Open [Knirin Gardens]Snowball Fight, Anyone?

[Shane Wallsly]

Timestamp: 90th of Fall 514 AV

Shane woke with the same kind of bliss he woke with every morning. It was another day in paradise. He got up and dressed. As usual he didn't bother with jacket or scarf for it was always so warm in Riverfall anyway. Shane wondered what he would do today. Would he meet some interesting new person or go to some interesting now place. Riverfall was his oyster to do as he pleased. Live was sweet.

However all thoughts of everything suddenly changed when Shane stepped out onto the street. It was cold, it was windy, it was snowing! Shane gasped in delight. In Sylias Shane would have grumbled but ehre in Riverfall were the weather had been unseasonably great for weeks this was a miraculous discovery! Winter was here!

Shane ran back inside and quickly pulled on his jacket and scarf even donning the leather gloves he hadn't worn since last winter. He remembered with fondness the reason he had purchased those gloves. Avira's silly old tales. Shane sometimes felt like he missed the old codger. Then he reminded himself all the old shyke had ever wanted was to exploit him. He wasnt some kind of father or grandfather figure. He was a shyke and that was that.

Shane ran back out into the snow diving into it. He made his first snow Ethaefal since his youth remembering to etch out the horns when he was finished. He stood up and patter the snow of him and admired his work. Perfect. Shane smiled and continued on his way eager to see a Riverfall in snow. Truly, a winter wonderland.

Shane decided the very first place to visit would be the Knirin Gardens. The snow would fall perfectly there. It would be ripe for a snowball fight if he could find a friendly sort of person to fling them at. Shane was mightily impressed with the Akalaks he saw on his way to the gardens. They were still shirtless. Shane definitely saw more than a couple of erect purple nipples. Shane also saw a lot more children on the streets than he usually did. They were out in droves building snowmen and having epic snowball fights. It reminded Shane of his youth. They might have been poor and Shane might not have been the most social kid but he'd still been involved in such flights of fancy. The memories were somewhat lost to him but what remained was simply a serene feeling of fondness. That he would take over details anyday.

Finally Shane arrived at his destination to fine total warfare. The kids, and adults, were locked in a furious snowball fight in the gardens where the snow lay perfectly up past your ankles in some places. Shane noticed some kids had even sort of dug trench like formations. Shane walked over to one. “Can I..?” He was answered with a snowball to the face by a little green kid who quickly ducked away out of sight. “Oh, you little brat!” He cried and started to form a snowball from the nearest patch of ground. He could tell today was going to be fun...

[Athaera]

Athaera lumbered downstairs, still half asleep. The ache of her trip still plagued her. She winced at every step, planning to go to the stables and check on her horse. She nodded to the man working at the desk, and opened the door to go outside, only to see a blanket of white covering the city. Athaera groaned.I have to walk in snow?! Walking normally was hard enough, as her legs were burning with pain. She limped back up the stairs, going to her room and snatching her cloak. She didn't have gloves, but that couldn't be helped. Another agonizing limp back downstairs, and Athaera managed to lumber out the door.

The vantha shuddered. It was cold. In an attempt to stay warm, she curled her hands up into her hands, before realizing she had to use the map. She dug around in her pockets for the scroll, but immediately realized she'd left it in the room. This resulted in another annoyed groan on Athaera's part, who decided she was not going back there. She was already unable to walk, and definitely didn't want agony from going up and down more stairs. She'd just have to find it herself.

Athaera set out, wandering through snowy streets, which all looked the same to her. She eventually got to a park, wand knew she wasn't going the right way, But Athaera still decided to go through it, thinking there may be a shortcut. No matter how many times she'd go to visit her horse, Athaera would always get lost. Paradise? Not at all. What had drawn her here in the first place? She shivered. She'd seen snow before, but didn't recall it being this cold.

She entirely ignored the scenery, desperate to find the stables. Finally, Athaera decided to ask someone. A man was laughing and playing in the snow with a few small children, and he seemed as worthy a person to ask as anyone. She approached him, not noticing she'd stepped directly on a snow Ethaefal. She approached him, limping, as always. "Excuse me?" Athaera tapped him on the shoulder, "You don't know the way to the stables, do you?" Her eyes glowed a bright red in annoyance, and she huddled farther into her cloak. The small, screaming children were a bit of a nuisance, and the vantha just hoped they didn't ask her to play with them.

