- Location
- Maryland
Eventually, yes. But at the moment they're too caught up in their internal political struggles and worried about another attack from the South.
Who Needs Harmony?: An MLP Empire Quest
- Thread starter Questor
- Start date
@Questor
Please put my Omake Bonus of +10 from "First Draft of a Treatise on the First Winter War by Adrian Dawnquill: +10" on Asking for Assistance, if there is still room for boni on that action. After all, Dawnquill stringently argued in his Treatise in favor of forging closer ties with the Yaks and trying to get them to participate in joint war training.
Please put my Omake Bonus of +10 from "First Draft of a Treatise on the First Winter War by Adrian Dawnquill: +10" on Asking for Assistance, if there is still room for boni on that action. After all, Dawnquill stringently argued in his Treatise in favor of forging closer ties with the Yaks and trying to get them to participate in joint war training.
- Location
- sweden
well then that settles it, im changing my vote
[X] Plan Expansion and Groundwork v2
also, hell yeah! dat sweet, SWEET +15.
edit: Imp'd
[X] Plan Expansion and Groundwork v2
also, hell yeah! dat sweet, SWEET +15.
edit: Imp'd
- Location
- sweden
- Location
- Missouri
Ah this thread moves by so fast, I want to try to vote on plans but they go by so fast!
- Location
- Back in Cali
The votes are open for at least a day. Plenty of time to vote.
- Location
- Italy
the VOTES are open for usually about a day. The moratorium is usually only 3 hours or so, and after that ends plans are mostly established. If one is sleeping, studying or at work/school during these 3 hours...
I'd go more for a 8-12 hours moratorium, then about 12 hours voting period (unless the vote is REALLY close).(this mostly for the turn plans. mini-turns/single decisions would usually require less time, though it may vary)
This way it's much more likely for everyone to get a chance to propose plans and discuss them.
I might be trying to fix something that needs no fixing though. It worked reasonably well thus far.
- Location
- Maryland
I'll consider it. Thank you for your input.
Question. What do griffon fortifications look like? Given that when they were concepted, the entirety of the enemy force could simply fly over any obstacle.
- Location
- Italy
I don't think it will be big/rich/populated enough to require one for quite a bit.
Maybe we'll be able to found a Yak/Diamond dog knight order in the future there!
I would probably go with armored and spiked roofs against griffons (at least before the invention of Ballistae), plus walls against all the ground-bound beasties.
Omake: I Hope (Canon)
- Location
- sweden
I Hope
@Questor
An endless optimist some had called him. Completely true but at the end of this he would probably write a collection that wasn't as all positive as his previous works.
He had always been a very insightful pony. It wasn't really magic per se but when he looked at his fellow crystal ponies he was certain he could see... Something in their refractions.
He didn't like seeing that now. So many were cloudy, tarnished with the misery that we areare forced under.
He had stopped looking when he saw inside a mare he didn't know. He saw in her refraction how she simply laid down and closed her eyes before her body became opaque. The spirit just... Absent and the body vacant. He couldn't hold the hollow mare in his sight, losing her in a crowd moving to whatever work she had been assigned by the sorcerer-tyrant. He had almost lost himself there, the knowledge that the ponies he saw might be hollow and empty. The bodies that didn't know they had died.
How cruel it would be. To force himself to continue this life. To walk this seemingly endless march when it could all end if he just laid down and rested, never to wake again. Hope, he now knew, was a horribly cruel thing. Forcing him to endure this harsh road when he could simply stop and rest. Just a few more steps. You might find something to hope for. What if it's only a few steps ahead from where you stopped? Just a few more steps.
Hoping to find something to hope for. How maddening.
And then. Everything changed. So many had left that day. The "useless", soldiers, the large crystal monstrosities and the Things. Lead by the Tyrant himself. He didn't know what he had expected, what he had hoped for. Would he return with more subjects? Some artifact? A dragon?
Curiosity was worth a few more steps. At least until you get some answers. Then you can rest. Now, just a few more steps.
He came back. Only he came back. Smoking, Cursing and Screaming.
How? What could possibly have happened?
A question worth a few more steps.
There was no such thing as gossip anymore. The city was silent of words. The only sounds the clip of hooves and the harsh sounds of war. Clanks and hiss from the forges, smash and crunsh from the mines and thuds and thunks from the golem stables. It was sounds that grated on the ears, sounds of irregularity and harshness that could not become normal. Another constant reminder of their lives.
It was almost a relief when it was replaced with a single monotone tone. The explosion that caused threw crystal and fire almost as high as the castle.
It was there that he saw it. The Tyrant came himself, to once more scream and curse and rage.
He was so close to the Tyrant and the Tyrant so enraged and unfocused that he couldn't not See.
He didn't know the name of those creatures the Tyrant had seen. Birds of prey and bodies of predators. Fighting with steel, explosions and Fire. Large creatures with large horns, steady as small mountains. Dogs that talked and talked, traped and tricked. All standing against the Tyrant. Bringing him to ruin.
He saw his reflection a while afterwards. Not transparent as during the festivals so long ago. But... Through the clouds that hung over them came sunlight. And this time he saw a little refraction in his mane. A small, twinkling light. And he remembers.
The artist has a calling, a compulsion, to always make art. There exists no condition where the artist can't make art. Only when the artist no longer lives, can't he make art.
Lighted Feather had not made his poety, his art, in years. Just like that mare, he had been dead without even knowing. And if he could come back... Then there was Hope.
It was horribly frustrating to try and hold poetry in his mind. The lamentation of not having access to ink and parchment! Reciting it every day did help though.
In more ways than one.
Maybe I'm crazy
A little naive.
But I see the light at the end
And it is brighter than it used to be.
We have a long way to go
But I Hope, I Believe.
That the light at the end
Is brighter than it used to be.
_____________________________
Aw shit, I dropped my keyboard.
@Questor
An endless optimist some had called him. Completely true but at the end of this he would probably write a collection that wasn't as all positive as his previous works.
He had always been a very insightful pony. It wasn't really magic per se but when he looked at his fellow crystal ponies he was certain he could see... Something in their refractions.
He didn't like seeing that now. So many were cloudy, tarnished with the misery that we areare forced under.
He had stopped looking when he saw inside a mare he didn't know. He saw in her refraction how she simply laid down and closed her eyes before her body became opaque. The spirit just... Absent and the body vacant. He couldn't hold the hollow mare in his sight, losing her in a crowd moving to whatever work she had been assigned by the sorcerer-tyrant. He had almost lost himself there, the knowledge that the ponies he saw might be hollow and empty. The bodies that didn't know they had died.
How cruel it would be. To force himself to continue this life. To walk this seemingly endless march when it could all end if he just laid down and rested, never to wake again. Hope, he now knew, was a horribly cruel thing. Forcing him to endure this harsh road when he could simply stop and rest. Just a few more steps. You might find something to hope for. What if it's only a few steps ahead from where you stopped? Just a few more steps.
Hoping to find something to hope for. How maddening.
