Science And Sorcery #2: A Scien-tastic, Sorcer-ific Snowfall
Hey all. So you remember that short story I did a while back about the young genius teaming up with the apprentice witch so they could go traveling through time? Well I really enjoyed those characters, so decided to do another part. This one is Christmas themed, sort of. Its more fluffy than adventurous like the last one. Gotta have a quiet moment in between the action, you know? But yeah, give it a read, its fun :D
Vesta Wix is a young apprentice witch eager to master her abilities. When her mysterious mentor tells her that her destiny will be revealed in time, something inside her tells her to take it literally, and she sets off to find the truth, wanting to finally find her place in the world.
Tobias ‘Toby’ Emmettson is a brilliant but eccentric young genius, one who is too smart for his own good. His inventions and theories are beyond his time, unable to properly operate with the technology he has at hand. He is desperate for a chance to prove he is not an idiot.
Together, they form an unlikely partnership: Vesta will use her abilities to power his inventions, and in return Toby will help her explore the timelines. As their friendship grows, so too does the scope of their adventures…
The cracking and popping of flying sparks filled the large, forgotten room in the basement of the library. It was the kind of room where the windows were just a series of small openings high in the walls that sat just above ground level when viewed from the outside. Damp, darkness and the occasional curious rodent has been the only occupiers of the space for a long time, but the room had recently been given a new lease of life. Now, the better part of a dozen tables and desks filled the room, along with white boards and a few second-hand computers that had half their panels missing. It would have looked every bit like an old classroom, if it wasn’t for the piles of junk that filled every surface. It was a chaotic mess that seemed to defy any conventional attempt at organisation or classification, but for one person it was a calming picture of endless possibilities, a collection of half-finished projects that for the first time were more than just monuments to disappointment, though figuring out how to adapt them was a project all its own.
Toby Emmettson never imagined he would have to figure out how to splice magical components into his wild ideas, but it was a challenge he was relishing.
There was still so much he didn’t understand. Vesta, the apprentice witch who made up the other half of an unlikely partnership, had given him a crash course in arcane energies and mystical manipulation. It was so strange, so non-sensical, it felt impossible to even begin to understand it. The only thing that made it easier was the fact he knew Vesta was having as much trouble trying her hand at his technological marvels. It had been funny watching her trying to solder components, but then again he’d almost blown himself up trying to cast a spell, so it was fun and games on both sides really. He was just beginning to make headway with it all, enough for him to be able to figure out some interesting ways of combining the two schools. It wasn’t much, but in the end he had managed to find a string of logic in Vesta’s teachings, one that he could understand. It was enough to let his imagination soar.
It all came down to the crystals, or at least at the moment it did. He had no idea how it worked, but Vesta seemed to be an endless source of strange crystals that could either trap or channel magical energies, and their physical structure made them ideal for integration into his projects. A few wires and modified mounts, some tweaking here and there, and just a little bit of luck; that was all it took to make it all work. Well, that and a fair helping of duct tape. Always carry duct tape, that was one of the rules he lived by, he thought as he speedily typed on the keyboard in front of him
Toby smiled brightly. He hadn’t been this excited in, well, he didn’t think he’d ever been this excited. His mind was racing with ideas, so much so that it was hard to focus on any one thing, but the moment the status bar turned green his attention was locked. His idea would work. That was all he needed to know. Springing away from the computer, he darted over to the bench that held disassembled contents of the rift generator, the first of his inventions Vesta had helped to get working and the one that allowed them to travel through time.
Ever since the incident in the graveyard, he had been wanting to upgrade it, to try and limit how much it was affected by the arcane temporal interference. He’d also added a radio, just because he could. It was almost time to put it back together again, once he’d finished this last mod.
“What has gotten you all giddy, bouncy human?” A voice came from across the room. Toby looked up.
