Christmas – the most wonderful time of the year where people decorate their house and spend the days with their beloved ones, while children open up presents laid for them underneath the Christmas tree. The streets were busy with a lively tempo as people flocked to places they were supposed to be, finding things they were supposed to do, and one young woman would be there, muddled through the crowd, unknowing of what to pursue first, and how to deal with the day when she was still so hung up with how far she’s been thrown off her primary objective.

It was the first Christmas that Snowflake had ever spent with her lover and to be honest, she was more than excited – if it wasn’t for the fact that she was struggling to find a present for her one and only beau. The woman scratched her forehead, as her eyes glided over numerous objects laid in sections in alphabetical order. She was highly aware that Chelvaric was one who loved nature, but she wasn’t going to get a pot of plants and flowers as a Christmas present, should she? The snowy sculptress eased the bag filled with adornments for their room over her shoulder and pressed two fingers against her chin.

Deep in thought, icy hues flickered between each section to another, battling herself within to find the perfect present for her boyfriend. ”How could this be so much harder than I thought?” she mumbled under her breath to no one in particular. It wasn’t until something caught her attention and her eyes would widen in surprise by the sight. ”This one is perfect,” she snapped her fingers and quickly meandered over to the section before anyone could grab the object.

As expected, the market was filtered with crowds of people as everyone attempted to purchase presents for their families and lovers as soon as the morrow drew its first sunrise. Petite as she was, Snowflake found it easy to slip through the gaps and wandered towards her destination around swirls and eddies of people. Snowflake made sure to wrap the present with a beautiful piece of paper before it would be finally ready to be given.

The time to be jolly and eat way too much had fallen over the country again. The time that was called Christmas and the end of the year. It was tradition for humans to spend time with there family and loved ones and to stuff themselves with so much food you could wonder if they had turned into pigs. Chelvaric shook his head as that was quite the negative view on the festivities. He actually loved Christmas, the food and the company were the two things he just enjoyed about this holiday. He didn’t care that much for the presents as that wasn’t what Christmas was about. It was to cherish your family and loved ones and to thank them for the great year you spend with them and to wish for a nice next year too.

But Chelvaric hadn’t celebrated Christmas since he started to travel around. Well, he did like eat by himself a bit and listen to the Christmas songs but that wasn’t really the same as spending Christmas together with the ones you love. Before that could happen there was still lots of preparation to do. Chelvaric was out and about to do shopping for the meal and for the present he wanted to buy for Snowflake. He saw the shop he was looking for as that was the place where they would have the best options to buy his present. It was a hell to get to it as everyone in Baska was on and about to get there presents and food on the last notice as Christmas was today already.

He didn’t like crowds a lot so this was a harsh task for Chelvaric but he had to do it otherwise he would have no present for Snowflake at all. When he went inside the shop he looked for the item he had seen a couple of weeks before and pointed at it to the shopkeeper to make him notice that he wanted to buy it. After paying a quite hefty amount he would let the man wrap it up in a nice Christmas present paper and then carefully stow it away before he left to buy the food he needed to cook with Snow tonight.

With the present and the decorations in hand, the snowy beauty began to head home, content by what she had purchased. The streets were lit up different coloured lights, and as she walked over the cobble-stoned pavement, she’d stumble upon the a large Christmas tree located in the centre of the Townsquare. Cheers and laughter filled the area and the only thing she could see on the faces of the civilians was joy and happiness. Oh, how long have they waited for this day to celebrate? People took turns to take pictures of the overly-decorated Christmas tree, although it appeared way too extravagant for her taste, she enjoyed the soothing ambience it had granted.

Underneath the Christmas tree were wooden boxes, twice as large as their bodies and wrapped with a variety of colours and ribbons as if they were parcels. The woman found herself smiling at the sight – as infrequent as it was – and paused in the tracks for a brief moment before she continued to head back home, assuming that Chelvaric would be waiting for her. Patches of snow crunched beneath her feet as her foot broke the morning’s crust and her breath steamed before him like a banner. Frigid, harsh gales blew across the land, causing some of the townsfolk to snuggle up into their thick coats and scarves while Snowflake walked casually in her black jacket and tight pants.

Confidence oozed from the young female as she sauntered, and the outfit she wore would have made the citizens wondering if she had gone insane. Technically, her body was immune to the cold in general and being an Ice wizard as well as a demon had its own perks, you see.

Upon her arrival at their home, Snowflake was greeted by the lights switched off, and the room entirely engulfed in darkness. ”Sweet?” she called out, only to receive nothing but silence. She had expected Chelvaric to be home at this hour, however, it seemed that he might have other business to tend to at this moment, or he was being delayed by the crowded people that filtered the busy streets – perhaps. The woman decided to proceed with the decorations nevertheless, in hope that her beau would be home soon and then, it would be time for them to celebrate the jolly day of Christmas.

