Liliana shivered, pulling her cloak tighter around herself. Snow had finally come after threatening them for days with heavy clouds. She had been so excited seeing the thick blanket of snow on the ground that she’d burst out of her tent with little more than her nightdress and cloak, and now she regretted it as she curled up close to Lelantos. She was grateful the tent had a heating enchantment worked into it, otherwise she doubted even her high vitality would save her from her own stupidity.

Nemesis was curled up on Lelantos’ head, having jumped off of Liliana before the girl had charged out of the tent. The serpent sent back smug feelings, as close to an ‘I told you so’ as she could get without words. Though Liliana suspected the serpent was close to figuring out how to use human words, she was rather intelligent and seemed to have a drive to communicate.

Liliana pulled away from Lelantos as her shivers died down and she finally started getting properly dressed, layering herself thickly in leathers and fur. Even her hands got shoved into thick gloves for all that she hated them because they made it harder to use a weapon properly. When she was dressed well enough to avoid giving herself hypothermia from playing outside, she turned to her drowsy Bonds.

She offered to have both of them come with her out into the winter wonderland, but was forcefully shut down by Nemesis. Lelantos also preferred the warm comfort of the tent and simply laid his head down, wrapping his tail around his body. Liliana rolled her eyes and turned on her heel, leaving the tent and her Bonds behind.

I’ll just make a snowman on my own, Liliana decided as her booted feet crunched through the soft snow. It was halfway up her calf, and she was a bit curious if they’d be able to take the carriage and horses through it. She knew the horses had skills to deal with the snow. It would be idiotic to not as they were a northern territory, but she didn’t know what enchantments the carriage had other than speed and stability.

The camp was quiet. It was the early morning and most wouldn't be up yet. Liliana had struggled to sleep. Nightmares birthed by the executions haunted her nights. Sometimes they twisted to where she saw Nemesis on the chopping block, or Lelantos. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept without some form of nightmare, either brought on by the horrors she’d seen in this world, the stress she was under, or the pendant she’d foolishly worn.

Liliana waved at the guards on watch who were close to a small fire. They didn’t try to stop her as she moved towards the treeline. She had neither of her bonds with her, so they knew she wasn’t planning on leaving the camp, having gotten used to her tells these long weeks they’d been together. Liliana knelt when she felt she’d found a clear enough area and began to gather soft snow, packing it carefully into a ball.

When it was packed, she began to roll it across the snow, building it bigger and bigger until she was chasing around a ball of snow that came up to her hip. Settling it down, she repeated the process twice more until she had a pile of three snowballs that came up to her head. A bit more searching and she found rocks and branches to finish off the snowman. As she stepped back to admire her artwork, she grinned. She’d always watched movies of children doing this, building snowmen with their parents, but she’d never had the chance.

I wish they were here, Liliana thought, the smile melting from her face as her arms came up to wrap around herself. Her heart ached with a longing for a home she’d never get to return to. For parents she’d never get to be held by again. Freezing tear drops dripped down her face as she mourned the family she’d lost.

“What is that?” an imperious voice asked, and Liliana hastened to wipe away the evidence of her melancholy and homesickness as she turned. Alistair stood behind her, dressed in furs and glaring at her snowman as if it had personally insulted him.

“It’s a snowman,” Liliana said, crossing her arms defensively. It might not be the best, but it was her first snowman.

“And his name is Henry!” she added on, her brother’s face morphing from a glare to disbelief.

“You named it? Henry?” he asked, and Liliana nodded proudly.

“And why on earth would you make something like that?” Alistair asked her slowly, as if she was dumb. Liliana glared and knelt down in the snow, methodically packing snow together.

“Because it’s fun. Didn’t you ever make a snowman with your parents before? It’s what you do when it snows,” Liliana stated obviously, rolling her eyes at her brother as she set to making her next snowball.

