Chise's growing wanderlust had led them many places, but he never suspected that it would lead him to stand on these godforsaken sticks again.

His experience with skiing down powdery mountain slopes was expansive due to his time spent with his first teacher. Second only was his experience spent violently planted snout down in the snow. Lindel liked to attribute this failing to clumsiness. Elias could not have counted the times he had to bite his tongue on the retort that the skis were made for human feet, not paws.

"Are you ready?" Her gentle voice probed bringing him out of the frustration still harbored at the old coot.

She stood out against the white mountaintop hand extended to him encouragingly, a brushstroke of vivid color on a blank canvas. Rosy hues dusted Chise's nose and cheeks in the frigid air. Puffs of gentle steam vapored out of her pink lips that curved into that darling smile that made the winter gale feel as warm and cozy as their fireplace.

He looked down at his oxford clad human feet. How things had changed. Perhaps this would be different as well.

He nodded, causing her eyes to crinkle happily, catching the glittering snow as she gingerly pushed forward. He followed close behind. The familiar ache in his thighs burned as he held his center of gravity low to the ground. He had to admit, human feet did make this easier.

He lingered behind Chise, watching the rose pattern scarf Silky had prepared for their trip flap in wind behind her. Her melodious laughter rang out as her confidence grew, leading her to swish in and out of the trees. The mental image of her joyous face grew in his mind's eye. He longed to see it.

Crouching, he picked up speed. Trees and snow whipping in his peripheral until he caught up beside her. His breath caught in his chest.

Bubbly giggles spilled from her mouth lighting her face gold against the silvery snow. In her eyes grew their garden in a flourishing spring as they caught him beside her. Chise's fond smile for him was as bright as the sun and gentle as a dandelion seed.

The light extinguished as her eyes widened. "Elias look out!"

His head turned just in time to see the pine branch at his eye level.

Green needles whacked his face filling his nose as his arms flailed outward in graceless circles. His feet jumbled and he was vaguely aware of his skis catching each other before he collided to the ground. Tumbling and twisting wind and snow assaulted betwixt his robe and skin chilling him to the bone. He finally came to a stop on his back, horns buried in the snow and the world spinning around him. The cloudy sky and snowy ground where such similar shades of white and gray that he had trouble telling which was which.

Oddly, his orientation was corrected by the heavy thud against his side as Chise crashed into his ribs.

His hands steadied round her waist quick as a whip preventing her from diving headfirst into the snow, but stopping her momentum enough to topple her across his chest. Dizzy or not, he would not let her fall. She muttered a surprised "Oof!" as she braced her hands against her shoulders. Her shocked face blinked before remembering what had happened, "Elias are you ok?"

He chuckled, "Yes, though I suppose that Lindel may have unfortunately been correct about my skiing ability after all."

She giggled before her eyes followed her hands, realizing how she had landed. The blush in her cheeks flared alongside the wind burn as she quickly retreated to sit upright. Elias followed suit, shaking snow off his horns. A shiver wracked Chise as a clump of the snow they had disrupted found its way between her neck and scarf. Elias drew her into his lap without even thinking.

"Are you cold?" He asked.

She sighed as he tucked his robe around her. "Nope. You?"

It was his eyes that crinkled this time, "Not a bit."