Author's note: For those who want to see more art of the Rabbit family, I will be making some and posting them to my DeviantArt handle known as CanyonCoyote soon.

It was a chilly, brisk December. It was snowing in some places, but it wasn't out of the ordinary for Glacial Fields, which always had a thick blanket of snow. People sometimes visited that area for the holidays if they wanted to have an especially white Christmas. One example of such was the Rabbit family. They had rented a cabin. Four-year-old Cream was making a snowman and Vanilla, the matriarch, was watching her.

Ice the snowshoe hare, who was the patriarch, was cutting firewood in the forest, when he heard some whimpering. Concerned and curious, he followed the noises. He came across a clearing where there was a crying baby Chao. Their wing was bent and had a cut on it.

Ice approached them. They hid behind a tree and trembled. "Hey, hey, I won't hurt you," Ice whispered. He smiled at them gently to show that he meant no harm.

The Chao peeked out cautiously. "Chao?"

Ice took off his scarf. "Hold still for a moment." He slowly wrapped it around the Chao's wing. The Chao squirmed and cringed a little, but they settled down when they realized their wing hurt less.

"Where's your family, kid?" Ice asked them. The Chao looked at him sadly and shivered in the cold. Ice knew that they did not have one, judging by that response. Feeling bad for them, he picked them up and carried them back to the cabin. By then, Cream and Vanilla had already gone back inside.

"Hi, dad," Cream began, and then she noticed the freezing Chao in Ice's arms. She came over. "What happened?"

"This little one's wing is broken," Ice explained. "They didn't seem to have anywhere else to go, so I brought them here."

Cream gave the Chao a blanket and Ice wrapped it around them. The Chao reached for Cream and Cream picked them up.

When Cream felt the little blue one in her arms, her heart absolutely melted. "Can we keep them?"

"I'm not sure," Vanilla said.

The Chao looked at Vanilla and cooed. They gave her puppy-dog eyes, and so did Cream.

"Please?" she pleaded. "They're all alone."

This was too much for Vanilla to resist and she picked the small Chao up and gave it a hug. "Of course."

Cream was so happy that she flapped her ears a bit, but because she was not nearly as good at flying back then, she only got a couple inches off the ground before she pratfell. She blushed sheepishly.

Ice patted her on the head. "Hey, don't worry about it. That's impressive for any rabbit."

"I assume she gets it from all that exercise," Vanilla mused.

The baby Chao chuckled, and their stomach gurgled. Knowing what that meant, Ice made them a cheese sandwich and handed it to them. They happily ate it.

"Since they liked that so much, I think their name should be Cheese," Cream suggested. Her parents agreed with that.

A couple days later, the Rabbits were getting ready to go on a hike.

"Are we ready to go?" asked Vanilla. She was standing by the door with her coat on.

Cream was struggling to tie her boot's laces. "Just a second, mom." Cheese hopped on her shoulder and put her beanie on her head.

Ice approached her. "Let me help you with that," he offered, and then he tied the laces for her. She got up.

"Thanks, dad," she chirped.

They went outside and began to stroll. Cream skipped happily with Cheese sitting on her head. Both kids went ahead of Vanilla and Ice, who watched them fondly. They stopped to take a gander at the pretty frozen waterfalls.

Just then, an ominous rumbling was heard. The Rabbit family looked around in confusion.

"Was that your belly, mom?" Cream asked Vanilla.

A look of nervous realization crossed Vanilla's face. "I don't think so."

They all turned around and saw an avalanche coming their way and screamed in fear.

"Ears, don't fail me now!" Cream thought, and she grabbed her parents' hands and moved her ears as hard as she could. Sadly, she could not get any further than a foot off the ground.

Ice gestured for them to follow him, and they dashed rightward in the hopes of getting out of the way, but the snow was moving at breakneck speeds towards them. Ice looked up and saw a tree with several branches. He picked Cream and Cheese up first, and being a hare with a strong leap, he jumped very high and put them on a branch. He landed on the ground and did the same to Vanilla. Just when he was about to spring back up to them, the avalanche caught up to him and swept him away. His hat flew off his head.

Vanilla extended her hand in anguish as she screamed, "NO!" and Cheese squealed in terror.

Cream called out, "Dad!"

They could do nothing but watch as Ice attempted to keep afloat by moving his arms and legs as much as he could. The avalanche was still moving by the time it reached a cliff and Ice plummeted right off. He grabbed onto a rock that was protruding out of the side and hung on for dear life. However, Vanilla, Cream, and Cheese did not see this, and they stared in open-mouthed shock for a moment. The avalanche ceased and Ice's hat landed on a glacial erratic. Vanilla looked at the hat, her lip quivered, and she started to cry.

Cream clung to her mother. "Where is he?"

"He…he's gone, Cream," Vanilla whispered between sobs. She held Cream close. "F-from now on, it's just g-going to be us three."

"Are you sure?" Cream wondered innocently.

"I'm sorry, dear," Vanilla wept.

Cream's eyes welled up and she quietly wept as well. Snowflakes started to fall all around them. Cheese hung their head. Though they had not known Ice for that long, they were still grateful for how he had helped them, and they were downcast as well. They all climbed down the tree, Vanilla took Ice's hat, and they trudged back to the cabin.

"What are we gonna do now?" Cream sniffled.

"I don't know," Vanilla whimpered.

Back on the side of the cliff, Ice lost his grip of the rock and began to plunge off. Before he could fall too far, he found a branch sticking out of the side and clung to that. He carefully moved downwards until he reached the bottom. He glanced upwards and found that it was much too high for him to leap up to the top. He had no idea how he was going to get back to his family, but with a look of determination, he set his mind to finding a way back up to his wife and daughter, no matter how long it would take.