Truly, I didn’t. Avuri and I were progressing very slowly on wedding plans, but we had only agreed to be married barely a month before. Or, I supposed, it was perhaps a bit more than a month now. Cierra and Stena had both been behaving very well the last few weeks and it seemed they were both finally really adjusted to their life here.
Even better, Talya and Vale had finally stopped making fun of me for my long overdue proposal. Well, mostly. It was more that it wasn’t the first thing out of their mouths every time they saw me, now. That was progress!
Everything over the last few weeks had been about as perfect as they could have been.
“And yet…”
I looked out again over the Basin. The warm Basin. In the dead of winter. On a mountain top.
I really did appreciate the Array that kept everything warm and pleasant all year round, especially as it helped all of the plants thrive when they really had no business living up here.
But another part of me missed the natural order of things at this time of the year. The chilled, crisp air that hurt a little when you took a deep breath. The weird, somewhat white-tinged colors that everything seemed to take on, regardless of the weather outside. The chance to wear thicker, cozier clothing without sweating.
Well. We didn’t really have to worry about that, I supposed. It was more of a vibe than anything else.
And right now, I really missed the snow.
Especially right now.
With Avuri around, it suddenly felt like the snow and ice had real meaning to me. I supposed it didn’t have to, given I did have Avuri around. Somewhere. But it had occurred to me that now, more than ever, I had wanted to experience that first snowfall of the year. Especially with her and the girls.
That first snowfall that was currently flurrying lightly down outside the Array, but failed to penetrate it.
At least it didn’t just hit the Array’s edge and turn to rain. I took some solace in that, at least; I could sit outside and enjoy some of it. Just not the way I wanted to.
I pulled my legs up in the chair a little bit, which pushed Cierra toward my chest a bit more, and I tightened my hug on her a little bit and kissed the top of her head, wondering when I had suddenly gotten so sentimental.
And then the very reason for my sudden melancholy flew out the window, laughing.
“Ha ha! Can’t catch me now, can you?” Avuri exalted as she propelled herself onto the balcony from our room, evidently escaping from Stena, who was chasing her and struggling to keep up.
“Yes I can!” The little girl asserted, climbing out the open window onto the balcony. She was barreling toward Avuri quickly when she noticed me with Cierra on my lap. Avuri, too, stopped when she saw us, and immediately tried to quiet down a little, but Cierra was already stirring from her nap.
“Hey, you.” Avuri said as she stepped closer. With Cierra already starting to shift, she seemed to worry a little less about the noise, opting instead to stroke the sleepy girl’s hair. “Sorry to wake you from your nap, Cici.”
“It’s…okay.” She said, interrupted by a yawn and blinking her bleary eyes. “What’s going on?”
“Avuri and Stena were playing tag?” I half-asked.
“More or less.” Avuri said. “Or, at least, Stena was chasing me around.” Avuri opted to slip around to the other chair and sat down in it, motioning to Stena to come join her.
“Momri stole my snack and ran away with it.” Stena said, marching over to Avuri. Stena stopped and held her hand out toward Avuri, waiting.
“Oh. That’s right.” Avuri said, then popped a small piece of sweet bread from her storage ring into her hand. It also looked like it was dipped in honey. Stena shook her hand as if once again asking for the treat, so Avuri placed it in the girl’s palm. Only then did Stena hop into Avuri’s lap happily, holding the treat gingerly with both hands.
“Do you have more?” Cierra asked hesitantly. Avuri didn’t miss a beat before three more of the treats appeared. She passed one to Cierra, the second to me, then nibbled on the third herself.
I grinned down at Cierra, who was already happily munching away on hers. I laid my chin on her head as it moved up and down with her chewing, and I snickered.
“What’ve you been up to out here?” Avuri asked.
I turned to her with a slight glower. “Cuddling our daughter and lamenting the weather.”
“Lamenting the weather?”
“Yep.” I said, taking a bite of the bread. It really was quite tasty. “While I really appreciate the Array and it keeping everything here warm, I can see the first snowfall of the season outside over there.” I said, pointing to the edge of the Array where flurries of snow fell.
“Why don’t we go over there and check it out, then?” Avuri said around a mouthful of bread. “Cierra? Stena? Have either of you seen snow before?”
“I saw it on the mountain when you brought me here.” Stena said, then cocked her head. “Does that count?”
“Me too.” Cierra said. “But other than seeing it on the mountainside over there? I think that’s it.” She also tilted her head, trying to recall if she’d ever seen snow elsewhere.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think we should go over there.” I said, then raised my finger up a bit to point out the spirit beasts that were wandering around outside the Array. I considered our options, but didn’t come up with anything that sounded good.
