ℝ𝕚𝕕𝕕𝕝𝕖 𝕄𝕖 𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕤 || ℙ𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕖

4. A Birthday on Ice

When you're skating alone in a lake larger than any other in the area, it was undoubtedly easy to slip into your own thoughts. As Isabella glided over the surface of the ice, she could hear nothing but the whistling wind in her ears and the scrape of her blades. And the whiteness all around her, a side effect of early-February weather, only melted away into one monotonous scene.

"Isa!"

She almost missed Prince's voice as she did another lap of the lake, but she couldn't mistake the black blur jumping up and down on the lake shore for anything else.

"Isa!"

"Coming!"

She skated up to him, slowing down to a halt with the skill and grace that came with skating for all your life.

"Did you think of another one?"

"Indeed, I did," said Prince, the corners of his mouth twisting up. "Riddle me this, what hearth cannot be put out?"

Isabella put her hands on her hip. "C'mon! That's easy!"

"Well, then what is it?"

"The House of the Hearth!"

Prince sighed, the confident smile wiped off his face. "How do you always guess mine right? I thought I was making them harder."

"Even if you make them super hard, I'm gonna get better to figure them all out anyway!" Isabella exclaimed, smirking.

"No way." Prince rolled his eyes. "There's a limit somewhere, probably."

"I'll just break it. Doesn't seem hard."

Prince threw a light punch at her, but she dodged it, skating backwards and away from him with a smirk on her face.

"Oh, come on, that's not fair!" cried Prince, taking a tentative step onto the ice. "You know I can't chase you on the ice!"

Isabella skated back towards him, her expression softening. "I wish you had a pair of skates, sometimes."

"Well, I do too, but I can't spend on something like that, now, can I?" said Prince, with a smile that seemed horribly forced to Isabella.

"I guess not." Isabella looked down, not quite able to meet his eyes.

"We should get back."

At his words, she looked back up, only to see Prince staring straight up into the now-darkening sky. Clouds in varying shades of grey had begun to creep across the sky, and a vicious breeze was playing with the loose strands of Isabella's hair.

"Yeah," Isabella echoed distractedly, bending down to untie her skates.

With Prince's help, she was able to take off her skates and slip into her boots just as the last sliver of sun was drowned by the coming storm. As they ran through the woods, the wind chasing them with its harsh, cold fingers, snow began to fall. Tiny snowflakes danced in the air, biting at Isabella's skin whenever one touched her face.

"See you on Wednesday," Prince suddenly said, stopping in the middle of a clearing.

"Are you really not staying for dinner this time?"

He shook his head. "Anya will kill me if I come home late on a wood-collecting day. I can't risk missing your birthday."

"Then the next time you see me, I'll be thirteen!" Isabella boasted, her arms crossed across her chest.

"Just a month after me," said Prince, smirking.

"Oh, come on! December twenty-second isn't really your birthday. You could be born after me! It's always snowing in Snezhnaya, your mom could've misremembered." Isabella said, a small smile dancing on her lips.