✱ Winter Festivities ✱

Clementine hated the cold.

The way it permeated through any form of clothing, no matter how thick. The way it made her nose and chin numb. The way it froze her breath and bit at her cheeks. Everything about the cold was truly awful. The young woman hated it with every fiber of her being, and yet here she was, out in the thick of it.

Clem nuzzled her face deeper into her scarf. Blue eyes peered around as she trudged through the fresh snow, each step making a satisfying crunch. There were many people in Talonia on this day, the majority of which had traveled in for the Winter Solstice festivities. Each and every person was bundled up just as much as Clem, if not more. Despite the cold, everyone else seemed quite cheerful. Clem just scoffed and buried her head deeper in her jacket. How could anyone be happy when the weather was like this?

Even though the temperature made her extremely grumpy, Clem couldn’t help but admire the beauty around her. Each tree was coated with fresh, fluffy snow. With a passing breeze, the crystals would start to flutter down to the ground. Backed by sunlight, it made everything glitter gloriously. The painter stopped for a moment, taking in the scene. She stored it away in her memory for later use, picturing how lovely it would look spray painted on a wall somewhere.

Her slight uplift in mood was swiftly shot down as someone bumped roughly into her. The young woman turned, her brow furrowed in anger and a scowl on her face. Fire blazed in her sky blue eyes. “Watch where you’re fucking going!” she snapped at the person. The cold had made her mood sour, and she was pissed.

Clem’s eyebrows rose in surprise. Normally when she swore at strangers, they just gave her a deer-in-headlights look before apologizing or walking away swiftly. Rarely had she encountered someone who was willing to talk back, let alone with such vigor! Clem was both impressed and offended.

The painter had just opened her mouth to retort when the woman pushed past her roughly with a roll of her eyes. Oh hell no. Nobody spoke down to Clem like that. She hadn’t tolerated that shit in the streets and she wasn’t about to change now. “So that’s how you wanna do this, princesa?” Clem snarled, turning to face her assailant. She was picking up things as her eyes scoured over the other woman, noting her fancy jewelry and the elegant tone her voice took despite the savage words that were spoken. This girl was definitely pretentious.

“Maybe if you didn’t have a silver spoon shoved up your ass, you wouldn’t hafta walk with such an awful strut.” The young woman’s foul mood only added more venom to her words. Clem wasn’t normally so abrasive. But today, she was looking for a reaction, hoping something she said struck a nerve in the other woman. Maybe a fight would warm her up enough to enjoy the day.

”You did not just fuckin’ call me that shit,” Clem gasped indignantly. “You wanna fight? Cause that’s how you get a fight.” With that, the painter took a menacing step closer. The sleeves of her puffy purple jacket were pushed back up her arms aggressively as she squared her shoulders. Clem clenched her hands in and out of fists. This woman better have as much bite as she did bark!

Clem had just given the woman a rough shove in the chest when she heard the clinking of ice against ice. She took a step back and whipped her head around. What was that sound and where was it coming from? The mage kept glancing back at her opponent so she didn’t get a surprise punch.

The sound happened again and Clem realized it was coming from above them. In what felt like slow motion, she tilted her head back and looked up at the tree overhead. Hanging from the branches right above the two was a group of ten purple-blue scorpions! They seemed to be made of ice. As soon as they saw Clem looking, each one began to snap its icy claws together. The eerie sound echoed around the now-silent pathway, and a chill went down Clem’s spine. These creatures were definitely not friendly!

One of the scorpions crouched down and leapt off its branch, falling through the air right towards the two women. Claws snapped eagerly as it fell, excited to get a pinch of skin or bone. The rest seemed ready to follow down from the snowy perch, their chorus of snaps growing louder.

“Shit,” the painter swore, grabbing the arm of the woman and pulling her away from the creature. Even though they had been about to fight, she couldn’t just leave her to get attacked by scorpions! Clem could never rest easy if she did that. Snow scuffed beneath her feet as she urged the other woman to follow.

“Run!”

Clem’s mind was racing as the two sprinted away from the scorpions. She had never seen anything like these creatures before. However, since leaving Neutral Grounds, she had experienced a ton of stuff that was out of the ordinary - at least what was ordinary to her. Normal wasn’t even a concept to her anymore, it didn’t exist. Whenever she felt like she was getting used to the way things were in Fiore, something came along to screw her whole perception up.

The other woman’s screeching didn’t help her come up with an idea any faster. It seemed that this lady was definitely more bark than bite. All her false confidence had disappeared the moment Clem grabbed her arm. Now she was screaming about how she hated bugs. Clem rolled her eyes to herself. Afraid of bugs, really? That’s what she was focusing on right now?

The two rounded the corner of a tall brick building. Clem grabbed one of her spray paint cans from her belt and tossed it up, catching it steadily out of the air. She turned mid step and skidded to a stop through the snow. The painter raised her weapon and shot out a spew of orange paint. The liquid fell out of the air into a bubbling puddle in the snow. As the scorpions rounded the corner, five of them got caught in the orange paint and began to drown. The rest either dodged or escaped the paint, but found their swift scurrying to be slowed significantly.

Clem rushed forward and squashed four beneath her feet. Each stomp left a hole in the snow with scorpion exoskeleton and guts at the bottom. She let out a breath of relief and turned to the other woman. Just as she was about to open her mouth and speak, she noticed the last scorpion crawling slowly towards the lady. It was slower than any bug Clem had seen, it almost resembled a snail. It should be easy to just step on it and kill it right?

“There’s one more scorpion, you can just step on it,” she called out to her companion, hoping that her fear of bugs wouldn’t prevent her from simply killing it. Then again, she didn’t know this woman very well.