Closed Snowball Fight! (Autumn and Garland)

[Garland]

"Can't we talk this ov-" Before he could even finish his sentence he was pelted with a few dozen snowballs. The kids in Garland's team just shook their heads.

"Is it too late to switch teams?" A young girl said, crossing her arms and watching the squire dig himself out.

"Yes!" Garland said after digging his head out. "Half of you, start building defenses! A want a very big wall! Also a trench! The other half, get some ammunition! A dozen or so snowballs! Chop chop people! We got a dozen or so kids to cover in snow!" The kids all got to work, making a small wall and digging a trench.

Garland struggled in his snow prison. "A little help." Some of the other kids helped Garland out of his snow suit. "Thanks. Time to dig!"

Garland started whistling a small tune, helping along with the digging, and giving more material for the others to work with.

"Right, someone keep an eye out on the other teams." Garland called out to the group making the snowballs. One of the smaller boys got over to the wall, and looked over it.

"We might need a bigger wall. The brown lady is getting a lot of snowballs from the other lady's team. It looks like they have a lot of balls, but no wall though."

"No protection?" Garland asked, rolling a snowball to make it much bigger.

"Nope, but they do have a tree and a few small snow piles."

"Good, right... Let's get ready."

[Autumn Wilde]

It had come, just as she expected it would, the shout.

"Now charge!" Sayana's voice suddenly rang out across the field, surprising Autumn out of her focus on finding more snow, they had their team spread out a bit, the ground around them was devoid of snow. The snowballs they had managed to make were piled generously high in the middle.

"Get back to the middle! Start throwing!" Autumn commanded her team, most of which looked up in shock at the group of children, Sayana's team, running after them with their own snowballs.

The musician's team quickly ran over to surround their pile of snowballs, standing in a tight circle around it, and held their ground until the other team started pelting them. Autumn's gea'tar bounced against her back as she ran, and her throat felt dry because of the cold weather. Nonetheless, she was having a blast.

One of the children's snowballs hit her face and she started throwing blindly. Grabbing a snowball from her pile and throwing it at whatever moving blur she could. It was very iffy on whether her snowball would actually hit anything, but she didn't care too much.

A snowball was thrown at the back of her neck, and the snow slowly fell inside the neck of her jacket. She jumped and yelped in surprise and turned an accusing eye on one of the little boys on the dancer's team, whom was now running away.

"I'll get you back for that!" She yelled at the boy playfully. But before she got a chance, she noticed some of the children on the other team ducking around her own team to try to get to her snowballs. That's when she knew what the real plan was.

"Protect the snowballs! Don't let them get any!" She yelled at her own team. It wasn't like there were very many snowballs left now anyways, but her team did have a larger amount of children, so it all depended on who was loyal enough to stay on her team or who would flip flop in an every-man-for-himself fashion.

During the attack, Autumn caught a glance of the other man's team. They were busy making a small wall. It wasn't too impressive, as there wasn't a large amount of snow to use. They were preparing themselves for an attack. Smart really, to try to stay out of the way of the main part of the fight. It would not stay like this for too long.

"Okay team! Grab whatever snowballs you can! Now go after the other team!" She shouted the command at her team, some of the kids had a few snowballs, some only one, and some not any. The Eypharian's team was still around, still throwing snowballs, but Autumn's players were now focused on a new plan. Her team went ahead and started throwing their own snowballs at the other man's team, trying to get through his defenses. Autumn took this opportunity to stand to the side and make snowballs for whoever needed them.

Her hands were drastically numb now, to an almost painful point. She tried to ignore it though. The children were having fun, and that was what mattered. Once this was over, she definitely needed to go get a hat and gloves.

