This Is Snow Life For Me

by Joker's Specter

It had to be written, and I regret nothing. Every word was worth it. Everything changes for Mia when an unusual suitor shows up in her bed and claims to be in love with her. One-Shot

This Is Snow Life For Me
By Joker's Specter

This story is dedicated to Dracobolt for helping me stick to the Golden Sun fandom, and writing in general. And for being an awesome friend.

The title is a horrible pun, in case you missed that.
-Joker

---

Disclaimer: Golden Sun is owned by Nintendo and Camelot.

---

The day that Isaac and Garet were ordered by the Wise One to begin their quest to reclaim the Elemental Stars, a chain of events began. The result of those events would become significant to the two and their friends as time went on.

It all started with the eruption of Mount Aleph. When the sacred peak spewed forth raw materials from within, fragments of purple gems called psynergy stones were blown all over the land. Most would end up harmlessly in the ocean or spread out across unreachable peaks. Others would land directly on some of the scattered towns. A few of the residents would treasure the gemstones, while others called them evil and dismissed them.

In one town a psynergy stone would end up colliding with a girl's forehead, while others would land in the forests and corrupt the creatures and trees. The raining stones on the landscape made it clear that they had a great power imbued within them, as across the land new changes were taking place as a result.

One particular fragment was so small that it could be mistaken for a grain of rice were it the right color. Upon being thrown from Mount Aleph during the eruption, the piece of psynergy stone was caught in a whirling vortex of clouds above the peak and carried ever so slowly north. Several times it seemed like it would finally fall to the surface below, but gusts of strong winds kept it miles high.

When it had been carried far enough north, the water particles around it began to freeze, and the tiny gem found itself attached to a heavy snowflake. Rid of its prison above the clouds, the shard fell with the snowflake, twisting and twirling around until it reached the surface of Weyard where it landed on a soft blanket of snow.

Almost immediately, the clump of snow the shard was embedded in had been scooped up into a gloved hand.

"There we go," said the Mercury adept, Mia, placing the snow on the head of a snowman and spreading it around. "I'd say his head is finally perfectly round."

Standing beside her, Mia's little assistants - - Megan and Justin - - were watching the teen as she put the finishing touches on the snowman the three of them had spent all afternoon working on. Since the day was colder than usual, the two children were bundled up in layers, leaving them unable to move much. That left Mia as the one who had done most of the work in building their snowman, while Megan and Justin ran around town finding items to add to it.

Originally, Mia had tried to build the snowman using only her psynergy abilities, which gave her considerable control over the snow. However, her skills at the time had only allowed her to build up a giant, shapeless clump of snow. The shaping of the snowman had to be done by hand.

"Here!" Justin said, handing Mia a red bucket he had found in his old toys. "This could be his hat!"

Mia grinned. "That's perfect," she said, taking the bucket from him and placing it on top of the snowman's head, concealing the small psynergy shard beneath it.

Stepping back, Mia observed the finished snowman with the two kids. It was actually really well done, if she did say so herself. She prided herself on everything she worked on and, despite telling herself she would just help the kids a little bit while they did most of it, she managed to get carried away again. But that didn't bother her as long as it didn't trouble the kids. They all agreed that it would be their job to keep excess snow off of the snowman, so he didn't get buried over time.

The top of the snowman's head came up to Mia's chest in height, and it was clothed with the bucket she had just used as a hat, a green scarf, and orange gloves that served as hands, which were placed over its stick arms. Chunks of coal were placed in holes dug out for eyes, as well as up the center of the lower sphere of snow making up its body. The coal on its body gave it the impression that it was wearing some type of shirt.

"What do you two think? Is it the best snowman ever?" the blue-haired healer asked, looking over to Megan and Justin.

The two young Imilians agreed that it was certainly impressive, but Justin wanted to add fangs to give it that extra kick. The idea was shot down by the girls, and ending on that note, Mia decided it was time for the kids to get home.

"Any longer out here and you two will end up sick in bed as well," she said, taking their hands and walking away with them. "We'll get you home to warm up, and then I need to do my rounds."

As the trio disappeared in the distance, the psynergy stone fragment that had been added to the snowman glowed just for a few seconds beneath the bucket. Other than that single moment of soft illumination, nothing occurred for a while.

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

Several weeks after the completion of the snowman, another event happened that would affect things to come. The Mercury Lighthouse had been ignited, sending a fresh aura of Mercury psynergy out across the land. Oceans became lively, rivers flowed a little more heavily, and snowfall became more prominent.

Being within a close radius to the psynergy output of Mercury Lighthouse, the small town of Imil was heavily affected. As the air grew colder, it seemed like it would be certain doom for the already ailing townsfolk.

Fortunately, the Water of Hermes began flowing from the activated lighthouse again. The curing abilities of the water gave hope to the sick people, and allowed Mia to play a key role in Weyard's fate by freeing her up to travel with Isaac and his companions.

"Worst. Guardian. Ever." Mia muttered to herself as she sat next to the snowman. She sighed heavily and leaned forward, supporting her head with her cold hands.

Disappointed was an understatement for how Mia felt. Her entire upbringing was centered around her guarding the entrance to Mercury Lighthouse, and keeping it from being lit. She couldn't even be useful as a healer to the town anymore with Hermes' water constantly flowing at the base of the lighthouse. What was her purpose now? What would she do with her time?

Well, of course, she would have to beat Alex to a pulp. But what then? After Alex and his group got away, Mia had immediately offered to join Isaac, a boy with strange powers like herself, on his adventure to pursue Alex. Isaac said he would have to discuss it alone with his friends, and he'd get back to her as soon as he knew. It was a decision Mia had to respect, but had slightly bothered her. The possibility of them rejecting her was still there, and she didn't take rejection too well when there were no other options.

After some time of emotional brooding and venting in the snow, Mia realized her backside was becoming numb. Standing up and brushing the snow off, the healer turned to look at the snowman. She smiled to herself, once again feeling pride at how perfect she had made him. It was just a natural talent, she supposed. The adept was at home with the snow and cold.

Off in the distance Mia could see Isaac and his friends approaching and talking amongst themselves. Accompanying Isaac on his adventure was Ivan, a young boy who Mia had learned could control the wind and, even more shocking, he could control lightning.

Mia tried not to giggle at her own pun as she looked to the other boy. Garet was able to control fire, but not his ridiculous hair.

That time Mia actually did giggle, which caused the boys to stop talking as they finished walking to her.

"Hi Mia," Isaac said casually. "Thanks again for helping us out back at the lighthouse."

Mia smiled at him, feeling better from her little inward joking. As usual, she had to cheer herself up. "I was happy to help. I just wish the whole thing could have been avoided."

Rubbing the back of his neck, Isaac agreed. "I know what you mean. It's frustrating being just a few moments too late."

Garet reached into a pouch on his belt and took out a glass bottle of water. "At least we got this," he said happily, swirling the Water of Hermes around in the jar. "And hey, this water tastes pretty good, too, you know?"

Mia remembered back to before they had all departed from the lighthouse. Garet, seemingly the type to do things first and ask questions later, had immediately entered the small pool that collected the healing water.

"Now I should be free from disease for life," he had stated at the time while grinning and scooping up handfuls of water to drink.

It was a good idea in theory, but Mia and the others passed on the opportunity to join Garet as he waded through the waters and had his fill.

At present, as he stood in front of Mia, he crossed his legs and seemed to squirm around a little bit. Putting the glass jar of water back into his pouch, he looked around the area. "Hey, uh, Mia... You don't know of a bathroom anywhere nearby, do you?" he asked with a strained voice.

Mia gave a small shrug. "Just in one of the houses nearby, but they're probably all locked up since everybody is at the lighthouse to drink the water. Normally we don't keep our doors locked, but with all the commotion that's been going on...it's better to be safe than sorry."

Garet clenched his teeth and crossed his legs the other way. "Uh, okay..."

Isaac spoke up again. "Mia, we decided we want to accept your proposal to join us on our adventure."

Perking up at this, Mia looked at each of the three boys. "Really?"

Ivan, speaking for the first time since they joined her by the snowman, nodded and said, "I think it would be an exceptional idea. You're clearly a Mercury adept, and I suppose I'm a Jupiter adept. If what I've learned from Isaac's memories holds true, then the four of us make up all of the elements."

Mia considered that point. It seemed perfect. Like it was planned and meant to be.

Perhaps it was meant to be. Everything that had happened that day seemed to point toward her leaving with the three boys. Especially since the people they would be pursuing included Alex in their party, which would give her the chance to get back at him for all the anguish he had caused her. For a short moment Mia wondered if it would be fitting to freeze his testicles.

Deciding it was, Mia stood to her feet. "Then it's decided," she said firmly. "I'll travel with you."

Grinning, Isaac said, "Great! We could use a healer."

That irked Mia a little bit as she felt like being more violent at the moment, and wanted to bash a few monsters in the head, but based on what she had seen from the fights in the lighthouse, she knew Isaac was right.

As she walked off with Isaac and Ivan to get properly equipped for the adventure, Garet stayed behind, still squirming in place. When his friends had disappeared down the snowy stairway, he looked around to make sure nobody was around. As soon as the Mars adept was certain he was alone, he walked up to the snowman, dropped his pants, and let loose a stream of urine on Mia's perfect creation.

"Ahhhh..." he sighed in relief, being extra careful to get it all over the snowman. "Nothing like making your bladder flatter."

Finished with his business, Garet pulled his pants up and ran to rejoin his friends.

As the urine created from Garet guzzling Hermes' water began to seep into the snowman, the small shard of psynergy stone atop its head flashed again, this time more brightly than it had before. Once it had dimmed again, it remained dormant for the next year.

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

All of Weyard shook as the Golden Sun rose, flooding the entire landscape with psynergy. It was a revival of the land itself. New life was being pumped into the planet.

As the waves of psynergy coursed over the land, the small town of Imil shuddered, taking a heavy dose of the magnificent energy. Everything in the town was saturated with psynergy for some time.

The snowman was no exception as the pure psynergy embedded into its very core. However, unlike most things in Imil, which could not take advantage of the psynergy, the snowman had a special addition to it. As the psynergy bore into the snowman, the psynergy stone sitting atop its head reached out and took in the energy, absorbing it and storing it.

The townspeople of Imil had evacuated during the shaking since Megan and Justin warned them to move as far away from the lighthouse as possible. When the quakes had subsided later that day, the townsfolk returned and went about their business. Undisturbed by any other strange events, they dismissed what had happened from their minds. The new glow in the sky meant nothing to them as the snowfall prevented them from seeing it properly anyway.

Everything was peaceful until a familiar figure returned to Imil a few weeks later.

"Thanks for dropping me off, Piers," Mia said with a smile. She made sure she walked close to him as they approached the town, leaving Piers' flying ship a safe distance from the buildings. Taking Mia home was Piers' last stop before returning to his home in the hidden city of Lemuria.

Piers smiled at his fellow Mercury adept. "It wasn't a problem at all. I'm a little eager to see the Mercury Lighthouse anyway."

Mia frowned inwardly. She wanted Piers to see her. Well, that didn't make sense, but she just wanted him to fall head-over-heels for her, really. She had started crushing on him quite a bit through their adventure together, and with her suddenly facing the prospect of never seeing him again, she was getting desperate.

Growing bold in her desperation, Mia reached out and grabbed Piers' hand. "You should stick around for a while! I'm...I'm sure everybody would love to meet you," she said, and flashed her sweetest smile.

Piers arched an eyebrow, but didn't remove his hand from Mia's.

Squeezing his hand gently and taking in the sensation of holding it, Mia regretted putting her thick gloves on in preparation for the cold, but she didn't want to look weird by taking them off now.

"Maybe I can stay for a night," Piers relented hesitantly when he noticed that Mia was looking at him expectantly.

Mia smiled. "I would love that," she said in an cheery voice as they entered the town.

Most of the remainder of the day was set aside for Mia to greet everybody again. It had been about a year since she had last seen them all, so there was a lot of catching up to do. Megan and Justin wouldn't let Mia and Piers out of their sight until they had a full retelling of what had happened to Mia when she left Imil. Mia gave them the brief version, promising herself she'd fill in additional details for them later.

As much as Mia loved seeing her old friends again, she had a difficult time denying the feelings deep in her heart. The feelings that told her to grab her manly sailor companion by the hand, take him somewhere secluded, present her lips to him, and...

A pink tint appeared on Mia's cheeks as her thoughts went out of control. She cleared her mind for the time being-there was no way she would be able to get away from the townsfolk just yet. As it often happened, her romantic thoughts got ahead of her. It would have to wait.

Reluctantly, Mia gave Piers a tour of Imil when they were done talking to Megan and Justin. It wasn't her idea, of course, because that would mean being around more people and less alone time where she could learn more about him. But Piers had requested it, and she wanted to please him, if only to see his studly smile more often. His knee-weakening, down-a-monster-in-one-hit, perfect smile.

"And here's my house," Mia said. "I sleep here alone, especially at night," she added, making sure Piers knew of it. She repeated herself for good measure.

"Okay," Piers said with a nod and a smile. He looked over the logs that made up the house. "It looks very cozy."

Success! He certainly understood she would be there all by herself that night. Unless...

Mia had a brilliant idea. Flashing an attractive smile, she started to ask, "Would you like to stay with m-"

"Where's the Inn? I'd like to see where I'm sleeping," Piers cut in, interrupting Mia before she could finish.

Mia grumbled under her breath and led Piers to the inn. The long way.

Stretching, Piers cracked his neck and yawned. "Well, thanks for the tour Mia, but it's getting late. I think I'll turn in for the night."

Frowning at that, Mia tried to protest, but by the time she had thought of something particularly cute and appealing to make him want to stay up with her, Piers was already entering the inn while pulling some gold out of his pocket to pay for a room.

Sighing, the sad teen kicked some snow and walked slowly with her head down back to her house.

