TBS - Snow angels

Aya | Female | North region | Crafter rookie ( SnowyCity )
Panthaleon | Male | North region | Tamer rookie ( moonlightwalk )

Summerary: The two rookies meet for the first time and play a little game together.

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 Aya padded out of the den, her thin, long legs shaking at the slightest. Her breath was able to be seen, and snow never hesitated to fall on her head, as hard as she shook it off. Her paw pads were torn up and numb from the snow, showing that this cat has been prancing around before. Aya hated this weather. Mind you, she loves snow, though.

"Curse this weather", she hissed under her breath, and flicked her tail. "I wish it would warm up already!" Aya complained again.

Panthaleon let out a huff as he lifted his paws high to move through the snow. It was so cold! Well, at least it kept him from getting dirty. It was frozen water after all.

He looked up from his musings when he heard a unfamiliar voice curse about the exact thing he had been thinking about. He grinned when he saw it was another cat. "Now, now, it's not that bad, is it?" He called playfully.

 Aya puffed up and looked around, stopping when she saw a cat who was looking directly towards her. He looked about the same age as her, if not, younger.

"I'm sure you don't like it either by the looks of it. You literally look like some sort of deer trying to prowl through the snow, keeping your heavy body out of it." She shook her head, it was about time since the snow had started piling up again.

 Pan shook his head, still smiling. "Yeah, but it can be fun too, you know. Look." He steadied himself, before taking a leap. When he landed he sunk pretty deep. Then he proceed to stretch himself into the snow. It was pretty cold, but he didn't mind at the moment, seeing he was trying to prove something. After a few seconds he got back up, the underside of his coat thoroughly soaked by the melted snow. He shivered, but grinned, admiring his own work. "See, it's a snow cat."
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  Aya laughed, and looked at the sloppy intent he had made in the snow, "It does look like a cat..." She said hesitantly, "Though it looks blurry." 'Twas true, for a snow angel could not be perfect unless it was professionally done. "I bet I can do better." She challenged him, as much as she was freezing her paws off, she could never forego a friendly competition.

"..This is my space, and this is your space." She said while drawing two large cat-sized circles in the snow, enough to make a snow angel or two in each with her tail. Back-first, Aya dove into the snow, instantly feeling her back slowly screaming in pain from the snow. "S-so cold.." She barely said, and wiggled around a couple times. She got up to see what Panthaleon had done with his space, and she glanced as she shook the snow that had managed to cling to her back as she got up.

 Panthaleon sent her a cocky grin. "Yeah, right, I'll have to let you that I'm only the master in making these." He challenged back, swishing his tail playfully. He watched her draw the two circles and smiled before plopping down in the snow. "Let's see."

The second time only felt colder, his fur already been soaked, but he just squirmed, trying to make the indent deeper. He glanced over to the other cat when she complained about the cold again. "You really don't like the cold, don't ya?" he said getting back up. He looked at his snow angel, content to see that it was indeed deeper than before. Grinning and shivering he went to inspect the she-cat's work. "Neh, I gotta admit. That's not bad." he commented.

 Aya held her chin up, and then she looked back at Panthaleon, "Thanks." She said, and looked at his once again. She looked at hers, then Panthaleon's, and back again. "I think..." She said, and looked at both one more time to make sure, "It's a tie." She finished.

Aya shivered when she looked back at him. "I think the snowfall is getting heavier. We should..." Warm up? Obviously Aya wasn't thinking. Eat? There was no kill on the pile. Even if there was, it was covered by snow or frozen. "Um, we should get into the Healer's den? I dunno. It is one of the large dens and it should be warmer in there. Unless you want to freeze your paws off."

 Looking between the two indents, Panthaleon nodded. He didn't feel like arguing with and he was kinda feeling to excited to argue with her conclusion. "Alright."

He got a little nervous though when mentioning the healer's den. He had his own reasons for not wanting to go there, even though his sister stayed there often. But instead of saying that, he grinned challengingly and walked around the female, swishing his tail playfully. "There is of course a far better way to warm up," he drawled.

