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| Reader's General Warning: This story contains graphic violence, light cursing, undead hordes, angsting, and fluff. You have been warned. |
Snowfall
It was a cold day. Winter was approaching quickly, and everyone wondered what sort of troubles that would bring. Astrid often remarked how much she missed the snow and the cold that had brought Gunnhild to her, even though very few others could understand why. Havelock had taken to becoming Xylon’s apprentice, now that most of the piers were built and the last ship had arrived with goods for the winter. All the sailors who stopped by said that big storms were due in this year, and everyone was worried. People stayed in doors, began catching colds, and began collecting firewood. In the dwindling days and lengthening nights, no one was feeling their best. Except Kipfel, because he loved the cold.
Kipfel loved winter. He enjoyed every moment of it since the leaves began shedding from trees. The crunching and crinkling noise excited him to the point where he would quite uncharacteristically make piles just to pounce on them with Löwen. Ira, of course, didn’t quite understand. He figured it was a terran thing and stayed inside the Tower, studying with Havelock, Xylon, and Oberon.
Despite this, Ira and Kipfel spent a lot of time together. They were mates, but they were also very close friends, especially since Ira had learned not to try to eat Löwen, who was a constant third when they went out to explore the woods and other islands that were close enough that Kip didn’t worry too much about getting wet. And he had taken it in his mind to learn to swim, even if he much preferred the land. That was a project for next summer, though. When the water didn’t feel like it wanted to freeze the moment he left it.
Xylon insisted that many of the channels between the islands would freeze over solidly and they wouldn’t have to worry about water impeding their progress exploring. That was reassuring, especially when winter would bring uncertain weather. So it would get colder, and ice would hang from the trees, and everything would be lovely.
But it certainly took a long time getting cold enough for that. For now, there was only rain, but Xylon and Tor and Clarinet all agreed that snow was on the way. Tor and Astrid told stories of the snow constantly to anyone who would listen. Ingegerd did so with lesser frequency, but if pressed, she would tell. Many of the settlers had never heard of this strange phenomenon. Kipfel, especially, was intrigued by it. He spent hours outside every day trying to figure out how and why and when it would happen. He wanted to be able to see the first flake fall and hear it as it melted away on still-warm ground.
So every day from a little after noon when he rose until some ungodly hour of the morning when he went to sleep (he had for some time overcome his fear of the dark; it was a comfort now, rather than a crippler), Kipfel watched the skies and went adventuring with Löwen. Ira only went with them on the longer trips, but he kept similar hours to the two of them. And so one night, on the way home, to whichever home he wanted to be in that night, he noticed something dropping down quietly through the mostly still air. It was small, white, and delicate. He stopped. Löwen stopped. The world stopped.
And the snowflake fell and landed on his nose.
Kipfel stared at it on the tip of his snout and wrinkled it to make the flake fall, but it had already started to melt from his body heat. The world seemed such a silent place suddenly, as if no one wanted to disturb the perfection of the moment, but Kip knew he had to. He and Löwen exchanged a significant look, and they set off at a breakneck speed towards the second ‘home’, the Tower, where Ira was probably drifting back to sleep.
Kipfel paused only once to pick up Löwen and jump across a small stream before letting him down and running again through the wooded trails. Then, the clearing erupted into view followed closely by the Tower. *Ira!* he called at the base of the huge white building, breathless from the run. *Ira!*
There came no answer, and Kip worried the door open enough to slip inside. Löwen followed closely behind, and the door shut soon after. *Ira, Ira, Ira!* He was so excited. Snow! Think of it! The first flakes had fallen, and it was absolutely lovely! So where was Ira?
Kipfel launched himself at the stairs to the second level of the open mezzanine, where most of the libraries were housed. Löwen was right at his heels as they thundered up the stairs and tore into the first door of the connected rooms. Candles flickered into life, but Ira wasn’t there. He peeked through the various rooms, none of them lit, until he came to the sixth one. He tiptoed into the room with learned stealth, his talons barely audible over light snoring. He crept around a bookcase, and there, to none of his surprise but all of his delight, was Ira, asleep across an open book.
*Shh, Löwen,* Kip thought quietly at the Sufan and tiptoed over to the blue arboreal. He licked Ira’s cheek and then nuzzled his mate’s neck, being very mindful of the blade-like back spines he possessed. *Ira…* he projected softly, brushing coyly against the blue arboreal. *Wake up…*
*Hn… Just a few more minutes, Kip…* Ira replied groggily.