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

Mia couldn't sleep. Her thoughts were swarming with images of Piers. Despite the short amount of time they had been together since first meeting, the crush she had for the Lemurian was more powerful than even she had anticipated. With the whole saving the world thing going on at the time, she hadn't even noticed it herself until she was alone with him on the ship for the last couple of days.

That chiseled chin... The rugged manliness... The way the sunlight would hit his hair at just the right angle to make it shine handsomely. His body seemed to be carved to perfection, and his personality was just as incredible. His dedication to the task at hand, his kindness toward his fellow adepts, his patience, and the way nothing seemed to phase him...

But nothing phasing him was also the problem; her charm wasn't effective at all. What would it take?

Surely she would be able to win him over. She had, after all, helped save Weyard. Making somebody fall in love with her couldn't be much harder than that, could it? Growing up in a small town, the concept was foreign to her, especially since she hadn't grown up around people her age. Despite that, she was no stranger to tales of romance. She knew she wasn't the sexiest girl around, and she was definitely new to flirting, but the romance stories she had read in the past didn't make it seem as difficult as it truly was. The thoughts of romance stories made Mia smile as she wondered if one day somebody would write a story about her and Piers.

While Mia was lost in her thoughts she almost didn't hear the soft knock at her door. When she realized that there was a sound at her front door and she wasn't imagining it, she almost flew to it.

It had to be Piers. If romance stories taught her anything, it's that the middle of the night was the perfect time for a guy to visit the girl and admit his true feelings to her. Either that or the bow of a ship, and she wasn't about to go walk a quarter mile through snow to get back to the ship. Meeting on her doorstep would have to do, she decided.

After fixing her hair, Mia smiled and opened the door.

She was about to greet Piers, but that was not to be.

"Huh?" she murmured. Instead of seeing the manly manliness of Piers in the dim light from her fireplace, she was staring at a snowman.

Some prankster had actually built a snowman on her doorstep.

Glaring, Mia decided she'd take care of it in the morning. Shutting the door behind her, she returned to her bed. Maybe Piers would try the window route, she thought.

As she was halfway to her bed, there was a knock at the door again. That time Mia wasn't sure what to expect. It could be Piers, but it might be someone pranking her again. And why was somebody pranking her, anyway?

Sighing, Mia went back to the door and opened it.

Nothing new. Just the snowman.

Mia slammed the door and waited.

Sure enough, moments later, there was a knock.

Wasting no time, Mia threw the door open.

"You're caught!" she exclaimed, leaping out beside the snowman and looking around frantically.

Nobody was there.

Scratching her head, Mia returned to her house. "I must be so in love that I'm going crazy," she reasoned. It made sense. Piers was certainly amazing enough to drive a person insane. His muscles alone could save Weyard just by flexing.

While trying to figure out how her last thought would actually work, there was another knock at the door. Mia ignored the knocking and returned to bed. Following one more instance of knocking, Mia heard nothing until she finally drifted off to sleep. For her first night back in Imil, she decided to leave the fire in the fireplace lit for as long as possible. It had been a long time since she was allowed such luxuries.

While Mia had been expecting lovely dreams of Piers sweeping her off her feet and sailing away with her to make sweet, manly love to her, she instead concocted dreams of being cold. Of course, she didn't know she was dreaming, but it was still odd and very unpleasant. When she woke up in the middle of the night, she was shivering, despite being under the bedspread.

That's when she realized there was some extra weight beside her.

Her heart skipped a beat as her teeth chattered. "Piers!" she whispered, unable to control her excitement. She knew he'd take the window route!

Turning her head and expecting to see his flattering golden eyes, she was instead met with two dark, ugly chunks of coal.

They winked at her.

Fainting wasn't something Mia believed in, so she instead chose to scream and fall out of her bed.

Mia untangled herself from the sheets and ran for the door. Being a lady of common sense, she made sure to put on her boots before running outside in the snow to finish screaming for help.

Mia got about halfway between her house and the inn before she stopped fleeing. Why was she running? She had been an integral part in taking down a three-headed dragon, after all. Why should she be scared of some monster in her bed?

Now that she had calmed down, Mia spun on her heels, preparing to return home to show that monster just who it was dealing with. She only managed to take three steps before a voice called out to her. The healer spun around to see Piers running toward her from the inn.

"What's going on?" Piers asked frantically when he had reached her. "I heard you screaming."

A few other townsfolk had poked their heads outside of windows and doors, but quickly retracted them to return to sleep upon seeing that nobody was screaming anymore.

Mia was suddenly embarrassed. Not only was she wearing nothing but her nightwear and some boots - - which had to look silly - - but she also wasn't looking forward to revealing herself as a coward to Piers.

So she didn't.

"Oh, that wasn't me. I heard it too, and ran out here to see who it was," Mia said with a firm expression. She thought it was a masterfully crafted fib.

Piers studied her with curiosity. "Is that so?"

Nodding, Mia continued her act by glancing around the area a few times. "Hmmm. Nope, no trouble here." She looked back to Piers. "I guess we were hearing things!" she added with a smile, inwardly praising herself on the perfect acting. Maybe theatre was in her future, she mused.

Piers didn't take his gaze away from Mia for a few more moments.

That was agony for Mia, since whenever the Lemurian so much as glanced at her she wanted nothing more than to fall in his arms and stay there forever.

Finally, Piers looked away. "I...suppose. But I'm still going to go take a look around." He placed a strong hand on Mia's shoulder and told her, "You should go on home and warm up; I'll inform you if I find anything."

Mia melted under Piers' firm sailor's grip. She was in a completely blissful frame of mind, despite her state of undress in the middle of the snowfall. If time were to stop at that moment, she would have had no complaints.

But then Piers removed his hand, and Mia immediately regretted lying to him about her troubles at her home. If his plan was to investigate the trouble, why would she make up a story that would turn him away from her? It was a failed move in the battle of love, and she took some damage for it. Now that it was her move, she would have to live up to her role as the healer and use the verbal equivalent of Ply.

"A-Actually, there is something in my bed that I need to show you," she countered, feeling better already.

A successful move, the words froze Piers in his tracks, and Mia knew it was time to claim the spoils.

"Maybe another time," Piers said without looking back. "And I have to admit, I wasn't expecting that type of pick-up line from you."

Mia took a critical hit to her heart. Piers had completely misunderstood her! He thought she wanted to get him in her bed for certain things- - which, yeah, she would have liked that down the road at some point - - when instead she wanted help getting the monster out of her bed. It was all over. She had been defeated. The healer fell to her knees in the snow and watched with sad eyes as her heart's desire walked away.

Then she realized that perhaps saving the world had caused her to make things overly dramatic, and she felt silly. Quickly climbing to her feet, Mia chastised herself for acting as she had and ran to catch up to Piers.

"That's not what I meant - - I mean there really is something in my bed. I think it's some type of monster," Mia said. She had grabbed Piers' arm to stop him and looked him right in the eyes, showing that she was genuine.

After studying her face, Piers nodded. "Alright, I'll go and see to it."

Mia didn't let go of him. "We'll both go. I was part of the same team, you know," she stated firmly. She didn't want Piers to perceive her as weak just because a pillow fight would be more fitting for her attire than a real fight.

Piers smiled softly. "You're right Mia; forgive me."

Mia forgave him immediately inwardly as she basked in the glory of his charming smile. Forget Ply - - all she needed was that smile of his to heal all wounds.

Well, she thought, except for the kind that gushed blood. But his smile would be a great distraction from the pain.

Feeling slightly dreamy from the intake of romantic feelings, Mia just grinned stupidly back at Piers.

After a moment of waiting for Mia to let go of his arm, Piers carefully pried her fingers off of him. "Let's go," he said, and he began to walk toward Mia's home with the Imilian healer never more than a few inches away.

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

When they entered Mia's home and lit a lantern to see more clearly, they were both surprised at what they found in Mia's bed.

"I don't understand why you would build a snowman in your bed," Piers said with a hint of confusion.

Sure enough, a snowman was laying on its back in her bed. It wasn't moving.

Mia was confused as well. "But I... It was - - I didn't...!" She managed to sputter out in reply to Piers' accusation.

Piers eyed her suspiciously. "This is definitely one of the stranger things I've encountered in my life." He shrugged, then turned away. "But I suppose whatever you do on your own time is none of my business, especially in private," the Lemurian added.

Mia's brain was in a state of terror as she realized what Piers was implying. "No! Winking! It... It winked!" She wasn't sure what else to say, as her brain had packed up and left for vacation moments before.

Waving, Piers left the lantern on a table and disappeared out into the night, leaving a very confused Mia behind. The sound of the door closing made Mia jump - - it was as if Piers had yelled at her.

The healer turned and stared at the motionless snowman. "But the winking... The winking..." she mumbled, still in a state of shock.

While Mia was trying to make sense of the whole thing, the snowman suddenly sat up and folded his arms. "Hmm. I thought that bleak fellow'd never leave," he said with a smirk.

Mia yelped and fell over.

"Oh, are you all right, Mia?" the snowman asked frantically. Immediately he was at her side, helping her to her feet. "That looked like a bitter fall."

"T-Talking snowman?" Mia squealed as she fell right back to the floor again.

The snowman smirked again. "Yes... Strange, I know." He helped Mia up once again. "Actually, it's thanks to you that I can move and talk. It's snow wonder I function so well; you created me, after all"

For the first time, Mia actually studied the full appearance of the snowman. Her eyes centered on the red bucket sitting on his head as a hat. It seemed so long ago, but there was no doubt that he was the snowman she had built. But why was he talking and moving?

And, as her thoughts went on several tangents at once, she made another connection. "Wait - - you were on my doorstep," she stated, still obviously lost in thought by how far away her voice sounded.

The snowman's white face and coal eyes expressed embarrassment. He stared down at the floor and rubbed his stick arm nervously. "Ah... Yes, that was me. I'm sorry. Every time you answered, I wanted to say something, but I kept getting cold feet," he said quietly.

"But... In my bed..." Mia murmured, still far away.

The snowman cleared his non-existent throat. "After hating myself for not talking to you, I finally got the snowballs to come in. You were asleep, and you looked so beautiful... I'm sorry, I just got carried away. I wanted to see what it was like to be beside you," he said with an apologetic tone. "And...to express to you my true feelings."

Mia's head began to clear as she got a better grasp on the situation. She still wasn't sure of the logic behind a living, speaking clump of snow, but at the very least she could accept that there was a snowman making awful puns in her bedroom in the middle of the night, and he had been stalking her.

Clearing her existent throat, Mia straightened herself and fixed her disheveled nightgown. "And just what might these true feelings be?" she asked. The Imilian poked the snowman as an experiment to see if he was real.

The snowman took Mia's hand into his gloved stick hands. "This is really hard for me to say, actually... But I'm just going to say it - - I've made it this far," said the snowman, staring into Mia's eyes. "Mia, I know I haven't existed for long, and I'm sure there are things about the world I should learn before I admit this to you, but when I see you or think about you, I get chills..."

Mia was getting chills, too, but she wasn't sure if they were the good kind.

Taking off his hat and looking up into her blue eyes with his coal lumps, the snowman was about to say something, but hesitated.

"Go on..." Mia pressed. "It can't be any stranger than a talking snowman." And for that matter, she silently added, whatever a talking snowman has to say is bound to be interesting.

The snowman took a deep breath and, mustering all of his courage, said in barely more than a whisper, "I love you, my radiant snowflake. Ever since I've been given a living existence, all I can think about is you..."

In the silence that followed, you could hear a pin drop.

It took Mia a moment to register what the snowman had just said. When she found her voice, all she could say was, "Huh?"

The snowman smiled slightly. "I guess what I said has left you frozen. I said I love you, Mia...and so far it's the best feeling I've ever felt!" he said enthusiastically.

For how bizarre the situation was, Mia prided herself on only laughing for a minute.

The snowman waited rather patiently for Mia to finish her sudden cackling.

"I'm dreaming, aren't I?" Mia asked when she was finished. She pulled her hand away from the snowman and sat on the edge of her bed. "Either that, or I really am going crazy from love," she added with a sigh, her thoughts returning to Piers. Even a talking snowman couldn't distract her from that.

The snowman shuffled over to Mia and said in a soothing voice, "I suppose this is a bit numbing for you, but I promise it's real."

Once more grasping the reality of the situation, Mia forcefully pulled her thoughts away from Piers for a moment and asked the snowman how he was alive.

"Well, until recently I had no awareness," the snowman explained. "Yet, thanks to some rather fortunate events, I'm alive now, with my only desire being to love my cool creator."

Mia stared at the snowman for a long time before saying, "You're just like the Living Statues we came across in Altin..." It made sense. If inanimate stone forms could suddenly start moving around and spew water from their mouths in an effort to drown a town, why couldn't a formerly inanimate snowman profess its love for the Imilian in her bedroom in the middle of the night after spending the better part of the evening stalking her in a really, really creepy way? And for that matter, why did a snowman love her instead of Piers?

Mia had to admit, the drowning town thing made more sense.

Not knowing what the Living Statues were, the snowman simply shrugged. He seemed to be waiting for Mia to say something in reply to his earlier confession.

That was lost on the girl as she continued to ponder her new predicament. It was a lot to absorb in one night. One thing that didn't escape her attention was the water that had begun to collect on her floor.

"Um..." Mia pointed to the water. "You're melting."

The snowman glanced down in surprise. Sure enough, he was beginning to look a little slushy.

"Icy... I suppose you would have to heat your home," the snowman said, glancing at the dying fire.

Mia gave a small wave of her hand, casting psynergy. In an instant the water had absorbed back into the snowman, and his form solidified back into its complete former shape.

Looking pleased, the snowman grinned at Mia and hugged her. "Wow! Mia, you're sweater than I could have ever imagined," he said happily.

