Lani - Chapter 0 - A short start and a quick stop

Two figures sat around a fire in a frigid, ice encrusted forest, the pleasant crackling being the only other noise besides their banter between them echoing through the countless trees.

"Why is it so cold?" One of the two, a demonic albino woman wearing adventuring gear, muttered aloud as she roasted marshmallows over the fire.

"We are extremely far north," The other one, another demonic woman with dark auburn hair and an eye patch over her left eye, said "matter of factly". "And our destination, Elm, lies a day or two further north, so it may very well get even colder, Lani."

Lani let out a heavy sigh, "Sure hope it doesn't, Farron, if it gets any colder I don't think my magic can prevent my tail from freezing off! How do people LIVE here?"

"Well," Farron said, re-positioning herself atop the stump she sat on. "The people that reside in this country are an extremely hardy and resourceful folk thanks to years of exposure to merciless, biting winds and having to fend off highly strong monsters. Needless to say, the humans who live here are without a doubt some of the strongest alive."

"Ah yes, I think I remember my sister going on about the "Hunky and muscular men of the northern lands" from one of the books she read up in the castle's library. Seems they weren't just fiction after all."

"Yes, although these "hunky men" aren't exactly fond of monsters after an incident 50 some odd years back involving pregnant women and a few dark hellions, so your sister won't get to live out her fantasies with them."

Lani chuckled before eating two marshmallows in one bite, "She's got a husband and a kid already, so it's not like it matters anymore."
"Think we should get moving?" Farron asked as Lani ate 5 more roasted treats in quick secession. "We should make it to our destination by tomorrow if we leave now."

"Yeah, I'd like to have time to see what Elm is like for myself before asking around for any nearby ruins to plunder, but first-" Lani turned around and opened up a portal at her right side, and in an instant, an enormous scaled maw large enough to swallow two people whole in one bite emerge through, "Here you go my little darling pet!" Lani said in a cutesy voice while she threw what remained of the marshmallows, as well as a few handfuls of other snack foods around her, into the scaley jaws, before they recede back within and the portal closing behind it.

"Are you sure you should be feeding that to a demon realm crocodile?" Farron asked as she shook her head in disapproval.

"It's fine, they can eat almost anything, just like Dragons do."

"If you say so, let's just hurry up. The cold's starting to get to me too, and I still don't know why we can't just teleport there."

"You ever teleport somewhere you haven't been to before? It ends very badly and VERY messily," Lani explained with a grim expression.

"Besides, it's not much of an adventure if you quickly travel everywhere and ignore the sights."

"True." Farron said while nodding her head, "Kind of got a bad feeling though, like a war's going to break out soon with the nation to the south."

"Little wars and the such aren't my concern, Farron. Besides, I doubt any such thing would happen any time soon."

After putting out the fire, the two proceeded to walk down a nearby trail heading northbound.