*Noo… Now….*
*Why now?*
*Because I asked you to?*
Ira opened an eye grudgingly. *You’re a pain.*
*Come outside with me.*
*Why?*
*Because. Sleep later. Play now.*
*You have strange concepts of play, though. Besides, it’s cold outside.*
*I know! Come outside with me! Just for a little? You can keep reading tomorrow. You can sleep later. Pleeaaasseee?*
*Argh. All right. Just don’t whine,* Ira allowed, pulling himself upright. *But only because I love you.* He nipped lightly at Kip’s shoulder, but the black danced away and smirked.
*Later. Outside. Right now.* That said, he turned sharply and hurried out of the library, followed closely by Ira and Löwen. He heard wing beats as he tore down the stares, jumping over the last five or so, knowing Ira was close behind him. They nudged the door open and the three of them made it outside again.
*Ah! Cold!*
*Yes, yes, yes! But look! Look at the sky!*
Ira blinked as he watched snowflakes fall lazily from the sky, spinning and twirling on the wind currents. A smile touched his snout and he glanced at Kipfel. *Snow!* he exclaimed, and Kip nodded vigorously, sharing his excitement.
The two of them jetted out into the clearing, which was slowly being dusted by white powder. Ira flew in and out of the flakes, letting them melt on his wings and back. Kipfel, meanwhile, danced and frolicked in the crisp and frosted grass. The chill of the ground was a comfort to him, sharply cold like bare stone. And the two of them chirped and whistled in the darkness until they were too tired to do it much longer.
There were a few centimeters on the ground when they decided to go inside, much to Löwen’s relief. The three of them curled up inside the library in front of a fireplace that ignited when they entered the room. Xylon was very good to his guests, Kip remembered, as they drifted to sleep. The warmth of each other and the fire drove the chill from their bodies, and they could hardly wait to go back to town to tell everyone how wonderful this was.
But even then, the urge to go roaming was tugging at them, and it was something even Löwen wasn’t able to put down.
***
“I know, I know. I shouldn’t get so upset when he goes missing, but what if something’s happened to him, Tren?”
“Don’t you trust Ira and Löwen, Annabel?”
“It’s not that, it’s just that.. Well, I wish he was closer more often.”
Tren chuckled sat on the edge of the bed he had made her stay in. “You’re sick. You can’t do anything about it. Stop worrying. You’ll know if something goes wrong. Besides, imagine if Kipfel wanted to stay around you all the time. Think of it as a blessing in disguise.”
Annabel groaned unhappily. “It’s just a cold!” she protested. “It’s not that important!”
Tren ran his long fingers through her short and coppery curls that were growing in thickly. “Shh. It’s important you get healthy again.”
“But!” She cut herself off with a sneeze.
“No buts. You won’t be feeling better if you get up and start trying to do something about things out of your control.”
Annabel fixed him with the closest thing she could manage to a wry grin. “But Tren, doing things about things out of my control is what I’m good at.” She sneezed again. “Gates,” she muttered.
Tren laughed lightly again. “Why don’t you set to reading again? You might feel better.”
“Because I read all the books here, and I don’t want to send you out on an errand in that weather.”
“Oh, but it’s perfectly fine for you to go out in search of your antisocial bondmate.”
“Absolutely. Of course it is.”
“You, Miss Annabel, are impossible to reason with.”
She sneezed again before looking up and fixing him with a broad grin. “Why thank you, Tren. That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me all day.”
“Don’t you try buttering me up. You’re staying in. And that’s final.”
“You’re absolutely no fun.”
“Hey, at least I feed you while you’re down and out.” He rose and crossed to the door. “Speaking of which, I’m going to go check on the stew.”
“Please don’t set yourself on fire again, Tren.”
Tren grinned. “Anything for you, Nabel,” he replied, leaving the room. And once again Annabel was left alone with her thoughts. But she was tired, and not much in the mood for thinking, so she pulled the heavy comforter over her head and flopped over onto the pillows and worked on trying to fall asleep. There was no way she could go out looking for him anyway, and she had promised that she wouldn’t, but still. She wanted to, and she worried.
And she sneezed.
***
Ira cut left sharply and Kip leapt over a log as Löwen tailed characteristically behind them. The arboreal snapped between the heavy trees as the terran landed heavily in the snow, racing heavily after their quarry. A hill was coming into view, and Ira hurried to the top of it, and Kip threw on an extra burst of speed before leaping into the air and falling into a snowdrift and then falling out of it again, his paws scrambling for purchase on an icy part of the surface before gaining his footing and snapping the neck of the large hare they had chased down.
*Do you have to be so rough with it?* Ira asked critically.
*Yes,* Kip replied, trotting proudly up the drift and down the other side. *You want it dead, right?*
Ira considered the thought of eating a live hare and killing it himself and shuddered at the thought. *Yes,* he admitted, swooping down to pull Löwen out of one of the deeper of Kip’s footprints before gliding up a few feet again.