"Sweater?" Mia murmured under her breath, wondering if maybe she had somehow broken the snowman's puns when fixing him. The thought amused her slightly, so long as she didn't damage him in any other way.

In any case, it was time for him to leave. There was still something unreal about the whole thing, and Mia wasn't one-hundred-percent sure that she wasn't dreaming.

"Listen, um... What's your name?"

The snowman tilted his round head. "I haven't the foggiest idea, actually."

"Oh... Well, I'll just call you Snowman then," Mia said. She wasn't known for her originality.

The snowman began to say his name several times, getting used to it. "I think it fits. Does it give you shivers when you hear it?" he inquired.

"Oh...um... Sure."

Snowman grinned triumphantly.

"Anyway, I'm going to go to sleep. I'm afraid that you won't be able to stay in here tonight due to the temperature, but I think we can continue this conversation tomorrow," Mia said, secretly wondering if the snowman would even exist the next morning. Mia placed a hand on Snowman's back and guided him to the front door. Movement was awkward with him, as he had to hop or shuffle his round body to advance.

The snowman seemed a little down. Mia knew it was probably because she hadn't given a reply to his admission of love, and she couldn't blame him for feeling saddened. But what was she supposed to say to something like that? Even if she did make it a habit of falling in love with snow, she had feelings for Piers.

Smiling sadly as Mia opened the door, Snowman bowed his head respectfully. "Very well, Mia. I shawl see you tomorrow. Have a good night," he said softly, and then departed into the night.

Mia closed her door and exhaled heavily. After a few moments, the Imilian smiled. "Shawl..." she said, followed by a short chuckle as she returned to her bed. The healer had to admit - - that was a good one.

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

Mia awoke the next morning bright and early. She was intending on using the entire day attempting to get Piers to return her feelings, and the evening would be spent getting rid of all of the romantic tension by releasing it through copious amounts of kissing. She had a large mental list of ideas and tactics to use in the battle of love, and the teen was getting desperate again, especially since Piers was planning on leaving that night.

There was just one problem with Mia's plans.

It's not every day a snowman tells you it loves you. In fact, that sort of thing used to never happen to Mia. She was flattered, of course. The snowman seemed very sweet and genuine, and he was physically perfect as far as the standard snowman goes. The problem was that the relationship couldn't work out, and Mia would have to reject the snowman.

She didn't like hurting anybody's feelings, and snow people were no different.

Sighing deeply, Mia bundled herself up in preparation for the cold and left her home. She was expecting to see the snowman waiting right outside for her, and had been hoping to see Piers instead. However, neither of them were in sight.

Wrapping her coat around her tighter, Mia began to trek through the falling snow to the inn. She didn't get too far before she realized somebody had joined her.

"Hello, my snow angel!" said the snowman as he finished catching up to Mia.

Mia wasn't looking forward to the conversation that was to follow, but she knew it had to be done. "Oh, um... Hi there," she said, forcing a smile. It actually surprised her for the first time that she wasn't more interested in conversing with the snowman. Before her adventure, she would have found a talking snowman much more interesting. However, after all the things she had seen, it wasn't quite as special.

Snowman smiled. "I thaw you leaving your home, but I'm a little slow, so it took me some time to catch up."

Clearing her throat, Mia decided to cut right to the chase. "Listen, Snowman, there's something I need to talk to you about...in regards to last night." She fiddled with her gloved hands, trying to think up the best way to explain things him.

The snowman brightened up when he heard what the topic was going to be about. "Oh, good! I was hoping to hear your response last night, but you rushed me out at such a brisk pace..."

Mia brushed her blue hair behind her ears. "Um, well, first of all... I'd appreciate it if you stopped using puns. They were amusing at first, but I can't take this seriously enough as it is. You using puns makes it that much harder," she admitted.

"Puns?" the snowman asked. "What are you talking a-boot?"

"What you just said; that's what I'm talking a-boo - - I mean, about."

The snowman somehow managed to make it appear like he was raising an eyebrow. "Oh, icy now - - you mean the Snowish language."

Mia was baffled. "Um, I guess?" she replied.

Chuckling, Snowman said, "Okay, I'll speak your language from here on out. I'm sorry; I should have known you didn't speak Snowish."

The Imilian had thought she was prepared for even more bizarre events, but she was still confused on that one.

"What else did you want to say?" Snowman questioned. To Mia's relief, there was not a pun.

Mia exhaled heavily, preparing herself for what she was about to say. Unable to look him in the eyes, she looked off in the distance at the Mercury Lighthouse. "You see, Snowman... I'm really flattered by your feelings toward me, but..."

She detected traces of worry on the snowman's round face out of the corner of her eyes. The coal eyes began to take on a sad expression.

Mia figured he knew what was going to be said, so she decided to just get on with it.

"I'm afraid it just won't work out. I'm in love with somebody else..." Mia said quietly, looking down at the ground as a pained expression crossed the snowman's face.

"Oh..." he muttered sadly.

Mia's heart went out to the snowman. She hated seeing him so sad - - especially since its big coal eyes pulled off the perfect puppy dog eyes.

"Plus," Mia went on, justifying things further, "You're made of snow. I don't see how it would work out."

Snowman shrugged and began to shuffle away. "But you won't take the time to find out... I guess it doesn't matter anyway..."

"W-Wait!" Mia called out after him. Guilt wracked her body as she took a few steps after him. "We can still be friends!"

The snowman didn't turn around. Instead, he delivered one final line to add to Mia's guilt. "You've sleigh'n my heart," he murmured so quietly that Mia almost didn't hear him. Hanging his round head, he disappeared through the falling snow.

Mia frowned, shoved her hands into her pockets, and turned back toward the inn. The Mercury adept traveled a little more slowly that time. She never had to break a heart before, and she wondered if even seeing Piers would cheer her up.

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

"Is everything okay, Mia?" Piers asked after taking the last bite of his breakfast.

The two Mercury adepts were seated at a table inside the inn. Mia was deep in thought the entire time, even during the few times she took a peek at Piers while he ate. The rest of the time she passed by staring out of a window beside her, watching the snowfall.

"I'm okay," Mia answered quietly without looking away from the window. Truthfully she wasn't, but it was typical of her not to trouble others with her emotions if she could help it. Her responses had been on auto-pilot the entire time since she had met up with Piers.

Piers turned to look out the window as well. Just like the first few times he checked, all he could see what snow.

"I see..." he said, not sounding so sure of her answer. "Are you sure there's nothing you want to talk about?"

For a long time, Mia was silent. Actually, there was quite a lot she wanted to talk about. It just wouldn't do any good at that time. Finally, she sighed and looked down at her nearly untouched food. "I'm sorry - - I'm fine, really. I just had an interesting morning."

Piers leaned back and folded his arms. "You mean night?"

Mia couldn't stop herself from blushing heavily. "No... Not that..." she muttered silently, making extra sure to keep her eyes directly on her food.

The Imilian had tried to think of a plausible explanation to convince Piers that the snowman had entered her bed on its own, but she couldn't come up with anything that sounded good short of showing him the snowman in person while it moved and talked. And that actually was a great idea, since the snowman was a phenomenon anyway, and she was sure Piers would be interested in him. But, after the events from earlier that morning, Mia wasn't so sure the snowman would be around anymore.

"Okay, then what happened this morning?" Piers asked gently. "You can tell me."

Biting her lip, Mia made eye-contact with Piers for the first time since sitting down. She had avoided it, because she knew she couldn't concentrate very well on her problems at hand when staring into his gorgeous man-face. His luscious yellow orbs seemed to put her in a trance, as did his shiny teeth and spell-binding dimples when he smiled. His blue locks framed his face perfectly, as if his face was a sacred island sitting in the middle of an aqua sea. His nose was just begging to be admired, and his absolutely darling eyebrows were so handsome when he raised them in surprise because she was staring at him for too lon - -

Mia snapped out of her dreamy trance when Piers cleared his throat. A knowing look appeared on his face.

"S-Sorry," Mia muttered, glancing away with a prominent blush remaining on her cheeks. "I get carried away."

Piers nodded. "I understand, Mia," he said. After a beat of silence, he added, "I'm the problem, aren't I?"

The healer looked at him again, this time out of shock. "What? No! You're perfect! There's nothing wrong with you!" she blurted.

"That's...precisely what I meant," Piers said with even more confidence. "You have a crush on me, don't you?"

Coughing, Mia suddenly found the table very interesting to stare at. "Um... I..." she started to say. Well, she thought, it's now or never. Do or die. Go for the gold. Shoot for the stars. Do, or do not; there is no try.

She realized she had been stalling for time by still coughing while lost in her thoughts. Mia cleared her throat, put on a brave face, and looked up at Piers.

"Yes," she admitted quietly, her face a deep red. "I've...really come to like you, Piers."

Piers was still for a moment, but then he smiled after a few seconds. Mia almost fainted face-first into her food, but due to her not believing in fainting, she instead inhaled sharply and let out a barely audible squeak.

A smile had to be good news, she reasoned. All of her thoughts and fantasies presented themselves in her mind again. It seemed more realistic than ever for her to be able to curl up against Piers and enjoy his warmth while he held her.

"I figured as much," Piers said, still smiling. Then his face took on a serious expression. Serious, but...with a slight trace of sadness. "Listen, Mia..." he looked downward at the table.

Oh no, Mia thought. No, no, no, no, no, no - -

"I'm really sorry to say this..."

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no - -

"But I only like you as...as a friend."

No! Nononononononono - -

"And," Piers continued, "I think it would be wrong for me to continue to give you false hope, so..."

Mia wanted to die. She actually felt herself reflexively shrink back into the seat. The wood creaked and pressed tightly against her.

"I think it's best I tell you right now that I'm just not interested in you that way..."

It was worse than fighting the Doom Dragon. Worse than Dullahan. Worse than...worse than her own cousin's betrayal.

"...and I can't see that changing in the future."

Mia was heartbroken. Granted, she'd only known Piers a short time...and she probably was being overly dramatic again... But in that short time, she'd imagined a thousand different lifetimes together with him. It just wasn't fair - - she finally found someone to relate with and was happy to be around... Someone who made her feel special just being in his presence.

Piers' face took on a grim expression. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry..." he said, reaching a hand out to place on Mia's shoulder.

It took Mia a few seconds to realize she even was crying. Her mental faculties had mostly shut down, and she couldn't be bothered to pay attention to anything outside of her thoughts. It was just too painful.

While the healer tried to recover, she let Piers' hand remain on her shoulder for a few moments, enjoying the touch while she could. But it didn't stop the tears, as the sailor had intended. It just made them flow even more freely. Reaching up, Mia pushed his hand away.

"Mia..." Piers said quietly, retracting his hand. "I really am sorry..."

Mia stood up and began to walk as quickly as she could out of the inn. Fortunately, Piers was the only guest in town, so there were no others staying at the inn, and the innkeeper and his wife were in another part of the building. The embarrassment wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. But still...is was as bad as her thoughts were making it, and her thoughts were definitely going out of control.

"Wait, Mia, please - -"

"You've sleigh'n my heart..." Mia managed to choke out. For some reason, it was the only reply she could think of. And it was very fitting - - she had to admit, it felt pretty good to say. But it did not heal her wounds. Stepping outside, she disappeared through the snowfall, just as the snowman had done before her, leaving a confused Piers in her wake.

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

Mia was very distraught as she wandered through Imil. She wasn't quite sure what to do. That was true for every aspect of her life, really. It wasn't just Piers rejecting her that had bothered her, or her own guilt over rejecting the snowman. Another problem arose when she realized she had nothing to do with her life. Similar to her losing her status as the town's healer when the healing waters began flowing again, she now found herself without a cause. What was she to do with her life now that she had helped to save the world?

She didn't even have anything in her personal life to attend to. Her home was completely spotless upon her return to Imil, thanks to Justin and Megan's upkeep, and she didn't really have anything else to worry about.

And perhaps she had been using Piers as a way of filling that void, she thought to herself. Maybe her obsession with him wasn't because she loved him, but because she didn't want to face the possibility of being endlessly bored. What does a person do after saving the world, anyway? Go back to a normal, boring life? She could settle for healing people, but nobody in Imil needed it, and she didn't want to live anywhere else.

No, the only thing left for her to try to do was find a job. It would be her new priority, she decided. With Piers finally off her mind (not really), she'd be able to focus on securing a new career.

But where should she start?

As she wondered that, a perfect example of opportunity appeared in front of her as she saw Justin running toward Megan's house up ahead.

"Justin!" Mia called to him, increasing her pace to catch up. "Wait up!"

The boy stopped, waiting patiently for his mentor. "Hi Mia!" he said, grinning ear-to-ear. He looked like he was really happy about something.

"How are you doing?" Mia asked. "Are you going to Megan's?"

Justin began walking again, with Mia right beside him. "I'm good," he replied. "And yeah, we need to clear off a few paths for Ms. Morris today. You can come too if you want. With your abilities it should be lots faster."

Mia thought about that. "Well, I was going to ask you two if you could help me find a job... But I suppose that can wait until after."

Justin jumped over a large boulder. "But...that is a job, isn't it?"

Chuckling, Mia reached over to pat Justin's head. "You're so cute."

Truthfully, Mia didn't see it as a job at all. To her it was nothing more than a chore. Where was the excitement? Where was the sense of fulfillment? Where was the feeling of being unique and not just the same as everybody else?

Pulling away from her hand, Justin scowled. "Am not."

Mia was about to reply, but something in the distance grabbed her attention. It was hard to see through the heavy snowfall, but she could've sworn she saw the figure of a snowman.

"Hold on a moment... Let's go this way," she said, taking Justin's hand and redirecting him.

Justin nearly fell over into a giant snow pile as his footing was readjusting. When he was walking safely again, he asked, "Why?"

Mia hesitated. How was she supposed to explain the entire silly situation to him? It was still absurd even to her.

