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There was white all around. That was definitely not normal.
At first, Quentyn though it was ash of some sort, but, ash was grey if not black. This was completely white. There was no scent of burning. No, this was not ash. Besides, there was too much of it. It was everywhere, even underneath his feet.
But, the air was cold too and there were blankets of white everywhere.
He knelt to touch…whatever this was. He pulled his hand back immediately, hissing.
Cold. Too cold.
Shaking his hand to erase the strange feeling away, he rises. Disturbed, Quentyn wonders aloud, “What is this?”
Gerris and Cletus shrug as they too explore this strange substance. They too pull their hands away just like he did though Cletus does it again. Cletus turns to Archibald, “Cousin, have you seen this before?”
Archibald shrugs, “It’s strange.”
That is putting it mildly. Yes, this was very strange. He’d never seen something like this or felt it. He was not sure he liked it. It was not normal. Even the air did not feel normal.
Even as he shivers, he tries pushes away the knowledge that it will be cold as he reaches back down to take a handful. He flexes his fingers and flakes drip through the crevices of his fingers. Some flakes stick to his hands but even some of that starts to melt into water.
He hears a scoff from behind him.
He turns around. “What?”
Standing between Tyene and Nymeria, Arianne was there smirking at him. “You don’t know what this is?”
He holds in a scowl. She always treated him like a child. His sister wasn’t that much older than him or wiser, no matter what she clearly thought. How was he supposed to know something he’d never seen?
He bites back, “And you do?”
Arianne and Tyene snicker at him.
“It’s snow, Little Brother”, Arianne says smugly.
He scoffs. This was Dorne. Why would there be any snow here? “Snow? How could it be snow? Have you forgotten where we are?”
Arianne jeers at him, “It’s white, it’s cold. What else can it be?”
He remarks, “It doesn’t snow in Dorne.”
Arianne shakes her head. Irritatingly, she corrects him, “It doesn’t snow often in Dorne. It hasn’t for years. It doesn’t mean it can’t. It’s snow.”
He just wanted to wipe the expression off her face, and he does the only thing that comes to mind. He throws a fistful at her.
Splat!
Gasps ring out and though on some level he knows what he’s done, he’s shocked it happened. He knows she was just teasing him. But, he let her get to him.
Slowly, but, not slowly enough for him to get away or to even move, Arianne wipes the snow from her now reddening face. “Little brother. This. Means. War.”
He tries to duck out of the way of a giant fistful of snow, but he wasn’t as quick as he needed to be. Some snow caught him on the side of his face with a wet plop.
As he reaches down to gather some more to throw, the sound of battle cries thunder all around him.