“Oh so you’re awake?” Toby said as he looked at the skull in the glass analysis box on the other side of the room. The skull, an unexpected souvenir from their trip to the strange haunted cemetery, had lost none of its strange undead-ness since being separated from its body, and was now mounted on a display stand while surrounded by a handful of probes and scanners. Whatever dark energy that fuelled it still animated the bone it was made of, allowing it to continue to wear the frown that seemed to have become its default expression.
“Sleep is for mortals.” The skull replied, its ‘eyes’ narrowing.
“And yet I see you snoozing off all the time.” Toby said knowingly. The skull swivelled slightly on the display stand, but was unable to properly turn away. Giving up, it looked back at him.
“I’m… merely reconnecting with my source.” He said cryptically.
“Oh Moby, there’s nothing wrong with catching a nap every now and then.” Toby said with a laugh. If the skull could have rolled its eyes, it would have. Since being forced to take up residence in Toby’s lab, the skull had gotten into a number of conversations with its unwitting captors. At first it had been threats of death, dismemberment and other nasty things, but at some point it seemed to realise that empty words weren’t going to do the trick and had given up being an angry head full of attitude issues. Reluctantly, and perhaps due to having nothing else to do, the skull had eventually started chatting with them. It turned out he was actually an interesting conversationalist, though he had utterly refused to tell them his name, so instead Vesta had suggested they call him Mobius. That had lasted all of ten seconds before it had gotten shortened to Moby. The fact that it irritated him to no end was a source of much amusement, and the name had quickly stuck.
“You never answered my question.” Moby said as he swivelled on the mount again, trying to get a better look at what Toby was working on.
“Just an upgrade for my time travel tech. Ever since we visited your creepy supernatural cemetery it’s been playing up, so I figured it was time to have a tinker. You still haven’t told us much about that place, you know.” Toby said, probing.
“It’s none of your business. Besides, you wouldn’t understand. The gothic one, maybe…” Moby said, referencing the nickname he had given Vesta. It was toby’s turn to huff in frustration. Moby had been almost completely silent when it came to information about the strange realm he hailed from. What few clues or hints he had dropped had gone straight over Toby’s head, but one thing was clear: there was much more to him than he was letting on, and whatever secrets he held weren’t going to be given up easily. All Toby could do was wonder and try to get Moby to let things slip every now and then. Today wasn’t one of those days.
“Fine, whatever, keep it to yourself. I don’t really want to know anyways.” Toby said as he focused on his device. A few more tweaks and it would be finished.
“Is that annoyance I see in the pink of your mortal flesh?” Moby said, trying to be creepy.
“Not anymore it isn’t!” Toby said excitedly as his bright smile returned. The modification for the rift generator was as complete as he could make it by himself. Its purpose was simple; it was designed to be a hyper advanced cooling system for the generator, a super conductor of coolness that should help stabilize the portals the system created. He just needed a source of coolant now. If it were in his hands, he’d just fill up a tank with a coolant liquid of his own design and then miniaturize it like the rest of the components for the generator, but that hadn’t worked out for him in the past. The blends of liquid coolant he tried before were… awkward when it came to miniaturization energies. The last time he’d tried it, he’d flooded the basement. For a month. He was hoping Vesta could help him out on that front, that maybe she’d have a ‘hydration crystal’ he could plug into the device instead.
“I’ll see you later Moby. Don’t go wondering off.” Toby said as he packed away the components in his bag.
“I hope the darkness swallows you!” Moby said grumpily as he watched Toby cross the room, but then his eyes widened as another thought crossed his mind. “Hey, um, can you turn on the TV before you go? It gets boring in here when you’re gone.”
Toby couldn’t help but laugh at that. Despite his spiky outer edge, there was another side to the mysterious magical skull that he couldn’t help but find charming.
“Oh, that reminds me! I have something for you.” Toby said as he switched on the TV. He pulled something out of a draw in the desk the small, patched up TV was sat on. He turned back to Moby, a devilish grin on his face. A look of fear crossed Moby’s face.