"Why are we going this way, Mia?" Justin asked again.

"Well..." Mia started to say. After another moment of silence, she decided to go with it. After all, Justin was still young and had a big imagination. If anybody would believe her, it would be him. "Do you remember that snowman we built last year before I left Imil?"

Justin looked down at the ground in thought. "Uhh. The one you wouldn't let me destroy?"

"That's the one," Mia confirmed.

"Uh-huh. Why?"

Mia looked down at Justin and spoke quietly. "He's not just a regular snowman anymore... He's alive."

Justin's eyes bulged. "Huh?"

"It's true!" Mia said quickly. She looked back at the snowman in the distance, and upon closer inspection, realized that it definitely was the same snowman she was thinking of. And fortune remained with her when she noticed that he wasn't moving away from them.

Justin followed Mia's gaze. "Hey, that's him!" he said, running ahead of Mia. The healer tried to stop him, but he was too fast, even through the deep snow.

"Wait, Justin! Don't scare him!" Mia warned.

Mia caught up to Justin just in time to see the boy shaking the snowman's gloved hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Justin," he said politely with a smile.

To Mia's surprise, the snowman was completely motionless. He looked like a normal, boring snowman again.

Justin turned to look at Mia inquiringly. "I thought you said...?"

"Snowman, is everything okay?" Mia asked, moving closer to look at the coal eyes. There was no sign of life within them.

"This was a mean prank, Mia. You got my hopes up," Justin said bitterly with a frown.

Mia was very confused. "But...he was alive." She couldn't figure out what was going on. Why wasn't the snowman moving?

Justin shook his head. "I don't fall for pranks. I'm the one who pulls 'em," he stated, and then walked away, kicking some snow in the process.

"Oh no!" Mia gasped as she realized what must have happened. Her sudden shock stopped Justin in his tracks.

"What?" Justin asked.

"Oh noooo! He didn't! Please tell me he didn't!" the healer said with a panicked tone. Grabbing the snowman's shoulders, she started to shake him. "I'm sorry! You didn't have to kill yourself! I'm sorryyyy!"

It had been one of the results Mia thought of happening while she was sitting with Piers in the inn. She wondered if her breaking the snowman's heart would be so traumatic for him that he'd disassemble himself or melt himself somehow, or just find a way to remove the life within him. And while the idea had been more of a passing thought before, now Mia was certain it had happened. She was horrified with herself.

Justin rolled his eyes and resumed his course to Megan's home, vowing to never go on an adventure in case he came back like Mia.

Tears began to run down Mia's cheeks, and she fell to her knees in the snow. "I never meant for anybody to be hurt," she whined.

As Justin disappeared over a hill, the snowman suddenly placed a gloved hand on Mia's back. "I'm fine, Mia..."

Mia screamed and jumped backward, landing in a big pile of soft snow and almost burying herself.

"Whoa! Still jumpy... Are you okay?" the snowman asked as he moved forward to help her up where she had stumbled backward into the snow.

"I'm f-fine..." Mia said hoarsely. "What happened to you? Why didn't you move? I was worried!"

The snowman smiled and shook his head gently. "I think you must know that a being such as myself can't exactly be seen by the world..."

"What? Why not?" Mia asked, brushing some snow off and fixing her hair.

Snowman folded his stick arms. "What was your first reaction when you saw me in your bed?"

Mia thought back to the moment. "I... I was scared, I guess, but that's only because you were in my bed," she stated.

Shrugging, Snowman said, "You called me Piers. Would you have been scared if it were him?"

"Oh, um..." Mia muttered. She couldn't continue her answer - - the snowman was beginning to make a lot of sense.

"And you ran away when you realized I wasn't this 'Piers'. You probably assumed I was a monster."

He was right. Mia felt even worse.

"And you did that even while you have a naturally friendly nature. Other humans...don't generally have that, do they? If they were to see me and assume I'm a monster, I...hesitate to think of the results."

Mia looked up at him. "You think they'd kill you?" she inquired. He was sort've cute, so she didn't really think people would attack him. But she supposed anything could happen in the right circumstances. She had living proof standing right in front of her.

The snowman scoffed. "Them kill me? Impossible. I think that I would kill them in self-defense!"

"Huh?"

The snowman pointed a gloved hand toward a snowbank. "Look at what I've discovered I can do," he said with a grin. Waving his stick arm a bit, the snow began to swirl around, take shape, and harden. Within seconds the snowbank had been turned into a perfectly formed igloo.

"You can make igloos?" Mia asked, stunned. It was impressive, sure, but not exactly useful in battle.

Sighing, Snowman tried again to make her understand with a different snowbank. For the second attempt, he raised the snow high in the air, melted it into water, refroze the water into sharp icicles, and slammed them all downward into the ground, leaving dozens of little holes in the snow.

It was as if a light had gone on inside Mia's head. "You're a Mercury adept!" she gasped.

That seemed to please Snowman. "Well, I don't know about that..." he said, rubbing the back of his head the best he could with his limited mobility, "but I certainly do have the same type of abilities as you."

"That's incredible - - how?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," the snowman admitted. "All of my understanding, all of my knowledge, all of my emotions, all of my abilities... I don't know where they came from. All I know is that this is a million times better than being stuck in one spot the rest of my existence as a snowman."

Mia stared at him in wonder. "You're amazing. I really think more people would come to appreciate you if you just tried to reveal yourself to them and showed off all you know..."

The snowman shook his head. "I chose you because of my love for you. I don't want anybody else to know about me unless it's absolutely necessary."

Mia really wanted to show the snowman off. "Can't I just show you to one person? Just one?"

The snowman looked a little hurt at that. "Mia... I'm not a toy to be shown off..."

"That's...that's not what I meant," Mia said quickly, suddenly feeling bad again. She didn't want the snowman to feel like she was taking advantage of him. She really was amazed - - it just took some time for it to kick in.

"And besides... You've said your piece on how you feel about me, so I think I'd best stay away from you for a while. These emotions are...hard to deal with," Snowman said. "Being alive is more difficult than I first thought."

Mia knew exactly what he meant. Any time she thought of Piers, her chest would sting. She figured she deserved it, though. The snowman was barely alive, and she had already made him feel heartbroken.

"Listen, snowman... I really am sorry about earlier. I hope you understand I was just being honest. I am very, very impressed with you as a whole, truly I am," Mia said earnestly. She knew that alone wouldn't do much, but she'd hoped that at least he knew she was being sincere.

"Yet you don't love me, and that's the problem and the source of the pain..." Snowman said, sighing. He looked at Mia's feet with his coal eyes. After a few seconds of silence, he added, "You likely love that Piers you mentioned...am I correct?"

Mia looked down in embarrassment. "Well, yes...I do... But he doesn't feel the same way."

Snowman looked up and studied Mia's face for a moment. Even though he had simple features, it was obvious he was deep in thought.

"I see..." he said quietly.

"I thought you weren't going to speak in Snowish anymore," Mia said with a whisper, still looking down.

"I wasn't."

"Oh. Okay."

They both stood there silent for a while before Snowman said, "So what will you do now?"

Mia shrugged. "I guess...just find a way to make a living."

"I meant about this Piers of yours."

"Oh," Mia said. Shrugging, she added, "I don't know what I could do about it, really."

Snowman nodded. "I know what you mean..."

There was another silent moment between them. Mia fidgeted a bit and played with the hem of her jacket. She really had no idea what to say. It was one of the most awkward moments Mia had ever experienced.

Fortunately, the snowman stepped in and broke the silence first. "I...think I have a solution that would work for both of us... If it doesn't creep you out, that is," he said. His face seemed unsure.

Despite his hesitance, Mia was already hooked. Any option was better than none, and good or bad, Mia was desperate for some direction in her life. Bracing herself, the healer asked to hear it.

The snowman took a deep breath, even though he needed none."I...suppose if you'd like...," he started to say, but then paused.

Mia was reminded of the previous night when he was admitting his love for her. She was going to make sure to do better now that she had a second chance at not hurting his feelings. "Go on," she said. "Don't be shy."

Chewing his snowy lip, Snowman looked around, and then straight down. Exhaling sharply, he muttered. "I...I could be...Piers..."

Once again, Mia was speechless, as was usually the case with the snowman. "Huh?" was all she could say.

Looking at their feet, the snowman said, "I could change my face to look like Piers, and maybe even act like him a bit if you tell me how he acts. Then you could...go out...with me. "

Mia shivered. The whole idea was so absurd, so creepy, so weird that she just about walked away without a word. That was a drastic step to take, and could have serious consequences.

But then she actually thought about it, and looked at the pros of going through with it. Why shouldn't she do it? Who else was lining up for a chance at dating her? Nobody, that's who. And if the real Piers wasn't going to give her a chance, then who was stopping her from getting the next best thing? Again, nobody. And as long as she kept it to herself and the snowman remained hidden, what harm could come of it? She'd have a purpose again... Not much of one, but it would be a start.

She studied the snowman's face and saw he was being sincere.

Mia's long silence must have scared Snowman, because he suddenly shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, it was a bad idea. Forgive me," he said with a quaking voice. "I'm jus...just going to, um, go away for a while."

Before she could stop herself, Mia, with her heart pounding, said, "Let's do it."

The snowman was in the process of walking away, but he stopped. "Wh...what? What did you say?"

"Do it," Mia repeated firmly. Her face was as red as a tomato, but the adrenaline pumping through her was the best thing she'd felt in a long time. She needed some excitement. With that decided on, she added, "I want you to become Piers."

Hesitating, Snowman said, "But, you know, it won't be the real thing... It will still be me."

Mia was breathing heavily. Just the thought of actually dating a snowman sent her body all sorts of mixed signals. "I know - - and that's okay. I need something exciting in my life, and you're definitely on the higher end of the scale when it comes to exciting things."

Snowman grinned a big, gaping smile. "You really mean it? We'll be together?"

"Yes," Mia said, grinning as well. "I want you to become my Snowpiers."

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

Piers took a long time to leave the inn. After breaking Mia's heart, he wasn't looking forward to his next encounter with her. In fact, he almost just left town, figuring it would be best to leave Mia alone. However, right as he was about to walk out the door and head to his ship, he stopped himself. It wasn't right to leave things as they were. He didn't want Mia to dwell on things and let them ruin her, and their friendship was very important to Piers. He only had a handful of friends outside of Lemuria, and Mia was one of them.

When he finally decided on a proper course of action, Piers headed outside into the white town of Imil to search for Mia. He didn't think patching things up would be an easy task, but it was the right thing to do.

The Lemurian headed to the most likely spot for Mia to be at: her home. It was just a small place, but it was on the other side of the town, and would take a few moments to walk to. The biggest obstacle was the deep snow to trudge through, which Piers disliked greatly. Even though he was a Mercury adept, Piers didn't really enjoy the snow all that much. His preference was to be out on the open ocean, feeling the warm breeze on his face as the waves lapped at the side of his ship. He could stare at the ocean for hours.

Shivering a bit and regretting not grabbing a jacket from somewhere, Piers slowly made his way to Mia's home. When he arrived, he saw no sign of anybody inside. He knocked anyway, just in case.

As he waited for an answer, he heard someone grunt, followed shortly by a loud thud.

"Meep!" someone squeaked. "Ow, ow, owww..."

Piers realized the sound and voice was coming from the side of Mia's house. He walked toward the sounds, and as he turned the corner, he saw Mia dancing around in the snow and clutching her hands close to her. A snowman stood motionless a few feet away from her.

"Urgh... How do people stand using those things?" Mia said to herself, kicking a sledgehammer on the ground.

"Mia?" Piers called out.

Mia just about jumped out of her skin. When she saw it was Piers, she calmed down. "Oh. Hi, Piers," she said, avoiding eye-contact with him. Her face suddenly became very red.

Piers looked from the sledgehammer to Mia, and then back to the sledgehammer. A high-strung Mia, plus a tool of destruction... Just what was going on? He aimed to find out.

Taking a few steps forward, he asked, "What are you doing?"

Mia bent down and grabbed the sledgehammer. Hefting it over her shoulder, she said in a casual voice, "Renovating."

"Renovating?"

Mia gripped the sledgehammer in both of her hands, positioned her feet in the best possible stance, and took a swing at the log wall of her house. Following the loud thud, Mia dropped the sledgehammer again as the force sent a wave of pain through her hands. "Ow, owwwww!" she grunted, shaking her hands in the air.

"Mia..." Piers said. "Are you okay?"

Grabbing the sledgehammer again, Mia answered, "Fine. Why?"

Following another unsuccessful attempt at breaking down the wall of her house, Piers said, "You're hitting your house with a sledgehammer." He had a mental image of Mia scolding her house and calling it naughty before she decided to punish it with the sledgehammer. It amused him less than it should have, because he was genuinely concerned about what she was doing.

"Right. I'm renovating. I told you that, remember?" Mia said.

Piers walked up and offered to hold the sledgehammer. Mia gladly handed it off to him.

"I understand that part, Mia, but why are you renovating? And why are you doing it by yourself?" he asked. Piers didn't see another living soul in sight.

"Oh," Mia said. "I guess that does seem silly. You can help if you want."

Piers looked at the sledgehammer in his hand. "I think I need to know why we're doing this first."

Mia sighed, as if it was troublesome to explain. "If you must know, I'm making an addition to my house."

Piers eyed Mia's house. He thought it was roomy enough for a single occupant. Plus, there was no lumber or supplies around for the addition. Just what was she planning to do? Break the hole first, then gather the supplies? She'd have an open hole blowing snow into her house for days if she stuck to her original plan.

"What type of addition?"

Mia smiled sweetly. "A room for my new boyfriend."

Piers was a calm person who was always prepared for just about anything. However, even that was an unexpected thing to hear. He dropped the sledgehammer on his foot.