Autumn Wilde

[Sayana]

Sayana’s “charge” resulted in a chaotic pile of snowballs being thrown. Her plan didn’t entirely work since Autumn’s team quickly regrouped around their collection of snowballs but the kids managed to break through and steal a couple. With snowballs being thrown every which way it was hard to tell friend from foe and the Eypharian got hit numerous times, mostly on her coat but a couple times on the head. After a particularly well aimed shot, Sayana had to stop to wipe the snow off her cheek. Her eyes were glistening but she wasn’t going to let on that it still stung. All of this was by far the last thing she had imagined when people of the city had spoken of snow. From the light fluffy texture to the way it quickly turned into ruthless snowballs. But regardless, she was having the time of her life. During her pause she was able to glance over at Garland’s team who appeared to be building a wall… if you would call it that. Hardly over a foot high, he had the kids gathering snow from all over to build it up and give it some length. After Sayana had gone full on against Autumn’s team it had given Garland some time to prepare. Now things were going to change, and it seemed like Autumn had the same idea. “Okay team! Grab whatever snowballs you can! Now go after the other team!” The musician called, confirming Sayana’s thoughts. “Hey Autumn! Let’s join together and have at him!” Sayana called out to her friend and pointed in the squire’s direction. Looking around at the chaotic remains of her team, she waved her arms about to get everyone’s attention. “Team! Listen up! We’re going to join up with Autumn and break down that wall!” She pointed at the puny wall that was forming, something that several hard kicks could probably dismantle. It seemed that Autumn’s group was already launching their attack and Sayana wasn’t about to get left behind. “Snowballs at the ready!” She shouted and held up a snowball of her own. “Attack!” Some of the kids had already gotten into the fray before she had given the order, but she didn’t care. She rushed forwards with the rest of her team. La-la-la-la-la-la-aaahh-eee! At the end of her ‘battle cry’ her team had made it to Garland’s wall and was either pelting snowballs at his team or creating havoc upon his wall. Not to mention the fact that kids from Autumn’s team seemed to be everywhere too.

[Garland]

Garland chanced a peek out of their small wall of snow. He saw the two other "armies" getting ready to attack Garland's group.

"Get down! Get down! Incoming!" He yelled, almost sounding like a soldier on the frontlines yelling at his subordinates to take cover. Garland jumped back into their small trench, if you can even call it that. He heard the sound of snowballs hitting their wall, soft thumps of snow on snow. "Hey, I want you to cover me, alright?"

The kids gave a few confused looks, and even one of the younger ones, threw a slush of snow at Garland.

He shook off the snow, and looked at his "troops". "That's not what I meant. I mean you need to throw snowballs while I go out there to do my plan."

The kids gave a collective "oh" and grabbed a few dozen snowballs. "Hey, Sayana and... other girl! That's a bit like cheating!" He said before the kids started throwing over their wall.

Garland took the large snowball he was rolling around, and rolled it around to the tree, making sure to stay out of the line of fire, and hopefully their sight. While the kids were providing a distraction, he looked at the ongoing battlefield, he waited until at least a few of the kids were in the way. He pushed, it rolled down the small little snow hill, it rolled down and hit a small clump of kids.

"Hoo Hah!" Garland yelled and ducked back into cover.

[Autumn Wilde]

“Hey Autumn! Let’s join together and have at him!” Sayana called over to Autumn, pointing in the younger boys' direction.

"Well of course!" Autumn responded and threw the snowball she had been holding at the other team's "wall". It hit one of the kids with a solid thud which made Autumn happy that she had actually hit something, and at the same time a little bad that it was a child she had hit. But the kid brushed it off and gave her a look of determined vengeance.

As she kept throwing snowballs, handing snowballs to kids and breathing into her hands periodically to bring them back to life, the leader of the other team shouted out to her and Sayana.

"Hey, Sayana and... other girl!" That must mean Autumn, "That's a bit like cheating!" The girl that Autumn had originally chosen for her team, the one with the yellow hat, had run back over and was standing next to Autumn. Autumn gave the girl a confused look, and the child just shrugged in response.

"Is it cheating?" The small girl asked, surprising Autumn with how mature her voice sounded. Instead of responding directly to the child, she looked up and shouted at the boy.

