Chapter 256 – Winter Play

I haven’t thrown snowballs since I was a kid. Since it had been so long, it actually turned out to be fun.

Even though I had started it just to entertain the other kids, I ended up enjoying it.

After enjoying the snowball battle for a while, Steff came by, and the kids asked her,

「You want to play, Steff?」

「Steff?! Come and join our team!」

「I’d be happy to!」

Steff said loudly, and joined the fight.

Even though she was a magician, she ended up being quite fast with her throwing.

She could control where she was throwing well too.

Because of this, she suddenly was quite popular with the kids.

「Wow! Steff!」

「I’m just having fun…」

Steff said happily.

「ryaa ryaa」「wiff wiff」

Shiggy and the pups were running around Steff as she threw the balls.

They probably really liked watching the snowballs getting thrown back and forth.

I could also tell she was making the snowballs softly so as not to hurt the kids.

Even if you were hit, it didn’t hurt.

So it was nice to see that she was good with playing with kids. Especially good.

On the other hand, Moofy and Femm were digging in the snow a little ways away from us.

「Mooo moo」

「Wuff!」

I think they were searching around and digging.

It was still very deep. Not only that, but places where the snow was removed was stacked even higher in other places.

Even though there were very high drifts, they were digging through them for some reason.

I guess they just liked to dig.

I left them to dig as I turned back to the snowball fight.

After a while, the village kids finally got tired.

It was just past noon when we decided to take a break.

So I told the kids,

「If you stay out here after sweating, you’re going to catch a cold. At least wipe it off.」

「Okay!」「I’ll be back after lunch!」

And the kids went back to their homes.

「Master, you’ve done very well.」

「Huh? How?」

「It’s not normal for kids to tired out before an older guy does.」

「Is that what you mean?」

「Yes!」

「Collette, you need to go in too!」

「Okay, old man!」

So all of us went back to my house together.

I looked over at Femm and Moofy, and they were still plowing away into the snow.

「Femm! Moofy! Lunch time!」

「Wuff!」「Moo!」

They ran over happily after hearing it.

「What were you two trying to make?」

「Moo?」

Moofy looked confused. I guess they weren’t trying to make anything.

On the other hand, Femm said proudly,

『We were trying to make a comfortable hole.』

「A ‘comfortable hole’?」

『Yes.』

Femm said with a proud snort.

I knew all the wolves were in the wolf house. Even so, it was a tight place for all of them.

I wondered if Femm was trying to make something like another fun place for them to hang out.

Anyway, we went back to eat lunch.

As we were eating, Timi came in.

She probably had gone back to the pole for some reason.

She came in, saw Shiggy, and her face lit up,

「Oh, Shiggy! You look so cute!」

「ryaa!」

Shiggy had her winter coat on. I’m sure Timi had really taken to it.

It was bad to wear a coat inside, but no one was going to say anything bad about it.

Timi picked up Shiggy as we all were eating.

「What a great coat!」

「Vi-Vi made it for her.」

I said, and Timi bowed to Vi-Vi,

「Thank you! You made it so well.」

「Don’t worry about it.」

After eating lunch, we went back outside.

We played with the snowballs again and made some more snowmen.

Timi came outside, and watched Shiggy from a bit away.

While all this was going on, I looked over to Femm again.

「Huh?」

In just a little while, Femm and Moofy had made a large snow hut.

Even calling a hut was strange, it was more like a hole dug into a wall of snow.

But it was quite big, about 20 people could fit inside.

All the kids suddenly noticed it.

「Whoaaa!」「What’s that!」

「Moo?」

「Femm and Moofy made that?」

「Wuff!」「Moo!」

Collette went over to pet Femm and Moofy.

Femm and Moofy looked quite proud.

「I worry about it falling」

I said, but I noticed Vi-Vi was already writing a magic circle over it.

So the kids played inside it, and I didn’t worry as much about it falling.

「It’s going to be okay.」

Another fine work by the magic circle specialist.

And just the kids playing inside wouldn’t knock it down.

I was thankful for the two beasts, and I also bowed a bit to Vi-Vi.

I remembered that at the beginning that Vi-Vi had been scared of Femm.

Now she was totally used to Femm, so that was great.

And with the sun going down, all the kids and beasts went home.

I was glad I finally got a chance to play with all of them.