Layers upon layers of thick snow blanketed the usually grassy banks of Serenity River, small piles of the slush sitting here and there, having fallen from the branches they had perched on when the trees couldn't support their weight any longer. I took a deep breath of the chilly air and looked up at the cloudless sky, closing my eyes and exhaling, my aura tassels bouncing against the treasure bag with every noisy, marching step I took. An abrupt glare, cast by the frozen streams of water that caught the light, flashed in the corner of my vision, and I folded my arms and shivered.

A series of shorter crunches caught my flicking ear, and I perked up, glancing over my shoulder and watching as a cream-furred fox loped to my side, ducking away momentarily to wipe her nose on the blue scarf tied around her neck. Within seconds, a pleasant heat washed over me, like sinking into a hot spring, and I sighed, shoulders slumping and muscles relaxing. My partner's red eyes lit up as she looked back up at me with a kind smile, though her nine fluffy tails, curling and uncurling, betrayed her enthusiasm.

"Thanks, Rose," I started gratefully, reaching over to the Ninetales and affectionately tousling her headfur. The fire type Pokemon blew a few stray strands out of her face afterward, and I let my gaze wander around the riverbank again, grinning cheekily. "Seems like Blizzard Island came to us for the winter this year. If you weren't so hot, I'd probably be a Lucario-sicle right about now, heh."

"Hehe, maybe," Rose chuckled bashfully as she replied, her expression turning concerned when she looked back the way she came. I slowed my pace a bit, waiting patiently for my partner to continue. "Erin really seems like she's right at home, but I'm a little worried about Cyan. Do you think he'll be able to stay warm enough like... like that?"

I glanced over my shoulder at the blue, armored sea lion and the wiry pink mink that were following behind us. The giggling Mienshao – her fur sleeves tied up and her belt pouch at her side – frolicked rambunctiously through the snowfield, kicking dead branches and twigs up, packing snowballs together with practiced ease before sending them into the air. The Samurott, on the other hand, simply stomped along, a bunch of woolen scarves wrapped around his neck, his arms, his legs; one was even tied up in a neat, cute bow on his helmet's horn. One of Erin's haphazard snowballs plummeted onto Cyan's nose, prompting him to sneeze, then to clean his face, giving his friend a grumpy glare when she skipped over to see if he was okay.

"He looks like he's doing just fine to me," I answered, turning back and dodging out of the way of an incoming tree. Rose cocked her head in thought as I sidled around the barren trunk to catch up with her, and I peered at the river ahead, the ice curving up and over a short distance away. "So how far off is this place that Spinda heard about again? If we reach the Waterfall Cave, we've gone too far, right?"

"Mmhm!" The Ninetales nodded in affirmation, casually jogging past me to lead the way. "It's one of the pools that the river runs through, it's one of the parts of the mystery dungeon that doesn't change. And it should be... oh! Never mind, we're already here!"

Rose quickly galloped up the hill, kicking up puffs of snow in her wake, and I pushed off into a run, sharply whistling to grab Cyan and Erin's attention before we got too far ahead of them. I glanced around to make sure the two younger explorers picked up their pace, and when a stray snowball winged over my head, I shook my head and chuckled dryly. Once I reached my partner at the top of the slope, I hunched over and took a heavy gulp of air, standing up and staring out when I heard our teammates catch up, Erin gasping loudly at the sight ahead.

A large and somewhat-round sheet of flat, clear ice spread out before us, bordered by patches of brown reeds, the river trailing off on the opposite side of the frozen pool and snaking its way into what would normally have been an overgrown bunch of bushes. The smooth surface sparkled brilliantly in the afternoon sun, looking completely untouched, not by any explorers, nor by any wild Pokemon that might have been skulking about. It was an utterly pristine work of nature, and a calm silence reigned supreme.

Then Erin leaped into the air and let out an exuberant cheer. My ears flattened against my skull as the fighting type screamed, her whiskers bouncing as she hopped in place, unable to contain her boundless energy any longer. "Yaaaaaaaaaah! Oh my gosh, I can't believe it, I didn't know this was here at all! Can I go out right now, Rose, pleeeeease?"

Everyone looked expectantly at the cream-furred fox, who shrank back a little, but nodded all the same, smiling modestly. "Of course you can-"

The Mienshao needed no more encouragement, becoming a pink blur as she immediately bolted for the pool as fast as she could, leaving behind a trail of trampled slush. Cyan coughed, drawing a seamitar and smoothing out the snow, and I saw Rose smiling brightly, her tails wagging back and forth. "I'm going to go ahead and assume that's what you were hoping for."