Sure, we could go out and fight the beasts. I didn’t think they stood any sort of chance against us, but it was very rare for them to just turn tail and run away if that was their territory. Which meant the most likely outcome by far was a fight, which would probably lead to dead beasts. And that could lead to attracting other beasts with the smell of blood. But, more than that, I didn’t want to slaughter a bunch of beasts and then bring the girls over to the site of that battle. It would’ve left the whole memory tainted.
When Avuri saw what I was pointing at, it seemed like she was about to suggest we just go and remove the spirit beasts, but hesitated a moment. Then she met my eyes and nodded. “I see.”
“Yeah.” I said, a little disheartened. I tried to console myself with another bite of the bread. It didn’t really help.
Avuri picked Stena up off her lap, and placed her gently on the ground beside the chair so she could stand. She ruffled the girl’s hair and squatted down to be eye level with her. “You stay here, okay?” Then she stood and addressed us all with an “I’ll be right back,” and leapt back inside.
“Why’d she go?” Stena asked sadly. She seemed mostly upset about losing her seat, so I made some room for her on my chair. She may not be able to sit in my lap with Cierra there already, but she could still cuddle with us.
“I don’t know.” I said, equally confused, as I beckoned Stena over to us. Together, the three of us munched away on our snacks for a while, cuddled up on the comfortable chair.
It wasn’t too long, perhaps ten minutes, until Avuri returned with a huge grin.
“Where’d you go?” I asked, the girls nodding along with curiosity.
“I had to see a woman about an Array.” She said, and winked. “Now be quiet.”
I felt Avuri unfurl her Domain, letting it spread out across most of the Basin. I had a pretty good idea what it was she was going to do at that point, and I smiled.
“You didn’t have to -”
“I said ‘be quiet’.” She shot back before I could even finish what I was saying. And sure enough, I saw the beginnings of a light snow.
Given that our house was positioned pretty directly under the elder wisteria, it was unlikely that we would have seen much in the way of falling snow, even without the Array altogether. The canopy would’ve caught most of it. But with Avuri creating the snow, she had the ability to start it falling just within the canopy, letting it fall to the ground.
In fact, it almost looked as though the tree itself was creating the snowfall.
“I asked Talya if she could alter the Array slightly.” Avuri said, still focused. “Even if I had wanted to do this before, it would’ve been pointless because everything would melt too quickly.” With her eyes closed, she put a hand out, letting a few flakes settle there. “But the Array that guards us isn’t a heating Array. It’s a climate control Array.”
She smiled. “It can be altered for cold, too.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Alright you two. Inside, now.” I said, ushering the girls off my lap. Avuri opened her eyes, looking entirely shocked before I continued. “We need to get you two into warmer clothes before we sit out in the snow. I don’t exactly carry your winter clothing in my storage ring.”
I was in the middle of standing when I felt another small flex of Qi, and suddenly Avuri was holding two beautifully made, woolen robes. We had gotten them for the girls a few weeks prior, in case we ever brought them down to the city with us, through the snowy mountain peaks.
“One step ahead of you, dear.” Avuri said. She passed one of the coats to me, then knelt to help Stena into hers. Cierra walked over to me so I could do the same with hers.
As I helped Cierra get her arms into the large, padded sleeves, I snickered. “I love you, Ri.”
“I know.” She chuckled. “I love you too.” She said, then patted Stena’s chest as she got the ties fastened. “And I love you, too.” She said, directly to Stena.
“I love you too, Momri!” The girl shouted in response. I could feel Cierra vibrating in my hold as I tried to get the last few ties done while she fought the urge to jump up and down.
“I love you too, too, Momri!” Cierra shouted. “And you too, Mom.” She added, turning back to face me.
“Me too, me too!” Stena shouted, not wanting to be left out in any way. Once I had Cierra bundled up, I walked over and ruffled Stena’s hair.
“I wonder if we should get them hats to cover their ears…” I muttered, eyeing the tops of Stena’s ears poking out from under her hair. And suddenly there was a cozy knitted hat slung over Stena’s head.
I couldn’t help but laugh as Avuri flitted over to Cierra, throwing a hat on her head too.
“You really are just one step ahead of me today.” I chuckled.
Once the hat was snugly on Cierra’s head, she walked up to me next, another hat in hand.
It did look cozy, even if I wouldn’t get cold. She had even knitted it in my color - black with smaller purple accents. Once I accepted the hat, another one popped into her hand in a clean white, which she put onto her own head.
With her hat secured - and a little lopsided - Avuri stepped closer to put her arms around my waist and leaned back so she could stare into my eyes.
“I’m getting better at being a mom, huh?” She asked, a cocky little grin spreading over her face.
I reached up to straighten her hat with a smile. “You are. Which is good, since you’ll be one officially in a few months.”
“What, you don’t think I count already?” She joked.