A battlefield that was the only word he had for what was happening in the general store right now. Moms were cutting each other off to get the last piece of meat or the last vegetables they needed. Some moms were pulling on the same packet as they really needed it. He made a mental note to himself never shop on the day itself again. It was so stressful and hard to get the things he needed for today. At least he had the main dishes meat already, a nice deer steak, now he just needed some vegetables and mushrooms and then some small snacks that he could use as the appetizer for Snowflake. She wouldn’t go hungry tonight that was quite the given fact.

After he got everything he needed he went to wait in the line for the cash register. It was quite long and he probably was going to take a half hour to get there. He hoped Snowflake wouldn’t worry too much as where he was. He still had to quickly change clothes as he didn’t go into his part outfit since he didn’t want it to get dirty, he was just wearing his usual woodland scout outfit. Behind him, there was a young mom with two kids waiting in line and the youngest kid was nagging for a candy while screaming now and then which was getting on his nerves. He really couldn’t handle big crowds so this was a very stressful day for him. He took a deep breath and told himself to calm down he was nearly at the place. After a while, it was finally his turn and he paid for everything before he rushed home. He walked carefully up the stairs to there apartment so that he wouldn’t fall down or break anything.

“Snowy I am home”, he said as he saw the lights on and knew she had arrived before him. He put the groceries away into the fridge and went into the room to see what she was up too. And it looked like she was hanging up the decorations. “Oh let me help sweetie!”, he said and he grabbed on end of the slinger that needed to be put up to the wall. After they had put it up he would bring out the tree and placed it in the corner of the living room near the couches where they would sit and relax during the evening. “Let’s decorate this beautiful tree, I’ll let you put the star on the top”, he said to her and smiled.

Twinkle lights were hung up on walls and stockings here located over the doors and the fireplace inside their apartment that they’ve rented for a short period in Baska – albeit, it has been two months since their arrival in the town and they have yet to leave Baska. Since there wasn’t anything much that would make her stay – apart from the breathtaking views of large hills and grasslands – their departure was soon, in the very near future. While waiting for her lover, Snowflake had already begun setting up the Christmas tree, located in the living room right in the corridor, though leaving the adornments for later as she wanted to decorate them together with Chelvaric.

Not once had she celebrated Christmas before, and the day wasn’t considered anything special by her parents – more so, they were struggling with quite a lot of things that her parents never bothered about such events, since they were mostly just a waste of time and money. Yet, they would still have a nice dinner every now and then. Wandering different places throughout her younger years, Snowflake had learnt a variety of things about different cultures and how people chose to celebrate Christmas. As young as she was, Snowflake was fascinated by the idea of decorating places with lights and thus, began to follow the tradition like the majority of people.

The door unlocked and a familiar voice could be heard from the doorway – it was no other than Chelvaric. She could even tell from the sound of his footsteps that it was her paramour. The corners of her lips immediately curved upwards, even upon hearing the door creaked open as she greeted him.

”Welcome home, sweet.”

An old wish of hers – it was something that Snowflake had always wanted to say to her special person. The woman would nod as he suggested to help and gave him the slingers for him to hang over the walls. Being short had its own disadvantages and thankfully, Chelvaric was much taller than her and so, she used his height to her own benefits. ”I’ll get the decorations,” she’d say as she scuttle away to retrieve a box of ornaments solely to embellish the Christmas tree, and the first object to be put up on the artificial tree was the lights.

”What did you get us for dinner?”

The frosty sculptress raised the question to strike a conversation, as a mean to pass time faster. Although the expressions weren’t apparent on her face, Snowflake felt delighted than she had originally expected for the celebration.

Chelvaric was hanging up the slingers as it seemed that Snow had a difficult time with it being a lot smaller than him. He chuckled inside a bit but remembered that there were places he could not easily reach either as he was too tall or too big for them. he was quite happy that they could help each other to overcome their weaknesses in life. He didn’t take too long to put everything up and walked over to Snow as she wanted to decorate the Christmas tree together with him. He hadn’t decorated a tree since he went to the Exorcist school which was twenty years ago but he still remembered it as yesterday. They carefully placed the lights in the tree as they were very easy to fall on the ground and to break from the impact and he didn’t want to destroy the brand new decorations yet. Snow could be sad about that and that’s the last thing he wanted from her.

She asked wat he had brought for dinner. he thought about what he was going to make for her and started to list up all the food. “Well I have a couple of snacks with me that we can eat while we drink some champagne or cava then well have a soup of Lobster and as pre-course well eat a fish stew. We will then continue with a melon sorbet and as the main dish we can eat a nice deer steak with mushrooms and other vegetables and then to finish I have ice cake for us”, he said loud up the nice and long dinner they would have. They would maybe be really stuffed in the end but that was part of Christmas. Once they were finished with the Lights, he took out the Christmas balls, they were in all kinds of shapes and colors from shiny to non-shiny and some had sparkles others were just plain red. You definitely could find your taste in them.

“What is the most exciting thing for you on Christmas Snowy?”, he asked of her while they were decorating.