And then. Everything changed. So many had left that day. The "useless", soldiers, the large crystal monstrosities and the Things. Lead by the Tyrant himself. He didn't know what he had expected, what he had hoped for. Would he return with more subjects? Some artifact? A dragon?
Curiosity was worth a few more steps. At least until you get some answers. Then you can rest. Now, just a few more steps.
He came back. Only he came back. Smoking, Cursing and Screaming.
How? What could possibly have happened?
A question worth a few more steps.
There was no such thing as gossip anymore. The city was silent of words. The only sounds the clip of hooves and the harsh sounds of war. Clanks and hiss from the forges, smash and crunsh from the mines and thuds and thunks from the golem stables. It was sounds that grated on the ears, sounds of irregularity and harshness that could not become normal. Another constant reminder of their lives.
It was almost a relief when it was replaced with a single monotone tone. The explosion that caused threw crystal and fire almost as high as the castle.
It was there that he saw it. The Tyrant came himself, to once more scream and curse and rage.
He was so close to the Tyrant and the Tyrant so enraged and unfocused that he couldn't not See.
He didn't know the name of those creatures the Tyrant had seen. Birds of prey and bodies of predators. Fighting with steel, explosions and Fire. Large creatures with large horns, steady as small mountains. Dogs that talked and talked, traped and tricked. All standing against the Tyrant. Bringing him to ruin.
He saw his reflection a while afterwards. Not transparent as during the festivals so long ago. But... Through the clouds that hung over them came sunlight. And this time he saw a little refraction in his mane. A small, twinkling light. And he remembers.
The artist has a calling, a compulsion, to always make art. There exists no condition where the artist can't make art. Only when the artist no longer lives, can't he make art.
Lighted Feather had not made his poety, his art, in years. Just like that mare, he had been dead without even knowing. And if he could come back... Then there was Hope.
It was horribly frustrating to try and hold poetry in his mind. The lamentation of not having access to ink and parchment! Reciting it every day did help though.
In more ways than one.
Maybe I'm crazy
A little naive.
But I see the light at the end
And it is brighter than it used to be.
We have a long way to go
But I Hope, I Believe.
That the light at the end
Is brighter than it used to be.
_____________________________
Aw shit, I dropped my keyboard.
Last edited:
- Location
- Maryland
+10 to a roll! Very cool!
I had some musings and thinking over both Hearth's Warming and the Discordian Era and considered that at the moment 'Equestria' might be something similar to Austria-Hungary in the fact that it's a union of various political entities with differing styles of government.
Equestria (Land of Horses) is merely the common name for a complicated system which isn't entirely sure what it wants to be. So let me present what I think it's official name is:
The Sovereignties and Lands Represented by the Harmonic Council and the Lands of the Dual Crowns of Invictus and Ferocioris.
*Sovereignties: Kingdom of Unicornica, Free Pegasi States and Earthen Commonwealth.
**Harmonic Council: The Advisors and Ministers to the Alicorn Sisters.
***Lands Under the Dual Crowns: Royal Estates, Thestral Dominion, The Everfree Forest and various other sites of natural and/or magical significance.
****Invictus and Ferocioris: As not for everything to add to theme of Sun and Moon, the crown titles refer to their personalities/style of ruling. Celestia is diplomatic and patient, while Luna is more blunt, militant and wild.
Equestria (Land of Horses) is merely the common name for a complicated system which isn't entirely sure what it wants to be. So let me present what I think it's official name is:
The Sovereignties and Lands Represented by the Harmonic Council and the Lands of the Dual Crowns of Invictus and Ferocioris.
*Sovereignties: Kingdom of Unicornica, Free Pegasi States and Earthen Commonwealth.
**Harmonic Council: The Advisors and Ministers to the Alicorn Sisters.
***Lands Under the Dual Crowns: Royal Estates, Thestral Dominion, The Everfree Forest and various other sites of natural and/or magical significance.
****Invictus and Ferocioris: As not for everything to add to theme of Sun and Moon, the crown titles refer to their personalities/style of ruling. Celestia is diplomatic and patient, while Luna is more blunt, militant and wild.
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Omake: Snow Day Vacation (Canon)
- Location
- A house
I had like, 2 omakes I was working on and then you decided to do that bit with the snowball fight and I JUST HAD TO @Questor
The wind was biting.
He was no stranger to the cold. Griffonia, as a nation, had snowfall that lasted half a year when the weather was in their favor, so it was only natural to acclimatize to it. But, even with that, he couldn't help but hold the scarf around his neck closer to his beak, trying to force his breath to act as a makeshift heater.
He had, of course, heard the reports. Wendigos... Even after the dark king had been pushed back, he just had to go ahead and make everyone's day worse, didn't he? And here, atop the wall of his own creation, where the altitude made the chill seep even deeper under his coat of feathers...
It almost made him want to just abandon it all and head on home, where he could grab a book and a chess set and sit by the fire, well away from all this cold.
But that thought lasted for only a moment. He could never do that, not when, at this very moment, the enemy was on the verge of advancing.
Even here, he could see it. His telescope, lying perched atop one of the merlons and frozen in place through packed snow, had already told him all he needed to know. In the distance, an encampment had been formed, walls of ice rising high into the sky, but not high enough that he could not see what was going on inside.
Focusing in on a round structure at the center of the camp, he could once again make out the face of the enemy general, his face twisted in a malicious smile. Directly opposite to him, his lieutenant, a scaled beast of mass destruction, mirroring his expression.
He couldn't help but shiver.
What could they be planning...?
A wingbeat sounding out behind him was all the warning he had before he felt a claw grip his skull. The enemy...?! But they were... No they couldn't have...?!
In less than the time it took him to blink, he founded himself buried in the snow below, having lost his footing.
So this was it... this was how the wall would be taken... not through battle, but through trickery and surprise attack....
He let out a huff, fully prepared for what was to come...
"Haaa... Where did I go wrong that just ruffling my cute little chick's feathers a bit would cause him to fall over?" A very familiar voice called out, "Up and at'em kiddo! Lying down is only for after the war is done!"
The claw holding him in place moved back and forth, making a mess of the feather's he'd painstakingly tamed this morning, before the pressure finally ceased and he was allowed to rise.
"Mooooom, I told you.... stop doing that!" He pleaded, trying desperately and failing to get his crest into something that didn't look like a discarded birds nest.
His mother, instead of saying 'Oh I'm sorry... here, let me help you,' took the chance to laugh at him. Laughed! "And miss out on hearing your cute whining voice? Never."
"I don't whine!" He whined.
"Sure you don't..." She walked over to the hollow wooden dowel he'd set up to act as a telescope, peering through it, "So, those two still sitting there making snowballs?"
Shaking some snow off his wings he walked up next to his mother, leaning into her side a bit to enjoy the heat she radiated, "Yeah... I don't know if they even have a plan. They've just been making snowballs and snow griffons... Are they even taking this seriously?"
She let out a sigh, "Gawain, you poor, naive child, I would have thought that, at your age, you would have learned to stop underestimating your father."
