Work Text:
Warmth.
It was Chise's second winter in England. She was currently sitting at the kitchen table, watching the snow fall from the customer window that was closed for the season. This winter has been one of the snowiest to date, and today was the fourth day of constant snow. Chise of course had seen snow in her native Japan, but had not seen this much snow, all at once, ever. Ruth sat beside her at the kitchen table, eating his breakfast with record speed.
"Good Morning, Chise." Her teacher Elias said to her, as he took his seat at the table.
"Good Morning, Elias. What are we doing today?" She asked while she drank her tea.
"I have no plans for today. Our customer orders are filled, and I expect no visitors to call on us due to the weather. Do you have anything in mind, Chise?"
"No, not really. I've never seen this much snow before, all at once like this. I haven't been outside for almost a week. I've been stuck inside." She lamented sadly.
"Stuck? You are hardly stuck inside, Chise. You can still go out and walk the gardens, if you wish." Elias said.
"I'll go for a walk with you if you want, Chise." Ruth said around mouthfuls of his breakfast.
"I think a nice long walk would be good for me. Will you join us, Elias?" Chise asked him.
Elias thought for a second. "No, I don't think so. I've had enough winters living outside with Lindel to last lifetimes. I prefer to stay inside now." He explained.
When the Mageling and her familiar finished breakfast, they dressed up in warm layers, and donning the woolen hats and mittens the Silver Lady knitted for them, they made their way out into the garden.
Chise struggled walking through the snow, lifting her feet and legs up and over the knee-high, heavy snow. Ruth stood still and watched her for a few moments, saying nothing.
"Ruth, are you coming along with me?"
"Chise. Why are you struggling so hard? You're not going to push the snow out of your way? Seems like a lot of work, walking that way through the snow."
Chise look chagrined. "I honestly didn't think about it, Ruth. Do you think I could use magic to clear the way for us?"
"Of course you can, Chise. You are a Mage, after all."
Chise looked around, worriedly. "I don't see any neighbors that could help me."
"Chise. I'm right here with my magic, and you have plenty of your own. Just think of how you want the clear your path, and will it to be so." Ruth explained.
Chise held out her hand to Ruth. He clasped her hand, and sent his magic into her body. She held her right hand out in front of her, and chanted:
"I am cold; I am wind.
I am the force that moves through Mother Earth. My will clears the path for us."
The result was immediate. The gale force winds that Chise created with her familar's magic and her own caused most of the snow in the garden to be pushed forward, away from most of the walkways, and creating small mountains of snow by the koi pound and small garden river. As a result, both Mage and Church Grim were knocked off their feet, and landed on their backs, looking up at the sky. Thankfully, they landed on the snow in thick clothing, softening their fall.
"I think I need to work on that spell a little bit more." Chise said softly.
"I agree. I'm surprised you didn't push the snow all the way to the village." Ruth said in jest. Chise laughed and pulled herself up from the ground.
Chise and Ruth walked around the mountains of snow, and watched the koi fish swim under a thick layer of ice. Chise looked around, lost in thought.
"What is it, Chise?" Ruth asked his master.
"Well, it's just, I was just thinking of how I never played in the snow as a child. I would sometimes watch the other kids build snowmen and tunnels and throw snowballs at each other, but I've never done those things myself. I was never invited to play with them." Chise said sadly.
"Why don't we do that now then? Isabel would sometimes play with the other boys and girls in the village when we had snow like this." Ruth explained.
"But I'm too old to play now, Ruth."
"Nonsense, Chise. You're never too old to play. Now, what would you like to do first?"
Chise thought for a few minutes. "Why don't we build some tunnels? You have that mountain of snow, and I'll pick this one. Whoever clears the tunnel to the koi pond first wins." She said excitingly.
"Deal!" Ruth exclaimed.
Chise started to dig through the snow on her snowbank, using her hands. Ruth switched into his Black Dog form, and used his fire to melt the middle of his snow mountain. He hopped into the tunnel he created and reached to the other side quickly. He was sitting on his haunches on the thick ice of the koi pond, waiting for his master to dig her tunnel enough to let herself crawl through. When she finally came out of her tunnel, she was surprised to see her familiar already there.
"Ruth! You cheated!"
"No I did not, Chise. You never said we couldn't use our magic, so I used my fire to melt a tunnel. You could've done the same, you know."