“No, I haven't. Nobles don’t frolic around in the snow like chimpanzees,” Alistair huffed. Liliana’s eyes flicked upward in time to catch a shadow of sadness on her brother’s features before it disappeared.

Was he ever allowed to be a child? She wondered, hands pausing over her third snowball. The original Liliana used to be jealous of his life, but I wonder if he’s lived in his own gilded cage this entire time, too.

Liliana stood up, holding four snowballs in the crook of her arm. Grabbing one, she threw it up and caught it, testing its weight. Her brother watched her, curiosity and exasperation on his features.

“What are you doing now? Going to make Henry a wife?” Alistair teased, and Liliana smirked, shaking her head.

“No, I’m going to teach you how to have some fun,” Liliana responded.

“Wh-“ Alistair’s sentence was cut off as a ball of snow exploded in his face. Liliana couldn’t stop her giggles at his face, full of shock and indignation as the snow slowly dripped off his face. He raised a hand and wiped off his face. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath.

“Lili, put th-“ he started, but was once more cut off with another snowball to the face.

“Would you please st-“ and another bullseye. Liliana was laughing so hard she could hardly see now and her final snowball missed its mark, hitting his shoulder.

“That’s it.” Alistair growled, and Liliana looked up, only to get a face full of cold snow.

As the melting snow dripped into her clothes she blinked at her brother as he smirked smugly at her. For a moment, they both just stood there, staring at each other as their breath made white clouds between them in the freezing winter air. With a grin and a giggle, Liliana dove to the side. Tumbling across the ground, she put her Speed and Dexterity to work as she made snowballs at a breakneck pace.

Liliana stood, clutching as many snowballs as she could before she began to run, pelting her brother with them, her bright laughter ringing out over the camp. Alistair ducked and dodged the snowballs as best he could, blocking what shots he couldn’t dodge with his arms.

“Get back here, you little witch!” Alistair called out, trying to sound angry, but the smile on his face betrayed him. Liliana kept pelting him until she saw him rolling a behemoth snowball together.

“Ah, brother, don’t be so hasty,” Liliana said, backing up as he hefted the large boulder of snow above his head.

“I’m just having fun, Lili,” Alistair taunted, before chucking the snowball at her with all his strength.

Liliana couldn’t dodge the snowball heading at her at mach 5 speed and she toppled to the ground as it exploded over her, snow coating her and slipping under her clothes to chill her skin. Staring up at the sky, Liliana blinked dazedly. She was almost certain she could see little stars dancing above her head, silhouetted against the light blue sky.

“Hah! That’ll show you,” Alistair crowed, and Liliana tilted her head to look at her brother, who was grinning down at her.

Liliana smirked, giggles leaking from her mouth. Soon her brother was chuckling with her. Alistair held out a hand, laughter still spilling from him. Liliana grasped his arm and let him pull her to her feet easily. As she brushed off the snow on her, she smiled at Alistair again. Opening her mouth, she started to tease him when both of them got a snowball to the face. Turning in sync, they looked to see Emyr crouched in a tree, shadows waving around him, each holding a snowball, an impish smile on the boy’s face.

“Run,” Alistair said and Liliana didn’t hesitate to follow that order, activating [Solar Samba] and [Dancer’s Domain] she burst into a flurry of movement, zigzagging to avoid the rain of snowballs Emyr sent at them.

Seeing a long branch on the ground, Liliana dove for it. Rolling to her feet, she turned to face Emyr’s barrage. Alistair had picked up a log of wood and was using it as a makeshift shield. Liliana spun her branch around, exploding the snowballs before they could hit her.

“How much Mana does he have?” Liliana asked as she ducked and dodged around a flurry of snowballs. His shadows were working to make the snowballs and throw them, like an army of snow wielding shadow soldiers.

“Too damn much,” Alistair grumbled, but that smile was still on his face. Liliana smirked as she ducked behind him. Grabbing as much snow as she could, she made the biggest snowball she could hold comfortably before popping out from behind her brother.