The relationship between the two had been going smoothly recently – even better than she had expected. A while back, their worst nightmares came to reality when Snowflake confessed about herself being a demon. It went haywire. The woman had unfortunately let the demon took control of her entire body and worse, she had even attempted to murder her beloved one with her own hands. It was a moment that she never wished to reminisce; one that she would never forget, yet the consequences of the event were not something that she imagined.

"After a storm, comes a calm."

The saying goes, and the couple came out much stronger than before after overcoming their worst fears – not to mention – Snowflake had learnt not to bottle up her feelings, nor to hide anything from her lover, having her lesson leant. Thus, here they are, spending the most precious time of the year together in their rented apartment.

Once the wire-strand lights were hung up, next to come were the adornments that were to be set up over the Christmas tree. To showcase her most favoured objects, she placed them in prime positions of the tree before hanging the larger ornaments and filling the empty gaps with whatever that was left in the box; mostly medium and small-sized adornments. It was as if the tree had finally come alive; each and every kind of ornaments were decorated on the tree to make it the most prominent object in the entire room. Their apartment that appeared so empty and bland previously had eventually turned into one that brimmed with colours – bright red and green – welcoming to guests even.

A jumble of words quickly followed her question and Snowflake failed to catch up with every meal that Chelvaric mentioned, causing her to stifle her own chuckle due to her clumsiness. ”Well, that sounds a lot. Seems like I’m going to be stuffed today,” she commented, a smile growing on her lips, highly expectant of the dinner to be the most important part of the day.

”Good question – snow, I guess?”

The woman had taken a brief moment to consider her answer before giving one after much thought. Perhaps, devouring all the delicious food was also something she looked forward to during Christmas, but she loved going out into the streets to see freshly fallen snow laid in front of her with lights hung low over the wires of the streetlamps, casting shadows over the white patches. It was a beautiful sight: to see everything so vividly in a background of white and the happiness written on the faces of the civilians only brought her joy.

”What about you?”

It seemed Snowy liked the snow the most of Christmas. It’s good that they were at a place where it snowed at Christmas as otherwise, she would have to celebrate Christmas without any snow. She then asked what he liked the most about Christmas. “Being together with your loved ones and just having a good talk with good food, that spirit is what Christmas makes so special for me.”, he said to her and gave her the star so she could put it on the top of the tree. When she would grab the Star he would lift her up to the top so she could place the star on the top. After that had happened he would put her down and walked to the kitchen as he had to start on the food. He didn’t want to tire Snow out but on the other hand it would be fun if they cooked the dishes together. It was like a time where they would bond as they were making it as good as possible.

He took out all the ingredients for the first dish as it was just small toasts with all kinds of spreads he had bought. He carefully spread the hare paste over the toast and then gave it to Snow and asked if she could spread some confiture over it. this would make a great combo and it would taste amazing. Once that was done he went over to prepare the next snacks which were carpaccio rolled up with nuts and cheese. It took a while to wrap everything up and it had to cool down so it became a harder shell that wouldn’t as easily break as when the meat was warm and soft. Hmm, he couldn’t wait to taste these. “Snowy why don’t we go ice skate a bit before we continue with our cooking we still have more than enough time to cook”, he said to her and waited for her response.

The remark made by Chelvaric had caused her to smile – he was correct in a sense, especially after having him by her side, it made the entire event even more special. Normally, Snowflake wouldn’t have bothered to celebrate Christmas, but would rather have preferred to observe the town and watch them enjoy the day. She would finally understand why having someone special was so important; people wanted to make memories, and so was it for herself. Having the day spent with your beloved ones, Snowflake wanted to reminisce the times she enjoyed the most, despite how little they were.

”Me too.”

The woman replied, gazing down at the piece of decoration that was handed over to her, as if it was the most interesting thing that had ever occurred to her until she suddenly felt her feet off the ground. Her body was lifted like a piece of paper as Chelvaric raised her up to place the star on the topmost location of the Christmas tree. A gasp escaped her mouth, her lips parted slightly from surprise but, quickly regained her posture and located the star on where she wanted it to be.

”So, what is our first dish to cook?”

It was then her beau handed her over the ingredients that he’d bought and decided that they should cook together. To be honest, she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do, but being a quick learner (thankfully), Snowflake followed whatever Chelvaric did. The frosty maiden had never been the best cook, but she wasn’t the worst herself, though her cooking skills probably need a lot of improvement. When Chelvaric mentioned ice-skating, she raised her eyebrows in surprised – partly out of enthusiasm, as she had never done such a sport before and it could be seen that she was more than excited for the occasion.