She looked crestfallen, for not figuring that out for herself.
"Allright, you won the tunnel making game, Ruth. What should we do now?" Chise asked her fae companion.
"How about making a snowman? Isabel did that with the other children." Ruth suggested.
"Good idea! But NO magic this time. Cheater." Chise said with a smile.
Ruth magicked into his human form, and used the snow on his small mountain to shape the body of his snowman. Chise started making her snowman as well, smoothing the base of her snow hill as well. As the pair worked on their creations, the neighbors nearby stopped to watch, many of them circling Chise and landing on her shoulders.
After about an hour or so, their handiwork was complete. Ruth's snowman had three large snow boulders for its body, and Ruth used two branches for the arms. Silky came out to watch the pair for about ten minutes, and handed a blue scarf and a loose green crocheted hat for him to use for decoration.
Chise's snowman was a shorter, squatter version of Ruth's, using only two of her snow boulders. She used her gloved fingers to dig out holes for the eyes and carved out a smile for it's mouth. Silky also had a purple scarf for and a red hat for Chise to use for her snowperson.
"Thank you, Silver Lady! We're going to have a snowball fight next! Want to join us?" Chise asked excitedly.
The Silver Lady smiled, and shook her head gently, wrapping her winter cloak tighter around herself.
Silky walked back inside to the house, and found Elias in the study, writing notes in his medical journal. She stood in the doorway and looked at him intensely.
Elias looked up from his writing, setting his fountain pen down. The Brownie continued to stare at him.
"Silver. You know I don't like being out in the cold." He explained.
The Silver Lady looked out the window, towards the backyard, where they could see Chise and Ruth playing in the snow, and listened to Chise's peals of laughter. She looked back at the Mage.
"Maybe I'll go out in a little while, for a short amount of time." Elias said, sounding not too enthusiastic about it.
The Silver Lady went into the closet in the hallway, returning to the study with Elias' pale blue scarf and a pair of grey felted gloves, placing them on his desk.
"Thank you Silver. I'll just finish my transcripts-" Elias started to say, when he heard the fae stomp her foot.
Elias sighed deeply. "Fine, Silky. I'll go watch them play in the snow, which I'll have you know I am only going out into the cold because you asked me too." He said grumpily. Silky hummed and nodded, then went into the kitchen to start making lunch.
Elias donned his gloves and tied his scarf around his neck, and went outside toward the garden, leaving through the greenhouse. He took in the scene; Ruth and Chise were leaning against snow ledges they made, about ten meters apart. They spent time making snowballs, then hurtling them at each other, although most of them either hit the other player's snow wall, or sometimes hit a fae neighbor that was watching, much to their chagrin.
Elias watched for a few moments, and had to admit to himself that it looked like his student and her familiar were having fun. Chise and Ruth's laughter and taunts to each other filled the garden with joy. Chise was further back from the house, over by the garden stream, while Ruth had his back toward the house. He quickly rolled a snowball, and threw it towards his master, striking her shoulder.
"Ah! You got me Ruth. That's fifteen points now! I'm going to catch up to you and win, just you watch!" Chise said as she turned toward her left side, quickly gathering snow to make more snowballs.
Chise and Ruth were so busy making and tossing snowballs, that they missed the Thorn Mage walking through the battlefield.
"Take this one, Ruth!" Chise shouted triumphantly, as the snowball she hurled went towards her target. What she didn't plan for was her teacher standing right in the middle of the snowy carnage, and her snowball struck Elias instead, landing into his left eye socket with a soft thud. Elias swayed from the hit, and lost his balance and fell onto the ground, landing on his bum.
"Oh no!" Chise shouted, and ran from her snow fort to where Elias sat in the snow, shaking his head to remove the snowball from his skull. She stood in front of him, at his eye level.
"Elias? Are you ok? I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention, and didn't see you there." Chise explained.
"Well, yes, I would say that I am fine, Chise. Is this entertaining for you? Making balls of snow and throwing them at each other?" Elias asked, wanting an explanation from his teacher of human things.
"Yes, Elias. Snowball fights are usually meant as a game for children, but since I never got to play in the snow with kids my age when I was young, Ruth said we should play. I'm glad he did, even though he's beating me fifteen to twelve right now. I'm going to beat him though, right Ruth? Ruth?" Chise asked, as she turned toward her familar and watched him enter the house, Silky standing in the doorway with a blanket to wrap him in.