“Don’t you dare.” He growled. Toby just grinned.
“Oh I dare.” He said, then stepped back to admire his work. The tinsel covered, red and white Christmas hat had fit the skull perfectly. Moby swivelled on his display stand, trying to shake it free, but served only in causing the bell on the end of it to jingle. Toby laughed again. “Hey, I thought you could use some cheering up. It looks good on you.”
“I hate you.” Moby said defeatedly.
“Yeah, love you too buddy. Don’t watch too much TV, you’ll rot your eyes out.” Toby said sarcastically, then turned. A moment later and he was gone, the door of his secret basement laboratory locking close behind him. Moby sneered as he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the glass side panels of his case, but then his features softened slightly. The colour actually suited him, but he would never tell the humans that. With nothing else to do, he settled down.
At least this TV thing was good.
The winter air should have been cooler, Toby thought as he walked down the road. There wasn’t a sign of frost anywhere to be seen, and it hadn’t snowed once yet this winter. If it wasn’t for the naked trees a person could be forgiven for thinking it was just another chilly autumn day. No snow days anymore, he thought as he turned around the end of the street. He pulled out his phone and looked at the address stored in it. He’d never been to Vesta’s house. She had told him to come over when he had called her for help with his modification. The thought actually scared him, more than he wanted to admit. There was a whole bag of anxiety coated issues that came with being a socially awkward, introverted super genius, but he found himself worrying more about the practicalities of actually visiting Vesta’s house. She was a witch, after all. Was her home going to be carved into the trunk of a tree, did he have to bring a pocket full of salt with him? What if he said the wrong thing and got accidentally turned into a frog? As smart as he was, he was certain that would put a dent in his scientific efforts.
It actually took him a double take when he finally found the right address, and even then, he was certain it couldn’t be right.
The house looked completely normal. It was a detached, two floor piece of regular suburbia, made out of normal red brick, double glazed windows and tiled roofing, surrounded by a simply brick and wood fence. There were no creepy vines clinging to the walls, no spooky gargoyles sitting on the roof, not even a haunted looking tree. There wasn’t even a black cat sitting on the neatly trimmed grass. It all looked so regular, pretty much like every other house on the street. This couldn’t be right, right? Checking the address one last time on his phone, he pushed open the gate and made his way down the garden path, fighting back a fear that had nothing to do with the idea of getting boiled alive in a cauldron somewhere. Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, he knocked on the door. A few seconds later, the door opened.
“I just got a text from Toby. He’s almost here. I should get ready.” Vesta said softly as she sat at her antique vanity desk, staring at the mirror. Her reflection filled the center of the mirror, but her attention was on the room around her.
On the figure that seemed to move like a whisp of smoke in a breeze.
It was always hard to focus on the image of her sister, but today seemed to be especially challenging. Allegra didn’t seem to want to stay still at all, always appearing in another spot for just a second or two before vanishing, never giving Vesta a chance to really see her. It was infuriating.
Even now, Vesta knew next to nothing about Allegra’s true situation. It had been eight years since she had supposedly died, and four since Vesta had begun hearing her voice. She still remembered the first time she saw her sister’s face in the bathroom mirror one morning. She had practically screamed the house down. Allegra had always been mysterious in life, but death had turned her into a total enigma. Vesta didn’t even know if she was really dead, and her sister offered little information. For a while though, that didn’t matter. Vesta was just pleased to be able to talk to her older sister, and was eager to learn what she had to teach. She had never imagined she would be an apprentice to a spirit or shade or whatever Allegra had become, but it worked. She had learned things no one else would teach her, things that weren’t even in her most ancient of books. Allegra had answered all the questions she had about the hidden magical world, but now Vesta had questions that went beyond all that. Questions that Allegra didn’t seem to want to answer. It had created an atmosphere between them, even if she was stuck on the other side of the mirror.
“I’m not sure about him.” Allegra said, her ghostly voice appearing in Vesta’s head. She had never met anyone else who could see or hear Allegra.
