Winter Reminisces
26 Celevis 3590
Snow had freshly fallen upon the land overnight, adding to the many layers that made the ground buried several tail-lengths deep. Fortunately, most of the underlayers compacted, allowing for one to walk atop it without falling through and being lost to the maws of winter. Despite its fluffy and delicate appearance, the snow and general air was blisteringly cold. Cloudleap curled his tail over his talons as breath escaped from his nose, forming little clouds in the air before dissipating. Around him were Leafdrop, Nocturna, and Rajani, as they watched all the younger dragons down below, embracing the cold- unlike them.
“They’re just growing up too fast,” Nocturna sighed wistfully, breaking their silence as she brushed off a few stray piles of snow from the wooden platform.
“Mhm,” Leafdrop quietly agreed. Under his clothes, his feathers were mostly puffed up to keep himself warm. Cloudleap couldn’t help but feel jealous, noticing that Leaf seemed to have more fluff than he did, which meant more warmth. “Remember when it was just us? And Spirit and Irani of course, but you know what I mean.”
“And then we decided to have children, not anticipating the chaos,” Rajani crackled a smile.
“It’s hard to believe our
grandchildren are nearly grown up as well!” Nocturna had a grin on her face. She always seemed happy with the ever-growing family she now had. Considering how she had arrived here as a hatchling all those years ago, Cloudleap supposed she’d cherish family as much as possible.
“And who knows how much further the tree will grow,” as he spoke, Cloudleap looked back down at the group below. Even if they were teenagers, they could still get themselves into trouble and need help, hence why they were out here watching over them. Fortunately, they seemed to be doing just fine on their own.
“Oh, my mom is going to be
overjoyed,” Nocturna snarked, her voice overflowing with sarcasm like a rushing river. “I think we pushed her to the limits with everyone down below. Not sure how happy she is going to be when the children want homes of their own built.”
“You certainly found a way with the medical building,” Cloudleap noted, his gaze falling down the wooden path to his right. The aforementioned building was down a little ways in the cliffside, the parts of the roof that were sticking out were still covered in snow that had to be cleared off. He should probably go do that at some point.
“Eh,” Rajani gave a tentative shrug. “Guess so, but even that was a bit of a battle. How about
you try asking her for several homes instead of a hospital and see how she responds?”
Cloudleap shuddered- both from the cold and at the
idea of dealing with an angry Borealis. “Yeah, no thanks.”
“Oh they’re watching us,” Ciana hissed, ducking back behind their compacted wall of snow. They looked over to their side, where Nyx had created a pile of snowballs. A little ways away from them was another fort carved in the snow that Kashin, Zamir, and Rizu were sheltered in. Ciana wasn’t fully sure how they got to this point, but they were in a snow war now.
“Can you even throw that far?” Nyx asked, clearly doubting them, while holding a snowball and looking at it, as if it would tell her the answer.
“Absolutely” Ciana smirked as she snatched the snowball out of Nyx’s hand, who hadn’t been expecting it. The gloves on their paws helped to keep them warm despite all the cold around them. Not to mention, their running about has helped keep them warm. Jumping up onto one of the makeshift snow walls, she flared open her wings to balance herself, a snowball still grasped in her paw. “HEY! KASHIN! I found this cool meteorite!”
Even from their distance, she clearly heard an exclamation. “WHAT?” Ciana was pretty sure there were shouts of protest from the other two while Kashin scrambled up onto their snowy outpost, eyes wide. It was a cruel trick,
sure, but effective.
Before Kashin realized that in their hand was, in fact, not a rock from space, the snowball was already in his face. They stumbled back, nearly falling off the snow-brick tower as they yelled out. She snickered at his response, watching as Kashin scrambled back down into their own bunker.
“See? Told yo-” They started to brag, turning their head only to see Nyx had been mid-bite of a snowball. There were a few seconds of silence and staring. “... you’re eating our AMMO?!”
“I was thirsty!” Nyx protested, tossing the half-consumed snowball behind her back and forever lost in the outside snowy plains.
