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The ground flashed underneath her, its form obscured by silvery dust. The spatial uncertainty interrupted Aki’s movements, and that moment of indecision was all it took—before she had time to raise her head, something swept by at the periphery of her vision. She leapt back instinctively, without a thought to how she would land. Her riding boots found the earth again, but as it took her weight, the snow crunched into a different shape. As her balance lurched, Aki threw out an arm for balance, dropping into a kneel and grasping her naginata tightly in the outer hand. The snow had cushioned the worst of the physical impact, so her misstep was softer than she had anticipated, but it was enough to force her breath out of her momentarily in a harsh exhale. She had narrowly dodged the swing of Rinkah's club; she had also barely saved herself from a spectacular fall. The cold of the winter air further intensified the sensation of embarrassment searing at her face. The wet, slippery terrain was even less familiar than the drier snow of the mountains, in which Aki's group had briefly staged a battle before. Maintaining one’s footing would be difficult enough even for the average human; it would certainly be too treacherous for pegasus, leaving Aki without her usual mount had it been a real fight. Initially, she had been consumed with delight at the thought of experiencing a rare Hoshidan lowland snow. But now, Aki’s enthusiasm for the novel circumstance was dampened with fatigue.
She brushed the ice out of the short hair clinging to her temples with a gloved hand. Raising herself slowly and regaining a more efficient grip on her weapon, she looked up again to regard her teammate, who still stood confidently in the ankle-deep snow. If Rinkah was tired, she hardly appeared so. Her movements had remained measured and efficacious, and her stance held solid on the slippery earth. The Flame Tribe woman tilted her head just slightly, raising a shoulder and giving a wry smile with her eyes narrowed. “Is that another win for me, then?” As she spoke, the vapor floated from her breath in a smooth exhale. Against the frigid colorlessness of the Hoshidan forest, the deep reds and golds that Rinkah wore seemed to burn all the brighter.
In spite of the increasing soreness in her muscles, Aki once again readied her weapon. And instead of verbalizing a response, she let out her breath carefully; her strength returned as she inhaled once more and met the glinting crimson of Rinkah’s eyes. This time, Aki charged first. But Rinkah’s concentration hadn’t wavered for an instant. Anticipating her sparring partner’s movements, she dodged out of the path of the Falcon Knight’s naginata, caught her weight in the snow on her leading foot, and twisted to lunge with her club, visibly all in one motion. Realizing that her advantage lay in her weapon’s reach, Aki remained at a distance. She was able to evade the oncoming attack--but once again, just barely. Rinkah continued to anticipate Aki’s maneuvers and adjust her own with striking acuity, almost faster than Aki herself could learn to account for the lack of traction underfoot.
As the two exchanged blows, their movements had taken them into a more densely forested area, with deeper drifts hidden treacherously among the trees. Aki had lost considerable ground to Rinkah’s persistent attacks and parries. The silence was thicker here, swallowing the sounds of their footsteps almost entirely. Struggling even more than before to breach the deep snow in an effective manner, Aki paused to assess the situation. The cold air rasped at her tongue as she caught her breath. Meanwhile, Rinkah stood calculatingly some distance from her. Until now, the terrain had been an obstacle… but maybe she could turn that around.
Aki lowered her naginata gingerly into the soft powder, almost as if to forfeit--but she could hardly imagine surrendering in such a match. Instead, she lifted her cape out of the way with her elbow, slowly reaching into the uppermost layer of snow. She moved as silently and cautiously as she could manage--and then, all at once, threw force down through her arm and flung a handful of snow.
Rinkah’s confused exclamation as the snowball flew past her offered Aki an opening only for the length of an instant, and the knight took her chance to gather another icy mass and pack it a little more firmly. “Was that some sort of trick?” the other protested. But before she had even finished her sentence, Aki had stolen to the side and thrown her new “weapon” again, the snowball’s trajectory landing squarely at the side of Rinkah’s head.
A growl pulled at Rinkah’s lip now, and her eyes glinted even more sharply as she recovered from the impact of the unexpected projectile. The remainders of the snowball had left white flecks against the dark crimson of her mask, and they seemed about to melt away just from the intensity of the color. A battle cry rumbled from her chest as she moved to retaliate. But now without the burden of her usual weapon, and with the chance to plan her tactics, Aki had gained some distance and taken shelter next to a larger tree.
In spite of Rinkah’s irritation, a playful grin lit Aki’s face, and she attempted to deflect her companion’s fury. “Have you never had a snowball fight before?” In truth, Aki hadn’t either--though she had always wanted to. Had she been allowed as a child to play out in the alpine expanse of Nohr’s territory, perhaps she would have been able to hone her snowball-throwing skills. But the castle courtyard hardly offered space to do so, especially in comparison to the Hoshidan forest that she now freely called her home.
