A/N: Hey everybody, I'm sorry this is a day late. Had no choice due to internet difficulties. But here we are, as they say, better late than never. What do you get when you cross Frosty the Snowman with the Fallout Wasteland? You get this story! Enjoy everybody!
Damn them all.
This was the first thought that travelled through Craig Boone's mind as he looked out at the New Vegas strip, as glitzy and glamorous as it always had been.
Except where the cracked pavement streets usually were covered with a thin film of gritty sand, now wherever the tourists and townies stepped foot they kicked up a fine mist of white. There was a glow to the frigid ivory powder that seemed to throb with a life of its own, a faint green rippling through the downy-fine microscopic ice formations which were beginning to form a blanket of white peace amongst the formerly dead blacktop.
The snow piled upon the glittering, flashing and sweeping multicolored lights that made up the neon signs and trimmings of the strip's many casinos and hotels. Save, of course, for the flaming welcome sign of Gomorrah which housed high-reaching flames that would never expire unless the Omerta's stopped feeding the massive bowl.
Damn all of those NCR grunts who loved to say 'Patrolling the Mojave makes you wish for a Nuclear Winter.'
Boone pressed his combat bootheel into the fresh powder. When he returned his foot to its former place beside his other one, the powder took on the shape of his heel print. He sighed again, wrapping his boot length overcoat tighter around his long-sleeved molded leather armor. Its various buckles and zippers were cold to the touch and he had only been standing outside the Lucky 38 for a few minutes.
One would never think that it would snow in Nevada, specifically in the middle of the desert, but upon some twisted sort of miricle, it had. glowing green/white flakes started falling to the sun-scorched earth. Large, fat snowflakes took no more than the length of the twelve hour night to pile upon the sand, at first creating a thick sludge of mudflows, but by the time the mud was frozen, had completely taken over the landscape.
Coyote den mothers nestled their cubs deeper into the dark, dank caverns they called home. Radscorpions and molerats burrowed their way underground further and further until they could feel the warmth of the packed dirt and sand, allowing them to hibernate peacefully. Even the yao-guai of Zion were hibernating. Snow was, of course, a much more common occurance in Utah, however the area was covered in snow banks which steadily creeped up the sides of the dilapidated ranger stations and general stores until the deep snow had completely shut anything living inside of the buildings.
December had fallen on the wasted remains of the United States.
Boone suddenly lunged a few steps to the side as he was nearly bowled over by a frantically excited Kazdin Willow and Eagle Octavia, having escaped the Lucky 38 in a rather noisy fashion. They were each cheering and running to the growing mounds of snow, donning oversized sweaters. The greens and reds and blues of their Christmas appareil were faded and one of Kazdin's too-long sleeves was singed, but they were still warm and held their comfort admirably.
On their heads they both wore warm winter caps. Kazdin wore a black nearly new stocking hat with a large, grey puff ball on top. Eagle donned a plaid hunter's cap. The protrusions on the sides covered her ears very well and kept them warm and free from the assault of Jack Frost.
On their legs they each wore several pairs of sweat pants. Grey for Kazdin, maroon for Eagle. Their feet were snuggling two ugly-to-Boone pairs of fur lined snow boots. the gawdy colors were lost on the pair of women, however, as they immediately engaged in a snowball fight in front of the Gomorrah entryway.
Customers stopped and smiled at the antics of the women. Most knew about Kazdin and knew her to be a firm and fair ruler, but the way she made strides to be no different than the other wastelanders and the torrential rise in the population of Freeside, Westside and the Strip itself gained her more popularity than even her extremely popular laws and measures. She was one of them and never pretended to be otherwise.
Kaz stretched her lips into a predatory smile as she prepared her first volley of tightly packed snow crystals. Her mittened hands molded them into perfect spheres as she ducked low behind the carcass of a ruined Corvega. Eagle also had a stash of frozen balls of snow behind her selected cover, the nearest pillar of the Gommorah.
"I will give you one chance to surrender!" Kazdin called with mock authority.
Hearing no response, she peeked over the top of her car and saw Eagle nowhere in sight. She was suddenly pelted with a large, fat snowball in the face, her assailant being covered head to toe in the effects of a Stealth Boy mark three.
