Snowball Fight

“How close are we to the next village?”

Pierce paused, his claws snagged inside the collar of his cloak and blinked at the angel beside him for a moment. He hummed for a moment and took stock of his surroundings. Snow-covered evergreen trees stretched high above the party of four felines, their dark green needles covered in icy blues and whites a stark contrast from the almost purple colors of the mountain range surrounding the group.

“Hm.” Pierce said, adjusting his cloak so it hugged tighter around himself. He shivered, again and watched his breath swirl in front of him as it froze when it met the outside air. “I’m not sure,” he admitted, his tail lashing a bit from the admission. “We should be close, though I’ll only know for certain once we see a landmark.”

“A landmark that isn’t just…trees?” Riptide asked, gesturing vaguely with their paw at the rather monotonous scenery they’d had for the past few hours. The angel used one of their wings to cover their head from the snow that was beginning to lightly fall.

“Yeah…” Pierce said in confirmation. His ear flicked as a stray snowflake alighted on it. Sometimes he wondered if Riptide actually had a sense of humor or if they just said things that were mildly amusing without knowing it. “We don’t want to be caught out here in case the weather gets worse.”

Pierce looked briefly over his shoulder at their last two companions. Frostbite seemed right at home in the wintery environment, the ice mage’s blue fur seeming to match her frosty surroundings. Cinders however was quite the opposite, her fiery orange and red hair looking as if it could melt the very snow she trod on. The two were talking quietly with each other, and while Pierce didn’t get suspicious when Frostbite was more subdued, it was their nature after all, he however squinted at Cinders. Cinders seemed to notice that his eyes were on her. She squinted back at him briefly before she stuck her tongue out at him, a toothy grin crossing her face.

“Well, we should keep going then.” Riptide said softly. Pierce was inclined to agree with the angel. Even though he was a skilled practitioner of fire magic, Pierce didn’t like the cold as much as any other cat. Well, other than perhaps someone hailing from the ice sector.

“Ha…hailing.” he chuckled to himself at his unintentional pun.

But his good mood was smashed rather quickly as something cold and solid struck the back of his head.

“What was that?” Riptide said, rather alarmed. The angel spun around quickly, drawing their paw back as if to prepare themselves for an assault. “Are we under attack?”

“No.” Pierce said through gritted teeth. The snow melted against his head rather quickly with a loud hiss as his innate fire magic reduced the snowball to nothing but water. “It’s a--”

“Snowball fight!” Cinders yowled, who had already launched another snowball at the two cats in the front. Riptide drew back and shielded their head with one of their wings.

“Uhm,” Riptide asked, rather unphased at the snowball which had splattered against their wing. “What’s a snowball fight?”

“Use your context clues, Riptide.” Pierce said through gritted teeth. He drew back and watched a snowball sail right under his chin, and looked to see Frostbite staring sheepishly back at him. She smiled rather awkwardly, but Pierce just squinted back.

“Very well then.” Pierce said, beginning to form a snowball with his paws. Frostbite blinked in alarm and began to hastily form a snowball of her own, but Pierce was quicker.

Frostbite had nothing to fear though, Cinders shrieked as Pierce’s snowball struck her in the chest.

“That is it!” She yowled. “Frostbite!”

Pierce felt his stomach drop as the tell-tale sign of magic began to swirl around Frostbite, who’s normally quiet demeanor was completely replaced by Cinders’ fire.

“Uh,” he said, rather intelligently.

Riptide dropped the snowball they had started to form and pressed closer to Pierce, sharing the fire mage’s apprehension.

“She’s going to--”

“Yeah, she is.”

Riptide wrapped their feathery wings around Pierce just as Frostbite let out a shriek of laughter and flung several magically formed snowballs at the two. Most of the snowballs were blocked by Riptide’s wings but one managed to find its way through and splatter against Pierce’s fur. Pierce let out a noise of disgust as he felt the icy water begin to seep into his fur. 

“Alright, we won!” Cinders whooped, and Frostbite laughed with her. Pierce blinked as Riptide folded their wings, shuffling rather awkwardly as they stood beside Pierce. Pierce just blinked, rather dumbfounded by the last two minutes.

