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Gakane should have known something was up when he saw the twins sneaking into the training yard outside of practise, a large sheet of rolled up parchment clutched in their hands. Despite that, it's not until he sees one of the twins fly by a window at high velocity, that he realizes they are up to another of their crazy stunts.
"What in the world are you two doing?!"
The first thing he notices, is that the training yard has accumulated a far greater volume of snow than should have fallen the night before. The second is that another building appears to have suddenly materialized in the very centre, made purely of ice. He is distracted from making further observations of this strange new addition, when a thirty-three pound cannonball rockets past his ear... and into a large snowbank.
...!
Yuder responds to his shocked face with an innocent smile, the toddler wiggling to get free of the snowbank he'd ploughed into. After he manages to get his heartbeat partly under control, Gakane registers the tall icy slide leading from the top of the new building, which the twins and Yuder have obviously been testing.
"...What is this?!"
"What does it looks like?" Finn replies, "It's our brilliant new ice fortress, of course!"
"Yuder made it," Hinn adds, in case that isn't obvious, "Although we were the ones who supplied the design."
"Especially the slide," Finn confirms, eyes shining, "It works even better than I thought it would. Yuder made the ice extra slippery, so you can really build up speed."
The toddler finally manages to roll down to the bottom of the snowbank, before shaking the clumps of snow off of himself, like a dog that had just came in from the rain. His round cheeks and tiny fingers are starting to turn red from the cold, but his sparkling eyes suggest that he doesn't even notice it.
"Okay, I know that you were all having fun, but it would be safer to-"
Gakane is interrupted, yet again, by another, larger form shooting through the air and landing in the snowbank.
"...E-Ever?!"
"Oh hi Gakane!" The deputy commander is a little more graceful in her descent from the snowbank than the toddler was, though she is still left brushing off clumps of snow from her clothes and hair.
"Ah, we might want to move out of the way," she adds, making little shooing motions in between brushing herself off, "There was a bit of a line up behind me."
"...wait, does no one else see this as a safety issue?!"
"Relax, Gakane, it's fine. No one's gotten hurt yet," Hinn reasons.
"But..." Even if he can't convince the others to stop using the slide of death, he feels that he should probably prevent the toddler from participating. But it seems that Yuder has other ideas, the small child already running halfway up the snowy staircase leading into the fortress, in the brief instant when he'd been distracted talking to Ever. With a sigh, he settles for spreading his shadow out around the base of the slide, to make sure no one ends up shooting too far off the end.
Off to the side, some Cavalry members have gotten bored of waiting for the slide and have started an impromptu snowball fight, while Jimmy and Kanna show Yuder how to build a snowman, after the toddler's second trip down the slide. Thanks to Yuder's abilities, the resultant figure is nearly as tall as the fortress, even if it is a little lopsided.
The Cavalry are having so much fun that they lose track of time, forgetting about how cold it is, until Yuder sneezes. After which, everyone belatedly remembers that small bodies tend to lose heat faster and bundle the toddler back inside before they earn a scolding from the Commander, or worse, the pharmacist, Enon. Yuder whines a little about having to stop the fun, but lets Gakane carry him inside without too much fuss.
Yuder wiggles on the couch, the tightly wrapped blanket around him, making it difficult to move. After seeing the red cheeked toddler come in from the cold, Kishiar had immediately put him into a hot bubble bath, then after drying him with a big fluffy towel and changing him into dry clothes, bundled him into a thick blanket and placed him on the couch near the magic stove, with a cup of hot chocolate and a slice of freshly baked spice cake on the table in front of him. The child's powers could have warmed him up faster and more easily, but this is nice too, so he doesn't complain. Finally wiggling free enough to grip the cup with his hands, Yuder takes a sip of the hot cocoa, eyes sparkling at the taste.
"Did you have fun today?" The toddler stuffs a piece of cake in his mouth just as Kishiar is asking the question, but the little one has no trouble nodding his head up and down energetically, in response.
"Again?" Yuder asks, hopefully, once he swallows his cake.
"Enjoyed it that much, did you?" His Papa asks, a smile blooming on his lips. "Yes, that should be possible... though not right away," he adds when it looks like the toddler might wriggle out of his blankets and head back outside again, "Maybe in a couple of days. I don't want you catching a cold." The child droops a little at this stipulation, but perks up again with another sip of his cocoa.
Kishiar sits down on the couch beside him and Yuder snuggles into his side, careful not to spill any of his precious cocoa on either of them. Somehow he manages to finish both the cocoa and the cake before he falls asleep, though Kishiar still has to rescue the empty mug when it falls from the sleeping child's grasp. With a chuckle, he puts the mug beside the crumb covered plate and carries the slumbering toddler off to bed.
Today had been a very good day, indeed.