"Gah!" Kazdin called in surprise before she scrambled back to the safety provided by the ruined automobile.
"How is that for your answer!" Eagle taunted, a playful sneer of dominance in her voice.
"Hey, no fair! You can't use your Stealth Boy! That's cheating!" Kaz called, frustrated.
"Don't tell Eagle that the Super Awesome Mayor is scared of an enemy she can see through." Eagle taunted again, this time from right beside Kazdin.
Kaz jumped in the air with a loud shout of surprise before rearing back with two snowballs and rocketing her frozen ammunition at her adversary. The snow splattered and some of it stuck to Eagle's sweater and sweat pants, causing a somewhat eerie effect of the snow to be seemingly standing in place, floating five feet above the ground.
Eagle's stealth field dissipated and she was revealed in full form as she sat back against the car cackling with joy.
"Man, do I hate snow." Boone whispered to himself.
"You and me both, Sharpshooter." a woman groused from behind him.
Boone started and turned around to see nobody standing there. A slight, well built woman revealed herself with the press of a button.
"Damn it, J.D. Please don't startle me like that." Boone gasped.
The Jersey Devil slinked to Boone's side.
"As much as I despise being cold and shit, I do love to watch her have fun." J.D. said with a grin on her face. It was such a rare thing that Boone almost believed it to be an illusion.
"Yeah there's that. I would never deny Kazdin her fun as well. But it's just... personally." Boone grumped.
"So why is it a big deal for you?" J.D. wondered, holding out a steaming mug for Boone.
He accepted it and brought it to his lips. The scalding chocolatey liquid within made him grimace and take it away from his mouth to cool slightly.
"Hot chocolate and a smile. Who are you and what have you done with the real Jersey Devil?" Boone asked, cracking a rugged smile of his own.
"There are days even I feel like giving back. Just a little." J.D. said, sipping her own beverage.
"And I have a name now, remember? You can call me that. If you want to." she said as an afterthought.
"Karen. I do appreciate it. I, like you, have always hated the cold."
"But you seem to dislike the holiday itself." Karen remarked.
"You're right. And wrong, I guess. It's hard to explain. I mean I have moved on from my past life. I have a wonderful life right now. But there are times..." Boone began, but felt too guilty to continue.
"Hey," Karen said concerned. Boone looked at her.
"You'll always miss her. Kazdin knows that. What's important is that you treat her like she is not only the most important person in your life, but that she is the only person in the world. Or at least the only one worth focusing on."
"I still feel guilty. I mean, when I told her I was done with my old life and I was moving on, I felt so resolved. But there are times I look at the huge Christmas tree that Kazdin adores so much that it... reminds me of Carla. Carla always loved decorating for Christmas."
"You feel guilty, that's only natural. But I've seen you two together. You are her hero. She can't keep her eyes off you, unless she is being Miss Diplomat. Other than that, you are the greatest gift that you could ever give her."
"Seriously, where is the real Karen Solider?" Boone mumbled with the hints of a laugh breaking the words slightly.
"You act like I'm some sort of bitch or something." she quipped.
"Well when you first came here I didn't know whether to invite you in or shoot you for being such a damn loud mouth." Boone said.
"All true. But Boone, honey, that was two years ago. People are able to change, even such stone cold hard asses like myself."
"How did we change your mind?" Boone wondered.
Karen pointed down the stairway at Eagle who was in the midst of tossing a huge column of packed snow all over Kazdin's head.
"She changed my mind. The way you treated Eagle changed my mind." Karen said.
"The day we walked into your camp in Red Rock canyon, I hadn't seen that woman smile in a year and a half."
"Gideon's Point meant a lot to her." Boone agreed.
"It didn't just mean a lot to Eagle. Gideon's Point was the first home Eagle ever had. A place where she fit in. She always hated the loud crowds and assholes in Los Angeles. Then we tried moving to San Francisco. We figured maybe being in the midst of such a melting pot, especially living in a community of people like us would really help us fit in. I was wrong. Too many people complaining about this or that, and besides, the haughty attitude of the Frisco's pissed us both off so we moved on again."
"Being in a gay majority city didn't feel right to you?" Boone wondered.
