[Aster]
That snowstorm? It wasn't a regular one that comes and goes during the night, leaving everything white and pretty in the coming day. It was a monster of a storm, an angry, roaring beast that swallowed the forest whole, and then simply refused to leave. When they woke up in the morning, after a night of Aster being as needy as ever, there was no morning to speak of. Just a dim, grey twilight, with snowflakes falling so thickly that they could barely see the trees just a few steps away from their burrow.
Having no other choice but to hide in their little home and wait for it to pass, they did just that. It was simply too miserable outside, even for Aster with all the fire in him, and he could only manage short trips for firewood before the biting cold forced him back inside. The girls couldn't even manage that much.
But they weren't too worried, as they just hunted that young boar and had enough meat to last them for quite a few days—yet another great chance to laze around in bed and cuddle, without a care in the world.
That is, until those days began ticking by and the snowstorm kept going, and going, and going. Not a single break, not for a second, just a constant barrage of wind and snow, growing more vicious each day. Slowly but surely, the meat in their bag disappeared, chunk after chunk, and the worry began to set in.
By the time half of their food was gone, they began rationing it quite heavily, eating just enough to get by. But by the end of the fourth day, even with their efforts to stretch it, they ate it, every last bit of it, every last bone was sucked dry, and the weather showed no signs of calming, only the opposite.
Then came the fifth day, and with it, hunger gnawing at their bellies, a familiar sensation they hated with every part of themselves. They barely moved, barely talked—just cuddled together atop their blankets and listened to the wind hammering against their ice walls.
The only thing that Aster did, throughout that entire day, was dump most of his mana into the warmth spell, the faint golden mist that kept everyone all nice and sweaty, while outside was a frozen nightmare. It reminded him a lot of that winter in the tunnels, when they'd huddled together in much the same way, starving, and just waiting for the worst to pass. It wasn't a nice memory.
Night brought no relief at all. It grew worse, a whole lot worse. The wind outside picked up so much that it seemed the world was ending. Their burrow shook with every violent gust, and for a few heart-pounding moments, Aster was sure their shelter would collapse and bury them all under the snow. He ignited his mana with every tremble of walls, just in case he'd need to melt their way out. But nothing happened. Somehow, their little den kept holding together.
The sixth day finally brought a change in the weather. It wasn't great, not even good, but compared to the day before, it was almost cozy outside. The wind died down somewhat, and the snowfall thinned enough for them to see a little bit of their surroundings. The clouds were still dark as ever, though, with more snow and misery in them. It was clear that things might get just as bad, if not worse, soon.
It was then that they had to make a choice: starve their guts out or take a chance and leave their burrow in the hope of finding some food, somewhere, somehow. It didn't take long to decide, not after the night they just had, not with their bellies growling at them. A shitty plan, but it was the only one that they had.
"The road's off to our left, right? We came from that direction when we went to hunt," Silvia asked sleepily, looking out at the dim forest beyond the entrance. She was in her dress, grey and simple, with the brown woolen tunic peeking out from beneath, pants a shade darker, and knitted socks. Her boots rested nearby, with the laces untied and waiting.
Nodding slowly, Aster pulled on his second sock, then his boot, and with his mother's help, tied the laces tightly. "Yeah," was all he muttered. He was wearing his dress as well, that stupid, uncomfortable dark-grey thing that made him feel all wrong, hair braided and everything. But not a word of complaint left his lips today about it, unlike how he usually did in the mornings. He was too hungry and worried for any of that.
When both of his boots were on, he pushed himself up from the bedding and shuffled behind Nivalis, all to help her tie his old half-cloak onto her head as a headscarf. He made sure it covered her long ears properly and that it was snug enough not to fall off at the first gust of wind. When he was done, he gave her shoulders a little squeeze and hummed a quiet, "All good." Just in time with Silvia tying up her own boots.
A quiet, "Thanks, sweetie," came from her. After that, Nivalis picked up their old bag from the ground, all their belongings tucked in it, and put it over her left shoulder. Without all that meat from the boar, it barely had any weight to it.
The three of them then shared one last look around their burrow, at the pine needles, at the burnt-out fire, at the ice walls that had kept them safe for nearly a week. "All ready?" Nivalis whispered. After two quiet nods, she pushed aside the branches and crawled out into the forest, with Aster and Silvia, like two little penguins, right behind.
