelids were so heavy - were they always this heavy - and Aza's eye's rolled around restlessly behind them. A small murmur of effort slipped past her lips as Aza continued to try forcing her eyes to open.

"Aza?" She could hear Jason walking - no, he marched - towards her from the other side of the cave, kneeling beside her and already exuding a warmth around her body. His breath helped warm her body - which had turned from a retroactively pleasant numbness to a painful chill - though not as much as she would have liked.

Warm fingers traced a short, gentle line from her right jaw up towards her cheek, gently pulling her to face towards him.

"She up yet?" Leo called from the cave; somewhere behind Jason, slightly leftwards. Where was Piper? Jason's hand left her face, leaving it to drop more to the right, uncomfortably pulling at her already very miserable muscles. Jerk, if you're going to move my face, at least don't just drop it.

"No," Jason's fingers found their way back towards her cheek, lifting it up gently and relieving the strain. "But it looks like her eyes are moving around in their socket - is that bad? That seems bad."

No, you idiot, I'm trying to wake up.

"Eh, Aza's cool," It was Gleeson! Aza had no memory of how he got there, but she was excited nonetheless. "Knowing her, she's probably listening to us right now. Maybe she'll yell at us for being idiots when she's awake. Speakin' of, you gonna get her a blanket, cupcakes?"

Aza wanted to laugh, but then she was overwhelmed with the annoyance that they hadn't given her a blanket? Aza was no expert on hypothermia, but she was pretty sure she had it.

--

Jason felt horrible, seeing Aza in such a vulnerable state. He knew she was a force to be reckoned with, but right now she seemed so... weak. Her body was lifeless on the floor of the cave they made camp in. The only signs of life were small, soft breaths and the movements behind her eyelids.