Snow seemed to be a very fast learner as she was already perfectly cutting all the ingredients and doing the procedures perfectly. He was quite proud that a girl like that was his girlfriend, someone who was really smart and strong at the same time. You could say she was the perfection of a human. Well, she was a demon now but that was fine he guessed, still was a bit weird and he needed to get used to it but he was sure they would work it out in the end. He threw the thought of him and started to think further about Christmas. He didn’t want to spoil the fun with bad thoughts and he just finished up the work. After everything was prepared they didn’t really have anything left to do in the house until tonight so he grabbed her by the waist and kissed her gently on the forehead. “Great work Snowy, why don’t we head to the ice skate rim now. I can teach you some tricks, I used to ice skate all the time in my home town”, he said to her and grabbed her hand and they walked out of the door after getting there coats.

The streets were nicely coated with a blanket of snow and lots of people were walking towards the ice skate ring and small Christmas market. It wasn’t super big but there were a couple of stalls spread around the ice skate rim to buy some glew wine, other beverages, and deep fried doughnut balls.

“Should we skate first or do you want some hot Cholate milk?”, he asked of his paramour and looked at her beautiful face as he awaited her answer,

Crimson colour tainted her cheeks and ears as Chelvaric planted a kiss on her forehead. The two have been dating for a while now and yet, the snow haired female was still not used to the affection she received. Snowflake would gently clutch onto the soft fabric of his clothing, only to leap onto her toes and rewarded him with a soft peck on his lips. The action only reddened her cheeks even further and she’d smile upon the compliment given to her by her lover.

”Oh, we’re going already?”

The snowy beauty was quite surprised by the sudden invitation, although since they were already done with the cooking, it shouldn’t be any problem if they left to spend some quality time together. Never once she had tried ice-skating but it sounded extremely fun, according to the stories heard from citizens of the towns who would share their own adventures with her during her travels. With that, Chelvaric would take her by the hand and drag her out of their apartment after getting their coats to keep themselves warm in the winter.

She enjoyed everything about this kind of weather, the satisfaction of being the first to make an impression in a blanket of freshly lain snow, the subtle crunch underfoot as she strode forward and the best bit of all – the sight of low hanging shafts of sunlight illuminating the sparkling whitened scene before her. The townsfolk were all cuddled up in their thick coats, with scarves tightly wrapped around their neck, gloves dressed onto her hands as the frigid gales whisked across the land, causing the snowflakes to sail along with the rhythmic motion of the wind.

”You never mentioned to me about your hometown. How was it like?”

Idle chat filled the time and seconds plodded by and eventually, they would find themselves in front of their destination. ”Let’s skate first. It’s better if we get a warm drink later,” she’d respond and tugged onto his arm to enter into the ice-skating rim – only after they dress on the appropriate shoes, of course.

Chelvaric had enjoyed the kiss on his lips from his lover as he kept thinking about it while they were walking to the ice skate rim. He really enjoyed her kisses and her lips felt softer than the skin of a peach. He pulled him back out of his thoughts as Snowflake was asking him about his hometown. He indeed hadn’t said much about it to her as it was a far away memory that he didn’t really think much about.

“My town was a small and secluded mountain village. We had the typical miners who were mining for gold and other metals. But next to that we had the tradition of having a big ice skate competition every year in winter. Because the lake next to our village always froze completely close. The ice was so thick that near the end of winter we cut it out and store it so that we can last the whole summer with the ice cubes for our drinks”, he said to her and thought back about that fond time. He didn’t even know how the town was nowadays.

“I left the place when I was seven. From that cold barren place, I went to a hot environment. After the incident at school, I never went back to my hometown. I hope it still exists and that the people are happy.”, he said to her and then thought about how his childhood friend Chia was doing. He hadn’t seen her for fifteen years now.

Well more than that he couldn’t really say as he didn’t remember anything else. Snow was holding herself tight to his arm as they were trying to enter the ice skate rim. He held her carefully and said to her that she should grab the railing on the side.

“Okay we’ll first make a trip around the field holding the railing and me and then we can skate a bit around while you hold onto me. It’s not hard to do, just like place one foot and then slide your other foot in front of you”, he said to her and showed it to her as he ice skated  a bit forwards made a spin and returned to her.

Listening to Chelvaric’s story had given her the impression that his hometown must have been very lively with friendly townsfolk and it seemed that he grew up well with adventures. On the other hand, she wasn’t so sure about her own. Snowflake never remembered much about her hometown, after the incident happened – her parents’ death – she refused to recall her memories; it was a part that she chose to erase entirely from her being. She never wished to reminisce her past, nor wanted to be reminded of it. Although she knew that she was a very quiet child in her younger days, isolating herself in the library. Due to her cold demeanour, neighbouring children didn’t wish to approach her and thus, the majority of her childhood was alone, without any friends – not that she minded any bit of it, since it only made her more independent each day.

Growing up alone, her mind had matured faster than most children and it allowed her to be less trusting towards people, especially adults. She was always cautious when approaching people, until now; a habit that liked about herself. Perhaps, it was the reason why people thought it was almost impossible to understand Snowflake. Yet, she liked being a mystery, leaving people wondering who she actually was.

”We could go back to your hometown together.”