It was cold. Not that miserable kind from the day before, but close. The moment they stepped out of their shelter, their faces scrunched up as a biting wind hit them, tingling their noses and cheeks uncomfortably. Everyone instantly tucked their hands under their armpits, snowflakes swirling all around, ears ringing from the loud gusts.
They didn't say a thing and just started trudging to the left, with Nivalis leading the way through the grey-white haze. One step at a time, her old boots sinking into the deep snow all the way to her thighs, she broke the trail for them. Aster and Silvia followed in her footsteps, stepping in the prints that she left behind. Just the three of them, a small, determined line of faded colors in the middle of nowhere.
It took them no more than ten minutes to reach the road, but even that little was enough to make the girls tremble all over. "O-okay... o-kay," Nivalis breathed out once they got there, turning to them with her cheeks red from the cold. "Asty, c-could you...?" she stuttered, but didn't need to finish.
Aster huffed a quiet, "Yeah," and turned away, pushed his hands into the deep snow, and began shoveling it aside as fast as he could. The snow was heavy and wet, and his arms ached with each movement, but he didn't stop. Not until he created a small, shallow pit big enough for the three of them to sit in, with the snow piled up around them to block some of the wind. "There," he huffed, then pushed the two of them inside, into the little nest he made.
They collapsed onto the snow with quiet groans, pulled their knees to their chests, and tucked their hands under their dresses to warm them, all while the boy went to a nearby bushy tree and began snapping off branches for a fire. A few quiet, agonizing minutes later, with a decent pile gathered in his arms, he returned, dropped it all into the pit, and with a single, sharp flick of his wrist, a small flame appeared among the snow.
The flame grew and grew until it became a decent little campfire, its smoke immediately disappearing in the wind above their heads. "T-thank you, s-sweetie," Nivalis stuttered through chattering teeth, pulling Aster into a hug the moment he was in reach.
It took them just a few seconds to wiggle themselves into that comfortable position, the one they often found themselves in during their walks—Nivalis sitting on the ground, Aster in her lap, and Silvia in his. "T-t-terrible... t-t-terrible weather," the girl whined, leaning her head back and burying her cold nose into Aster's warm neck.
A hum of agreement left Aster as he wrapped both arms around her, then began igniting mana to make himself even warmer for them. For a few long minutes, they just sat like that, watching the small fire before them and listening to the wind howling through the trees. Nivalis even tried her Blessing as they rested, but couldn't see much with how windy it was, and only got herself a wave of dizziness for her troubles.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it was time to move again. Once their fire died down to embers and the cold began to creep back in, Nivalis hushed, "Let's go," and pushed her kids off her lap. The three of them stumbled up from their little nest, brushing the snow from their clothes, and went back to trudging, only this time down the road.
Another ten minutes blurred by, just like the trees and bushes on both sides of the road, and they had to stop once more. Same routine—Aster dug a hole, the girls huddled inside, he got some branches, and made a small fire. But unlike last time, when the flames died down and they got out of their warm pit, Nivalis and Silvia still trembled a bit despite having just rested. It was terribly cold.
Soon enough, it all repeated, with Aster making another nest for them to hide from the wind. Only this time, he brought in more wood than before, almost a whole armful, and made their fire bigger and brighter for them to enjoy.
That seemed to help, as the girls trembled much less when they got up this time and back on the road, but still, they did a little. That made Aster frown, but before he could say anything, his mother whispered, "Come on."
That entire morning went exactly like that—walking for a bit, then stopping for a fire and to warm up, then walking again. Each time, it took the girls longer and longer to stop shivering, got harder for Aster to battle the cold away from them. His arms felt like noodles from all the wood he had to gather, not to mention the exhaustion from walking through hills of snow on their way... somewhere.
By afternoon, Aster was so tired that he wanted to just lie down in the snow and sleep for a week. The girls didn't look any better, just as exhausted and trembling all over, despite having just had a break a few minutes ago.
But worse than the exhaustion, worse than the hunger gnawing at their bellies, was the feeling of hopelessness. Of not having a single idea how the hell they were supposed to find any food in this mess. There was nothing to forage. They couldn't even see more than a few steps ahead, let alone hunt anything. They just kept walking, following the winding road and hoping for a miracle—a river, or a lake, or... anything.
