Three hours later, we exited the hall. Rathina looked back. “Quite the social bunch. She glanced at me. Not your cup of tea, eh?” I pinched my nose. “That’s an understatement. I don’t mind being social, but the Trolls are too buddy-buddy, and the dryads and nymphs… Well you saw for yourself.” Rathina’s smile faded somewhat. “Yeah, they were quite flirty...” Her voice trailed off unto a low mumble, but I was pretty sure I heard the word ‘skanks’ among the mumbling. I pulled her close to me.

  “Are… you jealous?” As I looked at her, a slight blush crept up her cheeks. “… No?” She paused, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Damnit, I am, aren’t I?” That was… actually rather sweet, in its own way. “Don’t you worry about a thing, by beloved. You’re the only one for me.” She looked at me, then pulled me in for a kiss of her own. “That’s good to know, and I will hold you to that.” We stood for a while, lost in each other’s embrace. Nettle landed on my shoulder and cleared her throat. “If you're done being in your own little world how about we meet up with the others?”

  I looked at her for a moment not really understanding what she was getting at. “The others? Oh, right. Yeah, let’s do that. We should head back to the inn then, would be awkward if they were still small, and we weren’t.” Ugh, my brain was all frazzled from the trolls’ extremely outgoing personalities combined with the very… ‘Enthusiastic’ Nymphs and Dryads.

  “I will admit I could use a stiff drink before we head back out again afterward.” I could feel Nettle give my shoulder a friendly pat. “Hang in there. You’ll get through this.” Yeah, I would, after that drink. Rathina tightened her embrace as we walked, which helped as well.

  Our return to the inn was uneventful, though we passed by Jaira, Soot, Midnight and Winter on the way there. “Hi Mom, I see you’re done with the meeting.” I knelt down so I could see them better. “Yeah we are, Need something to recharge after that, you know how jovial trolls can be.” I couldn’t see Jaira’s expression properly, but I was pretty sure she was grinning. “Sounds rough, say, I have an idea on something that can get your mind off it, mind grabbing the others and meeting us back here?” Hmm, Jaira was up to something. “Alright then.” Half an hour and a cup of tea at the inn later, we were out the door again, this time with Meleri and Bahruun and the others in tow.

  “So what do you think Jaira was planning?” I shrugged. “Who knows, though knowing her, something she’s wanted to do for a while.” As we arrived back at the open space, we agreed to meet up, we saw that Jaira was busy building something. “So, kid, what was your grand idea?” Jaira looked up, then responded by tossing a snowball my way. “Snowball fight. You, Nettle and Rathina vs me, Bahruun, Millid, if she would like to join in, and Meleri.” I glanced at the others. “What do you think?” Nettle’s wings twitched and her antennae tingled in repeating soft chimes. “Sounds fun.” Rathina bent down and made a snowball and began to toss it up and down. “If the others are in, why not? We’re here to have fun, after all.”

  Meleri, Bahruun and Millid exchanged glances, then nodded. “We’re in.” I nodded. “Alright, let’s take 10 minutes to get proper cover built then.” The three of us began to build, while Meleri and Bahruun got a literal snow castle up in mere seconds, thanks to their cryomancy. Somewhat unfair, but it wasn’t as if we banned the use of magic. At least they were nice enough to not put a damn roof on the thing.

  “Alright, everyone ready?” There was a moment of silence. “Ready.” I popped out and flung a snowball as two others zipped by me. My own glanced just path Jaira’s head as well. Nettle scored a glancing blow in Millid as she poked her head up in a window on their fortress. Bahruun got a clean hit on Rathina’s shoulder but took one in his forehead for his troubles. “Oof, a nice throw, ma’am.” Nettle got a faceful of snow from Meleri a few moments later, while her own snowball went wide.” By now we were attracting attention from the locals who were cheering or building keeps for their own snowball fights. The entire fight went back and forth for a while, and by now it was escalating to a massive war battlefield with multiple individual skirmishes scattered around the area.

  Then, as I popped back up took a snowball from Meleri to the shoulder, then flung my own, giving her a faceful as well. “Of good one sis.” She disappeared, then came back up with another snowball. “How about this then!” She threw, and I ducked, causing the snowball to narrowly miss my braid. I popped back up. “Nice try sis I- OOOF.” Something cold and wet hit the back of my head. I reached up and removed the snowball from the back of my head. A quick glance behind me showed that it wasn’t from someone having a fight behind us. “Oh, so that’s the way you want to play, huh?” Meleri grinned. “What’s the matter, sis don’t tell me you’re mad?” Mad, I didn’t get mad, I got even, with interest.

  I ducked back down again. “Nettle, Rathina, our enemy has abandoned all honor and is using magic to fight us, I say we respond in kind.” The two glanced at me. Nettle’s antennae tingled ominously. “Alright, what’s the plan?” I grinned as I leaned in and in a low whisper gave them my plan. A moment later, they were grinning too. Rathina’s eyes gleamed with mischief. “Sounds good.”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  I looked at the two of them. “Alright, let’s go.” Nettle became a blur as she began to make snowballs at an absurd pace. I knew she was fast, but seeing it from a size where she was just as big as I was made it even more clear that her speed was supernatural. Within seconds she was done with multiple small piles of snow.