"Maybe so, but all is fair in love and war." It might have been a bad analogy, but she wasn't going to second guess her actions.

Autumn handed the yellow hatted girl a snowball, whom ran off with it. As the girl was running, Autumn watched a gradually growing snowball roll down the hill and run into a small group of kids. It wasn't enough to cause much harm, really only falling apart when it hit them. But still the boy gave out a cheer and ducked back under his small wall.

Autumn only shook her head in response, and before she could do anything else, she heard Sayana let out a battle cry.

"La-la-la-la-la-la-aaahh-eee!" It was loud and got the kids moving. The two teams had merged into one and complete havoc was being wreaked upon the boy and his team's wall. The ground was slowly running out of snow though, and Autumn had to keep moving further and further out to try to get snowballs for the kids.

The balls of snow were coming slower and slower as only a few were left over. Autumn knew this meant the game was soon to come to an end. She watched as the girl in the yellow hat threw her last snowball, looked around the ground to find just grass with bits of frost, then look back up at Autumn. She ran over with a big smile and pulled on Autumn's sleeve.

"I heard the lady with all the arms say your name is Autumn," She paused and screwed up her face, like she was trying not to laugh, "Like the season?" It was cute, how she so obviously wanted to burst into laughter but constrained herself for Autumn's sake. Autumn just smiled at her.

"Yes ma'am, just like the season. It was my mama's favorite season ever so she named me after it." The last part was a lie, but she wanted to let the girl have more of a reason instead of just being confused, in truth she had no idea why she was named the way she was. Her parents had both disappeared when she was very young. "And what is your name?" Autumn asked her. She smiled wide again and put her arms to her sides.

"Sara." She told Autumn, then a snowball was launched in her direction from one of the other kids, a boy who looked around the same age. Sara gasped in surprise and ran after the boy. Autumn laughed and watched the two children having fun.

Their snowball fight had gradually diminished to children running around throwing what little bits of snow there was left on to each other. Autumn took this moment to walk over to where Sayana was and greet her.

"Hello again," She paused long enough for the dancer to reply then continued, "So who is the boy on the other team? You seem to know him fairly well." When she asked her question, she brought her hands up to her mouth and blew warm air into them, trying to bring feeling back into her fingers. Autumn's ears and cheeks were a bright rosy pink and snow was still melting on the back of her neck. Some pieces of snow were still clinging to her hair from when she had been hit in the head a few times. The gea'tar was still strapped to her back, although it was so often there that it was easy for Autumn to forget about it, as she was used to it's weight.

Autumn Wilde

[Sayana]

“It’s not cheating, it’s called forming alliances!” Sayana shouted back at the squire. She threw her snowball and quickly made another one to target Garland as he was clearly up to something. But in the process she got several more snowballs thrown back at her – two hitting her face. “Bloody shyte!” She swore loudly not realizing or caring that she was around children. When she had wiped most of the snow away she watched as Garland rolled the ball of snow down the hill. It seemed like a smart idea since it picked up the snow as it rolled, forming a little green path, but it was hardly much bigger by the time it reached the kids at the bottom and kind of fell apart as it hit them. When she saw Garland do a little ‘hooray’ from behind his wall she quickly made two snowballs and rushed over to him. “Garland! Those kids of yours got me twice in the face and—” An icy wet chill slid down her neck and Sayana yelped in surprise. One of the boys had managed to reach up to put some snow down her coat and was now dashing off. The Eypharian threw two poorly aimed snowballs out of reflex that missed the boy entirely. “Truce! Truce!” Sayana pleaded as she tried to rid herself of the snow that had gotten into her coat. She got most of it out, but some of it she just managed to spread around till it melted inside. Off to the side the boy gave his friend a high five and said, “I got the hunchback lady real good!” By now the snowball fight was dying down. There was a lot less fresh snow available in the immediate area and the kids had had their fun. Even with her gloves on, Sayana was starting to feel her mid hands getting cold and wet, though her others were nice and toasty inside her coat. As Autumn approached Sayana gave a smile and then looked over her shoulder at Garland at the mention of him. “Oh, you mean Garland? Yeah, I’ve gotten to know him quite well,” she answered with a knowing smile. “He’s one of the squires here. One of the many squires.” The Eypharian then beckoned Garland to join them. “Garland, this is Autumn. She’s one of the musicians here. From… Zeltiva, right?” Sayana introduced, more than happy to bring two friends together.

