A/N: You would not BELIEVE how many versions of this chappie I went through.. RAH! Writer's block, darn you to HECK.

You know (this is directed to anyone who may be reading this), I had an outline, but I lost it when I began improvising in chapter one! This chapter ended up short…. And the reason I set up the whole possibly OOC Snow ball fight, is cuz it's FUN!

Will had searched the entire inside and outside of the house, but any and all sign of the horse was gone, any tracks it may have left covered by the falling snow. Becoming somewhat tired in his search Will thought it best to return home. He had the Signs, and that counted for something.

As Will came into view of his house, three of his brothers, James, Paul, and Robin, were all outside just finishing shoveling snow.

James waved at Will, then, scooping up snow, threw a snowball at Will.

It hit Will full in the face.

"OOF!" Will staggered and fell on his backside. Paul and Robin both burst out laughing, Robin doubled-over, Paul grinning widely.

"Oh, yeah?" Will challenged gleefully. It was pleasing to see James's expression change from amusement to horrified realization as the snowball connected with the side of his face.

Ah, brotherly love, the thing that earns you a chunk of snow in the kisser.

As James fell, Robin tackled Will from behind, taking him down.

"HEY!" is what he shouted as his face was pressed into the snow, but it came out as:

"H-srcuphlUGH!" That last bit came from James (apparently recovered from his blow to the face) shoving snow down the back of his shirt.

As Will flailed somewhat helplessly in the snow, he took this moment in time to reflect how childish his 22-year-old twin brothers were. This being thought, Paul joined in with his twin, helping to press Will's face farther into the snow.

"HELP!" came out as "HLGLPH!", and the three laughed.

"Do you give?" James taunted.

"YPH!" At that, the three let go, Will scrambling to his feet. He looked at his brothers ruefully.

Robin and Paul held up their hands in an "I'm innocent!" way, but James just laughed.

"Easy, now." He said. "You don't want to -" Will bent over and charged James, hitting him full-on.

But before he could do a thing, the call came:

"Oi! You four! Stop messing about! It's supper time!" The whole group looked to the direction of the house, and, seeing that is was Mary, got up, brushed themselves off, and trudged towards the house shoving each other playfully as they went.


After dinner (which had been rather uneventful, compared to the snowball fight), thus the majority of the family retired to their rooms. Most of them, not all, Will, Gwen, and James.

"What do you think mum and dad got us this year?" James murmured sleepily on the couch.

Gwen and Will looked over at him with incredulous looks.

"You're seriously worried about that?" Will asked, amused.

"Yes, James, worried about what Mum got you? You should be more worried about what Will got us!"

"Hey!" Will exclaimed, sitting up in his seat. James looked Will's direction.

"Well, you were gone a long while shopping for presents," he said smartly.

Will just shook his head, then turned to Gwen. "What about you, Gwennie?"

Gwen shook her head, laughing.

"Oh no, you're not finding out 'till Christmas and not a moment sooner!"

Her two brothers smiled wearily and nodded.

"By the way, James..." Gwen started with a grin. "How's Winter Tepps feeling?" .

"WHO?" Will asked, suddenly wide awake.

"No one!" James snapped. Gwen smile got wide.

"Special, is she?" she asked in a teasing voice.

James just stood up, gave her a scathing look, and went to his room.

Gwen and Will exchanged looks, then Gwen stood. "...'Night, Will."

"'Night."

Gwen nodded, then left, leaving Will to his ever-fading thoughts.

FLASHBACK: What Will Didn't See At the House

A while after Will had disappeared, the faux Black Rider's horse found that it was no longer alone in the dusty old room. It whickered nervously as a breath of wind slowly blew open the front door. The black horse shuffled it's hooves, the whites of it's eyes showing as a young girl with a single braid and golden eyes stepped in.

"Shh… It's alright Cryfrue," she crooned as she stood next to the animal. She sighed as she began to stroke the horse's graceful neck. "So many things… these things are meant for further times...." She waggled her eyebrows a bit at her own sincerity. "Or forgotten times..." She looked around in mock fear then whispered into the horse's ear, "I think I may be in trouble... Bad trouble.. I may be punished severely..." The girl suddenly gripped the horse's mane tightly for a moment, fist shaking and face contorted to a look that could have passed sorrow.

The horse whuffed into her hair, maybe trying to comfort her, or maybe just afraid that what made the girl said would somehow harm itself.

"Perhaps…" she murmured, her face smoothing out. "Perhaps I should leave things to their own devices…"

She looked thoughtful for a moment, then smiled. "Nah…" She looked at the horse, her smile getting wider.

"Come! I'll take you back home." With that said, a tunnel of light suddenly opened in the middle of the room to which she walked into. Frightened, the horse let out a loud whinny.

"It's okay!" The girl called back with a laugh. Somewhere in the basement, Will yelled something unintelligible. The girl simply fiddled with her silver spider ring as she waited for the horse.

"All right.." She sighed. "If you really don't want to come…" Inside the light tunnel, she could be seen walking away from the horse. The horse let out an even louder neigh and cantered after her.

A few moments before Will entered the room, the tunnel of light closed, the girl and the faux Rider's horse gone with it.

A/N: Christmas challenge: write a serious/sad chapter or short story while listening to 'Christmas Cash' by fRed! Why? 'Cuz I did! CASH! !!!!!!