[se] came out of snowhere

// where your body hears the words of the sun //

King’s End was beautiful even in the furthest midst of Deepfrost, and the Caretaker took a moment of opportunity (a day trip) to study some of the animals immersed in its fields. Foxes had been the main goal, and from her perched rock, she’d seen any number of them along the sloping valley and nestled streams.

But because she’d been mostly still as she took notes and sketches, Mittens was all the more restless.

Tossing its head back and forth, it had begun to launch its own versions of snowballs across the sky, wind, and breeze, until, as Lena was quite absorbed, it saw another coming.

An opportunity for a perfect victim! So Mittens did exactly as it yearned and craved, instigating and agitating the potential for onslaughts.

Lena

// spoken in the voices of trees //

It's the end of their time in King's End, and what better way to spend it than by enjoying the fresh snow on the meadow, gleefully chasing rabbit tracks? That's what Pipsqueak thinks, at least. With her skinny body and slick fur she is perfectly suited to burrowing through snow banks, vanishing beneath the thicker drifts only to pop out in a chaotic breach ten feet away.

Koa, we know, despises the cold. But he endures it. For her.

Pip has disappeared again when Koa catches sight of a familiar back. Immediately the Dragoon perks up, pleasantly thrilled at this chance encounter - and the opportunity to commiserate with another human being. He picks up his pace, his focus fixed on keeping his footing as he trudges through the bed of snow.

So it is that he fails to notice the camouflaged abomination that is Mittens until it's far too late, and all he can do is squawk indignation as the first thrown snowball strikes his shoulder, leaving him blinking in stunned surprise.

Koa