Rinkah froze for a moment, perhaps realizing that now she would have to adopt Aki’s tactics to stay in the game. It was her turn to hurl a snowball at Aki, who had turned and begun to put even more distance between them. Aki yelped at the blow, the ice sinking into the feathered hood of her cape, but her voice was still bright with mischief. As she continued to half-evade, half-frolic, Aki hardly paid any mind when her footsteps faltered in the uneven terrain. Maybe throwing snowballs had only turned the battle even more decidedly against her, considering Rinkah’s arm and upper body strength… but now, it was even more fun.
Before long, the impacts of their movements had left numerous dents and scrapes over a wide swath in the snow’s surface. Now Aki had managed to lead them to a clearing, and the Falcon Knight paused, her burgundy eyes shining tauntingly. Both of them were breathing raggedly now, and Aki’s limbs hurt far more from taking the brunt of several snowballs than from trying to navigate the unpredictable depths at their feet. Her fingers had begun to go numb through her gloves--she could only imagine how cold Rinkah must have been, having participated in the fight with her bare hands. Her opponent had finally begun to visibly tire, and in their tussle, both of them had become covered in clinging spots of silver. The weak sunlight was only intermittent, leaving them more often than not in a cold, endless shadow; but in patches of brightness and warmth, it sent light shimmering across the flakes of ice.
For a moment, their surroundings fell away in Aki’s vision, and she collapsed backward into a cushion of piled snow, her gaze cast toward the sky. A few heartbeats elapsed, and then she closed her eyes. The dryness of the air clawed at her face, but she grinned all the while as the cold enveloped her at all sides.
She heard the footfalls of Rinkah’s approach through the shroud of snow, but remained on the ground with her arms outstretched as her companion spoke. “Were you just being a sore loser, pulling something like that?” Though Rinkah held her voice low in a taunt, her intonation betrayed a gentle lilt of humor.
“…Maybe.” Aki felt a slight warmth alight in her at the hint of Rinkah’s enjoyment. “It’s going to be a while before I can keep up with you in this sort of terrain, Rinkah.”
“Well, you’d better.” Rinkah’s response held the slightest aspiration of a laugh, but she said nothing else, and the silence told Aki that she stood still as well. "Otherwise, I don't think we'd get very far if we had to fight in this terrain for real."
“By the way, Rinkah.” Aki barely allowed her voice to interrupt the quiet, but even the softest sound would have been heard anyway in the muffled expanse. “Happy birthday.”
After a beat of emptiness, Rinkah's laugh momentarily broke the hushed stillness of the air. “Is that what this was all about?” Aki could hear her grin in the emphasis of her words. There was a faint ruffling sound as she brushed more loose snow off her clothing, and she added after a few seconds, in a more reserved voice, "Let me guess, this supposed to be my present?”
“Well…” Aki hadn’t prepared an answer, and she only stared at the colorless sky—gently undulating, like the surface of unbroken snow but upside-down. She could have gone with a physical gift, but even racking her brain for days beforehand, she simply hadn’t been able to settle on any one that felt right. Not that she couldn't come up with something she knew Rinkah could enjoy. But from the way in which Rinkah completely dedicated herself to every task, every training session, Aki had guessed that the Flame Tribe warrior placed enormous importance in her time. Perhaps especially when she chose to spend it in others' presence. Even something as simple as the intention to spend time together, Aki had ventured, she would truly value; and Aki herself would hardly trade it for anything else in the world.
Finally, the Falcon Knight managed a response. "Yeah, I suppose it was. If that's enough." She turned her head to the side as she lay in the snow and let her eyes go out of focus, feeling a slight burning in her face and ears against the sheer cold of the icy surface.
Rinkah's initial lack of an acknowledgment seemed to bore into Aki with the strength of a physical blow. But then she exhaled and said plainly, "I'll admit, I enjoyed it. Your 'idea' wasn't bad at all." Aki heard the crunch of her cautiously-placed footsteps, and she turned her head up just slightly as the other's figure emerged into her field of vision. “And I definitely won, so there’s that.” Rinkah smiled and wiped more ice from the side of her head, the strikes of her face paint blazing, and even the pale ivory of her hair seemed to glow against the frigid sky. "But next time it snows, you'd better be able to keep pace."
"I will.” In spite of her thorough exhaustion, Aki’s response was light.
As they rested, Rinkah’s expression and posture had relaxed, her weight shifting slightly over to one foot. But then her grin widened again teasingly. "Aren't you cold?"
At first, Aki only sighed quietly in response. Even at her sparring partner’s approach, Aki still hadn't budged from her immersion in the snow. Conclusive losses, bitter cold and all, somehow she had only just now begun to consider the aftermath of their battle. They'd still have to go back and retrieve the weapons they'd abandoned in the playful turn that their match had taken. As she lay in the snow, the wetness had seeped through to Aki’s limbs, and undoubtedly that would make their returning travel considerably less pleasant; she supposed that surely the unforgiving weather had begun to wear at Rinkah as well, as resilient as she was.
Yet, Aki allowed herself to chuckle at the thought, and a laugh pulsed to life in her chest as she answered. "...Yeah. Maybe a little."