Ow wow wow, I didn't think this would get updated so soon! Proud of myself? Yep! I started this on like, Tuesday night, worked bit by bit through the week, wrote a monstrous chunk when I was stranded in my mom's office and my laptop wouldn't connect to the internet there, so I was totally distraction free for about 2 hours!

And today I'm having myself a little holiday from school so I wrote the final bit right after I woke up!

This chapter isn't extremely awesome, more of a filler, but Im mostly satisfied with it :)

I think thats all there is to say, enjoy!

DAY 6

"I told you, dumbest thing I've ever seen! Do you agree yet? Or do you want to stuff a few more spider-webs in it?" Mika chastised as he and Arrow walked back to their chamber.

"Mika, if you say that one more time, I swear to the gods..." Arrow let the threat hang unfinished as he observed his right arm. The forearm was tightly bandaged, with a faint pink stain where blood had seeped through. The whole incident was hazy, he could recall everything up to the moment where he flung the Boomerang. He remembered the pain, and the sheer quantities of blood... then he blacked out until the moment his consciousness flared and the first thing he saw was Seba working furiously on his arm, and Vanez, Mika and Paris gathered around his cot. The cut was bone-deep and ran from his wrist nearly to his elbow. It was currently stuffed with Seba's special spider-webs, which supposedly prevented infection, but in Arrow's opinion they were being used to teach him a lesson; they stung like salt in an open wound. He'd been lucky though. If he'd been treated any later he would have bled to death, a major artery had been completely severed and he was in danger of bleeding to death, as he'd been told multiple times. Sure, Seba said he'd seen plenty worse but he still had to spend a day in Vampire Mountain's makeshift infirmary. He had just been given the OK to get up and walk around, despite the fact that he'd felt perfectly fine and only slightly sore after a good, long sleep.

He wasn't going to share this fact any time soon, but he longed to try the boomerang again.

"Soooo, how are you feeling?" Mika asked abruptly, in a tone that indicated he was ready for some serious prying.

"Well, my whole arm is throbbing and the cut stings like a son of a werewolf, but it's not too bad."

"I wasn't talking about your arm." said Mika, sounding like Arrow's answer was exactly what he'd been expecting. "How are you doing?"

Arrow's guard went up immediately.

"Did Paris put you up to this?" he snapped, instantly regretting the words.

Mika's face fell.

"Well, he's wondering, but I wanna know too... we care about you..." he sadly mumbled his way into silence.

Arrow wanted to give Mika a hug, or a pat on the back, something kind and comforting. Instead he observed his own feet.

"I'm fine, really." he stated finally. But the words were hollow.

He wasn't fine. He'd spent his entire life almost exclusively in the care and companionship of one single person who'd been a father, brother, teacher, and friend all at once. And then one night he watched helplessly as that person was destroyed. His heart refused to leave that moment behind, and his brain would never ever give up on conjuring ways in which he could have changed the outcome; he could have joined the fight, maybe taken down a few extra Vampaneze. Hell, maybe they would have won. Or more likely go down in a blaze of glory beside his mentor. At the very least, maybe he could have messed around with some damn healing berries or something, worked some natural medicine magic or something, helped Faren to Vampire Mountain, and here they'd all be. And if even that option wasn't plausible, he could have at least pursued the Vampaneze and destroyed them. He may not have had a chance in hell, but he had no doubt in his mind that the fuel of rage and grief would have been enough to at least finish the monster who dealt Faren a death blow. Then die heroically once his vengeance was complete. Of course that would have allowed the message for the Princes to die with him, but at least he wouldn't be living under a glacier of sorrow...

Arrow belatedly realized that getting lost in his thoughts had caused him to adopt the facial expression of a corpse. Mika noticed. Arrow forced the fakest smile in history.

"I'm really doing fine. Promise."

If Mika was as skeptical as his expression implied, he didn't comment. The pair continued their trek down the chilly hall.

DAY 7

"WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!"

This wake up call marked the first time in a week that Arrow hadn't woke up wondering where he was, what had happened, and why he was in a coffin. This was always followed by a shot of pain as he suddenly recalled everything.

But not today. From the moment Mika yelled and mightily kicked the side of his friend's coffin, Arrow didn't get a chance to travel 7 days back in time. From the moment he snapped open his eyes, he was completely immersed in Vampire Mountain.

