Ranger's Apprentice; An Emotional Tale

II: More Snow

As soon as he had rubbed most snow out of his eyes, Will opened them, looking for the person who had thrown that snowball into his face.

"Alyss!" He called out to the person on the veranda, "What was that for?! I didn't do any-" He didn't even get a chance to finish his sentence, because he had just been hit by another snowball again.

"I don't know!" Alyss laughed at him, "You just deserved it!" Before Will could react, Alyss had bended down, scurried around to gather snow, and had compacted the white snow into a small ball. A second later, a third ball hit Will in the chest.

The silence that followed was almost stifling, until Will snorted and bursted out laughing.

"I'll be getting you for those three!" he yelled at his wife and he bended down to gather snow. When he looked up, a perfect snowball in his hands, Alyss was no longer standing on the veranda. He turned around to see where she was hiding, and when he was turned towards the road another snowball hit his back. He turned around to see Alyss, in front of the trees.

"You should've seen yourself! Priceless!!" she said through fits of laughter. Will smiled coldly.

"Oh, really. Well why don't we see how you'd look like," he replied and he moved his arm back and forth, launching the snowball into the air. It barely missed Alyss, who'd jumped left to avoid the cold ball. She laughed at him, ready to make a comment about his throwing skills, when a new clump of snow hit her.

Years of training were now in favor. Years of shooting arrows and throwing knives proved their use in the ice-cold white battlefield, as Will continued to grab snow and throw it in Alyss' direction, almost without thinking. She shrieked at the cold substance but swore revenge.

In seconds the air was thick with snowballs so compacted that some of them felt solid and icy. The ones made of the freshest fallen flakes bursted open on impact, showering the hit with crystalline fragments that glinted in the wintry morning light.

Balls of white snow were being thrown back and forth, and both Ranger and Courier were hit multiple times. They shrieked and laughed, ducked and launched, secluded from the rest of the world.

For a moment, there was nothing else on the world that mattered. There was nothing that needed their attention, no one who wanted to see them. All that mattered was them and the snow.

They continued until they were rosy cheeked, and their teeth chattered. Their breaths rose in visible puffs, and they were numbing their fingers until they ceased to bend properly, stiffened and frigid. Both of them were covered in white cold snow, and both of them weren't wearing their warmest clothing - Will was still even wearing his sleeping clothes.

While they had had their snowball fight, it had stopped snowing, as if nature knew the flying snowballs would be practically cause the same as new snow flakes descending from the sky. But now, new snow covered their footprints and slowly erased all signs of a snow fight.

Alyss shuddered as the cold substance ran down her spine.

"Cold, are you?" Will laughed at her.

Standing in the wintry paradise, dissolved under a huge amount of white snow, her cheeks flushed pink of the cold, her grey eyes twinkling until they looked silver, Alyss looked like a snow princess who had just stepped out of a fairy tale.

She seemed to be reading his thoughts and called to him: "Aren't you supposed to be the charming prince in shining armour on his white horse who comes out to rescue his beloved princess, instead of standing there and making stupid comments?"

Will grinned. "I'd be careful if I were you," he replied easily, "I don't think Tug will appreciate it if you compare him to a 'knight's horse'. I think he calls them 'stupid slow horses without a brain'."

Alyss laughed softly. "As far as I'm concerned, that's true," she said. "But that's not what I was getting at. I wanted to call a draw." Will raised an eyebrow, a habit he had copied of Halt himself.

"Are you sure?" he asked, "Cause if you'd ask me, I'd say that I won."

"Which is exactly why I don't ask you," Alyss replied sweetly. "But it's getting rather cold, and if you agree on calling a draw, then I might have a change on challenging you again later, to finish what we've started."

Will grinned and bowed teasingly. "On those terms, I'll gladly accept your request, milady."

While they had been talking, Alyss had walked towards Will, rather than keeping the 10 meter long gap between the two of them.

Will grinned widely at her, and she smiled in return. The cold that had seemed mild at first now numbed their faces and extremities. With each breath more heat rose in puffs of white vapour, and the wind cut on their bare skin.

"Will, I was thinking," Alyss began, leaving the sentence hanging before going on. Will never replied with 'Always a dangerous pastime' to Alyss. He had never done it and never would. If you'd ask him why not, the young Ranger wouldn't even be able to explain. Just like the things he had always done without reason, he had never done this. So he just patiently waited until she would go on. Which she did.

"I was wondering, have you ever thought about having children?"

Will frowned, opened his mouth, and asked: "No, well, yes, I mean, sort of, but - not really, I guess, why?"

Will's face was momentarily wearing a puzzled expression, his mind a surging complexity.

Alyss linked her fingers in Will's hand and shot him a look that was all love, just the right hint of softness, her grey eyes twinkeling.

Slowly Will began to understand where his wife was getting at. The sicknesses in the morning just before work. The headaches and the sleeplessness. The fact that she had been wearing more wide clothes instead of her tight dresses and the sandals instead of tighter shoes. And now her question.

With an amused smile, Alyss saw the confusion in his eyes turn into realization, then surprise, and last but not least, pride. His mouth opened as if he wanted to say something, but his throat wouldn't release any words. He realized how stupid he looked, and quickly shut his mouth. His lips formed a huge, proud smile and in an instant, both of them had forgotten about the cold.

He pulled Alyss slightly closer. Still holding one of her hands, he laid his other hand on her - as he realized now - slightly swollen stomach. Alyss laid her free hand on his and gently squeezed it.

His hands moved around her waist, warm and soft and pulled her closer until they could feel each other's warm breaths on their skin. Her hands moved over his warm back to call him closer, then slid up his chest and encircled his neck.

The brown, surprised eyes met the grey proud ones.

And their lips touched, in the ideal, perfect example of softness, passion, and the promise of sweetness to come.

>>>---------->

THERE YOU GO! DO YOU GET IT?

I ACTUALLY CAN'T EVEN MYSELF I'M MAYBE A BIT PROUD OF THIS CHAPTER BCAUSE I JUST LOVE WILYSS.

I know it's a pretty short chapter, and it could have been better, but gosh this is harder than I'd expected!

Hope you liked it - if you did, please vote and comment :) If I've made any typos, please go back and tell me. Next chapter should be up ASAP, since the contest is ending October 20.

~Rose