Winter Tales

Chapter 12 - Whiteout

A/N - Let's see how our adventurous siblings are faring in the impending snowstorm...will they make it down the mountain in time?

++Sam's POV++

I decide to stop for the third time already since we started from the top. I estimate that we have not even made it halfway down the mountain yet and I am not exactly impressed with our speed – or lack thereof.

The weather is getting gradually worse and we are not far from a whiteout. I swing my board around in an arc and then stop by the side of the slope. At least where I assume it would be, since visibility has gotten so bad that it is kind of hard to tell where anything is.

Lily is nowhere to be seen and my heart skips a beat. She is supposed to be right behind me. I sigh in relief when a small orange-blue figure enters my field of vision a few seconds later.

Her speed has decreased once again and she is actually going down the slope way slower than she did earlier today. It is quite obvious that she is scared. And I cannot blame her for feeling anxious, either, since the weather conditions are really challenging, even for experienced snowboarders like me.

Luke is following her closely, and from my perspective, it looks almost as if he is pushing her down the hill. Obviously, he is not doing that, but he seems to have his work cut out encouraging her to keep going.

Watching him, I realise that my feelings towards him are still completely ambivalent. It is good to know that he is patient and considerate with Lily. But at the same time it is his freaking fault that we are even in this situation to begin with.

I am aware that it was Will's stupid idea for them to just run off and get on the lift, but Luke must have been the one tipping the scales and that, in my opinion, is hardly forgivable. He should know better, considering that he is supposed to be an adult.

"There we go. Well done, dimples," the guy in question praises loudly as he and Lily catch up with me.

"Hey, squirt. You okay?" I ask her gently.

She just nods and wordlessly lets herself fall backwards into the snow. She looks exhausted.

Not even half a minute later, the rest of our brothers join us.

"Everybody good?" Jordan questions.

"Yeah," Luke replies while Will grunts something unintelligible.

"How about you, pumpkin?"

A strangled sob is the only answer he gets and I immediately start to feel really bad for my sister. This is demanding a great deal of her and it is not fair that she has to experience something like this only on her third day on the snowboard. I sincerely hope that it won't rob her of any joy she had up until now.

"Aww, baby, there's no need to cry," Jordan says affectionately.

He drops onto his knees in front of Lily and pulls her towards him so that he can wrap his arms around her. She appears to be grateful for his comfort, because she almost buries herself into his chest, which is actually rather difficult to achieve, seeing as they both still have their boards attached to their feet.

"At this rate, we're never gonna make it down there before the storm hits," Luke remarks quietly.

I have not even noticed him standing right next to me.

"And whose fault might that be?" I cannot help but bite out.

I know that it is kind of petty of me to play the blame game, but it is a fact that I am feeling angry at him and Will for putting us in the current position. Sure, I have tried to remain reasonable when we were on that chair lift, hoping to catch up to our disobedient siblings. It took enough effort for me to calm Jordan down. He was ready to explode with rage at the boys' actions. Inwardly, I had been just as upset. However, I thought that it would not be beneficial at all if I blew up at them, too.