Snowball Fight
Steven felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He tried to ignore it by covering up with more blankets, but the cold feeling still remained. With an annoyed sigh, he kick off his covers.
"What's with this cold?" he asked aloud. "It's too early for it."
Grumpy about being woken up earlier than he wanted, Steven stomped over to the window.
It was fogged over.
As he wiped the glass with his hand, Steven was greeted by a field of freshly fallen snow.
The shallow waters around the beach were frozen and the sand was covered in snow. From the gray skies fell flakes of fluffy white snow.
A sudden rush of excitement surged through Steven's body.
"It's snowing!" he yelled happily as he ran back up to his room.
He hastily threw on his shoes and clothes and ran back down the stairs. At this point, all of his yelling had awoken the gems.
All three of them were on guard in the living room.
"What's going on, is something wrong?!" Pearl asked in an alarmed tone.
"It's snowing guys!" Steven exclaimed as he ran around the gems in circles. "I got to get out there before it melts!"
Before he could bolt for the door, Pearl grabbed his shoulder.
"Not without a coat you're not," she stated in a motherly tone.
Steven rolled his eyes and ran back up to his room. He rushed down the stairs with a red winter coat and cat mittens.
"Now can I go?" he asked, his voice muffled through his scarf.
"Yes, now you can-"
"Great, lets go!" Steven exclaimed as he dragged Pearl by the arm. "Let's build a snow fort!"
"Garnet, aren't you going to help with this?" Pearl asked in the hopes that she might be excused from Steven's antics.
Garnet shrugged her shoulders.
"There are no mission at the moment," she stated flatly. "You two have-"
"You're coming too, Garnet," Steven exclaimed happily as he tugged on her hand.
Steven turned to Amethyst, who looked slightly uncomfortable.
"You coming, Amethyst?" Steven asked with hope filled eyes.
Amethyst took a step back, fidgeting with her hands.
"N-no thanks, y-you go have fun," she stammered nervously. "I-I don't do snow."
"Aww...what?!" Steven asked disappointed. "Snow is great. It's cold."
S-S-Sarge...I'm s-s-so c-c-cold.
"You get to snuggle up with friends."
Don't worry little lady, I'll keep ya safe and sound.
"And there's snowball fights!"
Everyone take cover!
"I said no!" Amethyst snapped loudly.
At the sound of her voice, Amethyst covered her mouth with shock. Garnet, Pearl, and Steven all gave her looks of surprise and confusion.
Amethyst slowly stepped back to the temple gateway. Before anyone could ask what was wrong, she opened the door to her room and rushed inside.
"What's her problem?" Steven asked with a confused look.
Pearl shook her head.
"I'm not sure," she stated with concern. "Knowing Amethyst, she wont want to talk about it."
As the morning progressed, Garnet, Pearl, and Steven all stayed out in the snow. They built snowmen, made snow angels, and made snow forts.
Having calmed herself down, Amethyst crept out of her room. She was glad that the others were outside as she didn't want to talk to anyone just yet.
Stroking her hair comfortingly, she peeked out the window. She could see her friends all having fun together. She envied them, they still loved the snow.
The more she watched them, the more she began to ease into the idea of joining in their fun.
Just as she had worked up the courage to go outside, Steven waded up a ball of snow in his hands.
"Snowball fight!" he exclaimed happily. "Heads up Pearl!"
He tossed the snowball and hit Pearl in the chest.
"I'll get you for that!" she threatened playfully as she threw her own snowball.
As she watched the snowballs fly, Amethyst began to see flashes of exploding trees. She shook it off at first. Garnet tossed a snowball and hit Steven.
The image of frozen bodies flashed in Amethyst's eyes.
She began to tremble as the flashes of memories became clearer and louder. Her heart rate spiked and she began to panic.
At one point during the snowball fight, Steven tripped and fell face forward. Amethyst focused on his body, laying peacefully in the snow.
Suddenly, the image of dead frozen brown eyes flashed into her mind. She let out a tiny scream and ran back to her room.
Once she was safe in her room, Amethyst hid under her blankets. Hot tears rolled down her plump cheeks as she wept silently.
She felt so cold, and no matter how many blankets she covered herself with the cold feeling never went away.
She remembered a time when she used to love the snow.
She remembered playing in it, rolling around in it, and even having snowball fights with Garnet, Pearl, and Rose.
But those memories felt so far away and hazy. The only memories she had of the snow now were terrible and bloody.
Her quiet whimpers derailed into loud sobs as she thought back to when it wall went bad. When artillery fell like snow. When trees splintered into shrapnel.
When blood turned the white snow covered fields pink. Above all, she remembered the cold, the cold that still haunted her dreams.
December 21, 1944
Amethyst had volunteered to go on a solo mission near Bastogne. The mission was to find and retrieve an ancient gem artifact that was located within the thick Ardennes forest. This forest already had seen it fair share of warfare. It had seen the Romans face down barbarian armies.
