Mmhmm. It's no problem to set up a cookfire someplace else, though. Maybe I'll finally put together that oven I've been wanting.

Good for you, he offers vaguely.

...sorry. Won't bring it up again.

Hmmm? I'm not offended by the topic.

Didn't think you were. But when I said I wanted to give us a nice winter I meant not upsetting you, too.

The thing I find upsetting is that Angband exists. Everything else is just a stem off that.

Sure. I can still try to do a better job of not bringing it up.

Yeah but trying particularly hard isn't really needed.

It's not a problem, except that I don't know what topics to avoid yet.

If you want to talk about it, that's different - not that I want to know, but I know that helps sometimes - but it should be your choice.

I do not want to talk about it and don't expect I ever will.

That's fine too. I'll keep working on not bringing it up.

He sighs. Okay.

It's for myself almost as much as it's for you, if that helps anything. Anyway, let me go see what I can find to make this edible, and she disappears down to the pantry again.

He closes his eyes again.

Lots of roasted pumpkin, a handful of lentils, and some spices to balance the flavor, and the soup turns out pretty good. When she's done, she leaves for most of an hour and then returns to start on the fur, working some sort of goop into the inner surface of it.

He watches through her eyes so he can follow all this while keeping his own eyes closed and not moving.

It's not very engaging work, but she's very methodical and patient with it, making sure every bit of the skin gets three coats of the goop.

After a while he falls asleep again.

She finishes gooping the fur. She goes to the surface and sits and pokes at her spellcasting capabilities for a while. She heads back in and checks on the fur and applies more goop to it where it needs a fourth coat. She goes looking for a suitable place for a new cookfire. She returns and has more soup for lunch.

Eventually he wakes up. 

How long is winter, what needs are you anticipating during it, and what are the preparations in progress?

It's around a hundred days long, and I'm actually pretty well prepared for my own needs - it's late enough in the season that storable food is hard to come by, so there's actually not much more I can do about that anyway. Boredom's going to be the bigger problem, if you're right about not needing to eat, but I have drawing and painting supplies and my magic to figure out, plus whatever projects come up.

Right, people get bored. That is a thing about people. 

How many things about people is he missing?

Well, as an example person the kobold certainly is one. If he keeps paying attention he can probably figure some more of them out.

Do you expect to need or want anything in particular over the winter?

No.

Okay.

Foodwise, you can eat, once you're ready, it's not that big of a deal - I was only preparing for myself, but I did put up extra in case I was injured or anything, and I don't need as much of my diet to be plants as I was planning to have be.