“Hey, you were the one who told me to find him.” Vesta said as she stood up, centring her energy.
“That’s not exactly what I said, and you know it.” Allegra said, and Vesta caught a glimpse of her frown in one of the glass panels that covered the front of her wardrobes.
“Hey, you always said to follow what felt right. He does. I know he is a bit unconventional, but it works.” Vesta said as she moved around her room, making adjustments with quick waves of her hands and gestures with her fingers. Her room was large and spacious, so she had a lot of spots to cover.
“Unconventional is an understatement. Be careful, you don’t need him. He is an outsider, however kind and understanding he might be.” Allegra said, and Vesta didn’t have to look at her to know she was rolling her eyes. Some things just didn’t change. Vesta shook her head.
“You said my destiny would be revealed in time, that the answers I need will come to me as soon as I’m ready for them. Well excuse me if I’m in no mood to wait. If my answers are in time, then time is where I’m going. Toby can help me with that and… and I trust him. We have a good thing going. I’m not ready to give that up. Unless you want to just make this easy and tell me everything right now?” Vesta said, her voice carrying into the shimmering air around her. All that came back to her was silence. Vesta’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t like arguing with her sister, but there was a line that she had to set.
“Make sure you put the temperature up a little. It’s cold in here.” Allegra said finally after a few moments. There was a subtle shift in the air, and Vesta knew she was gone, vanishing back into whatever place she now called home. Vesta sighed, then finished placing the spell on her room. It was only a few moments later that the knocks on the door echoed from downstairs. Taking one last look around her room to make sure everything was in place, she went to get Toby.
“Ok so I have to say it, this was not what I was expecting.” Toby said as he stepped into Vesta’s bedroom.
“What, were you expecting me to live in a cupboard under the stairs?” Vesta replied jokingly before continuing. “Modern witches have moved past the whole living in the darkest woods thing. Get with the times already and stop being so offensive.”
“Sorry, sorry. This time last year I thought witches and magic and all that stuff was just make believe.” Toby said, looking horrified that he had offended her. Vesta glared at him for a moment, but couldn’t hold it any longer. A wide smile erupted onto her face, and she laughed.
“Dude chill, I’m just playing with you.” Vesta said as she motioned for him to take a seat on her bed. She dropped back down into her desk chair as he sat down.
“This is so weird.” Toby said as he looked around Vesta’s room. It looked so normal, just like any other girl’s room, filled with the random clutter he would expect to be in any other room. There was the usual collection of draws and chests, as well as a small bookcase stuffed with regular looking books. On the other side of the room, opposite the door, were a collection of large wardrobe-like doors built into the wall that opened up into what looked like a walk-in closet. The most exotic thing was a bean bag chair next to the large curved windows. That was maybe the strangest thing of all; Vesta didn’t seem like a bean bag sort of girl. Maybe it was filled with magic beans or something.
“Hey, we can’t all be surrounded by junk like some people I might mention.” She said, holding her cards close to her chest. Toby looked around again, then his eyes narrowed as he looked at her.
“Nah, I’m not buying it. This isn’t real, is it? You’ve set up some kind of mirage or something, right?” Toby asked. Vesta stared at him, unable to completely hide her surprise. She hadn’t expected him to pick up on the optical deception.
“I need to stop telling you all my secrets.” She said with a laugh, then sat forward, the locket around her neck slipping out from beneath her long-sleeved top and swinging slightly in the air. Toby’s eyes were drawn to it for a second. He had never seen Vesta without it, but the time had never seemed right to ask her about it. It was just one of many questions he still had about her. His attention snapped back to her hand as she waved it in the air for a moment before suddenly stopping.
“I can trust you, right? It’s just I’ve never shown this to someone who wasn’t already a part of this world. Little nervy.” Vesta said uncertainly.
“Damn, you saw through my clever ruse.” Toby joked for a moment, before turning serious. “You can trust me, I promise. You’ve got my back, and I’ve got yours.”