“Then go get water from inside!” Ciana argued back, one of their wings opening and beckoning towards the wooden platforms in the looming cliff face before them. “Don’t you know how much weird bacteria is-”
Ciana wasn’t able to finish before her face was hit by a snowball with so much force that it knocked her off the snow wall and back down into the bunker, next to Nyx. They unburied their head and shook off the powdered snow that had gotten onto them. With an angry huff, they got back to their paws, eyes alight with ambition.
Nyx handed over a pristine, non-half-eaten snowball without a second comment. “Here.”
The snowball was immediately snatched out of her talons, Ciana looking back up at their snow wall. She brushed off the whole thing with Nyx eating snow, now focused on nothing but vengeance.
“How long before you think we’re going to get dragged in?” Cavin rolled his eyes at the sight of the snowball fight.
“No clue,” Evniki sighed, not really paying attention herself. The two cousins were closer to the cliffside, some ways away from the open field of snow where the war was taking place.
Cavin tilted his head, looking at her. “Why haven’t you joined them yet? Snowball wars are up your alley.”
“Not feeling it,” she shrugged, glancing at her talons. Admittedly, she was half-lost in thoughts, unable to think clearly like she usually does. It was all just kind of… murky.
The antenna of his curled inquisitively. “What’s wrong?”
“I dunno,” she murmured, glancing up at the bright winter scenery all around them. In the distance, albeit hard to make out amongst the snow, was Razili. She was near the treeline, staring into the forest of trees with bare leaves. “It’s just- I think I like…
like Razili, ya know?”
There was silence, Cavin looking up at Razili as well. “... so, a crush?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Evniki fidgeted, drawing random lines in the snow beneath her with her talons. “I’ve just been thinking a lot about what it’d be like if we dated one another.”
“Then why not just go ask?” Cavin suggested.
Evniki blinked a few times, glancing over at him. “Right now?”
“Mhm,” he responded, confused by her own confusion. “I mean- you said you liked her, right?”
“Yes but-”
“Then just go up and ask.” Cavin gave her a gentle shove, causing her to get to her talons to regain balance. “It won’t kill you.”
There were a few more seconds, Evniki standing there, hesitant on moving her legs. With a bit of self-motivation, she slowly moved one foot. Then another. Soon enough she was walking away from Cavin and in the general direction of Razili. Then, she was making bounding leaps over towards her.
Razili turned her head, having heard someone calling for her. She was surprised to see Evniki rushing towards her, jumping through the snow like a fox. While watching her get closer, Evniki jumped onto an icy patch on top of the snow, slipping. She proceeded to tumble right into Razili, knocking her down and ending with both of them half-buried in the top layer of snow that wasn’t compacted or frozen.
“Sorry!” Evniki exclaimed as Razili slowly rose out of the snow. Despite the apology, there was still a large grin on her face as she held back giggles.
“It’s fine,” Razili smiled back, shaking off the leftover snow from her scales. “What was that all about though?”
“Well, uh,” Evniki’s face seemed to redden a bit more, although she chalked it up to being the cold. After all, they both just got a face full of snow. “See- like, have you ever thought about dating?”
“... what?” One of Razili’s eyebrows raised, giving Evniki a perplexed look. She wasn’t sure what she heard was… right.
“Like- you and me- date?” Evniki’s speech sped up as she tried to get all the words out in a single breath.
It… admittedly it took her way too long to figure out what she meant. “Oh… OH. Like- like partners?”
Evniki nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! Like girlfriend and girlfriend!”
Immediately, she started to feel a heat rise to her face, and her own voice started to speed up. “I mean- I hadn’t really thought about it, but sure!”
“Great!” The other teen grinned, the two having silence between them to catch their breaths. Evniki turned her head towards the snowball fight going on, the two separate forts now sharing constant snowball fire. It looked like Cavin had joined in at some point, now on the same side as Kashin and the other two. “Wanna go join them? Nyx and Ciana are outnumbered.”
“
Absolutely,” Razili smirked, ruffling up her wings. “Let’s target Zamir, it’d be funny.”
“Oohhh he’s going to
hate us.” Evniki laughed, and Razili couldn’t help but notice her heart beat just a
little bit faster from it. “I’m in.”
Pinglist: @Petall
A combo of wanting to check up on the teens + wanting to write a winter scene inspired this one. And what better way than a snowball fight? Also Evniki x Razili my beloved.
