Written for Challenge #13 on GWG. (deadline? What deadline?)

warning: slightly melancholy

dedicated to kye, yira, niko, and our snowball fight... apologies to all who got caught in the crossfire

Snow Fight

He looked up into the cold specks that were currently drifting down out of a black sky.

Snow. Noun; 1. frozen precipitation in the form of white or translucent hexagonal ice crystals that fall in soft, white flakes.

He looked down to where he was currently trudging through banks of the stuff.

Snow. Noun; 2. a layer of snowflakes (white crystals of frozen water) covering the ground.

This was his first snowfall on Earth. It was nothing like the dirty, gritty flakes that the weather system on his colony had produced when that first botched mission had taken out a sector. He flinched away from that thought. Latching onto the cold as a distraction he readjusted his parka and checked to make sure the falling snow was still covering his tracks.

A full moon just rising highlighted patches of snow through the trees. Night had fallen much quicker than he had expected, leaving him hike back to his gundam in the dark. He cursed himself for his late start. He should have remembered that it was the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.

Warm orange light drew his mind from self-recrimination. Cautious now he crept towards his left, the source of the glow. Through a break in the tree line he looked in amazement at a bonfire with people laughing and dancing around it. As his eyes adjusted better to the bright flickering light his saw the trees that circled the clearing were decorated with popcorn strands and glittering specks of crystal.

Suddenly he was seized with the urge to walk into the circle. Something inside told him that the snow like ash wouldn't follow him inside. As he took that first step forward a buzz inside a pocket recalled him to duty and training. He withdrew as stealthily as he came.

But as he walked back to his gundam and to his war he could still feel the peace he had seen in that clearing made holy. The memories of horror faded. And this time looking up into the sky he only saw pure, white crystals falling.

::smiles:: ah warm fuzzy feelings Goddess Bless all