  “Alright, honey, ready?” Rathina nodded. “Let's bury them.” I nodded. “All these snowballs take to the sky, bury my opponents from toe to eye.” The snowballs that Nettle was making began to hover before they blasted off in an arch towards their side of the war front. Meleri wanted to play hardball, then so be it. Rathina made her move, and suddenly the snowballs split into multiple identical copies, a literal deluge of snow, and because of their own fort, they were trapped with no way out as it began to fall, and since Nettle worked so fast I was not running out of ammo.

  “Alright, we give! We surrender st-pgmhph.” I cancelled the spell and poked my head out. Their snow castle was filled to the brim with snowballs. A few moments later, Millid popped her head out. “Blugh, I’m all wet now.” She pulled herself out and then began to bury through the snow looking for the others. Bahruun came back into view first. “A bit of an escalation for one homing snowball, wouldn’t you say?” Jaira followed soon after as Millid pulled her out of the pile. “If I’m honest, that’s Mom being generous, she could have added pebbles.” She brushed some snow off her Reimmeith. “Ugh. This is uncomfortable even with the enchantments.”

  The last to arrive from the pile of snow was Meleri. As Jaira and Bahruun helped her loose from the snow. “Note to self, don’t piss off Morgana with homing snowballs, lesson learned. Brrr, I think my warming potion has worn off. Let’s get back to the inn and warm up.” Irenji and Irane helped her to her feet. Irenji gave her hand a supportive lick. "It was a good idea, Mistress, just at the wrong target, I think.” She reached over and scratched his neck. “Yeah, I forgot that Morgana always goes overkill when she wants to get even. I expected enchanted snowballs in return since I made them myself, just not a literal waterfall of them.” Irane nudged Meleri as well. “Well, let’s get back to the inn and get you warmed up.”

  I looked out over the rest of the group. “I think that sounds like a good idea for all of us. We still have a few hours before the feast starts, after all.” Bahruun helped Millid get some snow out of her jacket. “Yeah, well, you three didn’t get buried in snow so you might be warmer than the rest of us.” True. I was feeling bad at my overenthusiastic move now. “I’m sorry about that Bahruun. Tell you what, to make it up to you four, how about I pay for the drinks to warm you up?”

  Bahruun looked down at Millid who nodded. “Alright then, but only because Millid says it’s fine. If it was up to me, you’d still be on the hook for that overkill escalation.” He was grumbling, but I could see the hint of a suppressed smile in the twitching of his beard near the edges of his mouth.

  Back at the inn we got our table once again. “So, what do you want to drink?” Millid spoke up immediately. “Honeyed milk, please.” Bahruun seemed to think for a moment. “I’ll take some chamomile tea.” Irane looked up from where she and Irenji were sitting next to the table. “Water for me, please.” Irenji began to scratch himself behind the ear. “Same for me.” I looked over at Meleri. “Hmm, I’ll take cocoa if they sell it, if not some hot toddy.”

  I gave her a look. “Alcohol before dinner?” Meleri shrugged. “They come in small glasses. Ugh, fine if that’s unacceptable some heated fruit juice, you spoilsport.” Alright then. “Fair enough, Nettle, what do you want?” Nettle pondered for a moment. “I’ll take a cup of Caudle, non-alcoholic recipe, if they don’t serve that I’ll take honeyed milk as well.” Alright, then. “What about, you kiddo?” Jaira looked up from the conversation she was having with Soot.

  “Syrup of Lemon for me.” A decent choice. “Gotcha, Soot, Midnight, and Winter, I take it the three of you want water as usual?” I got a chorus of “Aye” from them. That only left Rathina. She was petting Winter gently as she looked up at me. “I’ll take some rose water, or lavender water if that’s not available.” Before I could confirm, she pulled me in for a quick kiss. I returned the kiss with one of my own before I rose to my full height again. “Alrighty. Just give me a moment and I’ll place the orders.”

  A few minutes later the waitress returned with the drinks for everyone. I settled next to Rathina and once the waitress came around received my cup of tisanes. Rathina gave me a curious glance. “Tisanes? May I ask why?” I looked at her. “The feast is soon, and I’d rather not get indigestion. Besides the taste isn't half bad as they use coriander and cinnamon for it.” Rathina looked at me for a moment before she pulled me close. “If you say so, honey.”

  I leaned in closer. “You can have a taste if you like.” Rathina took the offered cup. “Hmm, not bad.” I leaned in and gave her a kiss. “Indeed.” Meleri leaned closer to Jaira. “You know, I actually liked it better before they got all lovey-dovey, its… creepy.” I arched an eyebrow. “Well, it’s your own fault for playing matchmaker Meleri, not to mention if it’s so bad you are free to stay behind when we travel home tomorrow.”

  Meleri looked alarmed until she saw my smile. “Oh, really funny, sis.” I chuckled as I leaned back in my chair and glanced out of the window. “Well, you kinda asked for it. That aside, we should finish our drinks, the feast is about to begin.” They followed my gaze, in the distance we could see a large burning bonfire with a huge amount of tables scattered about under the orange-pink light of the setting sun.