His story had made the young maiden curious of how his hometown looked like and to be honest, she wanted to know more about him; his past, every bits and pieces of him, especially now that they’ve been dating for a while. Once they entered the area, they would be given shoes for ice-skating before they quickly slipped them on. Snowflake was already thrilled to try it out for the first time, though to be honest, she was also nervous at the same time. People whizzed past them, almost as if they were professionals and somehow, she felt jealous of their abilities. She’d immediately grab the railing on the side as she stepped foot inside the icy area, and could immediately feel her foot slipping off.

It was much harder than she had expected.

For the past few minutes, the only thing Snowflake had been doing was to prevent herself from losing balance – she didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of the entire crowd. Snowflake listened to her lover’s suggestion and held onto him as they slowly moved forwards.

Left. Right. Left. Right.

Chelvaric was holding Snow tight as she was moving slowly in front of him. Her movements were a bit off at first but she stabilized quite quickly. You could see that she was quite agile and her body was trained to fight so it seemed she was picking up the ice skating at a decent rate. He thought about her question as if he wanted to visit his hometown. He was sort of embarrassed but he didn’t remember the location of his town at all.

“Well, to be fair I don’t really remember where my hometown is, you’re doing great by the way! Keep up like this and you’ll soon surpass me”, he said while he smiled.  He looked behind him so that he wouldn’t hit anyone since he was ice skating backward to hold her better. There were a lot of small children ice skating on the ice and some teenagers too. It was the teenagers that were annoying as they went way too fast and stopped really harshly near other people. They could hurt someone like that and he looked quite annoyed at them. Well, teenagers were always rebels so you couldn’t completely blame them for trying to enjoy their youth.

On the sides of the ice skate track, there were people standing with glew wine and watching their children or just random people ice skate while they were having a break or just not able to ice skate. Especially older people were in the crowd on the sideline. It must be annoying to be old, not able to do what you want anymore. “Baby how old do you want to become”, he asked her suddenly curious about it while he let go of one of her hands and started skating next to her. He wanted to see how good she would skate without him.

Her hands were tightly clutched onto Chelvaric’s fingers, unwilling to let go at she wobbled on her feet. ”God, I am so horrible at this,” the woman laughed apologetically, slightly embarrassed that her inadequate side was exposed. Albeit, not everyone was perfect and it only made their relationship special that they knew of the flaws of their own partners. While she was struggling herself, teenagers swept past them, throwing her a rather mocking glance as they attempted to impress people in the area with their not so special abilities by sliding across the icy surface with ease. The young woman scoffed, before shifting her attention back to her lover, only to reward him a smile to reassure him of his worries.

”I don’t remember mine either, I doubt it’s that big of a problem.”

Snowflake would let his arms encase around her body as she gazed up into gorgeous cerulean eyes of his. ”I’m happy with you anyway,” she whispered, her pearly whites snagging onto her bottom lip and stormy hues would idly glossed over his pouty lips. There was a sudden urge to kiss him on the lips, despite being in the middle of a big crowd – old and young alike – thus, she restrained herself from committing the act. The frosty maiden was beginning to get used to the eccentric style of skating, which required her feet to move in an angled direction. Instead of lifting her feet up, she’d have to glide across the surface whilst balancing herself at the same time.

She could never understand how professionals were able to perform such difficult tasks, though it was no wonder that practice makes everything perfect. The question directed towards her took her off guard, one that she wasn’t expecting and Snowflake would stare at her beau with her eyebrow raised. ”How old? What sort of question is that?” she was confused, but perhaps, there might be a reason as to why he was asking. ”I don’t know, maybe around eighty? Why?”

The grasp on her hands felt loose and a gasp would leave her parted lips as she immediately searched for something to grab on. Snowflake wasn’t confident enough to skate on herself, although it didn’t seem horrible enough to try it on her on as well. ”Oh god, please don’t let me fall,” she breathed, her arms and legs stretched out wide to keep herself balanced. She must’ve looked extremely ridiculous in the position that she’d notice a few young boys chucking to themselves as they passed by her. A blush rose onto her cheeks and all she wanted to do was to hide her face somewhere.

Chelvaric looked at Snow as she was saying that she was horrible at this. He smirked at her and shook his head reassuring her that she was doing fine for the first time. You shouldn’t expect to go super-fast when you are still learning the ropes after all. She then said that it didn’t matter that he couldn’t remember where his hometown was as she couldn’t do the same thing either, which made him quite happy that they always had things in common. He could see her bite her lip and he wanted to bite that lip also so bad. Her lips were super soft after all. Her face had a slight blush from the wind stroking there faces as they glided over the ice.

“I am super happy with you too”, he responded to her and gave a small kiss on her cheek as he suddenly spun her around. He laughed as she probably thought she was going to fall or not knowing what was happening. He liked to tease his girlfriend now and then it kept some spirit into a relationship.

She seemed a bit confused about his age question and he could understand that as it wasn’t a normal question most people would ask. “Because I don’t want to lose you on a young age, besides the more I know of you the better since I am a sucker for anything about you”, he said to her whispering in her ear. He showed her to the side of the ice rink as it was time to get a bit of rest and a nice drink to cool off a bit as he was sweating from the ice skating.