"It was kind of like you and the NCR. You never fit in there although you are definitely a soldier at heart." Karen pointed out.
"Well, not all the time."
"Please," Karen kidded with a laugh, "You have Commando Grunt written on your forehead. You couldn't be more of a soldier boy if you wore fatigues all the time and made raids on the people you didn't like."
The punch to Boone's shoulder felt very powerful, but it was all in good fun.
"Well, you have me there." Boone admitted.
"Anyway, no place we ever went worked out right. But Gideon's Point was a different story. We felt safe there, respected. People didn't look down on us like the L.A./Frisco socialites did. They put us to work, looked us in the eye and shook our hands at night when they paid us. It was the first place Eagle, or myself, ever called our own. We were Gideon's Point and Gideon's Point was us. The night it was destroyed, as sad as I was, I turned that pain and grief into anger and destroyed Legion entrenchments and soldiers and everything Legion I could get a hold of! But Eagle..."
"She took it hard, I take it?" Boone said.
"She hadn't smiled in two years. She cried every night mourning that city and the great people the Legion butchered. It literally wrecked her when she wasn't on a mission."
Karen stopped speaking as she and Boone watched Kazdin and Eagle at play.
The silence that descended on Boone and Karen was a peaceful one, interrupted only by the sounds of Kazdin and Eagle's joyous cavorting. Boone took a sip of his cooling hot chocolate and sighed as the thick liquid thoroughly warmed him to his core.
"You want to know what changed my mind and made me into the person you see now? Kazdin, Veronica and you made Eagle smile again. That was enough to melt my icy heart." Karen finished.
"That doesn't exactly explain why I shouldn't feel guilty about missing Carla with as amazing as my life is right now." Boone prodded.
"I never said you shouldn't miss Carla, or even remember her fondly. She was a major part of your life for a long time. She made you happy. But you can't feel guilty about it because number one, Kazdin understands. I know she does. And number two, because remembering such a great part of your life should be celebrated."
Karen had shed some light on Boone's thoughts. She smiled and lifted her hands into the cold air.
"If you look at Kazdin and immediately everyone around you fades to nothing, then you know you are in love with her. She is yours and you are hers. That is a good thing. You said yourself that you have a great life. You just have to remember that." Karen said.
Boone finished his beverage and Karen took the mug from him. He turned to her and gave an appreciative smile.
"Thanks, Karen. I appreciate it." Boone said.
"Well, you know." Karen said somewhat sheepishly.
"What are friends for?"
BBBBBBBB
Kazdin lay back against the cold metal of the ruined car beside her friend Eagle, panting happily as the courier-turned-mayor and the sniper took a break.
"That was soooo fun!" Kazdin said loudly, closing her eyes.
"I know. I like how we always have fun together. You are Eagle's friend." Eagle beamed from beside Kazdin.
"Yep. And you are my friend too. Don't expect that to change either, Eagle. You are an important member of this team and I consider you one of my best friends." Kaz said grinning happily at her. Eagle's pale cheeks were red not just from the cold air.
"Like Veronica and Boone and Stella and Julie?" Eagle wondered.
"That's right Eagle. I care about you a lot and I am glad to have you as a part of all of this." Kaz said honestly.
"I love you Kazzy." Eagle murmured, turning her green eyes away nervously.
Kazdin placed an arm around Eagle's thickly bundled shoulders and hugged her.
"I love you too Eagle." She said.
A few minutes' silence descended on the duo as they lay resting. Kazdin studied the green glowing snow, thinking. Suddenly she leapt from her spot and moved to a patch of fresh snow a few feet from the vehicle.
"I don't really feel like snowball fighting anymore. But we could make snow things!" Kazdin shouted as she started packing snow as Eagle looked on curiously.
Kazdin started with rolling a large snowball and smoothing out the top of the sphere. After that she rolled a second ball half as a large as the last and placed it atop the bottom snowball. Finally she started to roll a final snowball, but paused. She grinned and began shaping an oblong snow creation. She tapered parts of it and elongated the edge until it resembled a snowball with a distended length off the side. She lifted and placed the oblong creation atop the other two before finding a stick buried in the snow.