But all they saw were just trees. Endless trees and snow. "L-lets... let's t-take another break, a b-bit earlier," Nivalis stuttered halfway through their next walk, pointing at a huge, snow-covered pine tree by the side of the road.
A weak, whimpery hum came from Silvia at that, not even a proper word, as she was just too miserable to form one. Every part of her petite body trembled with such force that it was painful to watch, and yet she kept walking without a single complaint.
Once Aster helped them over to the pine tree and cleared the snow from the ground as best he could, he went to get wood for their fire again. This time, he gathered way more than before, as much as he could carry, a whole mountain of branches that he nearly dropped three times on the way back.
All the effort made his stomach hurt even more than it already did, but he ignored it and made the biggest fire yet. More than anything, he wanted to make sure they got warm enough this time, properly warm, to chase away the trembles.
The fire roared to life, its orange flames reaching higher than ever before, pushing against the grey twilight surrounding them. "Here you go, should warm you alright," Aster hushed, wiggling himself between the girls, forming yet another pile of faded, patched clothes and shivering limbs. "Feeling better?" he asked after he settled down and made himself as hot as a furnace, receiving two tired nods and hums in return.
A few minutes went by like that, with just the fire crackling and the wind howling. The entire time, Aster kept frowning and worrying, at the feeling of their trembling not getting any better despite the big fire and him being so hot, at the quiet sniffles coming from their runny noses, at the way they pressed themselves against him, tighter and tighter with every breath.
Aster let out a sigh and looked at their miserable faces, their blue and golden eyes staring blankly into the flames. 'I need to do something,' the thought echoed in his head. 'Anything.' His first instinct was to dump every last bit of his mana into the warm mist to make them feel better, but he dismissed it almost immediately. Wind would carry it away almost as fast as he made it, not to mention he couldn't spend that much mana on just one sitting. 'Something else...'
With his forehead resting against the back of Silvia's silver head, he kept thinking, racking his tired brain for a solution. A dozen or so inhales of her smoky, sweaty locks later, an idea sparked in that silly head of his, causing it to jerk up. Without a word, Aster removed his right hand from her soft tummy and brought it up to her neck, right where the collar of her dress was.
Carefully, he slipped it beneath the fabric, under the tunic she wore beneath that, and pushed it down all the way until it was pressed against the flatness of her chest, ribs sticking out, and skin covered in goosebumps. "W-what are you doing?" Silvia asked, her voice shaky and quiet, her golden eyes shifting from the fire to the lump on her chest that was Aster's scarred hand.
He didn't answer and just kept it there, palm cupped over her small breast, with her pink nipple pressing against the very center of it. Then he closed his golden eyes and focused.
Very, very slowly, he pushed a tiny amount of pale-golden mist from his fingers, willing it to protect from the cold and keep all the warmth, to slide all over the girl's trembling body and stay there, beneath her clothes. "Try not to move much," he hushed into her ear, his voice strained from the effort.
It made Silvia frown in confusion, but before she could say anything, she noticed it. A slow, pleasant warmth was coming from his hand and spread over her, making her feel as if she were wearing layers upon layers of fur. "Oh..." escaped her, a quiet, surprised little sound, her entire body going limp in his arms as the warmth chased away the tremors. "...you're such a dummy, for not doing this earlier," she murmured, leaning her head back and letting out a long, blissful sigh.
A wide, proud grin appeared on Aster's face at her words and how much she relaxed against him. A few moments later, Nivalis asked in a breathy voice, "W-what's going on?" to which Aster just shifted a little, pulled his hand from Silvia's dress, and reached up for the collar of hers, the faded-brown one. He slipped inside just like before, finding the soft swell of her large breast there.
"Asty... what in the... oh..." Nivalis's question died in her throat as that same slow, pleasant warmth spread all over her body as well, from her chest all the way down to her toes; there was no place his mist didn't touch, didn't make her skin tingle pleasantly. Her head lolled back against the rough bark of the pine tree, her blue eyes fluttering shut. "Oh, that's... that's nice," she murmured, then went completely quiet save for her soft, slow breaths, finally still after hours of trembling.
The spell didn't last long, only a few minutes before all the mist he had conjured beneath their clothes seeped away into the wind, and the cold began to creep back in. But those few minutes of pure warmth, and a big fire nearby, were enough to make them feel alive again, to chase away the worst of the bone-deep chill.