He opened the small gate that was closed to keep ice skaters from falling into the dirt when they weren’t able to stop near the gate. It would be quite painful to land outside of the ring of ice. Although ice wasn’t much nicer to land on either. He untied his shoe leashes and placed them back into the cart where a young boy was keeping them and hiring them to the next customers. “Do you want to drink some glew wine baby girl”, he asked of her and looked at the many places where you could drink the nice warming wine.

”Sweet, you don’t know when I’ll die. Neither do I.”

The woman shook her head, a small smile still lingering on her lips whilst her eyes were still fastened beneath her, to ensure herself to not fall over. ”For all we know, I could be gone tomorrow,” she stopped in her tracks and turned around to face her lover. For a moment, she felt like she made the wrong statement and it almost seemed like she had ruined the moment. Not wanting to put any wrong impressions in his head, she grabbed Chelvaric by the hand and gestured towards the exit.

”I think I’m done skating for now. Come on, let’s go.”

Despite how cold it was, Snowflake could feel her clothes clinging onto her body and the fine sheen of sweat glistened on her forehead. Truth be told, the ice-skating was stressful and the entire time, she was hardly even skating – more like, balancing herself in her own shoes, nevertheless, she felt like she had a lot of fun and her first experience wasn’t as bad as she had expected. They’d return their shoes to the staff after she was led out of the ice rink by Chelvaric and honestly, her ankles were slightly aching. Perhaps she was given the wrong shoes, or maybe she spent too much time on the rink. The snowy beauty quickly pushed her thoughts away and slipped back into her wedged boots.

Now, that’s what’s comfortable.

”Glew wine? Sure, I’m up for it.”

A weird name for a wine, she thought – one that she’d never heard before, but it wouldn’t hurt trying the drink for the first time. It seemed like Snowflake was feeling adventurous for the day, having numerous first experiences, although, she was never unwilling when it comes to testing out new things, and she was somewhat glad it was with the one she loves.

Chelvaric was a bit shocked that she would say that she would die tomorrow, he wanted to tell her that it won’t happen as he will stand to watch every day to make sure she’s perfectly fine and healthy for the next hundred years. But before he could say anything he was pulled out of the rink by her. after he had pulled up his shoes tight around his feet he walked together with her to one of the stalls on the side that sold mulled wine.

“Be careful when you take it, the drink will be quite hot”, Chelvaric said to her and paid the young maiden girl behind the stall for two mulled wines. The girl quickly scuttled to a barrel behind her and started to poor wine out after which she heated it up with a flame coming from her left hand. It seemed this owner was a magic cook. They were not super rare but most mages were adventurers in mage guilds so he was pleasantly surprised. “thank you miss”, he said to her and took the drink an gave one to Snow. The girl smiled politely and thanked them for the business.

Chelvaric put his drink in the air in front of snow and said to her, “To a great and amazing Christmas, I hope you like it babe”, he took a small sip from the drink and felt it a bit burning on his lips.  The taste was a bit bitter but it was still nice just too bad it was still hard to drink as it was too hot. “God, this is so hot I could burn my tongue really easily. Let’s walk around a bit so the drinks can cool off in the meantime”, he said to snow and linked arms with her so they could walk really close to each other. The many stalls had all kinds of goods to buy and sell. He looked at one of the stalls that was selling wool hats and one of them had small husky dogs braided into the motive. He took it and put it on Snows head after eh secretly had paid for it. “Here, this will keep you warm”, he laughed secretly and kissed his babe’s nose.

Snowflake was led towards the stalls that surrounded the skating rink. The place was quite bizarre and loud: something she had an aversion to and had never been fond of crowds. Children wandering the vicinity with their families, begging their parents to purchase whatever they found interesting, and couples being cozy amongst themselves. The delicious fragrance of food filled her nostrils and somewhere nearby, she could scent the aroma of barbeque meat, which only made her stomach grumble in hunger. Once the order was made, the girl behind the counter would retrieve two glasses of wine and set them on fire – literally – in an attempt to warm up the drink instantly. That was quite dangerous, perhaps she could have done it in a different way, nevertheless, it was a rather interesting sight for her.

The silver haired woman granted a smile towards the other female in gratitude for the drink before nodding at Chelvaric’s suggestion. With a couple of breath puffs, she made sure to cool down the drink first, followed by a short celebration between the two, ”To a pleasant Christmas and the ones ahead.” With that, she took a sip and she could feel the drink burning her tongue as it slid down her throat – not from the fire that the girl had previously done – but from the bitter taste of the alcohol. Snowflake was no stranger to booze or alcohol but, this one in particular was not her favourite, but well, it had its own unique taste. ”It’s not that bad,” the woman frowned, finishing the rest of her drink quickly with ease. Such heat was not a big problem for her, unlike Chelvaric, since she could always use her magic to cool down the temperature.