She used the stick to shape eye holes, nose holes and the outline of a mouth. She and Eagle searched the Lucky 38 courtyard to find branches and did so quickly. Kazdin fashioned two arms with three long digits on either end. Sticking the wooden sticks into the side of the snow creature's body, she formed what seemed to be to long taloned arms. She used several lengths of twigs from the branches to form several spines along the creation's back and tore two bent and rounded twigs and attached them atop the head on either side.
For eyes Kazdin used two stones, for teeth she used more, smaller lengths of twig to give the character a misshapen grin.
She stood back at long last to admire her handiwork. She gasped at the realisation that there was something missing. She snapped her fingers and formed another packed length of snow. Sticking four more "spines" along the length of snow, she joined it with the rest of the creation and stood up, moving back to Eagle's spot to look upon her creation.
"Oh gosh..." Eagle said, "You made a deathclaw!"
The deathclaw stood no more than two feet off the ground from the bottom of its icy feet to the tip of its wooden horns.
"Eagle, meet Snowy the Tiny Deathclaw!" Kazdin said proudly.
"Now, you know what we need?" Eagle said. Kazdin looked at her questioningly.
"Now we need to make a whole village of little snow people!" Eagle shouted excitedly. Kazdin broke into a smile and nodded her head.
"Yeah!" she said happily, "We can make snow wastelanders and militias and sherriffs and robots and..."
Kazdin and Eagle continued to mull around in the snow creating twenty other miniature snow people. It was dusk before they finished, cold to the bone and gasping for air. However, they stood to the side at long last and admired their handiwork. In their excitement they had also created a snow general store, a snow saloon, a snow fortress, a snow abandoned building and a snow stripper bar/casino.
"That was all in a day's work." Kazdin said proudly before a yawn stole her air for a few seconds.
"That was fun! And we made so many snow things." Eagle said.
"I really like your snow strip club with the tiny snow hookers too." Kazdin admitted. Eagle again turned red.
"Yes, well, I thought since we are in the bright light city that I should build one." Eagle said sheepishly.
"You did good. You should be proud of your work. Nobody else is doing anything like this, I tells ya." Kazdin said.
"You guys still out here building your snow city?" Stella Mayford asked with a lopsided grin. She carried two thick quilts and two mugs of steaming hot chocolate.
"Yep. But we're finally done. And just in time for sundown too." Kazdin said, allowing the taller woman to drape one of the quilts over her shoulders. Eagle recieved one as well, as well as one of the two mugs of hot beverage. Both women sipped them eagerly.
"Well come on inside. Boone, Veronica and Karen made dinner and Lily decided to make chocolate chip cookies too. They are... too damn good to be true." Stella said, her smile widening.
"You had me at dinner." Kazdin said lovingly to the taller woman.
"When are you gonna make me your dinner?" Stella flirted. Kazdin laughed.
"When you finally let me, of course." Kazdin said before adding, "Was that an invitation? I'm sure Boone wouldn't mind."
"Um, no... I was just kidding, you see, I didn't really..." Stella stammered.
"That's what I thought. Maybe next time." Kazdin said with a wink. She turned to walk inside, Stella and Eagle following, with Eagle giggling at the flirtatious exchange between the two friends.
BBBBBBBB
The dead of night offered no stars for wasteland navigation, only the haze of low hanging clouds interrupted briefly in only one spot. The sillouhette of the moon made itself known beneath the thick grey of the clouds. The sun's light reflected from its surface lit up the almost-black of the clouds into a brilliant silver, but the moon's reflections never broke the thickness of the heavy blanket.
The only glimpses of humanity offered to the everlasting gaze of the Strip's updated, soldier-faced protectrons were one or two stumbling patrons. There was one passed out in the snow, face down in her own vomit guaranteed not to survive the winter harshness.
There was one man stumbling out of Gommorah's enormous double doors and out into the snow, swaying to and fro in drunken revelry. His voice was southern, singing off key to a tune known only in his head. He wore the disheveled plaid-and-denim of the caravaneer and he carried in his hand a black velvet fedora; a gift for winning big at the tables earlier in the evening.
He stopped short when he saw the makeshift snow village, especially the golem that stood two feet tall as well as several inches taller than every other tiny snow person or building. He crackled out a laugh and looked at the scene from several angles.
