A/N Hello to you all, Swallows, Amazons, D's and natives alike. Having been a Swallows and Amazons fan for most of my fourteen years I have been reading it's fanfiction for a while, too terrified to join the elite group of fantastic authors who have lent their hand to Ransome's... individual shall we say... style. Everyone is so good that I felt insignificant in comparison. This all changed though at three in the morning a few weeks ago when I decided to try. I took Winter Holiday off my shelf and started to write, referring in depth to the aged, green coated book that bears the signs of three generations of ownership and love. Even then I was scared to finish it but today I pulled it together to add an ending and publish it. I've kept everything as close to the books as possible and can only hope I did them justice in my attempt. I hope you enjoy it too!
They ate their breakfast (although it may as well have been lunch, they'd woken up so late) at the pole; chicken with slabs of bread and butter. Susan even decreed it allowable for them to eat Christmas pudding that early because they 'have been through an awful lot'. Rounds of tea were drunk and Roger was sent out to collect more snow as they retold their stories in a slightly calmer fashion than they had the night before.
After they had eaten Mrs Blackett decided they should all stay out of the snow and made her brother promise not to let them out of the hut while she went back and made sure no one was worrying. 'Well if you're going to do that then bring us back something to do as well, food can't keep us entertained.' He said in return.
When she had gone the group split into little clusters around the little room. Uncle Jim produced a pack of cards and rummy was started up between Titty, Roger, Dick and he in the middle of the hut. The mates chattered as they counted the provisions and batted off Roger's attempts to sneak extra chocolate. John and Nancy sat by the fire, taking it in turns to stoke it in a peaceful silence, glad to be back in each other's company. Dorothea stared out of the window at the snow wondering what mysteries it was covering.
Before they even realised it it was lunch time and a picnic was laid out before them, a bit of everything to choose from and put on your plate. They settled down on the benches to eat and were about to tuck in when there was a knock on the door and mrs Blackett walked in carrying a large bag. 'Sorry for the delay' she said, plonking the bag down in front of her. The snow is awfully deep and the doctor kept me talking, he wants to come out here and check you all over for illness, the cold won't have been good for you, then he'll drive some of us back and the rest will take the sledges back over the ice.'
They all cheered happily at the news and invited her to sit down and eat with them, as she bit into her sandwich she suddenly remembered the bag, 'The games are in the bag and some muffins sent by cook, she insisted.' Titty walked over and pulled out a monopoly set, a chess board and a few dog eared books off the Amazon's shelves. 'Not until you've eaten!' said Susan firmly.
It wasn't long until all of the food had been devoured leaving only crumbs and dirty cutlery behind and Peggy offered to clear up. The others set put monopoly. They'd lost the hat a long time ago and decided it'd be wrong to put anything else down instead so the five players were Titty, Roger, Dick, Uncle Jim and John. Dorothea was already several pages into one of the books and after helping Peggy a little Susan took another. Nancy stated she was reading but really she was helping out John despite his obvious 'let the kids win' attitude to the game, needless to say he was out quickly and the two of them began a chess match with Peggy, now finished with the washing, as a spectator. Molly sat and watched the little group with delight for a minute before edging over to referee the monopoly game as it was beginning to get out of hand.
As the hour dragged on the monopoly players slowly lost and migrated to the chess audience to find the two players engrossed in the game, anticipating each others move as easily as they chose their own. It wasn't a slow paced game as the little black and white marble pieces chased each other up and down the checkered board and the players faces showed more and more concentration, each desperate to best the other. Eventually all that was left on the board was John's king, pawn and castle and Nancy's king and queen. For a while it looked like John was set to win as he chased Nancy's king around the board but somehow she pulled it back and shouted 'CHECKMATE' triumphantly as John tipped his king.
While they'd been playing Roger, with some assistance from mrs Blackett, had won monopoly and the audience had mainly dispersed to eat biscuits. 'You've finished then?' asked Mrs Blackett dryly. John checked his watch; it was almost three. The doctor would be here soon.
As if on cue there was a rap on the door and Peggy jumped to open it revealing the doctor's smiling face. 'Well look at all you idiots' he grinned, 'running off in the height of winter and Nancy I know I said you were healthy but don't you think this might have set that back a bit?'. They all tried to jump in with explanations but he was having none of it, 'It doesn't matter anyway now, just get in a line and I'll check you all over.'
The explorers moved like trained sailors into an orderly row from youngest to oldest as Roger opened his mouth wide under orders from a strict captain.
Half an hour later it had been decreed that Dick, Dorothea, Titty and Roger would go back in the doctor's car with Nancy and the doctor himself. Peggy, John, Susan, Mrs Blackett and uncle Jim were to be tasked with retrieving and taking back the sledges 'although there's no point in taking ours because we can't repair it.' said Dick.
'Let's pack up then.' exclaimed Mrs Blackett clapping her hands and was instantly impressed when, without any communication the explorers set themselves to work. Peggy and Susan packed up the spare food, John and Nancy put out and cleared the fire place, Titty and Roger packed up the games and the D's took the small tasks like taking down the flag and pouring out last mugs of tea. Soon the sledges had been stripped of snow and everything had been packed into the car to make them as light as possible to carry. 'I'd suggest a snowball fight but I think we've really all had enough' said John mournfully.
'We'll come back in the summer when it's warm.' Nancy decided as they left the, now empty, North Pole, captain once more.
Thank you for reading this far! As I don't own a laptop this was written on my iPod which means that despite Apple's reasonable auto correct there are some mistakes and I'd be grateful if these could be pointed out to me!
If you want to read more from me outside of the fanfiction realm then I have twitter cockleshell394 and a daily blog if you click on the link in my bio there. Please leave a review to let me know your thoughts so I can improve for when (if) I write some more.