The couple continued to loiter around the place, aimlessly roaming and her eyes would idly glide over things that would attract her attention, and a certain stall caught her eye after her beau went over to purchase a beanie without her knowing. Snowflake wasn’t one to wear hats often, though she found beanies quite cute and it would certainly flatter her appearance. She placed her hands on the side of her head, feeling the texture of the item – wool. She liked it. She didn’t need anything to keep herself warm as her body was already immune to the cold but, having Chelvaric go out of his way to purchase a hat for her; she couldn’t deny the offer, and honestly, she liked keeping little gifts from her boyfriend. Although none of them were anything near expensive, she found them special.

”Thank you.” She smiled.

Chelvaric was smiling at her as she said to this one and the ones to come which indicated that she wanted to celebrated much more with him. He was quite happy that she was already thinking about a future with him and it made him smile. He carefully drank of the hot wine and felt the warmth glide down his through between his lungs and ending into his stomach. He had to pat his chest a bit as it felt like his lungs were burning but the feeling quickly disappeared and he sighed from pleasure. It seemed Snow wasn't a big fan of it as she had already finished the wine. He wondered if she had used her magic to make it cooler. she was a lucky girl to be able to do that. He kept drinking his drink and gave her hand a small kiss at times as he looked at the stalls.

There were stalls that had cute plushies and from one of them he bought a small keychain of a puppy plushie and for her and one of a kitty for himself. “Here now we both have a keychain and whenever you miss me you can give it a small hug and it will be like me hugging you”, he said to her and stroked her cheek whispering, I love you, in her ear.  He wanted to keep gifting her but he knew that if he did it too much she wouldn’t like it either. He just liked to make her randomly happy with small gifts. They looked further around but for the rest he didn’t see much that he wanted. Well it was still fun though and he deposited his can in a bin before they started to head back to their place as it was starting to get dark and it was time for the food or they would never finish all the dishes in time.

The couple continued to walk through the aisle, idly chatting amongst themselves about the most random things that occurred to their minds. She loved how comfortable she felt with Chelvaric, and they could almost talk about anything and she would still enjoy the silly conversations they had. As they passed by a stall that sold plushies and toys, varying in different sizes, her lover stopped to purchase one for her and another for himself, a puppy and kitten plushie, which she found really adorable, especially the way Chelvaric described it. She couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle as he spoke.

”I’ll keep it close to me.”

Snowflake didn’t hesitate to hang the plushie on her purse bag and took a moment to enjoy her little new addition on her accessory. ”It’s really cute,” she eased her purse over her shoulder once again and slid her hand into Chelvaric’s, their fingers intertwined together. The weather only grew colder as the day draws close to an end. Her eyes were steady to the horizon, face aglow with the last orange rays before twilight beckons the stars.

”We should head home, it’s getting late.”

Having not much eaten for the day, the young maiden was famished, and she had saved all that hunger for the dinner that they had prepared in the morning. She couldn’t wait to devour the food once she got home. After much walking and a lot of idle chat through their journey, soon enough, they’d be at the door of the inn that they had rented for their stay in Baska. The old woman sitting by the counter would greet them with a smile and as they climbed up the stairs, her excitement for their Christmas dinner and presents would only grow by each second.

Chelvaric looked at her and was a bit surprised that she was chuckling when h spoke to her about the keychain. He smiled back to her as she said it was really cute and it was hanging on her bag. Chelvaric attached the keychain to his pants and gave it a pet over its head to feel the soft texture under his fingers. “I still find cats cuter then dogs though!”, he said to her to make it clear that he was still not too fond of dogs even if he wasn’t a neko and he looked a bit annoyed but clearly showing it was jokingly.

They would arrive rather quickly back at the inn and he was quite hungry by now at least they had made most of the first dishes already so they could just cook them or eat them raw the ones that were meant to be eaten raw and it would fill them quickly while they could enjoy each other’s company and watch  a Christmas movie on the Lacrima Screen. He said happy Christmas to the old woman who was still working behind the inn’s counter. He felt a bit bad for her at first but then again there were still people hanging around the bar, so they could have some fun together and maybe eat some dishes together he guessed.
He opened the doors to their apartment and turned the lights on revealing their cozy spot that was still hot as they left the heaters on.

“Ah this feels amazing, you go sit down baby, I'll open the champagne and bring the first snacks I think your starving aren’t you. Pick a Christmas movie you want to see in the meantime”, he told her and went to the fridge opening it, to take out the bottle of champagne. He pulled a special wine opener out and screwed it into the wine cork. When it was deep enough he pulled it out with a loud bang and he nodded as this was great quality since it made a nice pop. He filled two glasses with the champagne and then prepared a plate with little toasts that had spreads on it. There was shrimp and meat spread and special combined spreads that he wasn’t exactly sure what was in them.

“Here I am babe. Bon appetite”, he said to her and gave her a glass of champagne after which he placed the snacks on the table in front of the couch. He fell next to her in the couch and place his arm around her shoulder ready to celebrate while the snow slowly fall outside of their room.