"Ain't that a thing... A big ol' snow lizar... er, deathclaw. I ain't never seen anything like that." The drunk drawled.
He gasped as he slid on some hard packed snow-turned-ice, but righted himself on the frigid steel of the wrecked Corvega.
As he regained purchase on the snow covered pavement he made his way over and looked again at the creation, it's thick wooden horns curled up and around its face, it's dark stone eyes totally lifeless. The drunk snickered.
He looked at the fedora and back at the small snow deathclaw.
"Well shit-fire, I am overencumbered." He slurred to nobody in particular.
He placed the fedora as gently as a drunk could on top of the deathclaw's head, careful that the fabric didn't crush its horns.
"There ya go, deathclaw. I do sure hope Miss Willow likes it." the drunk sang out before staggering his way off the strip toward him.
BBBBBBBB
But there must have been some magic in that old velvet fedora! For as the clouds broke and allowed the silver of the moon to lighten it, it surged with power that bound the snow crystals into one solid, living mass.
First, Snowy twitched one long talon, then another. Then he shook both arms, bending them up and down and sideways, testing their durability and reach. He blinked both eyes, stretched his newfound legs, swung his solid white tail.
Finally Snowy opened his mouth, his long white teeth gleaming in the moon's reflected light. He let out a tiny roar and set his eyes back and forth in search of his first meal. Snowy didn't have to look far, though. He set his stone eyes onto the first poor snow person he saw.
Snowy lumbered over menacingly. He took a deep huff of the frigid snow person and growled at it. With a vicious swing of his wooden arms, his long talons knocked the snow person into dust.
Looking around left and right, Snowy found all of the other snow people in the village and rushed them, swinging claws and gnashing teeth. Snow policemen, wastelanders, couriers, militiamen and hookers were all on the menu for Snowy.
Snowy knocked over snow buildings and devoured their occupants. He whipped his talons through several snow people at once, leaving only the stumps where they had once stood. He opened his jaws, devouring the snow people's leftovers.
Snowy ran through town toward the snow strip club and its occupiers, the tiny snow hookers and onlookers. Snowy tore through the small crowd of partygoers including a bachelor party recieving free lap dances. That wasn't quite the bachelor party those snow people had in mind, no sir!
Snowy knocked over the snow tables and the wooden poles before smashing the snow hookers to the ground and mutilating their fragile snow bodies. The pimp of the house stood to the side of the wooden stage, which Snowy destroyed to the very first piece of treelimb used to construct it.
Snowy moved menacingly close to the pimp, forever frozen in a look of celebratory arrogance. Snowy sniffed the tiny snow man, leaning close. His nostrils flared as he sniffed the joyous pimp. He then let out an adorable high pitched roar, opened his jaws wide and ate the snow pimp.
Snowy finally knocked over the little snow whorehouse and rampaged through the slaughter and frozen effluents of his conquered town, devouring who he wanted.
A commotion caused Snowy to turn his horned head toward the doors of the lucky 38. Kazdin Willow bounded down the ramp before stopping short at the sight of her two foot tall snow deathclaw ambling its way toward her.
Snowy had recognized his creator and with a jagged deathclaw smile on his maw he made his way toward her, wooden claws drawn up and hanging downward near his chest.
Kazdin stood stock still in wonder and confusion at the spectacle before her. As far as she knew, snow deathclaws didn't come to life. She knelt to her knees, not caring about the frozen snow feeling cold to her.
"Sn... Sn... Snowy?" She stammered in disbelief.
The snow deathclaw ran up to his creator and gave Kazdin's leg a snow deathclaw hug in appreciation. Running his cold little head against her leg in a display of affection.
Kazdin tentatively ran her bare fingers across the back of its snowy head, reveling in the fact that she didn't feel individual snow crystals, but one great snowy mass. Snowy was solid, no longer made of snow but of some singular snow mass.
Kaz grinned wide when she realized she wasn't dreaming, but pinched herself anyway to make sure. She sighed in pain but realized that this surreal moment did not waver and disappear.
Kaz placed both hands on the snow deathclaw's shoulders
"So you can understand me, Mr. Snow Deathclaw?" she wondered aloud.