For Aster, it was more than worth the exhaustion and a bit of a headache behind his eyes. It was still a rather expensive spell, but not nearly as much as the big one he used for their burrows. 'Yeah, I should've thought of that earlier,' he thought, a smile on his face as he stared at the flames.
One that disappeared the moment his mother whispered, "Let's get going." Then the three of them were back on their feet, stumbling down the path once more.
The next few hours went by in that same miserable blur of walking and stopping, with the weather slowly but surely getting worse again. The wind picked up, first to a steady whistle, then to a full-on howl that made the trees sway violently around them. The snowfall grew thicker and heavier, and the clouds above grew even darker, to the point it seemed like night had come early, even though it was still hours away.
Aster kept at it with that trick of his the entire time, pushing his hands beneath their dresses whenever they stopped to rest. He made their fires, too, and dug their nests, did everything he could to keep them going and warm while at it. All that took a heavy toll on him, and the boy grew more and more tired as it got darker, but he didn't complain. A man of the family just does what has to be done.
It was during one of their many, many breaks that it happened. Aster felt it in his chest, that empty, hollow feeling that told him there was barely any mana left in him to use, something he had tried his hardest to ignore until now. There was nothing to ignite, no warmth to make. He had hoped that by the time this happened, they would have found something to eat, but they hadn't. Not yet.
'Just a few more... a few more stops, and we'll find something,' he kept telling himself as he began gathering wood for their fire again, more than ever before, hoping it would make up for the lack of his spell. His arms, however, had other plans and refused to cooperate. They felt like lead, and he barely managed to gather half of what he usually did before he had to stop and take a breath, a deep, ragged one that made him dizzy.
He glanced back at the small pit he had made, where the girls were already shivering again, then to the young pine nearby them, all fluffy and green. An idea, a stupidly obvious one, sparked in that tired head of his—a second one today of this kind—and it took an effort not to smack himself for not thinking of it earlier. Aster trudged over to that pine, shook it a little to get the snow off its branches, then did what he was best at.
"Asty? What are you doing?" Silvia asked, her teeth chattering as she watched him, just standing there in front of the tree. The very next second, a short burst of blinding flames erupted from his scarred hand, his cheapest spell, and the entire thing burst into flames. Not a small campfire, not a big one either, but a whole-ass tree on fire that turned the dim forest into a hellscape of orange and black.
Turning around slowly, Aster gave them a tired, proud smile, then awkwardly trudged back to their nest and flopped down, all sweaty and out of breath. "T-there," he huffed, wiggling himself between them. "Should be... should be warm enough for you." And it was. So warm that it melted the snow around the tree, creating a small puddle in minutes.
They were quiet for a good while, with all three of them just staring at the burning tree, its crackling and popping drowning out even that beast of the wind. Nivalis gave him a bunch of kisses for that, while Silvia called him a dummy once more for not doing it earlier. He agreed—in this weather, there was no need to hide and keep the fire small.
After their little break, they went back to walking, leaving behind the massive pile of ash and embers that was once a young pine. Dozens of similar, fluffy pines shared that fate in the trudge that followed, each one helping the girls push through for a little longer, each one leaving Aster more and more drained, even though the spell was as simple as they got.
By the time the sky began to darken and evening set in, there was almost no mana left in him, and he began to tremble from cold just as badly as Silvia did. He hated the feeling even more than hunger.
He was so exhausted that he barely registered the moment they stumbled upon it—a dark shape looming out of the swirling snow ahead, on the side of the road. Not a tree, not a bush, but... a burnt-out house. A one-story skeleton of beams and charred planks, with the roof collapsed in on itself.
Behind it, a little further away, stood a barn, a shy little thing. It was old, grey, and weathered, but still standing, with a roof intact and large doors closed tight. A fence surrounded the place, old and rickety, with its posts leaning at odd angles, half-buried in snow. Bushes dotted the yard here and there, covered in a thick layer of white.
Not a sound came from the place, not a single light. The three of them slowed down, then stopped. For a handful of heartbeats, they just stood there and stared, the cold and the wind momentarily forgotten as hope slowly returned to their tired faces.
A single thought passed through their heads, a desperate one that Nivalis whispered out loud, "There c-could be something left in the barn, or in the house... m-maybe," her blue eyes scanning the ruins, then the barn. Aster and Silvia nodded, and with a quiet hum, they all started trudging towards it, through the deep snow and the falling darkness.
...