[Garland]

He made a quick snowball and looked to his team. "Use the wall, pelt them with snowballs!" He threw one of the snowballs at Sayana and the rest of his team followed. "That was payback for earlier."

He called out to his team. "Cease fire, cease fire." Some of the kids stopped but the few younger ones just looked a bit confused.

"What does cease mean?"

"Where's the fire?"

"It means stop, kids."

"Oh."

And they did. Garland came out from his cover and went over to introduce himself to Sayana's friend. "Hello, my name is Garland. Nice to meet you." He said and extended his hand to shake Autumn's. "From Zeltiva, huh? Well, I hope you're having a good time in Syliras."

He smiled and looked at Autumn's team, they really seemed to like her even though they were as much strangers as he was to them. "You have a way with kids. Hmm... You're a musician, right? Kids, wanna hear a song?" He said, putting Autumn in the spot light.

[Autumn Wilde]

Autumn took Garland's hand in her own, giving a small, gentle shake. Their hands were both around the same level of coldness, as they had both been throwing snowballs. When Garland took his hand back, Autumn quickly blew warm air into her own to try to scare away the chill.

"It's good to meet you too, Garland. Yes I'm having a wonderful time in Syliras, thank you!" She responded and smiled. A lot of the kids were just hanging around now, talking amongst each other in excited tones, or just watching the three adults have their conversation. The crowds on the street had moved on. Everyone had business to attend to, no time for lollygagging. The musician was just glad none of the knights had come by and told them to stop.

"You have a way with kids. Hmm... You're a musician, right?" Autumn nodded in response. It would hard to assume otherwise, considering the instrument hanging on her back. "Kids, wanna hear a song?" The young squire surprised Autumn by volunteering her to play a song. Of course, she would not back away from playing music for children. They all cheered and looked expectantly at Autumn. She was in no way afraid of being the center of attention. She loved playing music for people. It was her entire passion in life. Although, her fingers were still pretty frozen, but she would do her best.

"Alright, kiddos, gather round. I'll play you something new." Autumn wanted to do something lighthearted and fun. She pulled the gea'tar around to her front and sat cross-legged on the driest patch of grass she could find. In truth, she did not have a song readily available, so she made something up as she played. She started plucking some high notes in an arpeggio-style, going for four simple chords. The kids sat around her, smiling with their eyes wide, all going silent.

"When Winter comes we bundle up,
In all our hats and coats and gloves,
We all expected snow to come,
And as it turns out, it's rather fun!

Snowballs flying here and there,
Children run around the square,
But snowballs cannot do much harm,
Unless, of course, you have six arms!

As the fight goes on and on,
We realize that we're almost done,
All the snow is good as gone,
But our days will still go on.

I had a blast, that much is true,
But our fun is not completely through.
I'm sure that we'll all meet again,
And we'll say "Good to see you, Friend!"

Autumn ended the song with an exaggerated strum of the last chord, wearing a huge smile plastered on her face. The children laughed and clapped and cheered and it made Autumn feel wonderful. The little girl in the yellow hat, Sara, stood from her spot amongst the children and walked right up to Autumn. Sitting down, the girl stood at least a foot higher than Autumn.

"Will you really come back?" Sara asked with a tone of perfect innocence and longing. It broke Autumn's heart, that all of these children lived at the orphanage. Autumn moved her gea'tar back to her back and grabbed Sara by the shoulders, pulling her into a tight hug.