"So you've been here exactly one week, give or take a few hours." Mika informed him in case he didn't already know.

"That's true." Arrow agreed sleepily as they made their way down to the Hall of Breakfast. He extended his injured arm and observed it. It looked less swollen than yesterday, although the bandages had become loosened while he slept, so it was hard to tell. The stinging was all but gone, and the pain wasn't as bad. He had to admit, he'd even impressed himself. Thousands of days in the wilderness had made his immune system almost indestructible, and he'd become excellent at blocking out both pain and exhaustion. All Vampires heal incredibly fast, and Arrow was a prime example.

"Guess what we get to do today." Mika chriped with a smug expression as if he was the exclusive holder of some spectacular secret.

"Get my bandages changed and sit around like an old man with a useless arm?" Arrow suggested. As much as it had improved, the injury was only a little more than a day old, and movement was difficult and painful.

"Noo." said Mika impatiently. "We're going outside!"

Arrow's heart lurched. He hadn't realized until now how much he craved the sharpness of fresh air in his lungs.

"Why?"

"Vanez is taking us. We're learning tracking or hunting or something. I dunno what. Hurry up, I wanna goooooo!" he finished with a long whine.

Arrow chuckled. As impossibly mature Mika was for his age, he still affected childishness when excited.

"Why do we need to be escorted outside?" Arrow inquired.

"Well, we never know what's out there these days." Mika answered unspecifically.

"You mean, because of the message I delivered?"

"Yeah, I guess. Don't blame yourself, everyone's just glad they know about it. Arian's talking about a pre-emptive strike. Ronan thinks we should just keep our army at the ready and expect and prepare for the worst."

Arrow snorted.

"How do you know all that?"

"You slept for a really long time the other day."

"Losing half your blood supply kinda has that effect." Arrow replied lightly.

Mika giggled into his bat broth.

"When did it SNOW?" Arrow gasped, quite a bit louder than he intended. Vanez rolled his eyes.

"It snows every year, young Arrow. You stop noticing after a while." Vanez replied gruffly but not unkindly.

In the week's chaos, Arrow had forgotten about the seasons. For some reason, Faren always seemed to know what month it was although most Vampires don't bother keeping track of such things. About a week prior to the attack, he casually informed Arrow -who had brushed it off at the time- that it was now December.

Arrow remembered the first time he really experienced snow. They were passing through a village, and the laughter, children playing, especially the yummy smells of food baking in houses had given a 6-year-old Arrow an inexplicable sense of happiness. Faren told him about "Christmas", a widely celebrated human tradition. The older Vampire dismissed the holiday as a foolish frivolity, but the concept fascinated Arrow and he couldn't figure out why Vampires never wanted to have any fun! Faren patiently explained that the Festival of the Undead was like a sort of Vampiric Christmas, but Arrow refused to buy it. Seeing his student's visible excitement, Faren caught and roasted a wild turkey -it was delicious- and they celebrated the holiday with their very own small Christmas feast.

Flash forward to present. Arrow kicked the snow at his feet, hoping it was just the cold air that was stinging his eyes. Why did every little thing trigger cascades of memories? Would he spend the rest of his life flashing back to his youth with every hint of deja-vu?

Not as long as Mika was around, it seemed.

"Hurry up, you walk so slow!" he huffed, several paces ahead of Arrow and Vanez.

"You know, we don't have a particular destination in mind." Vanez grumbled.

"What are we doing out here anyway?" asked Arrow.

"I figured you'd like an outing." said Vanez with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Also there is much we can learn from nature, especially when we take full advantage of the senses we have been gifted with. For example, there is about 4 deer eating saplings about 300 yards west of us, any guesses as to how I figured that out?"

Arrow opened his mouth to say, "You can hear them moving, smell their droppings, and smell the saplings because they only release the sap scent when broken." This wasn't new, Faren had taught him everything.

But before he could get out a single word, he heard a whoosh, and a pcchhhh at the exact same time a massive chunk of snow smashed into his face.

"Grrrrarrrgggghh!" Arrow spluttered, spitting out ice and whipping the snow out of his eyes to see Mika standing about 15 feet away, holding a snowball, preparing for a second assault.

"Really, Mika? Really? How old are you?" Vanez grumbled.

"Not that old." Mika shrugged, whipping the second snowball. Vanez caught it in his fist. Well, partially anyway. Mostly it just exploded.

