Stargazing With Beilah

First Snow

"You've really never experienced winter back home?" 

Fen shook his head, ears tilting slightly in confusion at the still foreign subject, "No. Plumeria is basically the same all year. Different things grow and there are small fluctuations with temperature, but it stays pretty much the same throughout the year. I've never really left home before, so I've never seen areas more traditionally... "wintery"."

"That's crazy," Bow gaped before grinning, "You're going to love it!" Yes, they were going to the Kingdom of Snows for professional reasons, but that didn't mean that Bow was going to let his new best friend pass up on an opportunity to see a world completely foreign to him. Meeting Fen and Adora filled Bow with an excitement that he didn't think he would experience. Aside from the amazingness of meeting these new people, it was fantastic to show them around and introduce them to things they had never experienced before. In fact, it was quickly becoming one of his favourite things about meeting Adora and Fen and it always filled him with excitement to be able to show them new things. 

"What's it like?"

"Cold and really bright- weird, right?- and the structures and colours are totally different from Plumeria, and-" he cut himself off from his excited rant, "You'll see when we get there."

As they made their way there, they felt the temperature drop slowly, getting colder and colder the closer they drew to the Kingdom of Snows. The sky seemed to slowly change, too, as well as the scent of the air. Despite all of the slow changes that the felt os saw happening over time as they got closer, it was incredibly jarring to actually enter the Kingdom of Snows- especially since Fen had never been in an area even remotely similar. 

The cold was so intense that it could be smelled in the air, crisp and clean and so strong that it filled them with the feeling of winter. The sky looked like a solid chunk of a frozen-over lake, with dull, grey-blue stuck together messily in the sky, glimmering despite the dulled colours. Tall spires of blue ice shot from the ground, towering into the sky like trees made of icicles. They glimmered as the light hit them and most appeared translucent despite slightly distorting whatever was on the other side of them. Blanketing the ground was a thick layer of a fluffy, powdery substance that glittered and sparkled intensely as the sunlight hit it from all angles. Drifting from the sky were tiny, delicately detailed crystals that floated and swirled all around them, dancing in the air. 

Despite what seemed to be a harsh nature to the land, there were many creatures flourishing around them upon closer inspection. The creatures that seemed to thrive in this laned, though, were almost completely white with smaller, more colourful designs hidden in their furs and feathers. The animals, nonetheless, were beautiful and adorable, gracefully moving around despite the thick snow that hindered the movement of Glimmer, Adora, and Bow. 

Fen couldn't help but stand in the middle of a snowdrift, staring at their surroundings in complete awe, mouth hanging open slightly at the strikingly beautiful sight surrounding them. It was surreal and wonderful in a way that fen had never seen before and he instantly fell in love with it, forgetting the cold in his wonder. 

Adora and Glimmer shivered next to one another, huddling slightly for warmth as they glanced back at Fena dn bow curiously, urging them to hurry up, "C'mon, guys. We should keep moving."

Bow shook his head, still smiling, "Nah, it's okay. You guys go, I'll stay back with Fen."

"You sure?"

"Mhmm."

It didn't take much to convince them to go ahead without Fen and Bow. 

Fen was finally snapped from his stupour with a snowflake falling onto his nose. Fen blinked down at it in mild surprise, as if he had forgotten that the snow was cold. He stared intently as he watched it slowly melt onto the tip of his nose- though it was slightly difficult due to him going cross-eyed as he tried to watch the snowflake. 

Bow chuckled as he watched Fen stare at the flake in absolute wonder, sneezing and shaking his head slightly once it completely melted on the tip of his dark nose. He was far from finished exploring and gazing upon the wonderous land around them, though, and began feeling around the drifts of snow curiously. He was completely astonished by the strange texture and feel of the snow, soft and fluffy, but easily shapable and sticky under pressure. Upon discovering this, Fern began playing with the snow in his hands, moulding and forming it into different shapes. None of them was very detailed, but it was still fun and interesting to see. A few moments into doing this, Fen grinned wickedly as an idea took over him. He hurled the poorly shaped mound of snow at Bow, catching him completely off guard. 

"Hey!" he gasped as the cold snow crashed against his skin. 

Fen chuckled at Bow's astonished surprise. 

Bow wasn't going to let him have all of the fun, though, and immediately retaliating with snowballs of his own. They both dove behind snowdrifts to hide as they formed snowballs. Within seconds, they dove into an all-out war of pelting one another with snow, dodging left and right to avoid the attack from the other, grinning and bursting with laughter as they did so. 

Finally, they wore themselves out, briefly collapsing into a panting pile of exhaustion. 

"We should get going- find someplace warmer."

Fen nodded, a grin still plastered across his face as he nodded in agreement. 

Together, they stood and hurried to join Glimmer and Adora within the Castle Chill, finding themselves warm mugs of cocoa to help warm themselves up as they joined their friends, easily relaxing into a calmed state as they discussed their plans for the alliance. Many things had changed recently, but things were... amazing.