"I'm not underestimating him!" He replied, "It's just... I've been watching him and all he's been doing is, well, that..."
Hopping atop his snow wall, he took another look at his dad and sister, who were now tossing snowballs at each other, rather than doing anything productive like they had been for the past few hours. Their flag, a crude drawing of a dragon breathing fire that Gwyndlyn had made, wasn't even protected! It was flying high atop the igloo they had constructed, rather than inside it like they had with theirs.
"Hmmm... and you've been watching him the entire time?"
He shrugged and nodded, "Mostly. Well, they went inside their igloo for a while and came out with a bunch of snowballs afterward, but aside from that, they've just been playing around."
Internally, he couldn't help but be a little disappointed. He'd really wanted to take this seriously, especially when his dad had taken them from the courtyard out to the entrance of the azure ravine to have their, since that place piled up snow higher than the castle walls. But then, instead of teaming up with him, he'd teamed up with Gwyndlyn, and then had picked his camp a bit aways from the base of a massive snowbank.
Dad had to know he'd obviously take the superior position on top of the snow wall, so why had he decided to make a camp down there when he had the advantageous position of the high ground...?
The only answer he could come up with was that dad wasn't even taking this seriously, and he couldn't help be reaffirm that feeling when he saw the two just doing whatever they wanted...
"I see, I see... Well then, general, prep time is almost up. Are you ready?"
Gawain took a deep breath. It was now or never... "As ready as I can be, mom. Did you...?"
"Taken care of." She gave him a wink, "Time to start this snowball fight off right!"
He gave a curt nod, "Let the games begin!"
Today, the emperor had decided to take a day off.
And, honestly, he had just been planning on using that time to just... relax, for once.
"Higher, papa, higher!"
But, on this day, he had been challenged. And by his own son...
"Weeee!"
And he would not take a challenge lying down.
"Alright, Gwyndlyn, that's enough." He spoke, gently grabbing his falling daughter out of the air, "It's almost time to start our snowball fight."
"Aww..." her small wings drooped, "But papa..."
"We've played all day Gwyndlyn. And don't you want to see your brother lose?"
She nodded enthusiastically, her wings flapping and nearly pulling her out of his grasp. "Yeah! We're going to beat him and his dumb fort!"
"Gwyndlyn."
"Oops... sorry... Cursing is bad..."
Garrick sighed. Really, his wife was a terrible influence... but he loved her nonetheless. And they were bound to learn them soon anyway, griffon society being what it was.
Just, he'd wished they didn't learn them so early...? At least he could say she wasn't learning any of the really terrible ones.
He placed her on the snow covered ground, straightening his back. "Let's go check on the troops, shall we?"
"Mhmm!"
He straightened out one of his wings to let his daughter climb onto his back and moved around the outside wall of their central base to the front.
His camp was truly a sight to behold. In the time they had set, he and his daughter had managed to make a small igloo to act as their command center, a small outer wall to act as a barrier, and, most important of all (according to his daughter, at least) an army to call their own.
At the front, both inside and outside the walls, rested several snow griffons, ready to take on the job of guarding their new home against the wretched invaders from the north. Equipped with shields of ice and snow, they provided perfect cover from incoming lethal snowball sieges.
Not that they'd had much time to make all that many... Only four in the front, and three inside, with one snow dragon that he had a sneaking suspicion was meant to represent a certain foreign emperor his daughter had developed a liking for.
The sudden urge to swipe at it with his royal blade suddenly popped into his head, but he suppressed it. No, it was only childish fascination, nothing more. There was no need to make plans to go to war with another foreign empire or have his spies draw up plans to commit regicide... Nope. Not. At. All.
"Papa, why are you grinding your beak?"
"Nothing, darling!" He said, loosening his jaw and shoving his feelings into a corner, "Are you ready?"
She jumped off his back and walked over to the line of snow griffons near the entryway. "Uhuh!"
Making his posture rigid, he took a stance he had taken many time before and called out in his booming royal voice, "Attention!"
Gwyndlyn snapped her legs together and brought her hand up to her brow, eyes narrowing, "Sir, yes sir!"
"Today, we fight the enemy!" he spoke, rising up to stand on two legs and placing his hands behind his back. "They come at us with everything they have, to take from us our home, our lives, and, most important of all... our flag."
He really did love the cute little flag his daughter had come up with. He planned on hanging it in his throne room after this was done with.
"But! We will not fall! We will not falter! We will stare our enemy, your brother, in the face, and laugh! For he is not prepared!" He took one step forward, "He will face us, and he will find, not an enemy who will crumble at the slightest sign of resistance, but a wall of our own design! His forces will crash upon our like waves on rocks, and when he has nothing left, we will go forth, take his flag, and declare tonights desserts to! be! ours!"
"Ours!" His daughter cheered.
"Now, I present you one final chance. If you desire to remain behind and take no part in the upcoming slaughter, I will not blame you. But, should you feel ready, take a step-"
Before he even finished his sentence, his daughter had already started running forward and jumped to give him a hug. "Let'sgolet'sgolet'sgo!"
A mirthful laugh escaped his beak. "Very well. I suspect your brother will make the first move. Shall we taunt him?"
"Torment! Torment!"
"Not torment, taunt." He corrected. "Tormenting is for when we eat his desserts from right in front of his face without giving him any."
She giggled, hugging his chest tighter.
Stretching out his wings, he hopped up and gave a single wing flap to put himself up on the wall of his small base. "Will you do the honors?"
"Mmm!" She let go of his chest and landed on all fours, before getting up and cupping her hands to her snout. "'Waaain! Are you ready to looooose!"
It took a moment for the sound of his daughters voice to reach the enemy camp, but soon enough an echo was sent in response. "Nu-uh! You're going to lose!"
"You've already lost son!" He followed up on his daughter's taunting, "You just don't know it yet!"
"Nice bluff, but we've got this in the bag!" He heard his wife reply, "You're booze stash is mine!"
He chuckled to himself. Ah, his poor wife... This win would cause many nights of rough sleep to come, given how she took out her 'frustrations.' "I regret to inform you ninnies that we have a plan that will, without a doubt, trounce your plan!"
"Ninny! Ninny!" his daughter repeated.
"We'll show you ninny!" Gawain's voice retorted, "Lieutenant, release ballista 1!"
From his vantage point, although it was tough to see, given the distance, he could make out his wife turning away from the massive wall she and Gawain had constructed and opening up a large gap in the wall.
From said gap, a snowball, twice the size of the specks that were his wife and son, rolled out, before it soon rolled off the edge and down the steep slope.
Directly toward his base.
"Clever, clever... taking advantage of the position of your base. Good, wouldn't expect anything less of you, my son." He put on a smirk. "But also entirely too predictable. Come, Gwyndlyn, let's show him how we handle snowballs!"
He picked up his daughter and flew over to where the snow griffons in front were guarding his wall. "Take stance!"
"Aye sir!"
Both he and his daughter took a pose, with one hand in a fist and pulled back. "On my mark..."
The snowball, already halfway to his position and having increased its mass with the snow it picked up by half, showed no signs of slowing down.