-play with your husband, Chise. I'm sure he never got to play when he was younger, either- Ruth said to her, through the connection in their minds.
"Well, my opponent has left the battle, because I'm sure he knew I was going to win. You'll have to take his place now, Elias. For the honour of Snowball Champion is at stake."
"It sounds like a mighty honour." Elias deadpanned.
"Oh believe me, it is! Whoever gets the most points gets a special prize!" Chise announced.
"Well, at first I wasn't interested, but now that you have mentioned a special prize, I suppose I must do what I can to earn it. For the glory of the Ainsworth Residence, of course." Elias said.
Chise's smile was like a ray of sunshine; her joy infectious. "Man your battle station, Elias! For the glory of the Ainsworth residence! I hope you have a good throwing arm, because you're going down!" She giggled to herself, having fun with her trash talking.
Elias stood up with Chise's help, then walked over to the snow wall that Ruth had made. He saw that Ruth already had five completed snowballs at the ready, just waiting for Elias now to lob over to his student. Elias quickly added more snow to his wall; making it higher, since he was so tall and wanted higher defenses. If Chise wanted to play, he was going to do everything he can to his advantage.
"Elias! That's not fair! Your wall can't be that high! I won't be able to reach it!" Chise shouted from across the garden.
"Fine. Let me make some battlements, like castles of old." Elias said calmly, smashing parts of his wall down, to where it was at the beginning of the snow ball fight, leaving spaces in between.
"Are you ready Elias? First person to get twenty hits wins! Ready, steady.....GO!" She said excitedly, and started rolling and lobbing snowballs toward her husband.
The neighbors that always hung around the Ainsworth home, both inside and out, sat at the sidelines, watching the icy battle. Whenever Elias pelted Chise with a snowball, she let out a little yelp, which Elias found adorable. What he didn't factor was his height, he was a much easier target to hit, which his wife took advantage of, striking his chest, and at times, his horns.
After a steady half hour war of snow, Chise slowed her snowball throwing, and stopped after a few minutes, with her hands on her knees, panting loudly from her exertions.
"Can...can we...can we take a break, Elias?" She said loudly.
"Of course, Chise. The game is over anyway." He told her, walking toward her.
"Really? What was the score? Who won?"
"Thirty-two to eighteen."
"What?!?!? Who won?"
"I did."
"Why didn't you tell me and end the game?"
"Because you were having too much fun."
"Yes, I was. Did you have fun too, Elias?"
"I did. Let's go back inside; you and Ruth have been out here for hours. This snow has chilled my bones." He said, while holding out his hand for Chise to take, as she walked along side him and into the house.
As soon as they entered the green house, Silky was there to take their wet clothes to launder, and put slippers on their feet. Chise didn't realize how long she was out in the cold for, so the heat rushing into her body felt like pins and needles to her extremities.
They walked down the hallway, and the Silver Lady pointed to the living room. When Chise and Elias entered the room, Chise gasped. The brownie had moved all the furniture around, so the sofa was now directly in front of the fireplace. On top of the sofa were folded blankets, for the couple to wrap each other in. On the left side of the sofa was a small trolley with warm caramel apple cake, hot lemon green tea, honey, and hot cocoa, topped with whipped cream and a cinnamon stick. One the right side of the sofa was a small end table that held a crystal decanter of aged brandy, with a snifter glass placed beside it.
"Thank you Silver. This is just what we needed." Elias said to the master of the house.
"Yes, Silky! It's perfect!" Chised gushed. The Silver Lady smiled at them both, then walked silently back to the kitchen.
Elias wasted no time walking to the couch. He placed a blue fleece blanket on top of the sofa cushions and the back of the sofa. Chise wrapped her self up in her favorite pink fleece blanket, while Elias placed a gray blanket around his shoulders and back. Once the couple got comfortable on the couch, Elias finally covered their laps in the wooly bug down-filled white comforter from their bed upstairs.
Chise handed her husband a small plate with a slice of cake on it for him and a plate for herself, and settled in next to him, leaning on his side. They stuck their blanket covered feet towards the roaring fire. Chise sighed contently as she ate.
"Finally. Some warmth." Elias said softly.
Fin.