Sword and Snow

A few days after I found that I was basically marrying a literal princess - which I was still processing - it was time for a small break from wedding planning. It was New Years, after all.

Stena excitedly ran circles around my legs as I tried to carry the platters of food to the table.

“Dumplings! Dumplings!” She chanted, as I did my best to avoid tripping over her.

“Stena! Stop bothering Mom, and come help me carry these!” Cierra called from the kitchen.

“‘Kay!” She said, and flew back toward the kitchen.

No longer hampered by an excitable child, I finally placed the large serving tray full of dumplings on the table. It was in good company, as there were already several other large trays full of food waiting there, and still more to come. Talya’s eyes continued to widen comically with every tray placed on the table.

“Emery, I know we said we’d go all out for our New Year’s Eve dinner, but this is taking it a little far, don’t you think?” She asked. “Are you sure you don’t at least want help -”

“No helping.” I said sternly. “You do more than enough around here as is. Let Ri and I at least return the favor on a holiday.”

“I second that!” Avuri echoed as she strolled into the room, tailed by both younger girls. Avuri had two more dishes in her hands, and Cierra and Stena each carried one. “Merri, there’s just the drinks left if you want to grab ‘em.”

“Gotcha.” I said, and quickly hopped back to the kitchen to gather the pitchers. We had made some tea earlier in the day and chilled it, as well as prepped a pitcher of ice-cold water and a pitcher of apple juice. As I hefted the last load I called, “Do we have enough cups in there?”

“We need two more. Someone didn’t finish setting the table.” Avuri called back. I heard the apologetic ‘Sorry, Momri’ from Cierra, and could picture the exact face Avuri was probably making at her. Avuri was quickly becoming a wonderful mother, complete with all the mannerisms.

I reached out with my Qi to lift two cups from the rack in the corner as my hands were full. They floated neatly behind me as I walked back to the table and placed everything in the few remaining empty spaces I could find.

As we all moved to take out seats, I smiled at the awed and hungry faces Talya and Vale were making. Talya had been correct, after all; we had gone all out. There were several platters of various dumplings, a whole grilled fish for each of us, a giant bowl of rice, a plate full of noodles, and more side dishes besides. Our kitchen table, which was typically more than large enough to accommodate the six of us, was suddenly feeling a little too small.

Once everyone was in their seats, we all met eyes and I grinned. “Alright everybody, dig in!”

And chaos erupted. There were only six of us at the table, sure, but the sudden explosion of movement plus the requests to pass this or that took over the room entirely. Squeals of joy erupted around the table as we all grabbed and tasted our favorite dishes, then passed it along to the next person in line.

“You girls have outdone yourselves this time, truly!” Vale said, booming over the chatter and dull noises of everyone enjoying the food. “Not only is there so much to eat, but it’s all so delicious.”

“Thanks, Dad.” I said, hiding a smile and my full mouth behind a hand. “Don’t forget to thank Cierra and Stena too - they did a lot of work on this.”

He looked at each of them in turn. “You girls did wonderfully.” He said seriously, then broke out into a big grin. “Now, which dumplings did each of you make?”

Cierra and Stena were more than happy to point at the dumplings they had contributed to, or even folded themselves. With how much Cierra had been helping out in the kitchen since she arrived, it was no surprise that her dumplings looked just as good as the adults’. Even Stena’s looked good, although it was clear which ones she had fumbled her way through folding.

The conversation over dinner had mostly been noises and grunts as we were all focused on the food. Every single one of us had chosen to skip lunch in favor of the big dinner, and it showed. We were all very hungry and once we started eating, we were all honed in on the food.

By the time we were all leaning back in our chairs completely stuffed, it was after dark. Cierra and Stena were happily playing around in the nearby main room, but the rest of us remained half-immobile at the table.

I groaned when I finally tried to sit up, and Avuri laughed at me. I shot a quick glare her way. “Hey. I’d like to see you sit up without making any sound. You’re just as stuffed as I am.”

“Still bet I could.” She responded, as I fought to get to my feet.

“Well come on, then. We should clear off the table before we do anything else.” I said, as I slowly moved my way around to gather up empty dishes. “If you can get up without groaning I’ll put away all the leftovers myself.”

Avuri narrowed her eyes at me. “Deal.” She said, taking on the challenge. As I watched, she steadied herself and her breathing. In the same instant that she moved to lean forward to sit up straight, she let out an immediate grunt of effort.

As Avuri froze, there was a moment of silence before we all broke out laughing.

“Nice try, Ri. Now get up and help me clean up.” I said through my laughter and shook my head at her silliness. “Couldn’t even move without making a sound, hm?”

Avuri hung her head in mock shame as she slowly made her way to her feet. “I guess not. Damn, are we just getting old?” She asked wryly.

“I think you’re just over stuffed.” Vale said. “If you’re making sounds like that because you’re old, we’re all in trouble. You two are still newly minted Sky Realm Cultivators, and you're still in your primes. If your mid-twenties are “old” now, I’d be absolutely ancient.”

“You are ancient.” I laughed. “Old man.” I bumped his chair with my hip for emphasis as I took his empty plate.

“Oh, just you wait. Both of you.” Vale said in return, “Cierra and Stena are going to run the two of you ragged and I’m going to laugh.”

“Don’t worry, we can just get you to babysit while we go into the City for a spa day!” I retorted as I carried the empty dishes to the kitchen for washing.

