After a few minutes of nothing but their shuffling steps and the soft plinks of unseen water droplets, Leanna noticed that Penlyn was shivering. The woman had her arms crossed in front of her chest, the collar of her loose open-necked shirt folded up against the sides of her throat. 

Leanna wanted to kick herself. Wrapped up in layers of robes as she was, she had been mostly able to ignore the way that the air of the cave chilled the remnants of post-portal interstitial plasma still coating their bodies. But Penlyn had only her shirt and loose wool pants, both of which looked uncomfortably gooey.

“Are you cold?” Leanna asked.

Penlyn shrugged. “I’ll live.”

Leanna held out a hand and stopped walking, prompting Penlyn to pause as well. Leanna approached the other woman, both hands raised towards her, but paused a few inches away. “This works better with physical contact. Can I…”

Penlyn nodded, eyes wide, the rest of her body very still.

Ever so softly, Leana placed a gentle hand on either side of Penlyn’s neck, underneath her collar, and began incanting under her breath. After a moment, she could feel the skin underneath her palms begin to emanate a low warmth. Leanna kept her eyes carefully fixated on her work, but she could feel the other woman’s gaze prickle across her cheekbones. 

She then slid her hands slowly down Penlyn’s neck, fingers gliding across the brown skin on either side of the woman’s collarbone and slipping ever so slightly under the hem of her shirt. Leanna kept as much of her attention on the incantation as possible, although she couldn’t help the small voice in the back of her mind that sighed, thinking, “mmm, soft.” 

Once the area under her hands was warm, she slipped the tips of her fingers out from underneath Penlyn’s neckline and placed them lightly on top of her shirt, running slowly across the ridge of her shoulders, down the soft dips and curves of her arms until her fingers came to rest around her wrists. 

She paused there, making sure to work the warmth into Penlyn’s blood, before briefly pressing the palms of their hands together, making sure that the heat made its way to the very ends of Penlyn’s lightly callused fingers. Leanna whispered the final words of the incantation, then stepped away.

“Is that all?” Penlyn asked.

Leanna nodded. “The heat should travel around the rest of the way on its own. Did that feel alright?”

Penlyn cleared her throat. “Yeah, that felt alright.”

“Okay. Good. Let me know if it wears off.”

[Note: hope you don't mind the short chapter! The next one should be longer :)]