Cozy Reading vs Snowball Fights: A Short Story

Another day, another short story from one of my illustrations! Hope you enjoy!

The cabin room was enveloped in the natural light that the outside world provided. It was made possible through the large windows on two sides. There was no need for a lamp to be turned on, but the fireplace in the middle of the opposite wall was roaring with flame, giving a little bit more light and warmth as Bayley laid on the fluffy bench with many pillows gathered from different parts of the house. The only company she kept inside today was the resident orange cat, who plopped next to her curled-up feet, resting comfortably on the draped blanket. Bayley has been reading this next book in her TBR all morning long. She took the opportunity of the quiet room she found to get through three-quarters of it so far. She was getting to the climatic bit in this little slow-burn romance.  

The knight ran up the hill as fast as he could. Fighting the exhaustion and pain hitting his ribs. He threw off his helmet to see clearer the silhouette of the woman at the top. Her eyes widened and began to tear up at the sight of the knight running towards her. Just as he was about ten feet away, the wound at his ribs finally took hold, and he collapsed to the ground. The woman immediately started running to him, making up the final steps for him.

“You came back to me…” She choked up, her tears dripped onto the knight’s cheeks.

“Always,” He replied. Lifting his fingers weakly to caress her cheeks-

Thunk…thunk thunk

Surprisingly, the pangs of snowballs hitting the window didn’t startle the cat. Bayley looked up from her book to turn at the window. Her three cousins, around their early twenties, similar to her, were outside the family home in the cold. The house found itself in a large storm overnight that brought down two more feet to the already four feet of snow surrounding the home. So, the three cousins were more than excited to go out and enjoy the fresh powdered snow. 

The eldest, Connor, with curly brown hair underneath an off white beanie, found himself at the tallest hill created in the storm, or part of it because Bayley was pretty sure they spent part of the morning making that hill larger than they originally found it. They stated they needed a quote, “a high vantage point.” 

Farther away from the two was the youngest, Bran, who had curly ginger hair and sported a full green ensemble. He was sinking in the snow, doing his best to fight off Connor’s barrage of snowballs. He still had the biggest smile on his face. But that wasn’t at all surprising. Bran has a way of having a good time, no matter the circumstance. Probably how they managed to have the best time of their lives running from the cops getting out of a house party a year ago. They’ve kept that little story away from the parents who are currently in the other living room chatting it up.

Finally, the middle elven cousin, Saoirse, was walking up the snow hill with a giant snowball on her back. She was wobbling and doing her best to walk to a good spot to throw it at Connor.  Of course, she goes big or goes home, she has the strength for it after all. She out-benches Connor and Bran easily at the home gym that’s here. 

The three of them saw Bayley looking at them and gave a wave. Although a little muffled, she could guess Connor yelled out, “Come on out, Bayley! It’s nice out here!” 

She shook her head, lifting and wiggling the book in her hand as an answer. All three raised an eyebrow. Bran started making a gagging noise as he recounts she’s reading is a romance novel. Connor laughed; Saorise just rolled her eyes before throwing a much smaller snowball at the two boys. 

Bayley turned back around after seeing the scene to continue her book. 

“Always,” He replied. Lifting his fingers weakly to caress her cheeks. She grabbed his hand and kept it to her cheek. 

“You didn’t have to go get yourself killed, though.” She laughed weakly. 

“I’m still here, am I? You said breaking the curse is the only way to be together…” He replied, giving off a smile to ignore the pain in his ribs. 

“You’re so reckless…” She said, examining the wound to make sure he will be ok.

He used the last of his strength to-

“You’re staying in here, sweetie?” Bayley looked up again to see her aunt in the doorway to the kitchen. Her lighter brown hair shined slightly in the natural light, revealing the minimal gray hairs like glitter on her hair. Bayley never thought she would see her elven aunt have gray hairs in her life. But she had to consider that her aunt was much older than all of them. 

“Yeah, auntie. I’m not very fond of the cold like your kids.” Bayley responded. Her aunt raised an eyebrow in confusion. 

“Sweetie, you’re just too infatuated with that romance book in your hand to go take a bit to go play in the snow like the old days. Put the book down and go outside, or else your beautiful tawny skin will turn pale, and I’m pretty sure you won’t love that!” Her aunt teased, seeing Bayley’s face scrunch in response. She snickered before returning to doing whatever she was doing before interrupting Bayley’s reading. 

Bayley took a deep breath, recalibrating before continuing to her book once again. Hoping that was last interruption for a long while.

He used the last of his strength to push his body up to close the distance between them and-

THUNK! 

Now that startled the cat–it jumped off the bench and hissed. Bayley’s head whipped back to the window to see the giant sploch of snow still sliding off the window. Bayley looked past the snow to see Saorise looking nervous, Connor laughing so hard, and Bran finding a hiding spot in the snow, but he was too stuck to move very far. 

Bayley let out a frustrated sigh before putting the book down and getting up from the bench. She made a beeline to the walkroom, getting her jacket, snow pants, and boots. She whipped the door open, immediately feeling the cold air brush against her exposed cheeks. She turned the corner to the battleground the three had made, and they all were taking up higher ground by the time she spotted them. 

“Seriously?! I’ve just got to the good part in my book!” She yelled, getting a snowball ready just in case.

“Come on…you’ve been inside all day! Just join us for like an hour!” Connor said, his snowball ready. 

“Yeah, besides, you’ll get back that sappy romance in a bit and to the nasty kiss-“ Bran started, but was immediately hit face-first with a snowball, thrown by Bayley. She blinked before giving off a quick smile. That felt pretty good. 

“You asked for it!” Bayley gave off a smirk before she gathered more snowballs and joined round 3 of the snowball battle. 

A quick word after you read this comforting story

We’re nearing the end of winter at some point. It will probably get a little warmer towards the end of March. Wanted to keep the winter vibes going a little bit longer with this short story. I hope you all enjoyed reading it!