While he held back from yelling out in pain, the sailor did hop around a bit in the snow, as Mia had done when he first found her. After he recovered enough to speak, he asked Mia to repeat herself.

"I'm making a room for my new boyfriend. And that's all you're getting out of me," said Mia, folding her arms and focusing her gaze on the house.

"I...see," Piers said slowly. "That's fair, I suppose..."

Mia studied the wall built from thick logs. "Now how do I get through this stubborn thing..." she murmured to herself.

Piers walked up beside Mia and looked at the wall with her. "I'm sorry, I still don't understand. Why does your boyfriend need his own room? And why do you even have a boyfriend? This isn't about me again, is it?"

Turning to Piers, Mia said, "Why are you suddenly so interested? You don't want to be with me anyway. And no, it's not about you. I've just found my true love is all," she said.

It was very brief, but Piers heard Mia giggle after she had said that.

Piers hesitated. "Well..." he started to say. It was true that he didn't want to date Mia. He really was just worried about her mental condition. But he knew she was sensitive, especially after being rejected earlier that day, so he had to choose his words carefully.

He took so long thinking of what to say that Mia finally turned away from him. "Just go see Mercury Lighthouse like you wanted. Don't worry about me..."

Sighing, Piers decided he'd do just that. Bidding her goodbye, he turned and headed towards Imil's exit while lost in his thoughts.

It wasn't like Mia was going crazy or anything. A little renovating wouldn't hurt anybody, even if it was unusual. And she was quite beautiful, so finding somebody to be her boyfriend less than an hour after he rejected her wasn't impossible. Very, very unusual, definitely, but not something that was a sure sign of mental distress.

But as Piers wandered in the direction of Mercury Lighthouse, he couldn't help but wonder; just who was Mia's new boyfriend?

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

Piers didn't spend too much time at Mercury Lighthouse. He had expected the marvelous, grand architecture he saw in Mars Lighthouse, but it seemed like whoever designed the Mercury Lighthouse only put in half of the work that went into the Mars counterpart. It was like the runt of the Lighthouse family. Next time somebody mentioned the elements being in balance, he would redirect them to the Mercury and Mars Lighthouses and dare them to say it again.

Having spent such a short time in the lighthouse, Piers was back in Imil within only a few hours of departing. He decided to check in on Mia once again to see how her project was coming along, and perhaps to gauge her mood to see if she was okay.

When he arrived at Mia's home, he stopped short and just stared in awe.

The other room that Mia wanted to add to her home was complete, and it was made entirely of ice. To be exact, it was a giant igloo, with the entrance leading into a newly created hole in the side of Mia's house.

Piers was beginning to think Mia was losing her mind. What kind of boyfriend would need an igloo as a room? But then he began to wonder if he was losing his mind. How in the world did Mia finish the job in such a short amount of time? But then Piers' thoughts returned to Mia's mind being lost and he pondered on the igloo again. Why use ice when there were trees all around to harvest lumber from?

Something was scratching at the back of Piers' mind - - a piece of information that he was overlooking. Something he knew, but couldn't fully recall. It was the key to the whole mess that he was staring at, and about to go confront. Piers gathered his courage and went up to knock on Mia's door.

Mia answered the door wearing an apron and a huge grin.

"Oh! Piers!" she said, surprised. She closed the door slightly, so nothing could be seen other than her body. "Back already?"

"Er, yeah..." Piers muttered quietly, finding her attitude odd. First she storms out on him, then adds an igloo to her house, and finally acts all bubbly and suspicious. He was starting to think his hypothesis about Mia's mental health was true.

"And what did you think?" Mia asked, her blue eyes looking around nervously.

Piers peeked past Mia's shoulder, trying to get a quick glimpse around the inside of her house. Something about the whole situation was really off, and that wasn't even counting the igloo room. "It was everything I'd ever hoped it would be. May I come inside?"

The Imilian healer's face suddenly took on a panicked expression. "O-Oh, um... Sorry, it's not a good time."

"Do you have company?"

Mia looked back over her shoulder, but the direction she was looking was away from Piers' point of view. "Sort of. My boyfriend and I are having a lunch date."

Piers smiled. He didn't think it would be that easy. Fortunately, he had a plan. "I see... I'll leave you alone then," he said, bowing respectfully.

The smile returned to Mia's face, but it was one of relief. "That would be best."

"Before I go, though..." Piers said. "I should tell you that I'm heading back to Lemuria."

Mia's face fell again. "You're going back? Already?"

Piers looked off in the distance at his ship on the outskirts of the town. The snowfall made it hard to see, but the shape of was still visible. "I wasn't planning on staying long. I had hoped to spend a little more time with you, but I think I ruined that. I'm very sorry, Mia. You've been a good friend to me."

While Piers was sincerely apologetic, he had another motive for his little speech. In truth, he wasn't planning on leaving just yet. Not until he confirmed something that was bothering him... The scratching feeling in his mind was back in full force, and he knew that whatever it was had to do with Mia's new boyfriend.

Mia bit her lip and looked back over her shoulder. "Well... I... I suppose I won't see you again for a while."

"True," Piers confirmed. "But I think you'll have to come with me to my ship. You left some things there, if I remember correctly."

Mia's eyes widened. "I almost forgot... I left them there so you'd st- - Um, yeah, I do remember them," she said, fidgeting in place.

Piers raised an eyebrow. Mia wasn't very subtle when it came to guys. He resisted smiling - - his plan was coming together nicely, and Mia was assisting him without even trying.

"How about you and your boyfriend come with me to get your things?" Piers offered. "That way you won't have to carry it all yourself."

Mia's face paled. Piers was sure at that point that either her boyfriend was imaginary, or it was somebody that Mia didn't want anybody else to see. He just needed to know which it was so he could determine if Mia was mentally sound. And if she wasn't...then what?

He wondered if Ply would cure conditions of the mind. As he pondered over it, Mia stepped outside and shut the door behind her.

"He's going to wait here. I'll be able to handle carrying my boxes."

Piers was surprised. "All of them?"

Mia tried to keep a smile on her face. It was definitely forced. "Y-Yeah, I suppose so."

Sighing, Piers turned around and began walking toward the inn to gather his things with Mia close at his heels. "If you insist. But I really think your boyfriend should help with this. It's disrespectful to a lady."

The Imilian looked down sadly. "He, um, has a unique condition. C...Can we talk about something else?"

With Piers' plan to reveal the boyfriend failed, he had no choice. It would just be up to Imil's residents to make sure everything was okay with Mia.

As the duo walked away from Mia's house, a pair of hard coal eyes appeared at the window, glaring at Piers' back.

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

Arriving at the inn, Piers made Mia wait outside his room while he grabbed his things. It wasn't much - - just some equipment he had on him when he originally walked Mia into town. However, it was his new plan. He had thought up a new way to discover the boyfriend's identity during the short walk to the inn. It was definitely more likely to get him in trouble with Mia, but he couldn't deny his curiosity and the scratching feeling at the back of his mind.

He snuck out the window of his room.

With Mia waiting patiently inside the inn, he ran back to her house. Seeing the igloo room the second time still was a surprising experience. It was just too bizarre to get used to.

Breathing heavily after his run, Piers placed a hand on the handle of Mia's door. He felt bad about letting himself in, especially after tricking Mia, but he had to know who Mia was with and why it was making her act so weird. He couldn't leave Imil without finding out.

Opening the door just a crack, Piers peeked in. In his immediate view, all he could see was a small part of the entry area of the house. He realized he'd have to be more bold if he was going to complete his objective.

Taking a deep breath, the adept opened the door all the way and walked into the warm home. There was a fire lit in the fireplace that burned brightly. Other than the flickering flames, nothing in view was moving.

Piers surveyed to his left and saw the wall Mia had torn down. A small ice tunnel ran from the igloo room and connected to the rest of the house. The tunnel itself was only a few feet in length, and would require crouching or crawling to travel through. Apparently Mia had given up breaking down the wall after making just a small hole.

As he peered through the tunnel, Piers realized the igloo looked a lot more spacious than he originally thought, and he realized he'd have to go through the tunnel if he wanted to see the entirety of it.

Curiosity again got the best of Piers. If anybody was in the house they would be in the igloo room. Getting on his hands and knees, Piers crawled through the ice tunnel and into the igloo.

What he saw took him a while to grasp. He didn't even have time to get out of the crawling position.

Ice furniture took up the bulk of the space. There was an ice bed, ice couch, ice table, and two ice chairs. And that was just the logical stuff. Piers couldn't figure out why there was an ice bookshelf with ice books on it, or an ice kitchen complete with all of the ice cookware.

And perhaps the most bizarre of all was a snowman, sitting in one of the ice chairs at the ice table, staring at Piers. It seemed to be glaring at him more than anything.

At a loss for words, Piers simply stared back. The connection that was trying to break through the back of Piers' mind burst forth in full force as he recalled what had been bothering him. Mia had a snowman in her bed the previous night, and beside her earlier that day. The igloo was the perfect temperature for a snowman.

Mia was dating a snowman.

But even stranger was that it looked exactly like Piers, right down to the coal eyes being shaded yellow, probably with some type of dye, and the carrot nose being carved to look like Piers'. The only difference between Piers and his snow counterpart was that one was obviously made out of snow, and was dressed in an Imilian outfit. No longer did he have stick arms, but instead he had thick, muscular-looking snow arms that matched the appearance of Piers' perfectly. Every last detail that could be matched was recreated in snow.

Far from being calm, Piers crawled backwards slowly, returned to the tunnel, and shivered violently as he reached the warm portion of the house. He was creeped out.

Things got much worse when the door opened, and Mia walked through.

"Piers! What are you doing back here?" Mia asked, astonished. "I waited for a while... Why are you in my house?"

Piers almost allowed a scream to escape his throat, but he held it back and instead choked a bit. "I, um... " He rose to his feet and faced Mia.

Mia's eyes went wide. "You...snuck in here. Didn't you?"

Piers was beginning to wish he had just left things alone. He wasn't quite sure what Mia was capable of. The sailor had seen a side of her he never wanted to see.

Mia shut the door behind her, still staring at Piers. "You saw my Snowpiers," she said. It was a statement. She knew.

"S...Snowpiers...?" Piers murmured. He didn't know what else to say. The situation just continued to get weirder and weirder. He quickly checked his surroundings and noted the location of the nearest window, in case he had to jump through it.

"I'm ashamed of you, Piers," Mia said quietly, walking forward slowly. "I had thought much higher of you than that."

Piers began to inch toward the window.

Mia surprised Piers yet again when she started laughing hysterically. Piers didn't see what was so funny.

"Oh, this is perfect. I shouldn't be surprised after all... Snowpiers snuck into my house the first time I met him, too. It's just like you to be like him," Mia said, smiling and tilting her head.

Piers didn't know what she meant, but he didn't have time to figure it out. Mia's eyes suddenly focused on something behind Piers, and when he turned around, he was face-to-face with the snow version of himself.

"Ice to see you," Snowpiers said with a menacing voice, and then he clubbed Piers over the head, knocking him unconscious.

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

Piers awoke with a numb sensation over his entire body. His head pounded, and he couldn't even open his eyes at first due to lack of strength. He let out a soft moan as he struggled to move.

"Ohmygoshyou'reawakePiersI'msosorry!" a female voice spoke rapidly into his ear.

Groaning in pain from the sharp headache, Piers finally managed opened his eyes and saw Mia beside him through his blurry vision, casting Ply on him and wearing a horrified expression.

"Wh...what?" Piers asked, not catching anything Mia had said.

"I'msosososorry - -"

"Please...slow down..." Piers murmured. He tried to sit up, but Mia pushed him back down. His head hit something hard, and the headache kicked in with a new fury, causing stars to dance across his vision. It hurt so bad that his breath caught in his throat and he couldn't even utter a cry of pain.

Mia took a deep breath and calmed herself down. "I'm so sorry, Piers!" she said. "I didn't expect him to knock you out. It was horrible of him, and I've scolded him for it."

"Him?" Piers asked, trying to recall what had happened. The only sensation he could feel other than the pain was his teeth chattering. Nothing else could be felt on his body. But as he focused on it, he realized that Ply was helping, and gradually the feeling started to come back.

Some time passed with nothing being said while Piers just kept his eyes shut and let the Ply work its magic. Once he had enough strength back to move freely Piers began to pay attention to what was going on, and he realized for the first time where he was.

He was inside the igloo, laying on the ice bed.

Upon further observation, Piers realized he was only wearing his underwear.

Before he could panic again, his eyes caught the snowman that had knocked him out. The abominable creation was leaning against the wall and staring at him with a smirk, as if taunting the Lemurian.

And it was wearing his clothes.

Piers was done with the craziness of the situation.

The igloo exploded in a shower of ice chunks, revealing a mostly-naked Piers on his feet, his hand extended upward. With a fierce expression, Piers redirected his hand at Snowpiers.

"P...Piers! No!" Mia gasped, still beside the bed.

But Piers was in no mood to negotiate. A mixture of Ply and adrenaline had given him newfound strength, and he intended on destroying all traces of the bizarre clone. Casting some psynergy, he sent some of the ice blocks from the igloo hurling at the snowman. The intense force from the projectiles knocked the snowman into several pieces, demolishing the creepy replica.

Satisfied, Piers turned to Mia. His head was still pounding, but the empowering moment was important. He needed to make things clear. "I will not allow this...this insane situation to continue," he stated harshly. "You need to ge - -"

Piers was interrupted by a giant ice block plowing into his back. The clothes-less man went flying across the landscape, rolling over the snow until he came to a stop a good distance away from Mia's house.

Groaning in pain, Piers climbed to his feet. He began to shiver again from the cold. Looking back to Mia's house, the sailor saw that Snowpiers had somehow put himself back together, and was casting his own psynergy.

Astonished at just how impossible the situation was, Piers could only stare. The only thing that snapped him out of his trance was when Snowpiers raised his arms up in the air and formed hundreds of icicles, which hovered just above the Mercury adept.