“Ok, check this out.” Vesta said as she repeated and finished the gesture she had begun moments before.
The effect was instant. All around them the room shifted. It was like walking through a mirage as waves of energy seemed to ripple across every surface. In seconds, the room had completely transformed. One of the walls was covered in mysterious symbols. The only one he recognised was a pentagram. Another wall had stacks of shelves that were filled with jars and candles, crystals and charms, and all other manner of totems and arcane artifacts. The whole colour pallet of the room shifted too, becoming filled with dark blues and greens, helped by the frankly huge plant collection that filled one corner next to the window. It looked like a mini rainforest over there, Toby thought as he watched it burst into reality. How she got so many plants to fit in one place was a mystery, but then again that could sum up the entire room. Even a strange looking rug had appeared on the floor beneath his feet. He’d never seen anything like it.
“Ok, how?” Toby said as the room settled.
“We call it a glamour. Basic perception spell. If you like that, you should see inside my cupboard.” Vesta replied, but then a thought crossed her mind. “That’s not an invitation by the way. At least not today. I can’t remember if I put the chains on the monsters.”
Toby looked at her for a long moment before saying anything. He wasn’t sure if she was joking or not, but she just sat there with a happy, mysterious smile on her face.
“This is more like it.” Toby said finally, unable to stop himself from jumping up from the bed and looking around the room. He immediately crossed over to the shelves, his eyes racing across the mysterious collection of items. Without thinking he picked up what looked like a snow globe. The small glass dome contained a village scene that seemed plucked from the countryside itself.
“What’s this? Some kind of lost imprisoned village? A relic from another realm?” He asked as he looked back at her, his mind already racing with possibilities.
“No, that’s just a snow globe.” She said, letting out a small laugh at his confusion. “My parents got it for me one year as a gift from one of their holidays. Sorry to disappoint, but sometimes a thing is just a thing. Now stop touching stuff before you give yourself a second set of arms or something.”
“Where are your parents anyways?” Toby said as he returned the snow globe and turned around, though he couldn’t stop his eyes from wondering completely. That all changed when he saw Vesta’s face fall a fraction.
“They’re away for a few weeks. They have to travel for work. I don’t really want to talk about it.” She said, her words tinged with sadness, as well as something else. It almost sounded like guilt. She was silent for a moment, then her mood shifted and her eyes were bright again. “So what’s up? You said you needed help with something?”
Toby reached into his bag and pulled out the unfinished mod for the rift generator. It took him only a few moments to explain what he had in mind.
“So what do you think? Got anything that could help?” Toby finished. Vesta considered for a moment. Then she swivelled and pulled something out of the draw behind her.
“I could write a spell on cheriok parchment?” She said as she revealed a few sheets of what looked like brown paper. Toby just stared, totally out of his depth. Vesta rolled her eyes. “Its basically a type of magic paper. As soon as you read it, it’ll trigger the spell written on it. You don’t even have to be using magic yourself. I guess running an electrical current through it would have the same effect? I could write it really small and you could fit it in the device. That would give you all the water you need for a coolant, and it’d last a while.”
Toby looked at the paper, trying to figure out the specifics of mounting and shrinking a scrap of paper, let alone how to channel whatever effect it would produce. Where did the water even emerge? Maybe if he suspended it in a glass tube? But that would create all kinds of problems with pressure… His eyes narrowed as his mind turned in on itself, going to an internal workplace as he tried to work the issue.
“So I’m guessing this isn’t what you were thinking?” Vesta asked as she saw the look of concentration on her friend’s face.
“Not exactly.” Toby admitted, still looking at the parchment. There seemed to be something shiny embedded in the structure of the paper, like glitter almost. That could be a problem. Vesta thought for a second.
“You wanted another crystal, didn’t you?” She said, guessing where his mind was. Toby nodded.