Rose scooted over and nuzzled my paw, contentedly watching as the Mienshao leaped out towards the ice and slid across the water. "I know Erin likes playing on the ice whenever we visit Blizzard Island for work, and the beach back in town isn't frozen... when Spinda mentioned the river had frozen, I thought it would be fun to check it out."

"Well, she looks happy enough t'me," Cyan chimed in gruffly, and Rose and I both looked over at the Samurott, who had stuck his sword in the ground, untying the scarf on his helmet and wrapping it around his neck, right on top of the one that was already there. He stroked his mustache – combing out a few bits of snow that had secretly gotten stuck in the bushy hairs – and when he noticed us, he grunted. "What're we doin' standin' 'round here? C'mon, let's go before she goes an' hurts herself or somethin'."

"Hey now, she's more careful than that," I said smoothly, lightly patting the sea lion's arm, then shooting him a goofy, sympathetic smile. "You sure you're not just unhappy about how cold it is? I'm sure Erin would love to show us some ice tricks."

"Hah, what kinda ice tricks are y'talking about? There's nothin' t'do on th'ice except walk around an' crash on it!" The water type brusquely replied – ignoring my question, I thought wryly – and he grabbed his seamitar, wiping it once against his other arm's scarf before returning it to its scabbard. As the younger explorer stomped forward, I glanced at Rose, who was frowning slightly at Cyan's behavior, and shrugged idly, giving the back of her ear a reassuring scratch as we walked towards the pool as well.

Erin wildly waved her arms at us when Cyan pushed back the reeds, shaking his head sideways, gesturing at Rose and I to go first, and my partner smiled, nodding in thanks before carefully stepping out onto the slippery pond, digging her claws into the ice to steady herself. I stayed hot on the fox's heels, gritting my teeth the moment my pawpads touched the ground, the frigid chill sending a shock through my nerves. I bowed my head and concentrated, my aura tassels hovering slightly as I tried to focus my energy onto my ankles.

In the midst of my tension, something fuzzy lightly grazed my leg. I stole a quick glimpse of the orange-tipped appendage that nudged hurriedly at my ankles, but a split-second later, I was unceremoniously shoved away. A yelp escaped my muzzle as I started to tumble over, throwing my arms out to break my fall, but Rose thought fast, her nine cushy tails suddenly filling my vision. She caught me just before I smacked into the pool, and I found myself laying face-first in the fire type's silky fur as I tried to get my bearings back.

"O-oops! Sorry, Bill!" I heard Erin say, and after a few moments, I eased myself onto my feet, dusting myself off and resting my arms on my blunted chestspike before turning to look at the Mienshao. The pink mink sheepishly tapped her tiptoes against the ice, holding a confused-looking Cyan's wrist in both paws, having paused in her efforts to drag him out onto the pond. "Are you okay? Oh, should I get out some oran medicine?"

"Nah, I'm fine," I replied, waving dismissively at the young Pokemon before she could upend the contents of her belt pouch. Rose padded up next to me, and I felt one of her tails wrap around mine, helping to keep me balanced; the corners of my mouth twitched into a smile, and I placed a paw on my partner's back in return. "Just trying to get used to the cold, that's all."

"Oh, okay then!" Erin rocked back and forth on her heels, cheering up in the blink of an eye, and she returned her attention to Cyan, who had almost managed to free himself from the fighting type's grip. "C'mon, Cyan, lemme show you how to ice skate! It'll be fun, I promise!"

The Samurott didn't reply, instead reaching around with his free hand and grabbing the end of Erin's tail, giving it a strong tug. Erin let out a 'whee!' of surprise as she found herself ripped away from her teammate, zooming in a half-circle and crashing into a snowbank, the pile of soft slush collapsing onto the ice from the collision. Rose gasped, and I winced, but the young mink bounced backwards, seemingly no worse for wear aside from the stray flakes that clung to her whiskers. She whipped her head around and, upon locking eyes with Cyan, pouted playfully. "Heeeeey, what was that foooor?"

"Hah! I wouldn't let y'teach me how t'do anythin' with ice unless y'were teachin' me how t' knock Pokemon over on it! Besides, I can walk jus' fine-" The water type snorted, striding forward and making a beeline for Erin... but his paws slipped out from under him, and he had only barely been on the ice when he found himself doing an awkward dance to stay upright. It was a battle he ended up losing – with a thump, Cyan bellyflopped onto the surface of the frozen pool, sliding wildly past his friend and coming to a halt on the crumbs of snow nearby.

As a laughing Erin skated over to Cyan and leaped onto her own belly, I sighed and threw my paws in the air, inching around to look at my partner, who had shoved her nose into her blue scarf again, this time to stifle her own laughter. Her happiness was infectious; I soon found myself smiling as well, and I reached out to the Ninetales with a wink and a nod. "Well, do you want to go skating, Rose?"

