[Training] [SE] Fortress around your heart

Even the grumpy courier couldn't scowl all the time, and even if some believed his heart was a size or two too small, even Tal felt the magic of the first snow of Deepfrost. Crisp and clean and bright it had fallen overnight, and the Dome's mitigating effects on the temperature within the Citadel combined with a sunny afternoon to make the snow just wet enough to stick together and pack firmly when scooped and rolled with intention.

Boreal had, of course, helped. Constructing a fort big enough for one man and one dragon required teamwork and craftsmanship of which Tal was extremely well-versed. His life had often depended on his ability to make a snow shelter while out on the courier trail, but it was a lot less stressful to craft a battlement for fun instead of survival. And once it was done it didn't take very long to fill it with weapons, the snowballs piled up against the inside walls as both ammo and a secondary bulwark.

Then it was just a matter of crouching behind the crenelations of his fort and peeking out, waiting for a likely target before he popped up, let fly, and then ducked down again while Boreal chortled smoky approval of his sneakiness. She lounged in front of the wall, a dragon guarding her castle - at least until a familiar and entirely unexpected face came into view from the direction of the skyship port. Caroling a greeting, her scaly tail thumped the snow and Tal's head popped up in surprise.

"Ronin? What are you doin'-- aw, hail, think fast!" And with that, a snowball was sent whizzing at the demigod's chest as a gleeful Tal ducked back behind shelter and scooped up another.

you may not want to change
but the world is unforgiving and will do it for you anyway

Maybe I'll come and visit the Citadel one of these days, Ronin had said to Deimos - or words to that effect, probably. Maybe we can even get a drink at the Kraai and catch up properly. You know, when the Warden wasn't in the shape of a hellhound and Ronin wasn't holding a lifeless ningo by the neck.

He hasn't so much as caught the skyship as he has caught up to it; he might have flown right into the Citadel on the wing, but this felt more like he was a real visitor, somehow. Maybe even a tourist.

A tourist who, upon leaving the port and entering the streets for the first time in over a year, is accosted - in the face - by a rogue snowball. "Tal? Gods, it has been-- oof--" Staggering back, because who cares about your stats when someone has just beaned you with a snowball, Ronin is trying to swat snow out of his mouth and the collar of his coat while Sugar (who had been perched on his shoulders until now) takes to the air.

"And here I thought the war was over," the Huntsman complains, though his smile is audible in his voice, and he scoops up a clumsy handful of snow to lob back at Tal. In the meantime, Sugar tries to blast him with a breath of ice, and there's no telling how playful she's being.

RONIN

Given the man, the myth, the legend he'd been aiming at, Tal had been half-expecting some sort of demigodly feat of speed and nimble dodging, or maybe some fancy power that would have frozen the snowball in midair or exploded it before it hit or let it pass right through Ronin or...

Well, anything other than success, really.

So perhaps Tal could be forgiven for popping back up in amazement far sooner than he should have, intending to savor the moment but instead only savoring a face full of snow as he rose directly into Ronin's return fire.

He ducked back reflexively, blinded and spitting cold fluff from his mouth and didn't even notice Sugar's freezing blast over his head while he rubbed the ammo out of his eyes.

"Who said anything about War? This is just a traditional - pah! - Halovian greeting!" Tal was lying through his teeth - mostly - as he shook the last of it away and scooped up two ready-made snowballs. He peeked over the wall of the fort this time before rising the rest of the way to throw one and then the other in quick succession. "The longer you were gone, the more snowballs I get to throw at you to welcome you back!"

Boreal, meanwhile, had risen up onto her hind legs to blow a welcoming smoke ring up at Sugar. She was helping!

you may not want to change
but the world is unforgiving and will do it for you anyway

The man, the myth, the legend has quickly gone to duck behind a low wall as Tal clears the snow from his eyes and grabs up some fresh ammo, grinning to himself as he tries to scoop up some of the fresh, sticky stuff to create some snowballs of his own. Trilling overhead, Sugar flies through Boreal's smoke ring and aims another icy blast over the courier's head - she's helping(?) too!

"Is that so?" Ronin calls, rolling out from behind the wall and catching a snowball to the shoulder (but luckily dodging the other), lobbing his own towards the space he thinks Tal is about to be in. "And how many is that for over a year?" he wants to know, starting to roll some snow in an attempt to make a bigger problem for Tal to deal with.

RONIN

The second time was the charm as Boreal made no attempt to stop Sugar's ice-bombing runs and the little dragon managed to turn Tal's hat into a frozen sculpture, frosting his eyebrows in the process. The courier yelped indignantly and pulled the suddenly-cold knit toque off as Boreal's basso chortle revealed where her sympathies were at.

The sudden hat dance turned out to be an inadvertently timely dodge maneuver as Ronin's snowball went whizzing by beneath Tal's arm and he ducked down hurriedly as soon as he realized it. Blithely oblivious to the Huntsman's cunning plan he scooped up another two snowballs while he was down and popped back up almost immediately. This time he attempted to lob them in an arc to get them over the wall Ronin was behind so they'd land on his head or shoulders.