“So, they won?” Riptide queried, tilting their head to the side.

“For now.” Pierce said ominously. “They only won because they caught us off guard. That won’t happen again.”

Riptide perked up at that and nudged Pierce with their paw. “Yeah, not again. We’ll get them next time.”

Pierce snickered. “Let’s get going again…and plan our next strategy.”

They set off again, the rather short flurry of snowflakes beginning to abate. Above the, the gray and fluffy clouds parted to let the sun peek through, filling Pierce with a rather gentle warmth that he relished. He glanced up and noted that the sun was at its zenith in the sky, it was about noon. He wanted to pick up the pace just a hair so that they’d reach the next town by sundown, but the deep snow made doing so rather difficult, and Pierce figured that trying to move faster would, ironically, not get them as far as their current pace would.

Luckily, Riptide and him were less than bored. As were Cinders and Frostbite, Pierce noted. No doubt the two were plotting another ambush, so he and Riptide would have to think of a countermeasure, and quickly.

The two cats pressed closer together, mostly so that they had more secrecy between them and their words didn't have to carry as far, but also because the wind had picked up, carrying a cold and blustery air through the mountains that went right through Pierce’s fur and down to his skin. The burning desire for revenge that lit his blood alight was helping with the cold though. He did feel a bit bad about what Cinders and Frostbite were soon to face, but those feelings were soon dashed away.

“Maybe they shouldn’t have thrown a snowball at the back of my head then.” Pierce thought to himself rather matter-of-factly. He didn’t know whether Riptide shared the same sentiment, the angel’s expression was kept deliberately neutral as the two felines shared strategies for their upcoming counterattack.

“So, that sounds good?” Riptide asked once they had concluded their war-strategy meeting. Pierce tilted his head to the side thoughtfully.

“It sounds good,” he agreed. “But we won’t know for certain until we put it into motion.”

“Right.”

“As it is with all things.”

“Right…”

Pierce looked quizzically at the angel but he didn’t impede any further. He was itching to show Cinders and Frostbite that they messed with the wrong cats.

“On my mark, then.”

Riptide perked up at this and Pierce didn’t stop the small smile that was spreading across his face.

“Get ready…”

Pierce and Riptide began to slow their pace so that their preparations would be easier for the both of them. Pierce subtly scooped up some snow into his paws and began to shape it into a ball, wincing slightly at the cold touch against his pads.

“Mark!” he yowled, spinning on his heels and flinging the snowball at Frostbite. The blue cat yelped and turned their head to keep the snowball from splattering directly in their face, and they turned back to blink at him.

“Unfair!” Cinders protested, also caught unawares by Riptide and Pierce’s surprise attack. Pierce didn’t bother to explain that the reason all of this started was because she had ambushed him with her own first snowball. Cinders hastily formed another snowball and lobbed it at the two, but her jaw dropped as the snowball stopped in midair and hovered for a moment, before it jerked back towards her, splattering against her nose.

“Alright! That’s how its done!” Pierce whooped, bumping one of Riptide’s paws with his own. The angel laughed rather sheepishly and released their magic.

“I don’t know, you two seemed to have overlooked something.” Frostbite said, smiling softly. But there was no kindness behind that smile, and Pierce’s own grin dropped as he made the connection that Frostbite had made. He glanced at Riptide, who also seemed to have come to the same conclusion.

“Well--”

“We screwed up.” Pierce concluded rather bluntly.

He let out a shriek of alarm as the snow that had been gathering on top of the needles of the evergreens they were standing under suddenly came crashing down on top of them. Alarm shot through Pierce and he frantically tried to claw his way out of the snow, finding that it was actually just as simple as raising his head some. He shook his head to clear the snow off from the top of his head, and frowned again. Cinders laughed maniacally while Frostbite stood off to the side, looking rather proud of herself.

Riptide emerged from the snow soon after and glanced at Pierce.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have picked a fight with an ice mage while we’re surrounded by snow?”

“It’s too late for that suggestion, Riptide.