𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬

27 | Broken Memories

          A strong gust of wind danced around the five figures situated upon a narrow hill.

"On the count of three," Leon said as he situated himself. "Remember, loser becomes a slave for the day. I'm hoping it's Connie and Nova, because a pair is always better than one."

"Having no slaves is better than one." Lyric frowned as he followed his example, having to hold onto Zelda's hood as she almost went off without a countdown. "Excuse me, missy, no cheating."

I looked towards Connie as we were left standing. "How'd you want to do this?"

There was no response as he grabbed me and sat down, my back resting against his chest as knees were brought up on either side.

"Alright," I snapped. "No need to be grabby."

"I know you don't have control over your fire, so just project your natural temperature and it will arise." He leaned over and murmured lightly. "Leave everything else to me."

"Alright," Zelda exclaimed. "The finish line is passing the gazebo; we'll just ask their majesties inside on who really won."

I had to duck as Connie brought the reigns over to him, slightly nicking my eye in the process.

"Good luck, everyone!" Lyric looked slightly pale as he realized how steep the hill actually was from this angle, he nonetheless smiled.

"Ready..." Leon began.

A wolfish grin left Zelda. "Set..."

"GO!" They both shouted at the same time and pushed off.

Connie tensed behind as we leaned over, descending at a regular pace and feeling the stray snow flying around us. The distinct sound of Lyric shrieking at the top of his lungs was heard, and I tried not to get distracted by laughing from the whole ridiculousness of everything.

'Novalie, do you want to be useful for once?'

His nagging instinctively made me increase my base body temperature. It didn't take long to notice how the toboggan began smoothing out, our descent less bumpy as we began gliding with ease.

Zelda was currently taking the lead, with her baseball cap blowing away as she flew. There was slight alarm as Leon side-bumped her, closely followed by a growled curse directed towards him right after. Lyric actually passed the two, although was too panicked by everything going on around him that he steered his sled to the side like a boomerang.

I clung to Connie's shins.

It was then that I noticed we were catching up to the other pair... a little too fast for my liking.

"Connie," I gritted. "I don't know what you're doing, but I'm pretty sure it's not me!"

Joyful laughter came from behind, one that started out as a rumble on my back and progressed into a genuine noise of enjoyment. The sound was his most real blast of emotion I've heard from him, causing me to miss our victory through the finish line.

I did notice that we were still going at an unbearable pace, screaming at the top of my lungs as Connie casually steered us between the few trees that would otherwise maim us if collided.

"Why aren't we slowing down?!" I'm pretty sure the blood circulation in his legs was being blocked as I clung for dear life.

'We will,' I felt him shrug. 'I just miscalculated the length of time we would have.'

"What?" My frantic yell was interrupted as we almost hit a large stump.

'It means we're going to stop above the frozen lake.'