The question earned her a snort and the rubbing of Snowy's cold head against her thigh once more.
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my GOD, oh my God, oh my God!" Kazdin explained, bouncing excitedly on her toes.
"Now we can go camping and ride bikes and get popsicles and drink orange juice together and we can play tag and we can fly kites and we can go running and we can play armies and hide and seek and we can get a goldfish and name him Henry and we can take walks together!" Kaz rattled on.
Snowy cocked his snow head at the high speed speech his master was displaying at the moment.
Sigh, masters can be so strange sometimes! Snowy thought.
BBBBBBB
As night faded into morning Kazdin found herself to be as energized as she had in years. She taught Snowy how to wear his fedora fashionably to the side. She taught Snowy how to fetch and roll over and how not to growl at the people who staggered in and out.
As the sun rose higher in the sky Snowy began growling at the wastelanders and Freesiders who came through the gates to spend their money in the casinos. Kazdin had a field day running to and fro to stop Snowy from biting into the pant legs of the passersby.
Finally Kazdin told Snowy to follow her into the back courtyard of the Lucky 38. There, she let Snowy run free and chase bugs and investigate the drained pool and lounge area. Kazdin smiled as she yawned for the first time in hours. She knelt and kissed Snowy goodnight and retired up to the Penthouse floor.
She answered a few questions honestly. Yes she had been outside playing with Snowy the deathclaw, but no Snowy wasn't an imaginary deathclaw, he was very real. Some kind of magic had happened and Snowy had come to life, that was all there was to it.
She left Veronica and Eagle scratching their heads around their breakfast plates. But nevertheless as the Super Awesome Mayor retired into the suite she shared with Boone, who had long since been awake with the dawn, Veronica and Eagle returned to their meals.
Kazdin undressed for bed and looked at the top of the white Comforter to find a hand-scrawled note from her longtime boyfriend.
"Kazdin,
I'm sorry I couldn't be here when you returned. Business has me up with the dawn, not unlike my time with the NCR, to go to Jacobstown and help mop up some NCR remnants who were trying to take Jacobstown as their own and start up a base of operations there. It shouldn't be too long, as apparently this is a splinter group. I've taken Karen Solider and Stella Mayford with me as backup and we should be back before dinner.
I love you, Kaz.
-Boone"
Kazdin smiled at the now familiar show of emotion from Boone.
"I'll see you when you get back, Craig." Kazdin whispered as she lay under the covers and went to sleep.
BBBBBBB
A slight commotion coming from the slightly open window from down below in the courtyard woke Kazdin later in the afternoon. She made over to the window and looked down. She saw the tiny dot that was Snowy behind the cover of the trees and bushes near the fence. On the other side she noticed most of her friends.
Eagle, Veronica, Lilly, Dan, Monroe and even the good doctor Julie Farkas had Snowy cornered.
"Oh no!" Kazdin said as she slipped on a thick robe and bounded into the elevator which never seemed to move fast enough. On the casino floor she rushed through the back door into the courtyard.
"Wait, wait, wait! Don't do anything rash." Kazdin shouted, drawing the attention of her friends.
"What is this, Kaz?" Veronica wanted to know, looking back at the tiny deathclaw hiding amongst the brown trees and bushes.
"That's Snowy the Tiny deathclaw! Me and Eagle made him last night and he came to life! Here, Snowy." Kazdin called, moving to her knees and holding her arms out to the terrified little snow creature.
Hearing his master's voice excited him and he ran out from the bushes and gave Kazdin a hug when he reached her, to the chagrin of her companions who thought the creature was going to rip her apart on contact.
They each drew a collective sigh of relief when that didn't happen though.
"That... that thing is Snowy? Snowy did come alive?" Eagle gasped.
"Yeah he did. Come say hello, Eagle." Kazdin urged.
The sniper did so and made her way slowly beside Kazdin. She opened her arms and Snowy cautiously made his way over to her, sniffing all the way.
Snowy lifted his wooden arms and placed them on Eagle's leather clad knee. She gasped and pet Snowy's head and his sides. Snowy cooed appreciatively.
"I'll say... This hat. We did not put that hat on his head did we Kazzy?" Eagle wondered, trying to think of an instance that she or Kaz had done so.