  Aya blinked, and put a confused face on, "What is it, then? I like to go there because my mentor spends most of her time there, helping warm up the sick. Speaking of mentors, my name's Aya." Aya said, completely changing the subject, despite he trying to make it sound on topic to the mentors. She would like to get to know him better, though. "Er..sorry for changing the subject...I forgot to introduce myself and I think it would be okay to know each other’s' names?"

Then she realized she also trailed off from what Panthaleon was implying about staying warm. "Oh! And your idea about staying warm, what was it?"

 Pan was almost glad she hanged the subject. Maybe he could distract her enough to make her forget about going to the den altogether. "Ah, yes, of course! My name is Panthaleon, but you can call me Pan if you like." He answered smiling brightly. "Nice to meet you, Aya!"

He blinked when she suddenly went back to the previous conversation, but recovered quickly. That challenging grin making its appearance again, he answered. "Why, a little race of course."

 "Nice name." She smiled, "Pan." Pan, she'd try to keep it short and sweet, so it would be easy to remember. She could never remember names, but it was easy to remember short ones. And a three-letter nickname didn't hurt anyone. He told her to call him that, anyways.

"A race sounds terrific!" She said, and looked at his legs. The rookies were about the same size, but Aya swore her legs were longer. "Where to?" She asked, the snow piling up on her head now. She shook it off, and stretched her legs. They were a little chilled, and her fur was starting to get colder. Gee, I hope this race helps. She thought.

 Pan grinned excitedly, kneading the snow beneath his paws. He looked thoughtfully when she asked him where-to they'd go.

"Hmmm... How 'bout where the companions in training are kept? We can warm up there too."

He wiggled a bit, trying to keep warm as the snow kept falling down. He glanced up to the sky while waiting for Aya's answer, but had to close his eyes against the snowfall. 'Please, just say yes, It's cold, I wanna run,' he thought.

 Aya nodded, and quickly started after Pan saw her nod. It was a little harder to run in the snow, but she managed fine. Aya didn't look, back, therefore she wasn't sure if her opponent had started or not. She kept running, taking short breaths, her breath coming out in short, white puffs in the air.

 Pan blinked as the she-cat suddenly took off. It took him a few seconds to registered what happened. "Hey!" he shouted, quickly running after her, "That's not fair!" Taking big leaps to plow through the snow he tried to catch up for her, but the thick blanket of snow made it difficult. He panted as the cold air, pained his longs and tried breathing through his nose the warm up the freezing air.

 Aya's vision slightly blurred, but she blinked it away and kept running. The den wasn't too far away now, maybe a couple bear-lengths. She hadn't seen Pan gain on her at all, and she worried that he might have fallen into to the snow for a second. "Too bad for him!" She said, the words coming out in separate breaths. "I guess I'll be the one who is warm sooner!", she added, slowed down for a couple heartbeats, and turned her head reluctantly to check on Pan. She didn't want to be responsible for any 'injuries'.

 Pan breathed raggedly, feeling a little numb from the cold. He wasn't gaining any on the she-cat and quite frankly... he couldn't even feel his nose anymore, let alone, hope breathing through it would ease his painful lungs. He had been about to think that he was bound to loose this race, when Aya slowed her pace a little, seemingly looking back at him. Ha, this was what he needed!

Gathering whatever energy left and sending it to his frozen paws, he quickened his pace for a last ditch sprint. 'Now or never,' he thought.

 Aya blinked as she say Pan pass by her when she turned around to check on him. 'Dang it! I knew I should have just kept running,' She grumbled to herself. Aya pulled her legs out of the snow and started to run again, now a couple of tail lengths behind the tom. Her teeth were shaking as well as her tail. and she couldn't wait to get to the den now. She watched as Pan skitted to a stop right in front of the den, and finally made it. "I let you win," The brown she-cat mumbled, wrapping her tail around her paws and shivering.