"Not yet..."
In but a moment, it was nearly upon them, eclipsing the two of them easily in size and no doubt massive enough to take out his front defenses.
"And now!"
Both he and his daughter let loose a fist, right when the snowball was fractions away from swallowing them whole. Said snowball disappeared in a shower of ice-y mist.
"Yay! Bye bye snowball!" His daughter pranced in place "We did it! We did it!"
"Indeed we did! Punched that snowball to bits!" He said aloud, making sure the enemy heard it.
Well, in truth, they had not really punched the snowball to bits. That had been mostly for show, and for intimidation. Once the mist cleared, it was obvious what had really happened.
Said snowball had not been obliterated by sheer strength (although, if Garrick really put his might behind it, he felt he probably could have, but the point was to play smarter, not harder), but had been swallowed up by a very deep trench he and gwyndlyn had made by tunneling under their base. The sheer amount of snow this year had created drifts that piled up higher than his castle walls, and with gwyndlyn's breath able to melt snow at an unreal pace, the two had come together to make a trench.
Not that Gwyndlyn had known what she had been doing when she'd suggested it.
"Papa, our fort needs a moat!"
Her saying that was the basis of all of his plans against his son.
"Is that all? I barely strained myself!" He spoke aloud, noting that his wife and son had yet to do anything else.
Of course, his wife and son couldn't see the moat they'd dug, being on the downslope of a hill of snow. They'd have to come down to see what they'd done.
"Don't throw out your back, old man! Volley two, fire!"
Two more holes were punched out of his son's walls, and more gigantic snowballs were rolled out. And not merely two or three, but several in a row, from all three entrances.
"Time to retreat back to the walls, Gwyndlyn!" He picked her up and placed her around his neck, "Seems our attempt to intimidate them into capitulating has failed."
And, given the sheer amount of ammo his enemy had, it seems their trench wouldn't hold out for much longer...
Flying and landing back at the central igloo, he set Gwyndlyn down, "Alright, Gwyndlyn, it's time for phase 2 of the plan. You know what that means?"
"Wait for you to give the signal!"
"Good girl!" He turned around and stretched out his wings, knowing he'd need all their power for what was to come. "I'll be back soon."
Hopefully... He took pride in his recent strength, but even then running back and forth to redirect those snowballs away from his base would leave him a little winded.
All he had to do was hold out for a little bit... then checkmate would be within reach.
"Come on, husband! You can do better than that!" She yelled, "They're just snowballs!"
"Mom, you're not supposed to cheer for him!" Her son complained, "He's the enemy!"
Gabriella flashed her son a wicked smile and patted him lightly on the head, some of the freezing snow from her claws dripping down his face, "C'mon, this is quality entertainment! Just look at him down there, running back and forth like a rat trapped between two cats."
Her son slipped out from under her grip and patted down his feathers, giving her a look, "Mom, please... I think my skull has an indent in the shape of your claw with how much you've been patting me..."
"There better be!" she laughed, "When I'm old and my feathers are falling out, I'll have a nice place to latch onto you when you get older."
"I'm pretty sure you'll still be fighting trolls and lopping the heads off evil dictators when you're eighty..." He grumbled.
"Aw, how sweet of you to say, Gawain. I'm flattered." She let out a breath of air in something resembling a laugh, a cloud of mist forming in front of her face, before peering through the makeshift telescope her son had set up, "Well, That's all our artillery gone. Damage reports not as I'd like... One managed to clip one of his walls, another blasted through but missed the main base... Seems we're not gonna be taking it in one shot like you'd hoped."
"If dad couldn't at least take care of that, I'd be really disappointed. We wouldn't have even gotten to the second part of our plan yet...."
"Speaking of the second part of our plan..." She hefted a snowball up in the air, "Time to send in the main force, general?"
He nodded in affirmative, "May the ancestors guide your wings and may your aim be true, lieutenant!"
Perfect. Just what she like to hear.
Dashing over to a cloth with a pyramid of frozen ammunition on it, she tied to corners together and attached it to the base of her wing, "See you in a bit, kiddo!"
Hopping on top of the wall, she spread her wings out and let herself freefall off the edge, the tips of her wings touching the freshly packed snow, creating a thin trail as she glided down to the base. Once she hit the very bottom, she pulled up, flapping a few times to gain more height, before letting her momentum carry her the rest of the ay upward.
Now where was he...
Playing a quick game of eye spy with herself, she found her Garrick standing atop his igloo, right next to the wonderfully cute flag her daughter had designed.
"Target sighted!"
With that, she dive bombed down to his location, hoping to catch him off guard.
Unfortunately, it seemed she had trained him too well, and he spotted her coming well before she had intended to. He lifted his claw and threw a snowball at her left wing, forcing her to veer to the side lest she find herself unbalanced and crashing into the snowbanks below.
"Nice shot, Garrick!" She yelled from her position in midair, "But you can't keep me away from your flag forever! You're going to run out of ammo eventually!"
"I'll have you know I have more than enough ammo up here to at least force a draw!" He retorted, "And what's to say I won't knock you out of the sky before then, hmm?"
"The fact that I'm a better flier than you are?" She said, crossing her arms, "Oh boohoo, Now I've gotten a bit of snow on me. How dare my feathers get ever so slightly wet. However am I going to fight back against the strong and gallant Garrick now?"
"Oh, I'll make you more than a little wet!"
He took another snowball from the large pile next to him and tossed it at her, barely missing her head by a fraction as she moved to the side.
"Gonna have to try harder than that!" She taunted, "And dear, save the pillow talk for the bedroom!"
An intense blush crawled up her husbands face, "What, ah, no, I mean-"
"Gotcha!" Gabriella took a snowball out from her makeshift sack and tossed it at Garricks face. It landed dead on on his beak, throwing him off the top of his base from the force of the throw. "Let that snowball remind you to keep your cool and you head out of your pants, Garrick!"
Once more, she dived for the flag, only to find a snowball once again pelting her wing, except this time it was a direct hit.
Veering off course, she nearly collided with one of the snow gryphon sculptures the two had set up, but managed to pull up in time to not get facefull of snow.
"As long as it's just you and me here, I'm sure I can keep you away from victory!" Her husband, now back in defending position, replied.
As long as it was just them, huh...?
Spotting something out of the corner of her eye, she felt a smirk make its way onto her face, "Well, lucky for me it isn't just the two of us."
Garrick put on a look of confusion before turning toward her base, where they both could see Gawain still defending their flag. "What are you-"
A snowball suddenly impacted his side, almost knocking him over, but not quite.
"Reinforcements have arrived!"
From the left, the visage of her father, Federico Montefeathertro, appeared in view, carrying his own stack of snowballs.
"How kind of you to show up, dad."
"And miss playing with my grandkids? Never!" He said, claw at his hip, "That, and how could I possibly miss the chance to show your husband a thing or two about respect?"
And by respect, she was pretty sure he meant throw as many snowballs as he could at him with impunity.
"Cheaters! You're all cheaters!" Her husband, recovering from the surprise snowball, accused, "This is cheating!"