"Of course I will, Sara. I want to see you whenever you can. I live right over there," Autumn let go of Sara and pointed in the direction of the Traveler's Row apartments, "In those apartments. If you ever need me, I'll be either there, or around here somewhere." She knew that children probably weren't allowed inside the Tavern, but there was a good possibility that she would be seeing Sara around, as the orphanage was fairly close by. Autumn gave Sara another small smile before standing back up and brushing off her bottom. It was soaked, not much she could do about it.

"Okay kids, why don't you guys head back somewhere warmer and unfreeze your hands in front of a fire. I'll be here for the next snowball fight." Autumn addressed the entire group of kids. They all nodded or agreed then began walking in the same general direction, once again talking amongst each other or running around, causing disruptions to the other people in their business. Ah, kids, Autumn never minded when one would interrupt her day.

Once they had gone a little further down the road, Autumn turned back to her dancer friend, and her newly acquired squire friend.

"What do you guys say about getting somewhere warm as well? I can't feel my hands." She laughed and started blowing air into her hands again. The Rearing Stallion tavern was right there, and Autumn turned to head into it, ready to start her work night. Well, as soon as she was able to play her instrument properly.

Autumn Wilde

[Sayana]

“Kids, wanna hear a song?” The Eypharian gave a giggle at his presumption that Autumn would be willing to play, but was pleased at her response. As the musician rounded up the kids into a circle sitting around her, Sayana also took a seat on the cold and slightly wet ground curious to see what Autumn had in store. She considered joining in with Autumn’s music with some dancing of her own, but after the first couple of bars it was clear that the song was far too light hearted and she didn’t want to steal the spotlight from her friend. The kids really seemed to be enjoying it and Sayana couldn’t help but smile at lyrics that so closely described the snowball fight they had just had. As the musician finished up the song with a final strum of her gea-tar Sayana immediately led the applause, clapping loudly for her friend. “That was wonderful Autumn!” She cheered. “I didn’t know you could make up songs like that.” As a little girl approached Autumn, Sayana got up and stretched her legs dusting off the snow from her coat. She moved over to Garland and nodded at her musician friend. “She certainly has a way with children. I think a good chunk of my dancing would be… not suitable for them.” With a laugh she gave the squire a quick peck on the cheek and then went to join Autumn. “Time to go home, is it?” Sayana asked as she nodded towards the kids who were chattering away as they all headed in the same general direction. They were rather cute and so full of energy. A knot of longing formed in her stomach, but she was shortly interrupted by Autumn’s voice. “What do you guys say about getting somewhere warm as well? I can't feel my hands.” “Yes, let’s,” Sayana agreed as she took off her gloves and reached out to take one of Autumn’s icy hands in both of hers. “Ooh! They are as cold as… snow,” she said a bit lamely, lacking the ease of using analogies for describing the cold. “But yes, the Rearing Stallion is just here. First round is on me.” And with that she put her gloves back on and joined Autumn in heading to the tavern for drinks, conversation, and most importantly a place to warm up. Autumn’s Winter Song : Last night I did a quick recording of Autumn’s song. Here it is. OOC : I wrote this post to be my last for this thread. Can we simply assume that they enjoy some light conversation and drinks at the tavern? I feel like it’s a good stopping point (once Garland has made his last post). But let me know if you’d like to continue things further.

[Garland]

"I feel like my fingers are frozen solid I think..." He smiled and warmed up his hands. "Anyway, I think it's a bit early for a drink, Sayana. Maybe we could just get warm by the fire or something. I wouldn't want to get drunk during the day." He said with a smile.

He waved over to the kids. "I'll come over with Uncle Wade when I have time, kids!" He waved to the small swarm of kids as they walked off somewhere, probably to the orphanage. He ran over to the door to the Rearing Stallion and opened the door.

"You first ladies."

occI don't really have a lot to say here, and you have a pretty cute voice Sayana.