 Pan grinned at his unexpected win, only slightly frowning when the she-cat denied it. "Y-yeah, right." He retorted, teeth shattering. "I w-won fair a-and square!" He shivered violently, his body cooling down from the sprint and the coldness now really starting to seep in. Shaking the snow from his fur, he tilted his head towards the den's entrance. "L-let's go inside, huh?"

 Aya nodded, and padded into the den after Pan, shaking the snow off of her fur as she did when she walked into a den now-a-days. Her breath cold, it came out a little white puffs of air, which were now clearer to see because they were out of the snow. She started to warm up a little, her body calming down, and her jaw stopped shaking. "This is nice..." She sighed, and sat down. She forgot about Pan winning for a second, and started licking her icy paws to try and warm them up. They were sore, and cold.

 Pan settled down away from the cold draft from the entrance, shaking his fur to get rid of the snow that clung to his coat. His paws, nose and the tips of his ears and tail felt numb, so he went about liking them and rubbing them with his paws. When they started to tingle, the feeling flowing back, he let out a deep breath. Great. If only he was a fire elemental right now, they could warm up more easily. Oh, right...they. He glanced at the female, curious now to see what she looked like without half her body disappearing under the snow. "Hey," he called, giving the she-cat a grin. "You wouldn't happen to be a fire elemental, huh?" He asked, casually but hopeful.

 Aya looked at him in confusion, "Hm? Ah, well no. Actually I specialize in Earth bending." The she cat replied, puffing out her chest a little to show off her first stone around her neck. Surely Pan had seen it? Guess not. She was covered in snow for half the time anyways, so it didn't really matter anyways. "So...What's your element, then?" Aya responded, warming up a little more. The scent of different animals was quite strong, and pretty cool to Aya. She was pretty interested in them now that she was in the den, of course.

 "Oh." He tried to not sound disappointed, but really he had hoped for a little fire to heat his paws. Guess he had been to positive or maybe his ears were so frozen it was affecting his thinking. "Right. That's pretty cool I guess, moving earth and stuff..." He trailed off and she asked a question. "Oh, I'm light element," he answered, turning to the side to show his own stone in mirror of what she had done. A gust of wind passed by and made its way into the den. He shivered.

"S-say. Would you like to go inside? I can show you the animals and such, I'm a tamer, you know." He offered her a grin, be it a tempered down one due to his facial muscles possibly suffering from ice burn. "Well, a rookie at least," he allowed sheepishly. "What do you do?"

 Aya stood up at the tom offering to show her the animals. "I would love to!" She puffed, a smile on her face. Animals weren't exactly her thing, but she was quite curious about them. Who knows? Maybe Aya would have a companion of her own one day. She perked her ears, despite the massive amounts of shivering from the cold. She couldn't wait for her body to just adjust. It was warmer in here than outside.

"Me?" Aya said, responding to Pan's question. "Oh, well I practice Crafting." She answered, again happy for her rank in the clan. It was a very interesting job.

 Pan nodded, happy she wanted to see what he did... or at least wanted to see the animals he worked with. "Crafter, huh?" He repeated in wonder. Those cats made pretty cool stuff. He grinned. "Hey, I got an idea. I'll show you now, but you gotta show the things you make sometime, deal?" He swished his tail in excitement. He hoped she'd say yes. He always wondered about the jobs other cats did. He knew a bit about warriors and healers from his siblings, but crafters and searchers he knew next to nothing about, at least not up close.

 Aya nodded, and purred. Glad that she was learning around the camp. She was also glad to show Pan and other cats her work, since maybe they might want her to make something for them. "I'd love to show you what I'm learning some other day, if you're interested." Aya said, quite happy with herself. Hopefully one day they would make good friends. He seemed quite nice and friendly. "Well, show me the companions."

 Pan smiled, pleased that she agreed. "Yeah, I'd like that," he said as they both disappeared deeper into the den, laughing at her command. “Aye, madam!”