Snowflake had known her lover’s distaste for dogs even since before dating, so it was no surprise to her that he chose a kitten plushie instead of a similar one as hers – not that she minded much. She, herself, wasn’t a big lover of cats either since they were too aloof for her taste, nevertheless, she still found them quite adorable at times.

The young woman released a long sigh once after stepping foot inside their room, content to be back home after a long day. Who would’ve known she was going to spend the entire afternoon ice-skating? Snowflake threw herself over the couch and enjoyed the blissful moment of having her muscles relaxed for a while. In the meantime, Chelvaric got the dishes ready for dinner and Snowflake was already exhilarated to try out all the meals, in which most of them were cooked by her elven boyfriend. She was aware that he was a good cook, an amazing one in fact, and thus, it was no doubt that this Christmas dinner would be one of the best for her.

Snowflake went over to their bedroom and retrieved the present that she had gotten for her beau and placed it underneath the Christmas tree. She’d get the plates ready, placing them on their dining table before walking over the couch once again to select the movie of the day. The sweet fragrance of the freshly cooked meals wafted into her nostrils and it only made her stomach grumble even louder. The female could only nod at her lover when he mentioned that she should be starving – she was more than starving, she was ravenous.

”I got the movie ready,” she announced and waited for Chelvaric to bring the drinks and appetizers before the main meal. It was still quite early for dinner, so it wouldn’t hurt to wait for a while and enjoy a good movie with some snacks. ”Bon appetite,” she’d clink her glass against Chel’s and sank into the couch, resting on her boyfriend’s arm as she cuddled up close against him.

Chelvaric enjoyed having Snow so close to him and he felt the warmth of her skin. In the meantime, he was also really enjoying the champagne. He may not look like it but he always loved a good glass of champagne. He let out a nice comfortable sigh to announce to the world that this was the best time to be alive. They enjoyed the movie for a while and then he paused it declaring to his lover that it was dinner time.  he first brought out a miso soup. It was a bit basic but he knew that it was healthy and miso was always tasty.

“Hope you like the soup but wait, I am putting the other dishes on the table too”, he said to her and he started to eat the slightly salty miso but it wasn’t too salty he relieved himself from the stress as he was always afraid that he cooked it too long and that the miso would make it too salty. But it seemed that it was okay at least for him. He didn’t know if it was good for Snow.

“Babe is not too salty for you, I hope I can add some other spices so that it tastes better?”, he asked her.

After he had placed the soup and other small side dishes on the table, he went and took out the deer steak from the oven and placed it on a plate. He decorated the rest of the plate with croquettes, beans wrapped in bacon, mushrooms and cooked chicory. It was a bit much in the vegetable department but that was good since it contained lots of vitamins. He still wanted to make sure that his dishes were healthy. “The main dish is a nice deer steak with lots of vegetables and croquettes and no presents if you don’t finish your vegetables miss Snow. That should be all the dishes that we made, let's enjoy them!”, he joked to her and went to sit on his place. “Do you want some wine with that?”, he asked her and waited to pour out.

It was finally time for the long-awaited Christmas dinner. Her eyes would light up at Chelvaric’s announcement as she leaped up from the couch and immediately headed over to their dining table, which was already set up a few hours prior. Seated on her chair cross-legged, she waited for the meals to be placed on the table, eager enough to try out all the dishes that they had cooked together. Steam rose up from the plates, displaying that they came straight out of the oven, freshly cooked and warm. Snowflake tried the miso soup first, which included a bit of seaweed and tofu and surprisingly, she loved the taste of it. The broth was rich in flavour, just the way she liked.

”No, it’s perfectly fine. I really like it.”

Chelvaric appeared worried about the taste of the soup, despite how delicious it was. Snowflake was not a picky eater herself, so she wouldn’t have minded a slight difference in flavour nonetheless. Next came the main dish with numerous sides that filled up the entire table. It seemed that they had prepared too much for Christmas, although it was no doubt that she can finish all the meals with ease. The woman winced at the sight of vegetables – she was never a fan of them – but, it seemed that Chelvaric had included them on purpose knowing her distaste for the greens, and she had no choice but to eat them now.

”Cute. You bet I can eat more than you,” she joked and rewarded him a smile. The fellow Pegasus mage had always been a heavy eater, yet, she never put on much weight due to the daily workouts she would have every morning, or every other day, especially when she was feeling a bit unmotivated. Snowflake was one who cared a lot of about her image and her body, so it was essential for her to always look the best. ”Thank you for the dishes. All of them look amazing.” The frosty maiden had also assisted with preparing for the dinner, albeit, it was mostly Chelvaric who made most of the dishes.

”I think champagne will just do.”

Snowflake went over the kitchen counter to retrieve the bottle of champagne and re-filled their empty glasses on the table. ”Let’s dig in,” she clasped her hands and rubbed them together, excited to devour the meals.