"All's fair in love and war, love!" She threw another snowball at him, this time managing to dodge it, "And you owe me booze!"
For the next five minutes, her father took the supporting position with his stack of snowballs while she took vanguard, taking every chance she could at swiping her husband's and daughter's flag.
Soon enough, under the onslaught of two griffons, his iron defense crumbled, fully shattering when her own father managed to pelt two snowballs in a row at Garricks face (The sound of "And that's for taking my precious daughter away from me!" sounded out after that), throwing him off the edge once more.
Not one to let an advantage go to waste, she bolted for the flag.
Victory was hers...!
"Now, Gwyndlyn!"
Right when she was about to wrap her claws around it, the flag... disappeared...?
Looking down, where there was once a snow hut, there was now a massive hole in the ground.
"Now who's cheating!" She question Garrick, who was still lying on the ground next to the newly formed hole.
"Not cheating, strategy!" He replied, continuing to toss snowballs at her airborne form, "I can't move the flag, but if the ground beneath my base collapses because we dug holes under it, then I'm not moving it myself, am I? And you cheated first anyway! All fair in love and war, right love?"
She let out a breath. "Even then, now you can't protect your flag very well, can you? I just have to head down there and dig it out, and victory is ours."
A goofy smile wormed its way on her husbands face. "Ah, but who will be faster? You, with me here keeping you from digging properly, or Gwyndlyn?"
"Gwyndlyn...?"
For a moment, the world seems to still, before the gears in her mind suddenly locked in place, and she understood.
"Gawain! Eye on the flag!" She called out before diving into the hole and began digging frantically, desperately trying to get to the flag she knew was buried somewhere here.
But at that point, it was too late.
"Papaaaa!" The voice of Gwyndlyn called out from atop the bluff that was her base, "I wooooon!"
"Now, Gwyndlyn!"
Oh! That was the signal!
Gwyndlyn, who had been hiding inside the igloo, quickly rushed into the small hole they'd made near one of the walls and quickly squirmed her way in, worming around until she found herself in a hole on the side of the biiiiig shaft she and papa had made together.
Puffing up her cheeks as much as she could, she let loose a gout a flame where papa had said to shoot it at.
Of course, Gwyndlyn wanted to see what would happen next, but papa had said that the next part was really important, and she couldn't forget it!
"As soon as you do that, take this tunnel," she said repeated what papa had told her to herself as she found the tunnel he had pointed at earlier, "And go all the way to Gawain's base. Gotta go, gotta go..."
The first thing she and papa had done after making their base was make this tunnel. She wanted to make snow griffons first (and a snow dragon!) but papa said if they wanted to win, they had to make this tunnel.
Said tunnel was really dark, but she had gone down it a lot, because papa had made sure it wasn't just any old ordinary tunnel.
It was a sliding tunnel!
The floor, instead of being snow, was ice. Papa had told her that, because it was so cold, heating up the snow a little would turn it to water, and then it'd freeze back to ice a little while later.
"And, goooo!" She entered the opening and let herself fall on her back, the slope of the tunnel and the slipperiness acting as a slide, "Weeeee!"
A rumble sounded out behind her as she slid further and further down, sliding from wall to wall until, much too soon for her liking, she reached the end of her slip and slide, coming to a gentle stop against a wall.
She needed to remember that trick when she went out to play next time. An instant slide anywhere was too much fun!
Now all she had to do was find the stairs!
... Except, now that she was here, she couldn't find where they had dug out the stairs because it was so dark.
"Oh no oh no, where are they, where are they?" Come on, Gwyndlyn think! Papa was counting on you! "They were somewhere over... here...?"
She put her claw along the ice wall and tried desperately to find it, but to no avail.
"Oh no... Papa... help..."
She let out a huff on flame in frustration, lighting up the room.
She slapped her forehead. "Oh, duh. I'm a dragon! I have a light!"
She let out her dragon breathe once more and found where she and papa had dug out some stairs, climbing them one step at a time.
A short while later, she found the snowball she had left at the top step and picked it up, ready for what was to come. Blowing another gout of flame, she melted away the snow separating her from the surface and climbed up, finding herself in luck as 'Wain's flag was in view.
But so was her brother.
He was concentrated on what was happening down below though, so she carefully, sneakily jumped over the wall and... tripped, landing head first in a snowpile on the other side. More snow fell on top of her from the wall, completely covering her.
"Gawain! Eye on the flag!" The voice of her mother reached her ears.
Gwyndlyn tensed as she heard Gawain turn around. 'Don't see me, don't see me, Don't see me...'
The crunch of his footsteps drew closer and Gwyndlyn found herself wondering if maybe she should just run out of the snow and run for the flag, but right when the steps were on top of her, she felt her brother jump off the snow pile and onto the wall.
"I know you're out here somewhere Gwyndlyn, come out, come out, wherever you are!"
Taking a risk, she popped her head out of the snow to see Gawain facing away from her, staring out at the expanse of snow beyond his walls instead of on the flag like mama had told him to.
This was her chance!
Readying the snowball, she aimed carefully and threw it will all the might in her little dragon body...!
Her shot struck true, hitting the back of Gawain's big dumb head and sending him tumbling over the wall. With that, she popped out of the now and ran toward the flag.
"Oh no you don't!" She heard gawain's voice from behind her.
But, it was too late.
A snowball hit her right between the wings, but all it did was send her tumbling forward right into the flag.
"Papaaaaa!" She let out her happiest victory cry, clutching Gawain's flag in her grasp, "I woooooon!"
Tonight, dessert was all hers!
"And what have we learned?"
Gawain let out a sigh... "Don't understimate dad..."
"And?"
"Don't underestimate Gwyndlyn either." Gawain said, pouting.
"Good." Garrick said, taking another slow bite out of his dessert, "Very good."
"Yeah!" Gwyndlyn followed up, in between gem bites, "Don't underestimate me!"
"Da!" Gilda, who had been sitting with Gabriella, spoke up.
"See? Even Gilda agrees."
"And now the score is in your favor once again, Garrick." Gabriella spoke up, taking tentative sips of water with a frown, missing her desired alcohol, "But let it be known tonight you aren't getting let off that easy."
Garrick replied with a smile, taking another glance at the two flags, his daughter's resting above his son's, on the wall, "I look forward to it."
His father in law, who also sat at the table today, spoke up, "Oi, you two, you better not be taking about what I think you two are talking about!"
Garrick shared a look with his wife and chuckled.
And that's that. Truth be told, Garrick's initial plan had been just ot use his daughter to just collapse his son's bluff on itself, but decided it might be too risky.
Garrick lelouch's his way to victory once more! Anyway, kinda lost a bit of steam near the end because my allergies are KILLING ME SUPER HARD.
This omake brought to you by deja vu, of initial D fame.
Snow Day Vacation
The wind was biting.
He was no stranger to the cold. Griffonia, as a nation, had snowfall that lasted half a year when the weather was in their favor, so it was only natural to acclimatize to it. But, even with that, he couldn't help but hold the scarf around his neck closer to his beak, trying to force his breath to act as a makeshift heater.