“How bold of you to assume that I’d watch the kids like that for you!” He called after me. It was apparently loud enough that Cierra heard him, because she popped her head around the corner to give Vale puppy-dog eyes.

“You don’t want to watch us anymore, Uncle Vale?” She asked sadly. I couldn’t see her, but it sounded like she even managed some small tears.

The clattering of what I imagined was Vale’s chair followed by a slew of reassurances was my background music while I washed the dishes.

It was still a few hours from midnight when we collectively made our way outside. It was plenty dark though, and Stena was beginning to fall asleep. Despite her excitement, Cierra was also starting to flag a bit, but she was clearly fighting hard against it.

I was holding Stena’s hand to guide her as we walked outside. She was rubbing her eyes with her other hand sleepily.

“Why are we going outside?”

I smiled down at her. “Did your sister not tell you about the fireworks?”

“Fireworks?” She asked, looking up at me confused and blinking the sleep from her eyes. “What’re those?”

“Hm. You know, they’re kinda hard to explain.” I said. “But they’re fun. I think you’ll like them.”

“Okay.” Stena said and just focused on continuing to walk toward the playground with me. I couldn’t blame her for her lack of excitement between her half-asleep state and not knowing what was coming.

Cierra on the other hand was dancing around Avuri, sleepiness momentarily forgotten now that we were actually outside. It also probably helped that Avuri was carrying a decently sized box of fireworks and firecrackers.

Vale and Talya trailed behind the two of them, watching the rest of us. When we finally made it to the playground, they both took a seat on a bench nearby while Avuri, the kids, and I walked a bit further out to the dirt portion of the ground.

Avuri looked at me with a grin, her back turned toward Vale and Talya. “Should we light and toss a firecracker at them?” She asked, nodding back toward their bench.

I chuckled, and dug around the box for one, offering it to her. I went back to digging in the box for any sort of fire starter. “Did you bring the -”

I heard the distinct sound of a flint lighter being struck, and lifted my head to see Avuri already lighting the cracker. She must have had the lighter in her storage ring or something. But that thought was quickly pushed away as she grinned over the lit fuse and the younger girls looked enamored with the cracker. Even Stena looked interested, but still sleepy.

Then, as the cracker’s fuse burned down, Avuri’s grin grew. With just a few seconds left on the fuse, she tossed it back over her shoulder. She apparently had impeccable aim, as it landed squarely between Talya and Vale’s feet, a little ways away from the bench. Then it proceeded to violently pop, as expected.

Talya and Vale both leaned away from the firecracker as Cierra cheered excitedly. Stena’s eyes went wide and she quickly clapped her hands over her ears. She did not look happy, but thankfully wasn’t on the verge of tears or anything like that.

I crouched down beside her, and gave her a little snuggle as the firecrackers petered out. “It’s okay if you don’t like the loud ones like that.” I said gently, and kissed her forehead. As she dropped her hands away from her ears, I picked out two sparklers. When I went to hand one off to Stena, she leaned away and didn’t want to take it.

“Okay, I’ll just show you, then.” I said, but she still looked worried. I grabbed the striker from the box while Cierra and Avuri dug around for a bigger firework and turned back to Stena.

“Watch.” I said, then turned away from her and lit the sparkler. After a moment of burning, the sparks began to fly from the tip of the firework, the colors morphing between yellow, red, and orange in a vibrant display.

It took just seconds before Stena was back on board. Her eyes went as wide as saucers as she stared at the colors. I gave her a quick smile before I drew her name out in the air with a flourish. She giggled and smiled a big, happy smile. And this time, as I continued to hold my sparkler shooting away from us, she happily took the second one when I offered.

She held on tightly to it as mine ran down, and I kept drawing random shapes with it in the air. Stena cheered, and jumped up and down when mine finally died as she held up her excitedly.

I passed the striker back to Avuri though, allowing her to light one of the big ones that she had picked out with Cierra. I sat in the dirt and pulled Stena onto my lap.

“But my turn…?” She asked sadly, her grip on her sparkler still firm.

“You’re next. But watch this one.” I said as I held her close and pointed at the large firework that Avuri and Cierra were carrying a little ways out to the center of the playground. “It’s going to launch into the sky, so watch for it, okay?”

Stena nodded, as the other two lined up the firework with the large break in the trees. Once it was lit, Cierra and Avuri both dashed back towards us. With huge smiles, they both dramatically dove to the ground beside us, turning to watch what they had lit.

With a dull boom, a small light went flying up into the sky. All of our heads tilted back to watch it go. Then when it exploded into a giant sphere of different colors, everyone ‘ooh’ed appropriately. Even Stena.

I half tickled her in my lap. “You liked that one, huh?”

She nodded. “More?”

“There will be! But let’s light your sparkler, yeah?” I said, and Avuri tossed the striker over to me. With my hands occupied around Stena, I reached out with my Qi and caught the metal midair, where it stilled, floating.

“Me too! Me too!” Cierra shouted, and jumped toward the box, digging around for a sparkler.

A bit later, the two girls were dancing around the playground, a sparkler in each hand, while Avuri and I sat cuddled up next to the box of fireworks. Our fingers were intertwined as we watched our girls play.

“Love you.” I whispered, happily. “Happy new year.”

“I love you too.” Avuri responded, then leaned over for a sweet kiss. “And happy new year to you, too.”