The snow had started falling some hours after they had broken camp. They had been on the road since the early hours of morning, making their way through the ridges of the Frostback Mountains and the road was ardous.
At first, it had only been tiny drops, half molten, half frozen, that settled on their shoulders and heads. The road became slippery and treacherous and the melting drops soaked their clothes. As the road wound upwards, the sleet turned to snow and began to thicken. For the first time in a long while, a smile split Eowyn's face.
"I always loved the snow," she broke the silence.
Next to her, Wynne was struggling in her slippers. She was still dressed for a life in the Tower and not suitably for the road. But Eowyn didn't notice. She had lifted her face to the sky, drinking in that feeling of complete calmness.
"Out in the snow, I could always forget-" she broke off quickly, casting a glance at the older Mage and then behind her.
But no, Wynne hadn't noticed her slip. The older woman would never understand how that golden cage she had known she would never be able to leave had been weighting on her spirits. Only when it had snowed and she had stood at a window, looking up in the sky, had she been able to forget her life under the templar's never-ending scrutiny. Eowyn had loved how snowfall had silenced all the noises the Tower usually made. It had felt like walking through another world.
Another world, that had somehow become her own against all odds.
The road rose and around midday, it finally reached the pass they had been aiming at for the last two days. From one side of the pass to the other the group suddenly stepped into a land that was already firmly in the grasp of winter. This high up in the mountains, the trees were thickly covered in snow. The forest floor was only visible under the thickets here and there. The path wound its way benath a steep cliff that gave some shelter and since it was but two or three days from the dwarven city, it was relatively well marked. On it's other side, the bushes and trees were covered in snow.
Grinning mischievously, Eowyn couldn't resist the urge to shove Alistair into a thicket that already bent double under its heavy burden. Alistair gave a shout as he fell and was immediately swallowed under a layer of snow. Behind her, she could hear Leliana and Zevran laughing at the sight.
"Argh! Now I've got snow under my armour," Alistair complained from the shrubbery. Every move he made in order to get out only made things worse as more and more snow slid down onto him. "Thank you so much! It's not as if that mail wasn't cold enough already," he growled while fighting the branches and brambles.
Eowyn brushed a tear from her eyes and offered a helping hand. Which, she had to admit later on, had not been her best idea. Within seconds she found herself next to her friend in the thicket and she was squealing as snow got under her clothes. She tried to get up, but every time she did a firm jolt pulled her back into the snow again.
In the end, Leliana and Zevran had to give them a hand in getting on their feet again. Alistair made to change from the heavy platemail into a spare set of chainmail that would not chill him to the bones and still provide some protection against stray wolves.
"You'll pay for that," he grumbled.
The snowfall got thicker the further they went. Luckily enough, no wolves tried to attack them. It seemed they at least had more sense than the small party making its way towards the dwarven city. Zevran had taken over the task of scouting ahead from Morrigan after they had crossed the pass. Eowyn stretched her arms out as far as she could and enjoyed the thick snowflakes that came drifting down from above. A few steps ahead of her, Leliana was trying to catch some with her tongue. Next to her, even Morrigan seemed to enjoy the change of climate. A smile curved her lips and she mimicked the bard, catching a snowflake on her nose.
Suddenly, a snowball shot by Eowyn's shoulder and hit Morrigan on the head. A loud "Ouch" broke the silence. Leliana laughed at Morrigan's baffled look. As Eowyn started to turn around, a second snowball caught her staight in the face. Brushing the snow out of her vision, she could see that behind them Alistair had shed his rucksack and was now quickly gathering ammunition for his next victim.
"Oi, who did that?" she shouted, laughing. Snatching a fistful of snow from a nearby bush, she aimed it at her assaulter who was grinning like a madman.
Wynne had moved out of the way when the first snowball had flown. She was too tired for this sport and besides not equipped well enough. But she joined in the laughter as Leliana and Alistair combined forces to dump as much snow as possible on Eowyn. Leliana had somehow sneaked up on her from behing while she had been intent on striking Alistair. Now they both used their shields to shower the mage with as much snow as possible. Eowyn was cringing and trying to avoid their assaults. Wynne smiled at the sight of the three of them. Eowyn did look so young there, yelling as more and more of the cold and wet snow hit her. And Leliana and Alistair too, as if some load they had been carrying had for the moment slipped off their backs.
Morrigan, who had obviously never been in a snow-fight before had regained her senses. "The girl must be freezing with nothing to wear but her bits and pieces of cloth out here!," Wynne thought as she watched her start a counter-assault. But as she was Morrigan, she did things properly. Using a deftly woven elementary spell, she shifted the whole snow of the area and blasted it against their group. Eowyn had been down on the ground even before Morrigan's attack, but that had knocked the two others off their feet as well. Alistair's and Leliana's enthusiastic laughs turned to enraged and angered shouts, now muffled by the snow.
Wynne felt tears in her eyes as she struggled to stop laughing. But the image was far too hilarious. Eowyn hadn't taken lighly to being buried in snow by her friends and was already on the move again. She didn't even bother to get up on her feet. Instead, she grasped a big block of snow Morrigan's spell had created between her hands and tried to let it fall on Leliana's head. But the petite rogue was nimble and had wormed her way out under Eowyn's attack, already fixed on Morrigan. She laughed as Eowyn's load of snow hit the ground she had occupied earlier. A mischievous grin split the bard's face as she grabbed fistfuls of snow. Moments later, her clear laughter could be heard as the first snowball hit Morrigan in the chest and she quickly sent the second on it's way.
A loud "Oh no, you won't," made Wynne shift her attention again. Eowyn was stuffing handfuls of snow under Alistair's chainmail. The young man was trying to get out of the heap of snow Morrigan's blast had created and at the same time fighting Eowyn and her fistfuls of snow off. However, his attemps met with litte success. Leliana let go of Morrigan and joined Eowyn in her efforts, all the while giggling like a little child.
A surprised outcry from Morrigan made Eowyn and Leliana stop their assaults on Alistair. Three faces turned to look over to where the shout had come from. Zevran had returned, alarmed by the turmoil. He had quickly overlooked the situation and had, after dumping his backpack, sneaked up on a laughing Morrigan. She had been watching Alistair's desperate efforts of fighting off the two women when from behind her, a pair of hands had shoved her into a deep drift of cold snow. Zevran later claimed that his hearing might have taken some harm when Morrigan had started shrieking, but it had definitely been worth it.
Leliana was with them in a second, helping Zevran to bury Morrigan under the snow.
Alistair it seemed had managed to profit from the distraction. He had finally dug himself out from under the loads of snow. It must have been exhaustive, dressed in that heavy chainmal as he was. His hands were pinning Eowyn's arms down and they were both laughing.
"Well, I guess that counts as a repayment," he said, breathing heavily.
None of them lacked stamina, but after some time they did get exhausted. Wynne smiled as she examined them, one huge heap of armour and limbs and faces and snow.
"Well," she sighed and lifted her staff, "who needs some drying?"