“Yeah that’s kind of what I was hoping for if I’m being honest.” She glared at him.
“What do I look like, some shady black-market purveyor of magical mischief? Elemental crystals aren’t easy to create you know. I don’t just have them laying around.” She said, her voice harsh and her eyes dark. Toby looked at her for a moment, worried. But then he met her gaze.
“You’re messing with me again, aren’t you?”
“Ah he’s learning.” Vesta said, her smile returning once again. “Don’t worry, I think I have an aquarion crystal somewhere around here. Give me a sec.”
“That was mean.” Toby said as he moved aside slightly to let Vesta pass. She went over to the wall with all the shelves and started searching. She quickly dismissed the lower shelves, and rose up on her tip toes as she searched higher up. After a few seconds she let out a triumphant sound as she spotted what she was searching for. Toby watched as she tried to keep her balance as she reached up. As she did so, the sleeve on her left arm rolled down a bit.
The scars on her forearm were plain to see.
Toby turned his head away, pretending he hadn’t seen anything, but inside his mind was racing with concern and questions. There was still so much he didn’t know about Vesta, but he’d always known she carried something dark with her. There were moments when a shadow seemed to fall over her, and she went to a place in her memories. He’d wanted to ask her about it before, but he wasn’t good with stuff like this and the time had never seemed right. But he couldn’t deny how worried it made him when he thought about the implications. He had vowed to keep an eye on her, and was thankful that she seemed to be stable enough, though he knew all to well the mask people wore. He hoped one day she would be comfortable enough with him to be able to open about whatever shadows haunted her, but now wasn’t the time to have that conversation.
“There you go, that should sort you out.” She said, tossing the crystal at him. It was about size of a match box, rough and angular with a bluish tint. He swore he could feel the motion of waves moving within it.
“Thanks, this should be perfect. Hey, what’s up?” He asked when she didn’t return to her seat. Instead, she crossed over to the windows and stared out.
“Nothing really. Just thinking about winter. Allegra used to love this time of the year. She loved snow. Its weird not seeing any.” Vesta said as she continued to gaze at the bare trees and frost-free ground.
It was at that moment that Toby had a brainwave.
Dozens of different ideas fired off at once as in his mind he saw the new blueprint come together. It was like watching it in real time, seeing the components rearrange themselves as in the background streams of code flashed into existence for a brief moment before flying off to find their position in the device.
All in all, it only took a few seconds.
“So, you’re gonna hate me, but I’m going to need another aqua crystal thing. Not right now! When you get a chance, whenever really. No rush.” He said as he frantically looked around in his bag, searching for his on-the-go toolkit. Vesta spun back to him, incredulous.
“Did you break it already?! Do you know how hard it is to get water from the bottom of an ocean?!” She said, but Toby didn’t reply. He had already found his toolkit and was tinkering with the mod on Vesta’s bed. He was barely aware of Vesta crouching down next to him.
“Hey man come on, you’re going to get oil or something all over my bed.” She said, though her concern took a back seat as she saw that mad look in Toby’s eye, the one that said he was in the zone, in the middle of some idea that had equal chances of being breathtakingly remarkable as it did being a stunning mess of a failure.
“Aha! Got it!” Toby shouted suddenly as he connected the last wire and a light on the mod turned green. He smiled brightly and turned to her.
“What have you done?” Vesta asked, both curious and nervous.
“I’ve changed the mod. Do you have a garden?” He asked, almost giddy.
“Yes. We have high fences so people can’t see our wicked rituals.” She said, but Toby missed the joke entirely.
“Ok, let’s go!” Toby shouted, and jumped up and blasted out of the room without waiting for her, leaving Vesta struggling to catch up. She managed to catch him just as he reached the bottom of the stairs, and the two quickly made their way out into the garden. Like the rest of the house, it looked every bit as normal as any other suburban garden. Toby didn’t know if that was because of another glamour, but it didn’t matter. He put the mod on a slab of paving stone that ran down the middle of the garden, hit a few buttons, then turned and looked at a confused Vesta.