"One for every month y'were gone!" The courier's grin was downright wicked as he peeked out over his rampart. "There's three more still t'g--HEY!" Boreal's head  made an appearance on the opposite side of his fort wall and she leaned over to lick his frosty eyebrows with her rough tongue, scaly tail thumping the ground enthusiastically.

you may not want to change
but the world is unforgiving and will do it for you anyway

Ronin's chuckles join in with Boreal's, coincidentally, and Sugar takes herself off to the top of a nearby lamppost, preening and trilling down at the spectacle as if to say her work here is done. And it's a good enough distraction for sure, giving Ronin a chance to complete his mega-snowball, though before he can unleash his attack, one of Tal's snowballs catches him right across the side of the head. "Hey! There was ice in that!" he complains with a chuckle.

As Boreal stages her next move, Ronin does the same thing. And it's only sheer, demigodly power that allows him to yeet the megaball across the distance between them; he doesn't aim for Tal this time at least - because that could be potentially dangerous - and aims instead for the fort. "Three more? Better start throwing!" He chuckles.

RONIN

"Shit, sorry!" The courier was genuinely remorseful that ice had made its way into one of the snowballs, but it didn't stop him from planning his next attack... or at least trying to. His own dragon interrupted his schemes, distracting him from the demigod's glorious avalanche until it was too late to do anything but watch in dismay as Boreal bounded safely to the side and the snow wrecking ball fell to earth.

His fort was well-constructed with clean lines, a sturdy base, and even a few sculpted crenelations he could duck behind. And the emphasis of that sentence was on the past tense as karma descended from on high with wintry vengeance. The center of the fort's wall collapsed into a messy pile that splashed up and splattered across Tal's coat as the stunned courier looked on helplessly.

There were a few moments of silent stillness before he bent down with dignity to scoop up the last three snowballs that remained uncrushed and cradled them in the crook of his arm. Then he hopped over the breach in his defenses, took a deep breath, and charged towards Ronin, throwing his ammo in quick succession. "For Halooooooooo!"

Boreal, meanwhile, watched her human's final glorious charge with wicked curiosity from a safe distance.

It wasn't hard to tell who was the brains of the operation.

you may not want to change
but the world is unforgiving and will do it for you anyway

There's a brief moment where Ronin is worried he's thrown the mega-snowball too hard, or that it's hit Tal's fort in such a way that the collapse will bury the courier alive. And in the silence that follows that worry only grows - enough that he's straightened up from his hiding place behind the wall. "Tal?" he calls, his brows furrowing.

But then of course, it's for Haloooooooo! and gods, the other man can move quickly when he wants to. Ronin tries to duck away but ends up moving too fast, and the resulting slip 'n' slide on some ice is the stuff of legends. It's more carnival than acrobatic, more slapstick than grace, and one of Tal's snowballs misses him only because he's already on the ground.

"Oof!" he calls out, his hands coming up to shield his face. "I surrender, I surrender!"

RONIN

Halo's revenge came swiftly and in a final flurry of snowballs upon the Huntsman before Tal ran out of ammo and stood next to Ronin, grinning. "Weellll... alright. Long as y'promise not t'stay away so long next time, I'll accept it." He reached down to offer a hand getting back up, more used to balancing and walking on Halo's pack of snow and ice, and magnanimous in his victory.

Seeing that the game was at an end, Boreal huffed a smoky chortle and ambled over to give Ronin a sniff of greeting, scaly tail thumping the snow as she recalled a distinct memory of sweet buns, and looked at him hopefully in case there was one hiding in his pocket just looking for a dragon to feed.

"What brings y'back today, anyways?" Tal asked curiously as he began to dust the snow off his own clothes.

you may not want to change
but the world is unforgiving and will do it for you anyway

Apparently not even demigodly prowess can avoid the embarrassment of I'm getting old and my back hurts, and so Ronin accepts the hand up with a grateful smile, brushing the snow and ice from his coat. "I solemnly swear not to stay away for so long ever again," he says - or if it does, when he returns to Halo he'll absolutely come prepared. And it's with thoughts of snowball flinging catapaults that he smiles down at Boreal, reaching out to scritch at the top of her head.

Sugar - doubtlessly jealous that his attention is anywhere but on her - swoops down to drape about his shoulders, and so it's with his free hand scratching at her chin that he responds to Tal. "Oh, I came for a drink at the Kraai with Deimos - er, the Warden," he says, correcting himself with a waggle of his eyebrows. "But I don't know where he is or when he'll be free. You want to get a drink and some food there to thaw out in the meantime?"

RONIN

Tal squinted at the Huntsman, pretending to be skeptical but he was grinning too broadly for it to be very convincing. "Deal!" he declared happily, helping the old thirty-something up with the youthful vigor of a man in his mid-twenties who was oblivious to the fact that he'd be in Ronin's shoes in a few short years.

Scratches weren't biscuits, but they were an acceptable offering and Boreal leaned into them, not minding at all that Sugar got her share too. Ronin had two hands after all, which meant he could pet two dragons at the same time. Now, if a third dragon showed up they'd have a potential problem...

Tal snorted at his shameless companion and then glanced back to Ronin, his smile fading at the mention of Deimos. There was a moment's hesitation and he reached up to rub the back of his neck as he thought it over, then shrugged. "Sure," he decided. "Halo's been defended enough for one day. An' I think they're servin' chowder today. It's usually pretty good." Falling in beside the Huntsman. "I'll even buy the drinks," he added, a little swagger in his step at his snowy success. Boreal snorted in amusement and headbutted his hip so he stumbled and lost his swagger and he gave her a wounded look.

The swagger stopped after that, though.

~Fin~