He had, of course, heard the reports. Wendigos... Even after the dark king had been pushed back, he just had to go ahead and make everyone's day worse, didn't he? And here, atop the wall of his own creation, where the altitude made the chill seep even deeper under his coat of feathers...
It almost made him want to just abandon it all and head on home, where he could grab a book and a chess set and sit by the fire, well away from all this cold.
But that thought lasted for only a moment. He could never do that, not when, at this very moment, the enemy was on the verge of advancing.
Even here, he could see it. His telescope, lying perched atop one of the merlons and frozen in place through packed snow, had already told him all he needed to know. In the distance, an encampment had been formed, walls of ice rising high into the sky, but not high enough that he could not see what was going on inside.
Focusing in on a round structure at the center of the camp, he could once again make out the face of the enemy general, his face twisted in a malicious smile. Directly opposite to him, his lieutenant, a scaled beast of mass destruction, mirroring his expression.
He couldn't help but shiver.
What could they be planning...?
A wingbeat sounding out behind him was all the warning he had before he felt a claw grip his skull. The enemy...?! But they were... No they couldn't have...?!
In less than the time it took him to blink, he founded himself buried in the snow below, having lost his footing.
So this was it... this was how the wall would be taken... not through battle, but through trickery and surprise attack....
He let out a huff, fully prepared for what was to come...
"Haaa... Where did I go wrong that just ruffling my cute little chick's feathers a bit would cause him to fall over?" A very familiar voice called out, "Up and at'em kiddo! Lying down is only for after the war is done!"
The claw holding him in place moved back and forth, making a mess of the feather's he'd painstakingly tamed this morning, before the pressure finally ceased and he was allowed to rise.
"Mooooom, I told you.... stop doing that!" He pleaded, trying desperately and failing to get his crest into something that didn't look like a discarded birds nest.
His mother, instead of saying 'Oh I'm sorry... here, let me help you,' took the chance to laugh at him. Laughed! "And miss out on hearing your cute whining voice? Never."
"I don't whine!" He whined.
"Sure you don't..." She walked over to the hollow wooden dowel he'd set up to act as a telescope, peering through it, "So, those two still sitting there making snowballs?"
Shaking some snow off his wings he walked up next to his mother, leaning into her side a bit to enjoy the heat she radiated, "Yeah... I don't know if they even have a plan. They've just been making snowballs and snow griffons... Are they even taking this seriously?"
She let out a sigh, "Gawain, you poor, naive child, I would have thought that, at your age, you would have learned to stop underestimating your father."
"I'm not underestimating him!" He replied, "It's just... I've been watching him and all he's been doing is, well, that..."
Hopping atop his snow wall, he took another look at his dad and sister, who were now tossing snowballs at each other, rather than doing anything productive like they had been for the past few hours. Their flag, a crude drawing of a dragon breathing fire that Gwyndlyn had made, wasn't even protected! It was flying high atop the igloo they had constructed, rather than inside it like they had with theirs.
"Hmmm... and you've been watching him the entire time?"
He shrugged and nodded, "Mostly. Well, they went inside their igloo for a while and came out with a bunch of snowballs afterward, but aside from that, they've just been playing around."
Internally, he couldn't help but be a little disappointed. He'd really wanted to take this seriously, especially when his dad had taken them from the courtyard out to the entrance of the azure ravine to have their, since that place piled up snow higher than the castle walls. But then, instead of teaming up with him, he'd teamed up with Gwyndlyn, and then had picked his camp a bit aways from the base of a massive snowbank.
Dad had to know he'd obviously take the superior position on top of the snow wall, so why had he decided to make a camp down there when he had the advantageous position of the high ground...?
The only answer he could come up with was that dad wasn't even taking this seriously, and he couldn't help be reaffirm that feeling when he saw the two just doing whatever they wanted...
"I see, I see... Well then, general, prep time is almost up. Are you ready?"
Gawain took a deep breath. It was now or never... "As ready as I can be, mom. Did you...?"
"Taken care of." She gave him a wink, "Time to start this snowball fight off right!"
He gave a curt nod, "Let the games begin!"
Today, the emperor had decided to take a day off.
And, honestly, he had just been planning on using that time to just... relax, for once.
"Higher, papa, higher!"
But, on this day, he had been challenged. And by his own son...
"Weeee!"
And he would not take a challenge lying down.
"Alright, Gwyndlyn, that's enough." He spoke, gently grabbing his falling daughter out of the air, "It's almost time to start our snowball fight."
"Aww..." her small wings drooped, "But papa..."
"We've played all day Gwyndlyn. And don't you want to see your brother lose?"
She nodded enthusiastically, her wings flapping and nearly pulling her out of his grasp. "Yeah! We're going to beat him and his dumb fort!"
"Gwyndlyn."
"Oops... sorry... Cursing is bad..."
Garrick sighed. Really, his wife was a terrible influence... but he loved her nonetheless. And they were bound to learn them soon anyway, griffon society being what it was.
Just, he'd wished they didn't learn them so early...? At least he could say she wasn't learning any of the really terrible ones.
He placed her on the snow covered ground, straightening his back. "Let's go check on the troops, shall we?"
"Mhmm!"
He straightened out one of his wings to let his daughter climb onto his back and moved around the outside wall of their central base to the front.
His camp was truly a sight to behold. In the time they had set, he and his daughter had managed to make a small igloo to act as their command center, a small outer wall to act as a barrier, and, most important of all (according to his daughter, at least) an army to call their own.
At the front, both inside and outside the walls, rested several snow griffons, ready to take on the job of guarding their new home against the wretched invaders from the north. Equipped with shields of ice and snow, they provided perfect cover from incoming lethal snowball sieges.
Not that they'd had much time to make all that many... Only four in the front, and three inside, with one snow dragon that he had a sneaking suspicion was meant to represent a certain foreign emperor his daughter had developed a liking for.
The sudden urge to swipe at it with his royal blade suddenly popped into his head, but he suppressed it. No, it was only childish fascination, nothing more. There was no need to make plans to go to war with another foreign empire or have his spies draw up plans to commit regicide... Nope. Not. At. All.
"Papa, why are you grinding your beak?"
"Nothing, darling!" He said, loosening his jaw and shoving his feelings into a corner, "Are you ready?"
She jumped off his back and walked over to the line of snow griffons near the entryway. "Uhuh!"
Making his posture rigid, he took a stance he had taken many time before and called out in his booming royal voice, "Attention!"
Gwyndlyn snapped her legs together and brought her hand up to her brow, eyes narrowing, "Sir, yes sir!"
"Today, we fight the enemy!" he spoke, rising up to stand on two legs and placing his hands behind his back. "They come at us with everything they have, to take from us our home, our lives, and, most important of all... our flag."
He really did love the cute little flag his daughter had come up with. He planned on hanging it in his throne room after this was done with.