Piers acted quickly and formed a shield of ice around his body. The icicles crashed down against the shield. Being made of the same material, quantity won out, and the icicles soon broke through the barrier. Fortunately for Piers, only a dozen or so remained, which left minor cuts that his numb body didn't even feel.

Gritting his teeth and shivering in the freezing snow, Piers desperately wished he had his sword. As he brushed his blue hair out of his eyes, he strategized on what to do next. What type of Mercury attack would wipe out a regenerating snowman?

The only thought he had was water.

Both Piers and the snowman advanced on each other. The snowman would occasionally send an attack Piers' way, but the adept acted defensively. He wanted to be close enough for his plan to work.

"Stop it, both of you!" Mia cried out, trying to run in the middle of them.

Piers and Snowpiers both waved a hand at the same time and sent a small wave of snow at Mia, trapping her in it and carrying her a safe distance away.

Being a Mercury adept as well, Mia dispersed the snow, sending it flying in all directions, and ran back toward the two combatants. But she wouldn't get there in time.

Piers was close enough to act comfortably. Just as the snowman picked up the ice bed into the air and broke it apart into a thousand pointy shards, Piers crouched low and used both hands to summon a giant wave of water, using the water molecules from within the snow to create his wave.

The wave of water thundered over the snowman's attack, and then passed over Snowpiers himself. The effect of the water on snow deformed and warped the snowman into a hideous, unrecognizable shape, leaving a pile of slush behind.

Piers took a deep breath, thinking he had finally won. Just as he was wondering how to get his clothes back, the pile of slush chuckled in a sickly sounding way.

"You have no way to defeat me," Snowpiers gurgled as he began to reform himself.

Reacting quickly, Piers tried to control the snowman directly, forcing his reformation to stop. It worked for a time, but the abilities of the snowman overpowered the Mercury adept, and gradually the shape of Snowpiers returned completely.

Piers grunted in pain as a sudden chunk of ice came up from beneath his feet and knocked him in the jaw. The force sent him through the air and onto his back in some snow.

The snow began to creep over Piers' body, covering his naked skin. An entirely new level of cold hit Piers as he groaned in agitation and tried to struggle against the snow.

"I am immortal," Snowpiers said, coming up beside Piers and creating a reinforced ice barrier to cover him over the snow. Mia, who had been running back to their location the entire time, was closing in on them.

Teeth chattering, Piers wanted to reply to the snowman. He wanted to cuss him out, taunt him, berate him - - anything. But he couldn't get a word out.

Snowpiers looked down at his arms and flexed them. "The Waters of Hermes flows through me," he said quietly with a victorious smile. "I'll never cease to exist."

"Stop!" Mia shrieked.

Snowpiers chuckled as he took one last look at Piers, and then turned around and walked away toward the destroyed igloo.

Mia slid to a stop next to Piers and immediately thawed the ice and snow. "Piers..." she said, but added nothing after that. She didn't know what to say, apparently.

And for that matter, neither did Piers. He had no words for what had just happened, at least for Mia.

But he knew what to do. And that's what mattered the most.

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

Piers left town without reclaiming his clothes from Snowpiers, and without saying another word to Mia. She was deeply upset about it, but her snowman lover did what he could to cheer her up.

"C'mon dear," Snowpiers said as he began to massage Mia's shoulders. "Let's not worry about him. Let's worry about us."

Mia was sitting at the table in the rebuilt igloo, leaning over it and sulking. "I just didn't want it to end that way..." she said quietly. Originally she had thought that even though Piers didn't want to be with her, they could remain friends. He was a really nice guy, after all. And she didn't know any other Mercury adepts before him other than Alex. It bothered her deeply that she may never see him again.

Snowpiers pulled the other chair over and sat beside her. "I know, I know... But he did bring it on himself."

Sighing, Mia turned to hold the snowman's hands and said, "Yeah... I'm sorry he attacked you. I don't know what got into him." She still couldn't figure out why Piers had blown up their igloo and freaked out. It wasn't like him to act in such a rash manner. The more she thought about it, the more she wondered if maybe being knocked on the head had made Piers mentally unwell.

With a grin, Snowpiers said, "I bet he was jealous. He finally realized what he gave up."

Mia allowed a small smile to form on her lips. "I doubt it. I'm not worth fighting over..."

Snowpiers leaned in and rubbed his carrot nose against Mia's. "I'm proof that that's not true. I knocked his block off just to keep you," he said with a wink.

"I don't believe that. I think you were just fighting in self-defense," Mia said, turning away. Despite the depression that had been sinking in, she was feeling happy just being in the presence of Snowpiers.

The snowman grabbed Mia's face gently and turned her back to him. "I have no reason to fear any Mercury adept other than you, my love. You're the only one who has the power to hurt me. You have dominion over my heart, after all," he said in a sickeningly romantic voice.

As Mia stared at the yellow coal eyes of Snowpiers, she felt herself blush. "That was the sweetest thing I've ever heard," she said quietly.

Snowpiers leaned in and planted his white lips on Mia's and stroked her face with one of his hands gently. She moaned softly and wrapped her arms around his neck, climbing off the chair and sitting on his lap instead. Nothing felt wrong about it to her. Her love for the snow had evolved into love for the snowman. She knew then that it didn't matter what he looked like. Snowpiers or Snowman, she was in love either way.

They made out heavily until Mia called it quits due to her tongue and lips being completely numb.

"I love you, thnowman..." Mia said with difficulty through her numb mouth as she rested her head against his cold shoulder and closed her eyes.

Snowpiers smiled, and was about to respond when something caught his attention. "You...you didn't call me Snowpiers," he pointed out.

Mia smiled. "I know..."

"But, I thought..."

Mia sat up and placed a hand against his mouth. "Shhh..." she hushed him. The healer studied the snowman's face with her big blue eyes. After checking out every detail, she then she brought her hands up and began casting some psynergy. The snowman reached up to stop her, but Mia gently grabbed his hands and wrapped them around her waist, then resumed her project. When she was done, she was staring at the snowman's round face again, as it had once been. The final touch was added when she climbed to her feet and retrieved several pieces of coal from a small pouch, and placed them in their proper spots to make up the snowman's mouth.

Smiling at the snowman, Mia returned to a sitting position on his lap and kissed his coal mouth. "I think..." Mia said after a moment, "That I want you to keep this face. Your real face; the face of the man I realized I should have loved all this time."

The snowman's eyes went wide. "You're sure?" he asked.

To answer him, Mia leaned in and kissed him again on his coal lips. She trailed her fingers up his chest and began to rip Snowpiers' clothes off. Then, running her hands over his frigid chest, she let psynergy flow through herself as she reshaped his body, casting snow away and repacking it here and there. When she was done fondle-shaping him, his body was back to its original snowman shape, stick-arms and all.

"Oh, Mia... You really are my snow angel!" he said happily after he'd taken a glance at his body.

Mia grinned with chattering teeth. "And you're my cool guy," she said, giggling.

"Hey! Your Snowish is getting better!" Snowman complimented.

Mia blushed at the compliment and pressed her forehead against his. "Thanks... I need to go warm up, but before I do, I wanted to ask you about..." she said, but hesitated on the last part.

"About?"

"Um... About our future... Specifically, children," Mia said, averting her eyes and pulling her head away. She wasn't sure how it would work, and didn't want to make the snowman feel bad in case it was impossible.

Snowman laughed. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. Should we have our first right now?"

Mia froze. "Huh?"

"Do you want to have our first child right now?" he repeated.

"R-Right now? As in this moment?"

The snowman nodded. "If you want."

Mia was very embarrassed. She wasn't sure she was ready to make love to a regular man, let alone a man made of snow. How in Weyard would it work, anyway?

"Um. I don't know..." she glanced down at the snowman's naked body, seeing no reproductive organ of any sorts. It was all just a smooth sphere. She was certain she could shape some - - a thought which made her face go bright red - - but it wouldn't get her pregnant. And as much as she loved Snowman, the fact that he was entirely made of a cold substance kept her concerned about the thought of, well, climbing his Mercury lighthouse. Finally having absolutely no idea how it would work, she gathered the courage to ask him.

"It's easy - - watch," Snowman said. He stood up, gently setting Mia in one of the chairs, and pointed a gloved hand at the ground. Mia watched the floor of the igloo intently, waiting to see what would happen. Within moments, a tiny little snowbaby popped out of the snow-covered ground.

"Oh!" Mia gasped. That made a lot more sense than the thought process her mind had been going down. "But...it's not alive, is it?"

A few seconds later, the snowbaby cried and started moving around. A startled Mia fell backward out of her chair.

The snowman bent down, picked the child up, and shushed it. "He's a little cranky at being left on the cold floor," he said with a smile. He shuffled his body over to Mia and added, "Why don't we let mommy hold him?"

Mia's was stunned as she took the baby from the snowman. It wriggled around and gurgled for a brief moment, then began to settle down. It stuck its little snow-thumb into its mouth and began to suck on it. "H-How?"

"It's a part of me. I can add and shed snow from me at will, and control it as I see fit," the snowman explained. "It's...not like a real child, unfortunately. A human child..."

Mia's blue eyes left the snowbaby's sleeping form and settled on Snowman. She could see the snowman was getting a little sad. "He's perfect," she said sincerely, grinning at her lover. She made Snowman sit beside her and leaned against him with the child in her arms.

"We're already a happy family..." Mia stated with a contented sigh. "This is amazing."

Snowman leaned down and kissed Mia on her blue hair, then said with a smile, "It really is..."

Mia looked up at her boyfriend and gave him a light kiss.

As the couple admired their situation, the baby began to cry again. Out of instinct, Mia began to wonder if it was too cold, being in an igloo and all. Then she thought about it, and realized she made a stupid assumption.

"I think he's hungry," Snowman said, reaching out and tickling the snowbaby's chin gently.

"Hungry? For what?" Mia questioned. She didn't realize that snowpeople even needed to eat.

The snowman leaned back in his chair. "Um... I'll wait until you figure it out," he said.

A confused expression crossed Mia's face. "Figure what out?" she asked. Then, as her mind went over what Snowman could possibly mean, her face ever so slowly turned pale as she thought she had figured it out. A few seconds later, it heated up and became a deep shade of red again.

She knew exactly what the snowman had meant.

Mia looked down at her chest with wide eyes.

A small squeak escaped her throat.

Suddenly, Snowman chuckled. "You're so cute when you're panicking. I was just joking - - we don't need that stuff," he said.

Mia's expression turned to one of anger immediately. "That was mean!" she said loudly. Oh, the mental images she'd had... Horrible, freezing mental images...

The snowman grinned and stole a kiss. "But oh-so-fun," he replied.

Scowling, Mia stood up and placed the baby on the bed, and then turned around to face Snowman again with her hands on her hips.

"You should have seen your face," Snowman remarked, unable to hold back his laughter. "You should see it now.

Mia cast a psynergy skill, and soon the Snowman's head was five times as big.

"Wh - - whoa!" Snowman exclaimed, waving his arms in a circle as he began to tip backward. The heavy head was too much, and he fell to the ground with a thud.

It was Mia's turn to laugh then. "Oh dear. Looks like your jokes went to your head," she said with a smirk.

Snowman waved his stick arm, and soon Mia was tossed forward by large snow hand materializing behind her. She stumbled forward and landed on top of her boyfriend.

"Admit it - - you think I'm handsome," Snowman said as he winked, which looked hilarious with his head larger than his body.

Mia giggled. Then she overheard the baby crying, and a thought entered her head.

"Hmm... I'll tell you what I think..." she said.

"Yeah?"

Fixing the snowman's head, Mia stood up and helped him to his feet. She snuggled up against him and began tracing her finger over his snowy chest. "I think I want a larger family," she said with a mischievous smile.

The snowman grinned. "Well now... How can I deny my love what she wants?"

They spent the remainder of the night having many baby-making sessions.

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

A week and a half passed, and all was well for Mia and her snowman lover. The people of Imil avoided the healer, since she had become a creepy shut-in and practically chased anybody who visited her away. Most were worried about her, but they weren't sure what to do. For over a year they had been using the Water of Hermes to heal all problems away, and before that Mia took care of their ailments for them. They had no idea how to help Mia, or if she even needed help. For all they knew, she had just changed in her time away and there was no going back.

Justin and Megan, both of whom had been the closest to Mia before she left Imil, were the most concerned. They often tried to sneak into Mia's house, but ever since the Piers incident, Mia had doubled up on the locks to her home, and kept her windows frozen shut. Without an adept to help them thaw the windows, there was no way for the two children to enter and see what was going on.

Despite their concern, they were mid-way through a plan to dig underneath the igloo when their short attention span got the best of them and they soon began spending their days doing other things, leaving Mia alone like the rest of the town.

And for a time, things were peaceful for the Mercury adept, her lover, and their family.

But then it all changed when Piers returned to Imil.

Bundled up heavily in a thick fur coat, Piers trudged through the heavy snow. He didn't even look at the other buildings of Imil, passing by every single one of them as he made his way to the far part of the town. He only had one stop.

Upon reaching Mia's house, he saw a new addition had been made to her door; a sign which hung about halfway down the door, and in big black letters read "No Visitors, Please".

Piers ignored the sign and rapped sharply on the door. The Lemurian wouldn't have returned to Imil without a valid purpose, and there was no sign on Weyard that would stop him from accomplishing what he felt had to be done.

When there was no answer, Piers knocked a second time, making it loud enough to be heard even in the igloo, which had tripled in size.

Piers waited patiently, and was soon rewarded by the sound of the door being unlocked slowly. He heard seven locks click out of place before the door opened just a crack, revealing Mia's eye peering out.

"Piers...?" she whispered.