I chuckled and pulled her hat down over her eyes. “You do, but you better take this seriously.”
“You know I do.” She said, lifting one side of her hat, to reveal just her right eye, leaving it askew.
I let out a dramatic, heavy sigh, complete with drooping shoulders. Avuri pulled me closer for a kiss then stepped back. “Alright. Let’s go.” She said, her eyes darting toward Stena for a moment.
I glanced toward Cierra questioningly, and Avuri made the tiniest of nods, then mouthed ‘Three…two…one…’
We both moved much quicker than either of the girls could have possibly tracked. I moved over to sweep Cierra up into my arms and leapt from the balcony. Avuri did the same, scooping up Stena in one swift motion. We landed several dozen meters away from the house, which put us near the playground. In two more jumps, we were there, the girls screaming the whole way at the sudden rush of wind in their faces.
Once we were stopped long enough for them to notice, they calmed down and started to laugh instead. Stena even asked to go again.
“We’ve got something else planned, okay?” Avuri asked the girl, and set her down when she nodded agreement. I also put Cierra down on her feet, then sat down on the dirt on the playground.
I was shocked by how cold the ground was already. I had apparently severely underestimated the strength of the Array we were using for climate control.
“Stena. Cierra.” I said, getting the girls’ attention. I patted the ground on both sides of me, so they came to sit down and cuddled into me when they felt the cold ground underneath them. I put an arm around each of their shoulders and hugged them closer.
When I looked back up at Avuri, she had her eyes closed and was concentrating on her Qi. It barely took a few more seconds before snowflakes began to float gracefully down to the ground. A few seconds after that, the snow was falling thicker. It looked almost like they were in the middle of a snowstorm, but without any of the accompanying storm winds.
I huddled the girls closer as Avuri intensified the storm further. I let out my own Domain around our little huddle to block some of the suddenly intense snowfall. Avuri carried on like that for just a couple of minutes, before letting the snow calm down.
Before I was able to call her out for being too aggressive, I saw what she had done and simply smiled instead.
There was nearly two inches of fresh snow on the ground. Between the speed at which she had produced so much snow and the lack of any real wind, rain, or sleet, the coating on the ground was smooth, soft, and fluffy. It was the quintessential perfect first snow fall.
And she had left the snow flurrying lightly as the girls turned away from hiding in my shoulders to look around. The looks on both their faces were perfect.
The whole scene was perfect.
They quickly jumped up to their feet and spun around in the snow as Avuri made her way over to us. She had her head tilted back with her mouth open and tongue out, trying to catch the flakes on her tongue.
It took all of three seconds for Cierra to notice what Avuri was doing and copy her. And almost immediately after that, her sister followed suit. I laughed, falling back in the snow and looking up at the little bits of sky poking through the tree cover.
The snow around me had already been kicked about by the girls a bit, but that didn’t stop me from spreading out my arms and legs to make a snow angel. Even if the snow was only a couple inches deep, it was enough to make the simple shape appear in the snow.
Satisfied after swinging my arms and legs back and forth a few times, I settled, just staring up at the flurries while listening to my family laugh and carry on.
I took a deep breath, happy to feel a bit of that cold shock to my system, even if it really didn’t have quite the same effect that it used to as a child. After a few deep breaths, I sat back up to watch Avuri show the girls that they could pick up the snow and eat it. They squealed with delight at the cold powder.
With a smile I stood, remembering something that remained in my storage ring from making breakfast earlier. I popped a small jar of fruit syrup into my hand that had been used to sweeten the toast with breakfast.
“We can make that even better.” I said, approaching the girls. I motioned for them to hold out their handfuls of snow. They did so, and I poured a little of the syrup on each one, careful not to give them too much. I didn’t want to get it all over their hands and have them complain about being sticky.
Their eyes went wide when they took their next bites, both pairs darting between me with the syrup and the suddenly sweet, fruity snow in their hands. I chuckled as they once again squealed, the high pitched noises escaping despite their closed mouths.
A third hand slid into my view from the side; Avuri stood there, hand full of snow outstretched with a goofy grin on her face.
“Syrup, please?” She asked, putting on a cute, higher pitched voice alongside a slightly tilted head. She even batted her eyelashes at me.
I glanced over at Cierra and Stena, who were busy stuffing their own faces with snow and not paying attention to us. I turned back to Avuri with a devilish smile. “I’ll give you some syrup, of course. But you’ll need to pay for it.”
“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow at me and smiled. “And just what kind of payment does the Emery Emporium take, exactly?” She teased.
“Oh, all kinds.” I said flippantly, making the small jar of syrup disappear back into my ring with a flourish. “Kind words, hugs, kisses, generally shows of affection. I’m sure you understand.”
