Day 14: Snowball Fights
It all started innocently enough. Raul and Aki had been coming back from selling some supplies. The cat-girl had decided to have some with her partner and had thrown a snowball at him. Much to her surprise, Raul had chosen to be bold and thrown a snowball back. The two had playfully thrown snowballs at each other in peace for the next ten minutes. Seeing their friends outside, the rest of the second-stringers had joined as well. Alicia, Elfy, Narvi, Cruz, and the rest had all joined in on the holiday fun. A fun but manageable snowball fight had started. Then, slowly, more of the lower Loki Familia members joined. At that point, teams were organized. Raul and Aki were named the Captains, and the whole of the Familia was sliced in two. Sides were chosen, and friendly threats were made.
"I'm gonna make you eat slush, Elfy!" screamed Alicia.
"You're gonna be getting snow out of your hair for the next week!" retorted Elfy.
Things continued like this, silly, harmless insults that no one paid attention to. This progressed to a snow fort creation competition. Which then turned into a whole snowball fight. Everyone was laughing and having fun. Raul's side had made a fort with high walls and a small entrance to be crawled through to access. They had elected to form it at the corner of the manor yard. Distance didn't matter so much since everyone's status guaranteed a strength far enough to throw across the yard.
The battle started, and Aki's confidence proved to be better immediately. She led her team to early victories. Elfy was nailed in the head and had to spend time rubbing snow out of her eyes. Raul got distracted by Aki and got hit by three snowballs in a row. The fight continued like that, with each side trading blows back and forth. A sneak attack led by Aki was thwarted when Raul saw her cattail wiggling. The two Captains took each other out and spent the rest of their time playing and making snow angels.
Everything changed when the executives came out into the yard. Tiona and Tione ran outside with a scream of joy. They voluntarily split themselves up and lent their berserker strength to each side. The two led the battle to new heights of violence and mayhem. Mass chaos ran rampant across the battlefield with the addition of the Amazons.
That was when Bete Loga joined the battlefield. The werewolf refused to be a part of any teams the Amazons were on. So instead, he made his own team. He grabbed anyone who wanted and began guerilla warfare. Bete's team ran around making hit-and-run attacks. They didn't have a snow fort of their own, but they could make do by playing Tiona and Tione against each other.
When Aki and Raul recovered and discovered that their teams had been stolen, they gave up and went back to the manor. The two spent the rest of their time making hot chocolate for when the battle was finished. Which would not be for a long time yet.
Of course, these three sides fell into a comfortable rhythm in their fighting. They traded snowballs back and forth, with none of the opposing factions gaining ground on the other. Then, the old guard joined the fight.
Gareth was the first to walk out. He saw what the rest of his Familia was doing and laughed his head off. The dwarf then assisted with fort-making. His walls towered higher than everyone else's and created a set of interconnecting trenches for everyone to run around in. Both sides got this treatment, with extra advice on how to make the best most compact snowballs. Even Bete got some rudimentary paths that allowed his group to traverse the battlefield as fast as possible.
Next on the field was Finn. Even though Tione said it was unfair for him to help anyone besides her, he didn't listen. Instead, the Braver gave tactics to advise all sides, feeding them information about their enemies. Finn chose to sit back and watch the carnage unfold when everyone had relevant information. Gareth joined him, and the two laughed at their Familia's antics.
However, it was in the middle of pitched battle when Riveria finally entered the fray. The high elf was coming outside to ensure that everyone was still having fun and not taking the fight too seriously. Just as she was calling out to the others, she got nailed with a snowball.
Everything stopped, and there was a collective gasp for everyone's lives. Finn and Gareth slowly started to retreat while everyone else stood in mock horror. With a dainty hand, Riveria wiped the snow from her hair and her face. Then, she gave a devious smirk and chanted a magical tune.
Later, a vast majority of Loki Familia was brought into the Dian Cecht Familia headquarters to be treated for frostbite.
The only member missing from this large-scale snow fight was Ais. She felt left out about the activities since she had been Dungeon crawling. Loki explained why these kinds of bonding activities were important for friends. Ais took this lesson to heart and would later peg Bell Cranel with a snowball the size of his head. Which led to a free lap pillow afterwards.
The End
Hestia looked down at her latest creation. The quilted square was almost entirely white, with tiny dots for humans seeming to have a lot of fun.
"A small reminder that even the most serious of us all can have fun," she said. "And more importantly, not to take things too seriously. After all, this is just a game, isn't it?"