“Cover me,” she said seconds before she activated her chain combo UP. She flew through the air, rocketing towards Emyr, the snowball held out before her. Emyr’s eyes widened, but before he could throw himself from the tree, the snowball and Liliana collided with him. They both fell from the tree in a tangle of limbs and cold snow.

“Gotcha, you little shit,” Liliana panted, rolling off of Emyr.

She grinned in victory as she jumped to her feet, tugging Emyr up behind her. The boy shook himself like a dog getting the snow off his clothes. He smiled at her before the look on his face turned to horror. Liliana just sighed in resigned defeat, not even bothering to turn around. Another boulder snowball, courtesy of Alistair, knocked both of them off their feet.

Liliana climbed to her feet again and the three of them continued their snow war. Alliances were quickly made and just as quickly discarded as they continuously turned on each other. Their laughter and shrieks at the cold snow woke the camp and before too long, the guards were stumbling out into the snow to see the three nobles chasing each other around, snowballs whizzing through the air at speeds hard to follow. The teens didn’t see it but coin quickly changed hands as bets were made and lost on the outcome of the small skirmishes between the three nobles.

Liliana panted, weakly tossing a snowball at her brother that hit his stomach before she flopped to the ground, worn out. Her Stamina had taken a beating with how much chasing and dodging they’d done, and the sun was high in the sky now. Emyr had given up before her. He was still a black lump in the snow, barely moving except to groan or laugh periodically. Alistair seemed to have a truly monstrous amount of Stamina as he stood above them, hands on his hips, grinning, barely even sweating, or breathing hard.

He finally looked like a kid, a fourteen-year-old kid enjoying his childhood. They both did, Liliana thought as she rolled over, staring up at the cloudless azure sky above her, a smile etched deep into her face.

She’d dreamed of the day she’d be healthy enough to go home. Her parents had promised they’d take her up north one day, to see the snow she’d never gotten a chance to enjoy. They’d promised her carefree winters filled with hot chocolate and warm memories. She might not have her first family with her now, but she knew she’d treasure the memory of this day none the less. Because it had been fun, it had been carefree. And she’d finally managed to banish the shadows from Alistair’s eyes for these precious hours. She’d given the three of them a small slice of the childhood that was slowly being ripped from them.

The heir to the most powerful Duchy in the Queendom, the boy who has already pledged his life to that heir, even if he hasn’t stated it, and a girl given a quest by a Goddess to stop the destruction of this world. We never had a hope of having a normal, carefree childhood. The only way we’ll ever get that is if we snatch these small, fleeting moments when we can. Something to hold close to us when the world tries to beat us down with its depravity. Liliana thought as her heartbeat slowly calmed down and her breathing deepened. Alistair sat down next to her, picking up a stick to poke at Emyr, who groaned and whined like he was dying.

“Stop! My body is done for, go on without me,” Emyr whined pitifully and Alistair snorted, shocking Liliana.

“He’s always been melodramatic. It’s the worst when he’s tired,” Alistair said conversationally as his spare hand cupped his chin, the other one resuming its poking of their fallen friend. Liliana slowly sat up, wincing at her sore muscles.

“I guess running around without a thought to decorum or propriety can be fun, sometimes,” Alistair said, his face still averted from Liliana as he looked at his friend, though she could see the smile that still lingered from his profile.

“Keep it up and I’ll make a commoner of you yet, Ali,” Liliana teased, leaning over to bump him with her shoulder. Alistair snorted again, a dry chuckle emerging from him.

“Wouldn’t that be the day?” he asked, a touch of melancholy leaking into his tone.

It was odd, and something Liliana never would have thought she’d feel, but for a moment, looking at her brother as he sat there, his eyes still haunted by darkness, Liliana felt almost protective of him. A want filled her to banish those shadows and hide him from all that would dampen those golden eyes. It was foolish. She could hardly protect herself and out of all of them, Alistair needed protection the least. But she couldn’t deny the urge was there.