"No, we didn't. There must have been some magic in that old velvet fedora though, because Snowy is as alive as we are." Kazdin said.
"What does a snow deathclaw eat anyway?" Daniel wondered, taken aback by this whole situation.
"Snowy eats the power of the friendship of our love!" Kazdin called out.
"...Right... But besides that..." Veronica asked, taking up for her husband.
"Oh, I know!" Kazdin said before disappearing into the nearby tool shed.
A few seconds later, after several rustling sounds and a few loud curses from Kazdin, she returned with a large bowl filled with dog food.
"Alpo!" Kazdin cried, setting the dog food bowl on the ground before Snowy who sauntered over and sniffed at it.
"Seriously, how is it that you were able to find an entire giant ass bag of Alpo?" Veronica wondered.
"Alpo will never die." Kazdin said, shrugging.
Rex moved over to where Snowy was eating, whining at the loss of a bowl of his food. He attempted to nose into the bowl, but Snowy reared back and let out a giant high pitched roar which made Kazdin laugh and Rex scamper away from the two foot deathclaw. Snowy then returned to eating.
"Well, I'm happy for you Kaz. Take care of him."
"Thanks, Veronica. I will do so." Kazdin answered.
The rest of the troupe disappeared indoors leaving Kazdin and Eagle to play with Snowy the Tiny Deathclaw.
BBBBBBB
EPILOGUE
For three months snow lingered on Mojave sand and soil. For three months winter weather chilled the air. For three months Kazdin and Eagle, even Veronica played every game they could think of with Snowy.
Snowy was deeply affectionate towards the three of them. His masters loved him, but he won over Veronica with puppylike love and soon had her cooing over him as well. The rest, especially Boone and Karen, couldn't be happy with the little deathclaw. It was just against their nature, it wasn't that they had anything against Snowy.
The long days and nights with Snowy caused Kazdin to think that perhaps the fun adventure filled days might last forever. However as is the case with all good things, eventually the long happy winter days with Snowy had to come to an end. Today was that day, as the winter chill dissipated and the desert heat returned to the Mojave.
Kazdin, Eagle and Veronica stood in the coutryard of the Lucky 38, playing one last game of fetch with Snowy. Snowy was moving slower as the heat climbed ever so slightly higher. Finally, as Snowy's legs became so soggy that he couldn't move Kazdin and her friends finally just sat beside him and kept him company.
The three women started to cry as they knew they were losing Snowy. Finally as the sun reached high noon its rays became too great and Snowy started melting. Snowy howled out in pain and looked longingly to Kazdin. It squeeked and Kazdin nodded, placing a hand on the fedora. Eagle and Veronica said their last goodbyes and Kazdin kissed Snowy on the tip of his nose, earning a friendly ice cold lick to hers in return.
Finally at long last, Kazdin removed the velvet fedora and Snowy went lifeless in her arms before the ice crystals, having melted, turned the deathclaw's body into lifeless chunks of unrecognisable snow in Kazdin's hands.
She stood finally and, looking to the other two, smiled at them. They smiled back.
"That was a lot of fun, Kaz." Veronica said.
"Eagle will miss Snowy bad." Eagle chimed in, sadness in her voice.
"I will to. But that's okay." Kazdin said happy in a melencholy way.
"Why is that?" Veronica wondered.
"Veronica, Eagle... Never fear," Kazdin said, touching both women's shoulders.
"He'll be back again next year."
A/N: I'm sorry I had to leave it on a sad note. I hope I didn't make you guys feel too sad. I had fun writing this. The idea came to me when I built a miniature snow deathclaw like the one in the picture for my friends Jessa and Ghoulmask. I sent both of them a pic of it via cell phone with the caption "Look, it's Snowy the Tiny Deathclaw". Both of them liked it. I then got to thinking about writing a one shot featuring Snowy and my two favorite characters, Kazdin and Eagle, in the spot light. I bounced the ideas off Ghoulmask and Jessa and got some wonderful feedback. So that led to my writing this! Thanks for all of the views and comments on my other stories. My Christmas gift to you all is this story! Have fun with it everybody!
Merry Christmas!
-FalloutGuy