"But! We will not fall! We will not falter! We will stare our enemy, your brother, in the face, and laugh! For he is not prepared!" He took one step forward, "He will face us, and he will find, not an enemy who will crumble at the slightest sign of resistance, but a wall of our own design! His forces will crash upon our like waves on rocks, and when he has nothing left, we will go forth, take his flag, and declare tonights desserts to! be! ours!"
"Ours!" His daughter cheered.
"Now, I present you one final chance. If you desire to remain behind and take no part in the upcoming slaughter, I will not blame you. But, should you feel ready, take a step-"
Before he even finished his sentence, his daughter had already started running forward and jumped to give him a hug. "Let'sgolet'sgolet'sgo!"
A mirthful laugh escaped his beak. "Very well. I suspect your brother will make the first move. Shall we taunt him?"
"Torment! Torment!"
"Not torment, taunt." He corrected. "Tormenting is for when we eat his desserts from right in front of his face without giving him any."
She giggled, hugging his chest tighter.
Stretching out his wings, he hopped up and gave a single wing flap to put himself up on the wall of his small base. "Will you do the honors?"
"Mmm!" She let go of his chest and landed on all fours, before getting up and cupping her hands to her snout. "'Waaain! Are you ready to looooose!"
It took a moment for the sound of his daughters voice to reach the enemy camp, but soon enough an echo was sent in response. "Nu-uh! You're going to lose!"
"You've already lost son!" He followed up on his daughter's taunting, "You just don't know it yet!"
"Nice bluff, but we've got this in the bag!" He heard his wife reply, "You're booze stash is mine!"
He chuckled to himself. Ah, his poor wife... This win would cause many nights of rough sleep to come, given how she took out her 'frustrations.' "I regret to inform you ninnies that we have a plan that will, without a doubt, trounce your plan!"
"Ninny! Ninny!" his daughter repeated.
"We'll show you ninny!" Gawain's voice retorted, "Lieutenant, release ballista 1!"
From his vantage point, although it was tough to see, given the distance, he could make out his wife turning away from the massive wall she and Gawain had constructed and opening up a large gap in the wall.
From said gap, a snowball, twice the size of the specks that were his wife and son, rolled out, before it soon rolled off the edge and down the steep slope.
Directly toward his base.
"Clever, clever... taking advantage of the position of your base. Good, wouldn't expect anything less of you, my son." He put on a smirk. "But also entirely too predictable. Come, Gwyndlyn, let's show him how we handle snowballs!"
He picked up his daughter and flew over to where the snow griffons in front were guarding his wall. "Take stance!"
"Aye sir!"
Both he and his daughter took a pose, with one hand in a fist and pulled back. "On my mark..."
The snowball, already halfway to his position and having increased its mass with the snow it picked up by half, showed no signs of slowing down.
"Not yet..."
In but a moment, it was nearly upon them, eclipsing the two of them easily in size and no doubt massive enough to take out his front defenses.
"And now!"
Both he and his daughter let loose a fist, right when the snowball was fractions away from swallowing them whole. Said snowball disappeared in a shower of ice-y mist.
"Yay! Bye bye snowball!" His daughter pranced in place "We did it! We did it!"
"Indeed we did! Punched that snowball to bits!" He said aloud, making sure the enemy heard it.
Well, in truth, they had not really punched the snowball to bits. That had been mostly for show, and for intimidation. Once the mist cleared, it was obvious what had really happened.
Said snowball had not been obliterated by sheer strength (although, if Garrick really put his might behind it, he felt he probably could have, but the point was to play smarter, not harder), but had been swallowed up by a very deep trench he and gwyndlyn had made by tunneling under their base. The sheer amount of snow this year had created drifts that piled up higher than his castle walls, and with gwyndlyn's breath able to melt snow at an unreal pace, the two had come together to make a trench.
Not that Gwyndlyn had known what she had been doing when she'd suggested it.
"Papa, our fort needs a moat!"
Her saying that was the basis of all of his plans against his son.
"Is that all? I barely strained myself!" He spoke aloud, noting that his wife and son had yet to do anything else.
Of course, his wife and son couldn't see the moat they'd dug, being on the downslope of a hill of snow. They'd have to come down to see what they'd done.
"Don't throw out your back, old man! Volley two, fire!"
Two more holes were punched out of his son's walls, and more gigantic snowballs were rolled out. And not merely two or three, but several in a row, from all three entrances.
"Time to retreat back to the walls, Gwyndlyn!" He picked her up and placed her around his neck, "Seems our attempt to intimidate them into capitulating has failed."
And, given the sheer amount of ammo his enemy had, it seems their trench wouldn't hold out for much longer...
Flying and landing back at the central igloo, he set Gwyndlyn down, "Alright, Gwyndlyn, it's time for phase 2 of the plan. You know what that means?"
"Wait for you to give the signal!"
"Good girl!" He turned around and stretched out his wings, knowing he'd need all their power for what was to come. "I'll be back soon."
Hopefully... He took pride in his recent strength, but even then running back and forth to redirect those snowballs away from his base would leave him a little winded.
All he had to do was hold out for a little bit... then checkmate would be within reach.
"Come on, husband! You can do better than that!" She yelled, "They're just snowballs!"
"Mom, you're not supposed to cheer for him!" Her son complained, "He's the enemy!"
Gabriella flashed her son a wicked smile and patted him lightly on the head, some of the freezing snow from her claws dripping down his face, "C'mon, this is quality entertainment! Just look at him down there, running back and forth like a rat trapped between two cats."
Her son slipped out from under her grip and patted down his feathers, giving her a look, "Mom, please... I think my skull has an indent in the shape of your claw with how much you've been patting me..."
"There better be!" she laughed, "When I'm old and my feathers are falling out, I'll have a nice place to latch onto you when you get older."
"I'm pretty sure you'll still be fighting trolls and lopping the heads off evil dictators when you're eighty..." He grumbled.
"Aw, how sweet of you to say, Gawain. I'm flattered." She let out a breath of air in something resembling a laugh, a cloud of mist forming in front of her face, before peering through the makeshift telescope her son had set up, "Well, That's all our artillery gone. Damage reports not as I'd like... One managed to clip one of his walls, another blasted through but missed the main base... Seems we're not gonna be taking it in one shot like you'd hoped."
"If dad couldn't at least take care of that, I'd be really disappointed. We wouldn't have even gotten to the second part of our plan yet...."
"Speaking of the second part of our plan..." She hefted a snowball up in the air, "Time to send in the main force, general?"
He nodded in affirmative, "May the ancestors guide your wings and may your aim be true, lieutenant!"
Perfect. Just what she like to hear.
Dashing over to a cloth with a pyramid of frozen ammunition on it, she tied to corners together and attached it to the base of her wing, "See you in a bit, kiddo!"
Hopping on top of the wall, she spread her wings out and let herself freefall off the edge, the tips of her wings touching the freshly packed snow, creating a thin trail as she glided down to the base. Once she hit the very bottom, she pulled up, flapping a few times to gain more height, before letting her momentum carry her the rest of the ay upward.
Now where was he...
Playing a quick game of eye spy with herself, she found her Garrick standing atop his igloo, right next to the wonderfully cute flag her daughter had designed.