“You need to start explaining stuff.” She said, catching her breath. Toby nodded.
“Right. The idea was simple. By rejigging the central flow matrix and combining it a wider flow valve setting, I was able to shift the resonation frequency of the electrons entering into the aqua crystal, which will result in a different excitation effect that will interact-”
“Simple terms Toby, simple terms.” Vesta said, cutting him off. He always went full science mode when he was excited. Toby bit his tongue for a moment, trying to slow his thoughts.
“It’s a snow machine, basically.” He said, gesturing to the mod on the ground. “It’ll use up all the energy in the crystal, but hey, we haven’t had snow for years, so I figure why not?” Toby explained as simply he could before fiddling with his watch as he prepared to activate the mod. It was a moment before he realised Vesta was just looking at him. “What is it? Something in my hair?”
“Why are you doing this?” Vesta asked, confused. “I thought you needed this for the rift generator?”
“Nah, its cool. The generator will still work, just it’ll be a bit less stable. Nothing we haven’t dealt with before. And hey, this’ll be nice.” He said. Vesta looked at him, her mouth open slightly.
“Are you sure about this? It’ll take me a while to make another crystal.” She said softly, trying to hide her feelings. Toby just shrugged.
“Don’t worry about it. Hey, its for Allegra.” He said with a small smile, one that was filled with warmth and compassion. All Vesta could do was stare at him for a long moment as inside, her heart ached in a way she couldn’t put words too. She returned the smile.
“Thank you Toby.” She said, her voice fragile almost. Toby nodded, then hit a button on his watch.
The mod made a whirring noise for a moment, and then a series of what could only be described as the most perfect snowballs to ever exist shot upwards. They were shinning white, almost like glowing balls of energy with waves of coldness flowing from them. They blasted straight up, vanishing into the clouds high above. The effect was almost instant. The clouds rippled and shifted, rolling and billowing outwards from where the glowing snowballs had hit them. A wind suddenly swept into the area as the combination of advance weather manipulation science and magic took hold. With the wind blowing, the temperature suddenly dropped a few degrees, so much so that both Vesta and Toby could see their breath misting in front of them. The first snowflakes fell soon after that. They were small and delicate at first, but after a few minutes the snow was falling steadily and thick, quickly blanketing the ground in a fine layer that grew deeper by the minutes.
“This is amazing.” Vesta said as she looked around, the world transforming around them.
“Yeah, its pretty cool. In fact, I guess you could say its ice cool, eh?” Toby said with an expectant smile. Vesta rolled her eyes.
“I’m going to let that one pass. Once.” She said, resisting the urge to throw a snowball at him. Toby seemed to sense what she was thinking though.
“You know what? I feel a snowball war coming on. But first snowmen! I need some gloves.” Toby said as absentmindedly, taking a few steps in a random direction as he went digging in his bag. Vesta smiled and she shook her head. She couldn’t believe this was happening, but she was thankful that it was.
“You’re going to regret challenging me!” Vesta said as she crouched down to scope up a handful of snow. As she did, she caught sight of herself in the reflection from the kitchen window.
“I guess he isn’t that bad.” Allegra’s voice appeared in Vesta’s head as she saw her sister smiling at her.
“See, told you so.” Vesta whispered as she shaped the snow in her hand into a ball.
“Hey, save some of that snow. I’ll teach you how to make an ice crystal later. That might be useful for his silly little machine.” Allegra said, trying to sound indifferent. Vesta smiled and shook her head.
“You like him.” She teased. Allegra rolled her eyes, and then vanished from the reflection. Vesta found herself laughing, and saw that Toby was giving her a confused looked from the other end of the garden, where he had positioned himself behind a wall, snowball in hand. She didn’t say anything, and instead arched her arm back. Hers was the first of many snowballs to fly that afternoon.
It was a day neither of them would forget anytime soon.