It had seen the chaos of the First World War. Now it was watching as the Second World War was being fought.
But Amethyst cared little for the forest's history, she just wanted to find the artifact and return home.
As she looked through the forest, she accidentally stumbled upon the 101st Airborne Division of the American army.
They were the first signs of life she had seen, and she was one of the few girls the men had seen in months.
As she walked between their foxholes, the soldiers would whistle and flirt with her. She thought it was funny, and it also felt flattering.
"Hey pretty and purple!" one of the soldiers yelled. "My foxhole has got room for one more!"
"Leave her alone, boy!" another soldier yelled. "You're too small for her anyway!"
Laughter echoed from the rest of the men. Amethyst laughed as the two soldiers started to exchange childish insults. At one point, someone threw a snowball.
This snowball was followed by another one, then another one, and another one. Suddenly, Amethyst felt a snowball powder against the back of her head.
She laughed and wadded up a ball of snow.
"Watch out boys, the gem is armed!" a soldier shouted playfully.
As she tossed the snowball at the soldier who had been flirting at her, a loud whistling split the air.
Suddenly, the trees all seemed to start to explode one by one.
"Everyone take cover!"
The soldiers all ducked into their foxholes for what little protection they could offer.
The German army had set up their shells to detonate at the tree line to create the most amount of shrapnel.
Everywhere Amethyst looked were trees bursting into wooden splinters.
She heard the sounds of soldiers screaming as the barrage of artillery began to render their foxholes useless.
"Hey, you, purple lady!"
Amethyst turned to where the voice was shouting. She saw a brown eyed soldier waving his arms desperately trying to get her attention.
"Get your ass in here or you'll get blown to shit!"
No longer caring about the gem artifact, Amethyst bolted for the soldier's foxhole. As she ran, an artillery shell burst a tree behind her, sending shrapnel everywhere. She felt a sudden and intense pain as shrapnel pierced her back. Despite taking the fatal amount of damage, Amethyst still managed to hobble into the soldier's foxhole. With her in the foxhole, the soldier covered the top with a bundle of branches.
"Oh, damn, you're hurt bad," he exclaimed as he saw the extent of her wounds.
"D-don't w-worry," Amethyst stammered in shock. "I can walk this off."
As the minutes turned to hours, the artillery continued to fall. The shells boomed like thunder and the ground shook as they burst.
The constant artillery, the biting cold, even the shrapnel that was slowly killing her, all of it she could handle. What she couldn't handle was the silence after the shells stopped falling.
That night was the longest night she had weathered. Wounded men shouted for a medic as the dying cried out in pain.
She began to weep as she was powerless to help the men who were crying out for someone to help them. After a few hours, the moaning and screaming stopped.
All that remained was the cold, and the quiet. Amethyst began to feel her physical form dying. She leaned against the soldier who's foxhole she was sharing. She was so cold. Her toes and fingers wouldn't move and her skin stung.
"L-listen, I'm g-g-gonna disappear into this g-g-gemstone, t-t-t-to heal, and-"
The soldier put his arms around her, and smiled. He was actually familiar with how the crystal gems bodies worked.
"Don't worry little lady, I'll keep ya safe and sound." he said with a warm smile.
Amethyst smiled and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. She closed her eyes, and retreated into her gemstone.
For five days and nights she healed, and for five days and nights, the brown eyed soldier watched over her gemstone.
Finally, she healed and reformed her physical form. The first thing she felt was the cold. Day light was breaking through the holes in the top of the foxhole.
She turned to the soldier who had helped her. He was huddled up on the other end of the foxhole.
"Hey, man, thanks for watching over me," Amethyst beamed happily.
The soldier didn't respond.
"Hey, I just realized something, I never learned your name."
Again, the soldier didn't respond. Now unnerved, Amethyst crept closer to him.
"Hey, time to wake up."
She nudged him and he fell over, he was dead. Amethyst recoiled back in horror, he had frozen to death.
His brown eyes were frozen open and his skin was coated with ice. Amethyst screamed and clawed her way out of the foxhole and ran blindly away.
She ran until she bumped into someone.
"Amethyst, there you are, I was worried sick."
Amethyst looked up and saw that the voice belonged to Rose Quarts.
"I came as soon as I heard about the attack, are you-"
Amethyst's burst into tears and buried her face into Rose's embrace. Rose sighed and tried her best to comfort her. Even in Rose's warm embrace, all Amethyst could feel was cold.
From that moment onward, whenever Amethyst saw the graceful fall of snow, she would hide herself.
While others saw falling snow, she saw splintering trees.
While others laughter filled the air, all she could remember was the haunting silence.
Whenever she saw Steven's snow covered face, all she would she was the frozen brown eyes of the soldier who's name she never even learned.
No matter how much time had past since that winter, she could never forget that terrible night.
A part of her died in that foxhole, that part of her that was forever lost in the snow of the Ardennes forest.
It's cold forever frozen inside of her mind.