*Besides, this way, it’s less blood everywhere. I could be rough or I could be messy. You take your pick.*
*Okay, okay. Rough, please. We don’t need other animals tracking us back to the lair.*
Kip glanced back, definitely looking smug as he carried the kill back. He was actually prancing Ira realized after a moment.
*And don’t let this go to your head. I saw the rabbit first.*
Kip grinned toothily around the rabbit and picked up his pace. *Come on! I’m hungry!* he said before taking to running across the snowy ground again.
***
“Three weeks and still no sign of them. I’m going to find them,” Annabel repeated stubbornly as she tucked her stocking feet into boots and laced them up tightly. “Even if it takes me the rest of the winter.”
“Why do you have to be so impossible? You just started feeling better two days ago,” Tren sighed from the fireplace, which he was feeding with logs.
“Because I’m worried about him!”
“I hate to take his words, but worry about someone else for once, will you? You said yourself that he just up and leaves sometimes. There is nothing to worry about. If there was, you’d have felt it.”
“But—“
“Besides, Clarinet says there’s nothing to worry about and that we’ll see them in the spring. That’s not all that long from now. Only a few more months.”
“But—“
“Oi. No buts.” He tossed a final log into the fire and watched the wood catch and the flames flare before turning and crossing the floor to where Annabel was standing, trying to come up with a good excuse. “Stop trying to take all his fun away and try having some of your own for once,” he said wrapping his arms around her waist.
Annabel looked down, trying in vain to avoid making contact with his silver eyes. And when she did, she felt herself drowning. He tipped her chin gently and kissed her lightly, tenderly. When he pulled away, she blinked. “But Kip—“ she began, but he cut her off.
“Shush, will you? Did they teach you to horribly ruin moments by being distracted where you came from,” he chided lightly. “Now stop worrying about him and stay in. Please.”
She deliberated for just a moment. She could go out and make both Kip and Tren miserable by looking for him and getting sick again, or she could stay here and let a pretty boy do his best to keep her thoughts distracted.
Easy choice, she decided, and she leaned towards him and let him kiss her again.
“Thank you,” he said softly and grinned, running his hand gently along her jaw.
***
Kipfel lay awake, brooding, watching the snow fall into the cave they had chosen to make their lair. Ira was curled up beneath him, and Löwen was under the blue’s wing. Kipfel, however, was awake. It was snowing again, after all.
He wanted to wake Ira up, to talk to him, to do something, but he knew Ira was very tired lately. The cold made him tired. He didn’t have Kip’s endurance or stamina regarding it, and that made Kip worry. He wanted to stay here, away from the others, just the three of them, until that spring, when the thaws came. Ira, though… Was it normal for him to sleep this much? Was it hibernation or something else that made him so tired?
He hoped it wasn’t anything too serious or dangerous. It worried him. It saddened him. And there was nothing he could do about it. Except let him sleep, that is.
There it was. That was the solution. Ira would sleep and Kip would keep him warm and hunt. And Löwen would come with him. And they would figure out a way to keep the cave clear of intruders.
He closed his eyes. For now, though, he would sleep. In the morning he would worry about making his plans more precise.
***
And that was mostly how winter passed, the first one they spent together, be it Kipfel, Ira, and Löwenherzchen or Annabel and Tren or the other members of the community. The snow continued to fall and melt at intervals, often icing over masses of trees. Kipfel honed his hunting skills and found that he was much happier generally away from everyone but still within reach of the ones he loved who had time and dedication to love him back.
As it was, Ira had a very low tolerance for cold and went into hibernation, coming out only when it was freakishly warm or he got very hungry. He refused, when he was awake, to go back. Kipfel cherished every moment Ira was awake, even though they were exceedingly few and far between. He vowed that next winter, he would find a warmer lair, someplace where Ira would not feel compelled to fall asleep due to the temperature. There was probably one somewhere and he had all year until snowfall to find it. And he would. And they would winter over together again. And Ira would just be his.
Spring came, and as the weather began to warm up, Ira began to wake up, and the first rainstorm there was, they decided to head back home. When they arrived, the first of the ships was in sight, and everyone was busying themselves opening the harbor for the traders and sailors and adventurers who would be stopping through. Annabel was absolutely thrilled to learn that Kipfel (and Ira and Löwen) were alive and well. Kipfel had easily neglected to mention at all where they were or how Ira slid in and out of hibernation.
And when the first of the ships came in, everyone was happy. Even Kipfel, who loved seeing the shiny baubles the seamen brought to every shore, was personable. He wasn’t that way with everyone, but he’d stopped trying to kill Tren, which was a big relief in everyone’s book, especially after the announcement that he and Annabel had agreed to wed. So spring brought new things, and life back to the islands, and a festival back to the Realm for another year. And no one really minded at all.
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