The man had messy brown hair, and was grinning as he played with the children. Athaera smiled, though her eyes didn't reflect it. It was sweet to see someone to entertain the children.

Splat! A snowball struck her in the shoulder, thrown by a little girl. "Really? Ugh." Athaera glared at her, the red in her eyes only intensifying, though a light green began to swirl in her irises. She took a handful from the snow in her bare hands (which was freezing), and rolled it up into a ball. She gently pelted it at the little girl's face, who yelped. "And maybe somewhere I can buy gloves," she added to the man. it had been a year since she'd seen snow, and Athaera wasn't nearly prepared enough. She shifted her stance slightly, unintentionally knocking the head off of a snowman with her hand, but not noticing the slight thump as it hit the ground.

[Sheaya]

There was a sense of dread when Sheaya awoke that morning and she took her first step out of the inn into a world covered in a white blanket she had not seen last night and greeted by a colder gust of air then she had felt all fall. The Benshira woman had no idea what she was looking at or what exactly was happening, but she felt a piercing chill that penetrated her skin easily and chilled her to the bone. Cautious of the whole experience she took a small step onto the white downfall and felt the snow pack under her sandal much like she was use to sand doing, but it was evident that this was no where as enjoyable as she found the loose granules. She kept taking steps out and tightened the shawl around her head and shoulders, but it didn't take long for her to realize that the flakes falling down onto her were melting on her skin and clothes, leaving her wet and even colder if that was possible. "Petch allahini sikeyim!" She cried out loudly as she took cover by the inn once more, realizing that this was frozen rainfall. Her colorful understanding of Eypharian which mostly amounted to swear words making a rare appearance as she glared angrily up at the sky as if it was at fault here and was doing it just to spite her. There were a few locals who glanced her directing at her unusual cry out, but they moved on as they saw no reason to take any heed to her. Anyone who passed by this area had probably grown use to seeing her behaving strangely around this place as her practices and actions did not always fall under normal for this region, let alone her dress and appearances. She had been here almost a full season already and she knew she was no closer to finding her way home then she had been when she first entered the city. She had kept trying to find her ticket back home, but it had been with no luck. She was getting to the point too where she was going to need to sell some things she had came here with if she wanted to keep living here. She didn't enjoy this city any more then when she had first came, if anything she hated it more now that this cold, rain-like form was falling from the sky. She had never seen snow in her life nor had she ever been told stories about it growing up in the desert as she had. This was just more encouragement to leave this city and head back South. Her whole body chilled the longer she stood and her toes were already feeling frozen being exposed to the elements. She was not dressed for such cold weather as her and her possessions were built for the desert life. The best thing she could think to do to protect herself from the cold was to go back inside and grab her blanket she usually used for prayer and to wrap it around her arms and use as much of her shawl to cover her head. Looking more like a moving blanket shrubbery of sorts as she started back into the city to make her trip, cautiously walking across the streets. The snow in the high traffic areas was packed down and making it simpler to walk across, but it did nothing to lift up her mood. Her feet still felt cold and wet and she still felt cold even wrapped in the blanket. Her nose felt like it was trying to drip and her cheeks were already flushed from the chill in the air not even half way near where she wanted to be. She paused for a moment when the sound of children coming from the park drew her attention and her eyes drew to the path that lead that way. What was stopping her from taking a short cut through the park? Surely it had to be faster and more pleasurable then taking the long way around. She took a deep breath, the cold stinging her lungs as she stared at the path before taking it, cautioning away from the deeper areas of the snow. She had just cleared the entrance when she realized this had been a big mistake. The snow was getting deeper as it had stuck better, and once again curse words were filtering from her lips in her native tongue as she cautiously tried to just tough it through rather then backtracking. She hadn't been paying too much attention to who was playing in the snowfall, only on where she was going. The moment a stray snowball came flying out of what seemed like nowhere and smacked her shoulder she cried out in surprise and ducked down, covering her head. with one arm as she checked where she had been hit. She felt no pain she soon realized, but her blanket now had snow clinging to the hairy fibers that left her glaring up for the culprit. She was under attack, and she frankly wasn't sure what to do. She didn't want to touch the cold power like substance with her hands as she didn't want frozen fingers on top of the icicles of toes, but yet she was hesitant of making a run for it. Instead she just lingered there as an almost child sized blanketed lump, peering out at the children and (much to her surprise) adults playing out in this uninhabitable weather. Had they all lost their minds?