"Very well, enjoy your shenanigans. I'm going to...investigate a few things. DO NOT wander far, if you see anything that looks off, report it to me. I'll come find you when I'm done." He instructed with finality before stalking off.

"'Anything that looks off, report to him'? I don't think we're out here for educational purposes. He's looking for something." Arrow puzzled, staring at Vanez's retreating figure.

"Probably traces of the Vampaneze." Mika noted casually.

Arrow swung his head around so fast it hurt.

"WHAT?" he hissed. "They might be near the Mountain?"

Fury bubbled up inside him like lava beneath a caldera volcano.

"They won't be anywhere near us." Mika replied calmly. "If they were within attacking range, Vanez would have known the moment we stepped outside."

Arrow's mind raced.

"That's impossible."

"I used to think so too, but it's not. You just have to know how to sense it."

"What if he's wrong? What if they're watching us?"

Mika snorted derisively.

"If they were close enough to see us, even you'd be able to tell."

Arrow recalled the greasy meaty stench of them.

"I guess."

Mika responded by flinging a third snowball. Arrow dodged it this time, then lunged to grab his own ammunition. It wasn't easy to make a respectable snowball with one useless arm, but Mika watched patiently and pityingly. Finally, Arrow was able to send his young friend staggering backwards with a semi-powerful blow to the shoulder. (His left hand's aim was nothing special whatsoever.)

Mika shot another snowball, which caught Arrow in the back before he leapt behind a wide tree for shelter.

"YOU DIRTY COWARD!" Mika howled.

Arrow ignored him, and quickly scooped up about 10 small snowballs. Then he threw them in quick sucession at Mika who was still standing cluelessly in the clearing.

"Dirty...coward..." Mika repeated furiously, spitting out snow.

Arrow hid again to prepare a second onslaught, but when he looked up to throw, Mika was gone. His whereabouts were a mystery, until Arrow suddenly felt half a glacier get stuffed under the back of his shirt, heard an insane cackle of triumph and little feet running for their lives in the opposite direction.

The sight of Arrow clawing at his frozen back and swearing loudly was enough to send Mika into uncontrollable laughter so forceful that he tripped midway through the clearing and couldn't seem to get up. He resorted to laying on his back and giggling loudly and hopelessly.

About a minute later, a dark shadow loomed over him which seemed to be holding the other half of the glacier. Ready to drop it on Mika's face. He didn't know whether to stop laughing, or laugh louder.

So he resorted to quietly raising his arm and swiping Arrow's feet out from under him. The ice beneath them made this very easy. The hunk of snow went flying, Arrow crashed down beside him, and the snow smashed both of them at once.

When the hysterical laughter eventually subsided, Arrow felt compelled to ask;

"Hey Mika, ever heard of Christmas?"

Yeea, I think I'm going to be posting a little Holiday special chap for the next one :) just sayin. Nothing outrageous (leaving that for TVF) but something a bit more sparkly than usual!

PS, if I've got you totally hooked on Arrow's adorableness and haven't read the OFL series by StayBeautiful1, CHECK IT OUT! It's not Arrow-centric, as it's a Darren/OC romance, BUT it's got a few great parts with my big bald baby boy WITH my very own OC Kade. With SB1's encouragement and advice I plan to post an A/K fic in the near future! *IVE NEVER WRITTEN ROMANCE IN MY LIFE AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE EFF IM DOING* so I need all the help I can get! Baha.

Onyx, TVF, Christmas stuff coming up within the month!

Also, if you have any suggestions for chapter names for THIS story, PLEASE SUGGEST THEM! I don't like simply numbering chapters, much too boring. But for some reason I'm totally stumped. The names I used to have were crappy but I can't think of anything better! SUGGESTIONS PLEASE :)

One more thing, the reviews I got last chap were AMAZING and thats partially why I updated so fast! I DO THIS FOR YOU GUYS so I really really appreciate it when you write down a few thoughts! I even accept constructive criticism.

One review goes a long way, I'm having a sad, cold Christmas season because I have to say goodbye to my beloved horse Smoke. No, he's not dying. But he is someone's Christmas present :/ but on the happier side of things, IM BUYING CRAZYHORSE! Remember the fast one that almost killed me last spring? Santa's putting her under my tree this year :)

Anyway I'm done.

Thanks so much for reading!

*Roxxy,