Reborn

24: Snow Trials

Breaks:

[L1,2 or 3] represents the beginning of a flashback to one of Elena's past lives. There is more than one past life, which is why they're numbered. Though, these memories are usually told as she sleeps and Elena herself cannot remember them.

[/L1,2 or 3] represents the end of a flashback to one of Elena's past lives.

[P] represents the beginning of a retelling of a memory in Elena's current life.

[/P] represents the end of a retelling of a memory in Elena's current life.

~3~ is just a timeskip

____

Yugo, Dally, Adamai, and I found a flat patch near the edge of camp. The snow there was smooth and unbroken, glittering faintly in the afternoon light. Dally immediately flopped into it and started kicking his legs in time with the way he flailed his arms.

Confused, Yugo, Adamai, and I silently watched Dally's unusually serious face for a few seconds. Is that... what we were supposed to do?

I didn't really want to. I'd probably get cold fast- and wet to boot. But Yugo had promised that I'd have fun so...

All I took was one step forwards before Yugo reached over and grabbed my wrist, stopping me from going any further.

"Nope." Yugo shook his head, "don't copy that."

Shocked, "how did-?" I shook my head, bewildered that he knew what I was going to do before I'd even done anything. But more importantly, "why not-?"

Yugo's azure gaze met my eyes. Very seriously, "he's making snow angels."

My brow furrowed as even more confusion filled me at that answer. Weren't we supposed to be making snow sculptures? "Then, why is he-?"

"Not here!" Dally exclaimed, cutting me off unknowingly. Abruptly he jumped back onto his feet and pointed onwards, "to our next destination!"

Yugo, Adamai, and I shared a look.

"What's wrong with there?" Adamai asked even as we all followed after the energetic red head.

"It's not perfect, of course!" Dally happily explained nothing. 

Face just as serious, if not even more so than before, he flopped back into the next patch of white a few hundred paces away from the first- just to repeat the same leg-kicking-arm-flailing thing he did before. 

Uh, I mean, snow angels.

I looked to Yugo, about to voice my question-

"We need a specific type of snow to build in." Yugo answered before I could actually say anything, amazing me again. How did he do that? "While, I do it differently, we do need to find the right snow first."

Dally got up again, moved on with a shake of his head. Muttering to himself. We just followed.

The next patch of snow wasn't right either. Nor the next. Nor the one after that. Apparently, they were all too something- too soft, too uneven, too... 'temperamental,' as Dally put it once.

It was all snow to me. 

By the time we reached what had to be our tenth 'testing site', I was starting to think the perfect snow didn't exist. Dally knelt, grabbed a handful, and frowned deeply at it, squinted as though he expected it to start to reveal some deep secrets if he glared long enough.

Adamai sighed beside me. "You know, maybe we should just come back when we're actually ready to build something."

I silently agreed. I was beginning to wonder if Dally even remembered what we were out here for anymore.