Piers ran his golden eyes over Mia's face, trying to learn as much as he could from observing her. Her teeth were chattering and her skin seemed more pale than before, almost taking on a blueish tint. Smudges of black coal surrounded her purple lips, which used to be a light-pink in color.

"Mia," Piers greeted, bowing his head slightly.

Mia stepped outside and shut the door behind her, then glanced around frantically. Piers was shocked to see that she had lost a lot of weight, and her once-beautiful hair had become a mess.

"What happened to you?" he asked, unable to stop himself.

Crouching down, Mia peered around Piers' body with widening eyes. "I have to stay inside. Can't leave. People will see us. They'll attack, like you did. They won't understand. They...they can't understand... But I'm happy...I'm happy inside with my family," she muttered while her eyes continued to scan the scene before her.

Piers' heart went out to Mia. He was saddened at seeing how far she had fallen into the depths of her madness. "Mia, I- -"

Mia's head whipped around and she stared hard at Piers with wild eyes. "What are you doing here? You should leave," she said, looking him up and down. "You can't fight him. You can't. I won't...I won't allow it."

The Lemurian held up a hand. "I'm not here to fight, um..., Snowpiers," he said.

"Snowman," Mia corrected. "He's not Snowpiers anymore. We fixed that."

Piers cleared his throat. "Regardless of who or what he is, I'm not here to confront him. I simply wish to speak to you."

Mia eyed Piers warily. "Speak to me?"

"That's all," Piers confirmed. "Will you take a walk with me?"

"Oh..." Mia said, turning back to look at her house. "No... No... That wouldn't be good."

Piers took Mia by the shoulder and turned her gently to face him. "I'm rather...uncomfortable here. You understand, I'm sure."

Mia locked eyes with Piers, and her wild eyes began to soften a bit.. "Y..Yes. I know. I just...I just need to tell my husband."

"Husband?" Piers inquired. It didn't shock him too much, but was still unexpected.

Mia's pale face reddened just a bit. She smiled and cast her gaze down at their feet. "Hee... Hee hee... Yeah..." she said shyly. "The snow priest married us. We made him. He's gone now, though. You can't meet him."

Piers coughed. "Well..." he said, trying to find the words to respond to that. He decided there were none and just took Mia by the arm. "It's urgent, so...we should go now. Please, Mia."

Mia chewed on her lip. "But..."

"Please, Mia," Piers said, making sure to look her in the eye.

When her eyes locked with his, Mia's face became conflicted. She licked her lip as she looked from one eye to the next. Finally, she tore her gaze away from Piers and looked down while wrapping her arms around herself. "For how long?" she whispered.

"Not long," Piers replied, offering his hand to Mia.

After staring at his hand for a couple of seconds, Mia reached out hesitantly.

Smiling warmly, Piers took Mia's hand and began to lead her away from the house.

While she was lost in the moment, Mia didn't notice a second figure hiding behind some trees near her house.

A few minutes into the walk, they were on the other side of town. Piers had made idle chit-chat until they reached their destination. Mia was mostly silent, only offering single-word answers like "Yeah" or "Oh".

When he was satisfied they had traveled far enough away from the house, Piers stopped and turned to Mia.

Mia looked up for the first time since leaving her porch and looked around. The pair had entered an empty field of snow that was located behind a small house. "Why are we here?" she asked in a hoarse voice.

Piers looked at Mia's hand in his, and then sighed. "Forgive me," he said quietly, and released her from his grip. With a motion of his hands, he cast some psynergy, and sent Mia sinking down into the snow. Her entire body was swallowed up, until only her head remained above the white ground. A second wave of his hands hardened the snow into ice.

"Piers! What is this?" Mia asked frantically, struggling against the ice. Unable to free her hands, she couldn't release herself.

"I'm doing what's necessary," Piers said quietly, then he turned his eyes toward the ocean and said a small incantation. Three bright blue orbs appeared from within his body and flew quickly off into the distance. When they were hovering over the wild northern ocean, they crashed themselves into the water and traveled deep into the ocean's depths.

Shortly after, the waves thrashed around more rapidly. Piers watched as a giant whale burst forth through the surface and let out an ear-piercing war cry.

With the order handed off to his djinn to carry out, Piers only had to watch as Neptune raised his large head upward. With another howl, the whale began collecting immense amounts of psynergy around the frontal area of its head. Glowing brightly, the psynergy crackled in the air, until with a flash of his red eyes, Neptune released it.

A beam of light shot upward, disrupting the air around it and punching a hole in the clouds above.

Piers sighed and turned away from the scene and back to Mia. Taking a seat in the snow next to her, he said, "And now we wait..."

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

Garet saw the signal in the distance. The giant beam of light was just what he had been searching for. And, as evidenced by his wide grin when he spotted it, he had been aching to see it.

Garet tied Isaac's scarf over his mouth and nose, then pulled a pair of dark goggles that had been sitting on his forehead down over his eyes and snapped them into place. While clutching a giant sword, he walked to the bow of the ship with his heavy boots clunking the entire way. He wore a heavy fur coat that hung low enough to touch the wooden planks of the flying ship around his feet.

When he reached the edge of the boat, Garet climbed effortlessly up onto the wooden railing and turned his masked face to the target below him. Imil was just a tiny dot on the surface beneath the flying ship. He wasn't sure if they had ever taken the ship up that high, and he relished in it. The thrill of what he was about to do was flooding him with adrenaline.

As the wind whipped through his spiky hair, he slung his sword over his shoulder and extended a hand upward. After muttering a word and concentrating, four dots of red light shot out of his body and soared into the sky and even further, traveling into the blackness of space.

Then Garet waited patiently. His eyes didn't leave the spot where his djinn had disappeared from sight. Timing would be everything for his next move.

Moments later, a flash appeared in the sky. Garet's grin widened when he saw the meteor.

He was about to do something he'd always wanted to try.

As the meteor was just about to shoot past the ship, Garet cast Halt on it. Nobody else thought it would work, but Garet was delighted when the burning rock came to a complete stop mid-air, right in front of the ship. Whistling, Garet leapt off the ship and onto the meteor. Flames were frozen in time all around him, making for an interesting effect as the adept moved around them. When he was in the center of the meteor, the Mars adept spun his sword around a few times in his hands, and then jammed it deep into the space rock. Then, gripping the sword tightly, he released Halt.

At first, he almost flew off of the meteor as it continued to rocket downward, but his grip on his sword held. Flames licked at his covered body, but his resistance to the element made him pay no attention to the fires. As Imil grew larger beneath him, he grew bold and hooked his belt to his sword and stuck his arms out.

"Yeeeaaaahhhh!" he shouted to nobody in particular as he surfed the meteor to the surface. "The only way to travel!"

When he was close enough to Imil and his target, he unhooked his belt and clutched his sword in both hands. Grunting and pushing against the meteor with his feet, the sword came free. The moment it popped loose, Garet kicked off of the surface of the meteor and did a backflip off of the flaming ball of space rock. His coat had caught fire and was shooting flames in all directions behind him as Isaac's scarf flapped wildly behind his spiky hair. He looked like a demon birthed by the meteor, rocketing to the ground to wreak all sorts of havoc and destruction.

It wasn't too far from the truth.

Garet was suddenly caught up in a whirlwind, which rapidly slowed his descent to the snowy village below. The creator's mastery over the skill allowed the whirlwind to cushion Garet's fall, without causing him to spin out of control.

The meteor hit the ground a few seconds later and collided perfectly with its intended target: Mia's igloo room.

The shockwave of the meteor caused an explosion of snow and ice, and sent all trees within a small radius flying from the ground. Mia's house splintered and blew up, flying away with the snow and crashing into trees and houses in the surrounding area.

Garet, who was falling at a much slower and safer pace, hit the ground next. The large Mars adept landed in a crouching position. A similar blast of snow flew up around him, and then came falling back down as his smoking form rose to a standing position.

"Perfect timing," Garet commented to a figure approaching him. He pat at a few of the remaining flames that covered his coat, putting them out.

"You had your doubts?" Ivan asked, picking debris out of his hair.

"Nope," Garet replied, eyeing the crater he had created.

Ivan stared with him. "Well...we were right and wrong. You being closer to the meteor did improve your accuracy..."

"But it didn't save the rest of the house," Garet finished for him. "Yeah, I didn't think it would. I just wanted to ride that sucker down here."

Ivan shook his head and sighed, then looked around at the damage Garet had created. "Fortunately for you I was able to evacuate people from around this part of town."

Garet scanned the scene too, noting that a few of the homes he saw had seen better days. "Well," he said, "I think they'll forgive me when we tell them we were the ones who saved the world. That's gotta count toward something, right?"

Ivan didn't answer, and instead chose to walk toward the impact point. "Come on, let's make sure it's destroyed."

The pair walked up to the edge of the smoldering crater that was created by Garet's meteor and peered down. Garet moved his goggles up to his forehead again and squinted. "Is that happening?" he asked, pointing to a puddle of water that was rapidly forming in the center.

Ivan watched for a moment, then turned and walked away. "Round two. Try not to blow up anymore houses."

Garet replaced the goggles. "Now where's the fun in that?"

Soon, water covered a large area of the pit and began to solidify. Garet made a few test swings with his sword as he waited. The slushy water rose up in the center and began to take shape. A few townsfolk approached the scene in an attempt to discover what had just happened. Ivan stopped them and made them keep their distance.

Before long, Snowman's body was completely formed again. The coal eyes slid out from the center of his head and rolled around until they were center. When his face was in its original form, he looked around frantically with a confused expression.

"Hey, buddy." Garet crouched down to look at the snowman. He pointed his sword at him casually and said, "You know coals belong in a fire, right?"

Snowman was baffled. "I...I don't understand. What happened to my home?"

Garet stood up and jerked his hand forward, pointing it at the snowman. "I happened."

Snowman had no time to respond. Garet lit a ring of fire around the perimeter of the crater. Heaving his sword behind him, he kicked his powerful legs off of the ground and jumped into the massive hole. When he landed into the crater, he ran the remaining distance to the snowman and swung his sword, slicing the snow head right off.

"I know it's hot in here, but it's nothing to lose your head over," Garet said with an amused tone.

Finally realizing what was going on, Snowman sprung into action. His headless body charged Garet.

The Mars adept side-stepped Snowman's body easily. "Uh oh, looks like you've got something flaring up back here," Garet said as he shot flames at the snowman's backside. Mia's husband fell over, half-melted.

"Hurry it up, Garet!" Ivan called from the sidelines. "Piers said not to underestimate him!"

Sighing, Garet walked to the snowman's head and picked it up. He turned it around in his gloved hands until he was staring right at the coal eyes. "Well, looks like the fun's over."

Glaring, Snowman said, "Oh no, no it's not. Prepare to face a bitter defeat."

Garet raised an eyebrow. "And how are you planning on beating me, exactly?"

"Garet! Behind you - - pay attention!" Ivan yelled.

Turning around just in time, Garet jumped out of the way of a huge pile of snow flowing over the edge of the crater, which collided into the ground right where he had been standing. The snow traveled around like a giant worm and doused the fire, then surrounded Garet.

The snow then broke apart into dozens of smaller piles, all of which formed into miniature snowboys and snowgirls. Their snow-formed faces glared at Garet and snarled at him.

"What's this?" Garet asked in surprise, still clutching the snowman's head.

The snowman grinned. "My children. I've reformed every last one of them."

"Huh. Weird," Garet said. He started to wonder just how Mia had had babies with the snowman.

"It's pointless! You'll never win!" the snowman said with a laugh. "I'm immortal! I can't be bea- - "

His words were cut short when Garet drop-kicked his head into the distance.

Garet whistled as he watched it soar away over some trees.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his side. Grunting, he looked down and saw one of the miniature snowgirls poking him with an icicle.

Garet kicked it away, causing it to explode into several pieces. He was satisfied until he realized he was surrounded by them on all sides, and they were advancing on him.

"Okay," Garet said, grabbing his sword in both hands and lighting it on fire. "Time to turn up the heat."

As soon as they were close enough, the snowchildren began leaping at Garet. Every single one of them brandished sharp icicles and growled fiercely. Garet took a wide swing and demolished three of them at once, and then ducked underneath several others that flew over his head. A few caught him around the legs and began to stab him rapidly in the thighs and shins.

Garet reached down and grabbed two of them in his big hands, and smashed them together in a shower of snow. One more remained wrapped around his leg, which he hastily snagged in his hand and lit on fire. The burning snowboy writhed around and hissed.

The other snowchildren hesitated a bit, and began recalculating their attack. Garet threw the melting snowchild in his hand at one of its siblings. When they collided, the two forms melted into one puddle, screaming the entire time.

Garet didn't give the rest of them time to think. He began to launch wave after wave of fire attacks at them. Seeing their danger, most began to run away. The few that remained were destroyed by Garet's powerful liquifier attack, which left no trace of the snowchildren it had claimed. The few snowchildren that had managed to escape tried to scramble up the slopes, but to no avail. Garet cackled as most of them were destroyed by his psynergy. The rest he ran up to and speared with the tip of his sword, which caused them to melt into water and sizzle from the hot blade.

When Garet stopped his snow-thirsty attack, all that remained aside from a few puddles of water was the snowman's deformed body, which flopped around and tried to gain traction on the ground to move away. Garet shook his head and walked up to it.

"Is that really all you've got?" he asked.

A low rumble was heard around him.

Snowman's head rolled into view at the edge of the crater. He spun his head around in place until his coal eyes were staring at Garet. "I was just going with the floe," he said with a menacing voice, "but now you've forced me to actually try."

"I tend to do that to people," Garet said smugly.

Then Garet watched with wide eyes as snow collected around the head, and continued to gather at a rapid pace for the next few minutes. Wave after wave of snow rolled around the village and piled onto Snowman's writhing massive form. When the reformation was complete, the snowman had taken all of the snow from the village to recreate himself. He was half as tall as Mercury lighthouse and shaped just like a giant dragon. Reaching down with his giant new snow claws, the snow dragon grabbed giant boulders and placed them in the empty eye sockets in his head to serve as eyes. After rolling the eyes around and adjusting them, the snowman looked down at Garet and smirked with a giant, icicle-toothed grin.