Rose nodded, raising a front paw and placing it in mine, her voice soft and warm. "Of course I would... I'd love to."

My tail wagged sharply, and I realized that Rose had let go of it, bashfully looking down at my feet afterward. "I'm not sure how good I'll be at it, to be honest. I've already fallen flat on my face once today, so-"

Rose cut me off by hopping onto her hind legs, digging her claws into the ice, and bopping my nose with hers, and I felt my heart skip a beat at the kind, loving expression that the cream-furred fox wore. "Then we can fall on our faces together, Bill. If you can keep me standing like this, I'll do the same for you, right?"

I relaxed, reaching back to brush my aura tassels behind my shoulders before nuzzling into the fire type's neck, a faint breeze blowing through the barren trees, rustling the reeds and ruffling our fur. "How did I ever get lucky enough to meet you?"

Rose just purred, leaning against me as she took a wobbly step towards the center of the frozen pool, her headfur falling down behind her ears as she pressed her paws hard into my own, and I closed my pawpads around them, giving them a squeeze. Cautiously, I moved around my partner, walking backwards in the direction she had aimed for, and the two of us began to coast across the ice, our pace slow and deliberate.

The frozen pond was smooth and slick under our feet, and I kept my heels lifted off of the ground, only barely lifting my pawpads off of the ice whenever Rose and I found ourselves moving into a gentle spin or turn. It was still difficult to get used to the lack of friction, and I found myself teetering each time we drew near the edge of the pool, trying to slow us down before we could glide off of the water and into the snowed-in shrubbery. The Ninetales wasn't faring much better, scraping her hind paws into the ice every so often, her claws leaving thin lines behind on the glistening surface.

I briefly glanced away from my partner when the two of us passed by one of the frozen streams that split off from the rest of the pool, staring back out in the direction we'd come, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rose follow my gaze, leaning into me a little and relaxing. A short ways into the distance, we could see four sets of footprints in the snow, but otherwise Serenity River was as peaceful as could be, a trail of slick ice surrounded by snow and trees.

I jumped in place when my partner barked in surprise, and our weight shifted; my muscles tensed when I found myself dipping further and further against Rose, the Ninetales having lost her momentum out of nowhere. My ear twitched as the fire type scrabbled and scurried on the ice, and I looked down; when I saw the speckles of snow splayed underfoot, I narrowed my eyes, but then they grew as wide as saucers when the two of us toppled over. Rose bumped hard into the pool, and I bumped hard into her, my chin landing on her scarf and my legs hitting her tails, which curled up over my back in a vain attempt to cushion our fall. We hurtled right into the crumbling snowbank that Erin had landed in earlier, and I yelped when a pile of wet, flaky slush plopped onto my neck and aura tassels, chilling my fur to the bone.

I heard a muffled grunt and what sounded like a peal of laughter, and Rose stared right at me, still taken aback by the abrupt crash, sniffling as a couple flakes of snow rolled down my muzzle and onto her nose. Her belly heaved a little, pushing me off of her, and she ducked into her scarf and sneezed. I dug my pawspikes into the dirt, flinging the snow off of me with a strong shake of my head, and rolled off of the cream-furred fox, looking ahead and watching as Cyan and Erin slid over, the Mienshao getting to her feet and laughing into her fur sleeves.

"Wow, heeheehee, that was a really great fall you had!" The mink exclaimed. She took a deep breath and stretched her arms, and I reached out to the younger explorer to take her paw – but she wasn't offering to help me up at all. Instead, she sprang into the air and dove into the snow as well, sending even more of it back on top of Rose and I. "This is really really fun! I wanna come here every day when we don't have work, thanks for bringing us here, Bill, Rose!"

"You're hopeless, y'know that?" Cyan said tiredly, making a valiant attempt to get to his feet, only to lose his balance again. The water type wearily resigned himself to laying on the ice and resting his head in his paws, and as Rose shook herself free of the sleet, I reached around and pulled her close, chuckling all the while. The fox craned her neck to peer around the river, glancing at the bored-looking Cyan, then at Erin, tossing snow into the air, and then at me, and then she let her head flop back to the ground, smiling warmly, her tails waving gently in the air.

A/N: Sorry for my large absences this year. I've wanted to keep writing Beyond the Sky and To Live just as much as some people (I think, I hope) want to see them continued, but 2014 has just been a year that's varied in quality of life.

However, I've got a very good feeling about 2015. I'm getting back into the swing of Pokemon and PMD writing, and I plan on re-reading all the chapters of BtS to refresh myself before striking out and finishing it! And then I'll do the same with To Live, trying to continue it as much as I can. I don't know why I feel so good and motivated for 2015, but I certainly won't complain. Happy holidays and happy new year to anyone reading this!