“I see.” She said, “And just how much is a bit of that syrup going to cost me? Or for that matter, what is the exchange rate between all my payment options?”
“It goes by tens.” I said, opting to make this easy. “Ten compliments per hug, ten hugs per kiss, and ten kisses per…” Having not thought far enough ahead to add a specific ‘currency’ beyond a kiss, I opted to just suggestively trail off and shrug. “And a dose of syrup is worth three kisses.” I added, sounding very business-like.
“Hm…” Avuri said, tapping her lower lip thoughtfully. “So three kisses, or perhaps thirty hugs?”
I nodded.
“Well then.” Avuri said, glancing over to check on the girls. They were fine; they had finished eating their small snowballs, and had moved on to kicking the powdered snow at each other, laughing all the while.
I followed Avuri’s eyes to watch the girls for just a moment and felt myself melt into a warm smile. I desperately wanted to somehow etch the image of our daughters playing in the snow into my memory forever.
And then I was promptly tackled to the ground from the side. Avuri had hit me with enough force that we went skidding in the snow for several feet before sliding to a stop, Avuri’s body snugly wrapped around mine.
“If I pick the thirty hugs, does time contribute or does it need to be thirty separate hugs?” Avuri asked, her head neatly perched on my snow covered shoulder.
“Hmm.” I hummed, considering. “Time counts, but it’s not a great conversion rate.”
“Ah, I see. In which case,” She trailed off, reaching up to cup my cheek and turn my head toward hers. She smiled brilliantly before paying me for the syrup with three distinct but satisfying kisses. When she backed away after the third, she nipped once at my jawline and gave me a warm squeeze. “I suppose the hug is your tip, then.” She said, her voice a little sweeter than before.
“Do you even still have that snow in your hand?” I laughed, my own voice coming out a little dazed sounding.
Avuri laughed. “Nope. It’s all over your clothes. Sorry.”
I laid my chin against her hair and simply returned to watching the snowfall as I had done a bit earlier. “That’s fine. I’ll give you some of the syrup later.”
“Okay.” She said softly, then settled in against me quietly. We could hear the girls laughing and playing nearby, so I wasn’t worried about them as we simply sat cuddled up in the snow that should’ve been cold and chilly, but distinctly wasn’t.
“Thanks for this, Ri.” I said solemnly. “It’s perfect. Truly.”
Avuri let out a happy sigh. “You’re welcome. Even though at least half of it is courtesy of your sister.” Avuri gave me another squeeze. “But yes, this is perfect. Thank you for letting me be a part of all of this, Emery. It’s very special.”
“Of course.” I said, laying a gentle kiss on the bit of her head that I could reach from the angle I was at.
I was about to say more, but my thoughts were completely interrupted when a large snowball crashed against my midsection, spraying unpacked snow over both our faces.
“Mom! Come play!” Cierra sang, almost tauntingly, before another snowball crashed against me.
Avuri sprung up from my side, a snowball already in hand. I sat up, gathering a handful of snow myself, to see both of our girls poised with snowballs in each hand.
Well, it was more like handfuls of snow, full stop. They didn’t really know they needed to pack the snow tighter to get a solid snowball. Avuri had something of a manic grin on her face as she patted her own snowball nice and compact.
“Oh, you two are gonna pay for that.” She said, as she tossed her snowball into the air beside her. It simply hovered there without falling as she gathered up another bit of snow.
Cierra and Stena both let their ammunition fly, with surprisingly good accuracy. Cierra’s attack landed against my chest, while Stena’s hit Avuri square in the face. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I saw Avuri move into the attack to allow it to hit her square, though.
I laughed as I threw my snowball. With Cultivator bodies, we could easily call and land our shots, so I was extra sure to aim for torso shots, and it seemed Avuri was doing the same as our attacks landed simultaneously. The girls brushed themselves off and gathered more ammunition from their piles before running in opposite directions.
Deciding that this was hardly a fair fight, I decided to get Avuri back for her tackling me earlier. I whipped a snowball at her, the snow breaking against her shoulder, spraying a bit of it up at her face. And when she turned to look at me, stunned at the betrayal, I was already airborne, ready to take her down to the ground.
Once again, we slid along the snow for a bit after the impact. Before I could do anything in the vein of a follow-up, Avuri laughed and shoved a fistful of snow straight into my face. As I sputtered and took a second to wipe my eyes clean, I felt her Qi flex.
“You made a mistake, my love.” Avuri said, giving me a quick peck.
I closed my eyes, accepting that, yeah, I really did.
“Forgive me?” I asked.
“Now where’s the fun in that?” Avuri asked.
I heard the girls laughing at us as the probably hundreds of snowballs that Avuri had created in the air with her Qi converged, pelting us - or, more specifically, me - from all sides.