Many of the townsfolk screamed and ran away from the scene. They had an easy time of it with all of the snow in the immediate area removed.

"Oh," was all Garet said.

But what the snowman couldn't see was that he was smiling. Everything was going according to his plan.

"Someone will have to snow shovel your body up off the ground when I'm through with you," the snowdragon bellowed. A low rumble erupted from within his body, and he lunged forward, taking a lightning-fast swipe at Garet.

The giant limb of the dragon knocked Garet off of his feet and sent him rolling to the edge of the crater. Groaning in pain, Garet fixed his crooked goggles and climbed to his feet.

The snowdragon didn't give Garet much time to act. "You need to chill out," he growled, and followed it up with a roar. Snapping his gleaming jaws a few times, he thrust his head in the Mars adept's direction and sent a blast of snow from within his mouth, much like a regular dragon shooting fire.

The freezing cold snow showered over Garet, who still wasn't appearing to counter-attack in anyway. A shield of flames went up around his body quickly, but it did little to stop the massive amounts of snow piling around him.

When Garet was completely covered from head-to-toe in the snow, the snowdragon began to chuckle loudly. He slithered forward to the crater and stepped down into it, then crawled toward the imprisoned Garet.

"I'm not usually this cold-hearted," the snowdragon hissed, "but you're far too dangerous to me... I think it's time to end you. Mia will forgive me for it."

The pile of snow surrounding Garet suddenly exploded in flames. The snow quickly melted into nothing, revealing Garet, who had his hand aimed toward the dragon. "Well, see, the thing about you being a snowdragon... You're still made of snow," he said, tilting his head slightly.

The snowdragon glared. He opened his large jaws, which glinted in the sunlight, and prepared to snap at Garet. Just as he was about to lunge with his powerful neck, he felt a burning sensation all around the underside of his body.

"And snow melts. Even large dragon-shaped clumps of snow will melt to, say...a volcano?" Garet stated.

Looking down, the snowdragon saw that the ground had actually opened up, and lava was spurting forth. The snow around his body was rapidly melting, causing him to shrink in height.

Garet, who had cast the skill stealthily, gave it his all once he realized it had taken affect. Throwing all his energy behind it, he shouted and sent both hands into the air, causing a pillar of lava to launch right through the snowdragon, devouring any snow near the hot magma.

The snowdragon laughed as he melted. "I'll just come back again, and again, and again..." he gurgled.

Garet whistled as he climbed out of the crater, which had been rapidly filling with water. Soon enough, all traces of the snowdragon were gone, and the crater looked more like a small lake than anything. The lava that had been spurting forth sizzled and solidified at the base of the lake, plugging all of the cracks that had opened up.

Smirking, Garet said, "You won't be coming back this time." He turned to Ivan and nodded his head, who in turn stuck his hand up and summoned a thundercloud above. It was another signal.

The lake of water tried several times to reform into the snowman, but Garet kept it at bay. He had a lot of fun with it. Every time he'd see a new bit of ice here, or some snow there, he'd take aim and fire. He assigned points to the targets based on distance.

A few minutes after Ivan's signal went up, Piers entered the scene, followed by Mia who was wrapped up in Piers' big coat. She looked terrified.

"W-What happened? Where's my husband? Where are my kids? Why are Ivan and Garet here?" Mia asked frantically, eyes darting around. Tears began to form in her eyes.

Garet waited until Mia wasn't looking at his direction, and then tilted his head toward the lake.

Piers nodded to show he understood what Garet had meant, and approached the lake. Stretching a hand out, he muttered, "Parch."

A small portion of water from the lake evaporated into the air.

Ivan walked up to Mia and took her by the arm. "Hey, come with me. We'll go meet up with the others. This will take a while."

"Parch," Piers said, casting the skill yet again. Standing beside him, Garet shot at a section of the water that was trying to harden up.

"What will?" Mia asked with a sob, oblivious to what was happening behind her. "Where's my house? What happened to my house? And my family? What happened to them?"

"Parch."

Ivan rubbed the back of his head. "Um. Garet happened."

"Parch."

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

While Piers and Garet worked on getting rid of all traces of the snowman, Kraden, Isaac and Jenna entered Imil. Having stayed up in the ship, they had to land it before joining the others.

When the water from the lake had completely evaporated, Kraden left Jenna to tend to Mia and took Isaac and Ivan with him to the crater to join Piers and Garet.

Standing on the edge, the scholar looked around the giant impression and then nodded to Isaac. "If everything went according to plan, and my theory is correct, it should be around somewhere in the crater. Isaac, if you'd please. I think a few inches from all around would suffice."

Garet folded his arms. "I liked my theory," he said.

Ivan shook his head. "We accounted for that, Garet. If Mia had been subconsciously controlling the snowman the entire time in an attempt to find true love after Piers' rejection, then you wouldn't have had to fight him. Piers had her on the other side of town, and had made it so she was unable to cast any psynergy," Ivan explained. "It really was a living snowman."

Shrugging, Garet replied, "I never said I was right, I just liked my theory more. It would've been more creepy."

Piers patted Garet on the back. "Believe me, it was creepy enough."

Piers, Ivan, Garet and Kraden watched as Isaac stepped up to the edge and, raising his gloved hands, caused a thin layer of dirt from all around the crater to raise into the sky. Concentrating hard, he made the dirt spread out in the air above their heads.

"Now you, Ivan," Kraden said.

Focusing hard, Ivan cast reveal. He walked around beneath the dirt, eyeing every part of it.

While he was inspecting the cloud of floating dirt, Garet muttered something about needing the bathroom and disappeared in the woods.

Finally, Ivan trained his eyes on a particular dirt clod. "There it is."

Isaac discarded all of the dirt back to the crater, except the small chunk Ivan had been pointing at. He brought it carefully down in front of them all. Ivan grabbed the dirt from out of the air and stuck his fingers into the center of it. Very carefully he pulled his fingers free and revealed a tiny psynergy stone shard nestled on his fingertip.

"Amazing, isn't it?" asked Kraden. "Such a small thing could have so much power..."

"I'm curious as to how he could regenerate. Psynergy stones shouldn't grant that power," Piers said quietly.

Kraden sighed and shook his head. "I've thought that part over and over, and I can't come to a conclusion. We may never know," he said disheartened.

Off in the distance, Garet returned from his bathroom break in a cluster of trees, whistling merrily.

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

"I don't know why they voted for me to be the one to break this to you," Jenna muttered angrily. "I just don't get it. Just because I'm a girl, they think it should be my job to do the emotional duty."

Mia stared at Jenna through tears. "Break what to me? Please, just tell me what happened!"

Sighing, Jenna walked up to Mia and held her in an embrace. "Listen, Mia... We just did what had to be done. You aren't well."

Shivering, Mia murmured, "My husband...my children..." Nobody understood. Nobody cared.

"Yourrrrr...um...husband," Jenna said with difficulty. "Well, he's not around anymore."

Mia's heart froze in her chest. She had her suspicions, but to have them confirmed was the worst thing that could have happened. For the first time in her life, she wanted so badly to be proven wrong.

Gone...

Destroyed.

"And the little ones too, I assume. I don't know - - nobody told me what happened," Jenna said with a shrug. "But it's okay, Mia - - we'll get you better."

Mia was heartbroken. Her so-called friends thought it was their duty to drop in uninvited and slay her husband and family, completely wiping them out of existence. Why? Why would they do it? It just wasn't fair. She had finally found someone perfect for her, and...

She pushed Jenna away. The Mars adept looked a little surprised, but didn't say anything. Mia thought that was a wise thing, because she was in no mood to deal with anybody.

"Yo," Garet said, approaching the two.

Mia growled.

Garet and Jenna exchanged glances. "Bad time?" Garet asked, scratching his head.

"I think we should step away until Kraden shows up," Jenna murmured.

Mia fell to her knees as the two Mars adepts disappeared toward the crater.

Everything was lost... Her love, her family, her home. Her friends had betrayed her. Even the beautiful snow that had once covered her village was nowhere to be found.

She had nothing.

While the healer wept on the ground, the others approached her. Kraden crouched down beside her and placed a hand on the girl's head.

"How are you feeling, Mia?" he asked softly.

Mia sniffed. "You're all horrible. I'll never forgive you..."

Kraden pushed his glasses up his nose. "Well, unpleasantness aside, I think you must know that you were dating a monster."

"You're the monsters!" Mia exclaimed bitterly, throwing herself away from Kraden. She felt so lost that she couldn't even bring herself to crawl away, despite telling herself that's exactly what should be done. Crawl away until it was impossible to go further, lay down, and just die.

Sighing, Kraden turned to the others. "It's worse than I thought. I don't think she'll be okay left alone."

Isaac looked sadly at Mia. "What do you suggest?" he asked.

Kraden stroked his beard. "I think I'll remain in Imil for a while to help her through it. She'll need someone watching over her constantly, and some intense therapy to recover from this."

Ivan held the psynergy shard out to Kraden. "What about this?"

Kraden took it and looked at it for a while. Then he turned to Mia and stuck it out in front of her.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked.

Mia was about to make a nasty retort, but then a thought crossed her mind. She knew exactly what it was.

"No," Mia snapped sharply, glaring at the scholar through tears.

Kraden nodded, and then deposited the psynergy shard into a mythril bag from his pocket for safekeeping. "Very well," he said, slipping it back into his pocket.

"Kraden, are you sure you should keep that with you?" Isaac asked quietly.

"It's harmless from within the bag," Kraden said. "Now let's get our arrangements under order, shall we?"

With business taken care of, the adepts bid Kraden a fond farewell. They tried to say goodbye to Mia, but she took special care into ignoring every one of them.

As the group departed Imil, Garet said, "So what, Mia pretty much fell in love with a freaking psynergy stone?"

Ivan raised an eyebrow at Garet. "Like you have room to talk."

!-S- -N- -E- -E- -M-!
!-A- -N- -D- -E- -N-!

Mia stared out the window of the inn while rocking back and forth in her chair. Her unkempt hair hung over her eyes, looking more like dirty strands of yarn than the smooth and silky hair it had once been. Her wild eyes had dark circles around them, and every now and then she would mutter something so quietly that, had anybody else been in the room, only she could have heard it. But nobody was around her, just as she desired. Kraden had left her for a little while to go on a short expedition to Mercury Lighthouse, leaving her in the care of the innkeeper's wife.

Shortly after the scholar had left and the innkeeper's wife made sure Mia was comfortable and left to watch the front desk, the Mercury adept had snuck into his room and found a locked chest hidden under his bed. She knew what was in it, and wasted no time breaking it open with a sledgehammer, which she had a lot of practice with.

At the present, she was clutching the mythril bag in her hands and stroking it in time with her rocking. Every now and then, she would look down at it and turn it around in her fingers while mumbling.

Suddenly, the Imilian stopped rocking.

"I see," she said quietly. "I see now. Yes...that will work."

A low, quiet laugh echoed in the room as Mia shivered with excitement. She opened the mythril bag and dumped the psynergy shard into the palm of her shaking hand.

"My love..." she whispered, gently petting the psynergy shard with the tip of her finger. "It's time...for you to be inside me..."

Closing her eyes, the Mercury adept absorbed the essence of the shard within her body. With a small flash of light, the psynergy shard disappeared.

With her eyes still closed, Mia grinned a crooked grin and concentrated. Outside the window, a dark shape rose from the ground and approached the inn through the falling snow.

Mia opened her eyes slowly and stared through her hair at the window.

She raised her palm and drew the figure closer to her with psynergy.

"More..." Mia said with tears in her eyes. Dozens of other figures arose from the ground, every one of them the size of a child. They slowly began to make their way toward the window, following behind the taller shape.

When the first figure was close enough for Mia to see clearly at the window, she brought her hands to her mouth and uttered a sob of joy.

It was a faceless snowman.

Mia waved her hand and eyes were carved into the face, followed by a nose and mouth.

Moving her hands as a puppeteer would, Mia caused her lover to knock on the window.

A bright grin flashed across Mia's face as new excitement flooded through her. The adept ran outside to greet her lover. Her joy was escalated when she saw all of her children joining them.

Holding her hand up as if she had a sock puppet on it, Mia made talking motions with her hand while casting psynergy.

"Mia... My snowflake..." Snowman said in time with the hand motions.

The adept stuck her hand out and made her love shuffle forward until he was right beside her. Using her other hand, she controlled him into embracing her tightly.

"My sweetheart..." Mia said, burying her face into Snowman's neck.

Mia raised her hand in the air and moved it like a mouth again. "What happened?" Snowman asked. "I...I don't know what happened..."

The Imilian looked up at her true love's face through tears. Reaching up, she wiped the tears away and smiled with all of her heart. "You left me, but...that's okay. I'll never let it happen again..." she said. The girl used her hands to draw their children toward her, and added, "You're a part of me now, my love... All of you are... And there's snow way you can ever be taken away from me again."

The two embraced and kissed passionately. And even as Mia's lips became frozen stuck to Snowman's cold face, they both knew that they wouldn't let anything stand in the way of their true love again.

So there.

---

End: This Is Snow Life For Me

---

BONUS ENDING

One day, Rief asked his mom where he came from.

"A weird therapy session," Mia said darkly, and left it at that.

!-K- -R- -A- -D- -E-!
!-N- -/- -M- -I- -A-!

There's no love like snow love.

...Huh? What do you mean I forgot something? I forgot a name for Mia/Snowman? Pfft.

...

Let's go with GoneToHailshipping, because there are never enough puns. And also because a shipping name was the last thing on my mind. Hope you enjoyed the story!

-Joker