"Target sighted!"
With that, she dive bombed down to his location, hoping to catch him off guard.
Unfortunately, it seemed she had trained him too well, and he spotted her coming well before she had intended to. He lifted his claw and threw a snowball at her left wing, forcing her to veer to the side lest she find herself unbalanced and crashing into the snowbanks below.
"Nice shot, Garrick!" She yelled from her position in midair, "But you can't keep me away from your flag forever! You're going to run out of ammo eventually!"
"I'll have you know I have more than enough ammo up here to at least force a draw!" He retorted, "And what's to say I won't knock you out of the sky before then, hmm?"
"The fact that I'm a better flier than you are?" She said, crossing her arms, "Oh boohoo, Now I've gotten a bit of snow on me. How dare my feathers get ever so slightly wet. However am I going to fight back against the strong and gallant Garrick now?"
"Oh, I'll make you more than a little wet!"
He took another snowball from the large pile next to him and tossed it at her, barely missing her head by a fraction as she moved to the side.
"Gonna have to try harder than that!" She taunted, "And dear, save the pillow talk for the bedroom!"
An intense blush crawled up her husbands face, "What, ah, no, I mean-"
"Gotcha!" Gabriella took a snowball out from her makeshift sack and tossed it at Garricks face. It landed dead on on his beak, throwing him off the top of his base from the force of the throw. "Let that snowball remind you to keep your cool and you head out of your pants, Garrick!"
Once more, she dived for the flag, only to find a snowball once again pelting her wing, except this time it was a direct hit.
Veering off course, she nearly collided with one of the snow gryphon sculptures the two had set up, but managed to pull up in time to not get facefull of snow.
"As long as it's just you and me here, I'm sure I can keep you away from victory!" Her husband, now back in defending position, replied.
As long as it was just them, huh...?
Spotting something out of the corner of her eye, she felt a smirk make its way onto her face, "Well, lucky for me it isn't just the two of us."
Garrick put on a look of confusion before turning toward her base, where they both could see Gawain still defending their flag. "What are you-"
A snowball suddenly impacted his side, almost knocking him over, but not quite.
"Reinforcements have arrived!"
From the left, the visage of her father, Federico Montefeathertro, appeared in view, carrying his own stack of snowballs.
"How kind of you to show up, dad."
"And miss playing with my grandkids? Never!" He said, claw at his hip, "That, and how could I possibly miss the chance to show your husband a thing or two about respect?"
And by respect, she was pretty sure he meant throw as many snowballs as he could at him with impunity.
"Cheaters! You're all cheaters!" Her husband, recovering from the surprise snowball, accused, "This is cheating!"
"All's fair in love and war, love!" She threw another snowball at him, this time managing to dodge it, "And you owe me booze!"
For the next five minutes, her father took the supporting position with his stack of snowballs while she took vanguard, taking every chance she could at swiping her husband's and daughter's flag.
Soon enough, under the onslaught of two griffons, his iron defense crumbled, fully shattering when her own father managed to pelt two snowballs in a row at Garricks face (The sound of "And that's for taking my precious daughter away from me!" sounded out after that), throwing him off the edge once more.
Not one to let an advantage go to waste, she bolted for the flag.
Victory was hers...!
"Now, Gwyndlyn!"
Right when she was about to wrap her claws around it, the flag... disappeared...?
Looking down, where there was once a snow hut, there was now a massive hole in the ground.
"Now who's cheating!" She question Garrick, who was still lying on the ground next to the newly formed hole.
"Not cheating, strategy!" He replied, continuing to toss snowballs at her airborne form, "I can't move the flag, but if the ground beneath my base collapses because we dug holes under it, then I'm not moving it myself, am I? And you cheated first anyway! All fair in love and war, right love?"
She let out a breath. "Even then, now you can't protect your flag very well, can you? I just have to head down there and dig it out, and victory is ours."
A goofy smile wormed its way on her husbands face. "Ah, but who will be faster? You, with me here keeping you from digging properly, or Gwyndlyn?"
"Gwyndlyn...?"
For a moment, the world seems to still, before the gears in her mind suddenly locked in place, and she understood.
"Gawain! Eye on the flag!" She called out before diving into the hole and began digging frantically, desperately trying to get to the flag she knew was buried somewhere here.
But at that point, it was too late.
"Papaaaa!" The voice of Gwyndlyn called out from atop the bluff that was her base, "I wooooon!"
"Now, Gwyndlyn!"
Oh! That was the signal!
Gwyndlyn, who had been hiding inside the igloo, quickly rushed into the small hole they'd made near one of the walls and quickly squirmed her way in, worming around until she found herself in a hole on the side of the biiiiig shaft she and papa had made together.
Puffing up her cheeks as much as she could, she let loose a gout a flame where papa had said to shoot it at.
Of course, Gwyndlyn wanted to see what would happen next, but papa had said that the next part was really important, and she couldn't forget it!
"As soon as you do that, take this tunnel," she said repeated what papa had told her to herself as she found the tunnel he had pointed at earlier, "And go all the way to Gawain's base. Gotta go, gotta go..."
The first thing she and papa had done after making their base was make this tunnel. She wanted to make snow griffons first (and a snow dragon!) but papa said if they wanted to win, they had to make this tunnel.
Said tunnel was really dark, but she had gone down it a lot, because papa had made sure it wasn't just any old ordinary tunnel.
It was a sliding tunnel!
The floor, instead of being snow, was ice. Papa had told her that, because it was so cold, heating up the snow a little would turn it to water, and then it'd freeze back to ice a little while later.
"And, goooo!" She entered the opening and let herself fall on her back, the slope of the tunnel and the slipperiness acting as a slide, "Weeeee!"
A rumble sounded out behind her as she slid further and further down, sliding from wall to wall until, much too soon for her liking, she reached the end of her slip and slide, coming to a gentle stop against a wall.
She needed to remember that trick when she went out to play next time. An instant slide anywhere was too much fun!
Now all she had to do was find the stairs!
... Except, now that she was here, she couldn't find where they had dug out the stairs because it was so dark.
"Oh no oh no, where are they, where are they?" Come on, Gwyndlyn think! Papa was counting on you! "They were somewhere over... here...?"
She put her claw along the ice wall and tried desperately to find it, but to no avail.
"Oh no... Papa... help..."
She let out a huff on flame in frustration, lighting up the room.
She slapped her forehead. "Oh, duh. I'm a dragon! I have a light!"
She let out her dragon breathe once more and found where she and papa had dug out some stairs, climbing them one step at a time.
A short while later, she found the snowball she had left at the top step and picked it up, ready for what was to come. Blowing another gout of flame, she melted away the snow separating her from the surface and climbed up, finding herself in luck as 'Wain's flag was in view.
But so was her brother.
He was concentrated on what was happening down below though, so she carefully, sneakily jumped over the wall and... tripped, landing head first in a snowpile on the other side. More snow fell on top of her from the wall, completely covering her.
"Gawain! Eye on the flag!" The voice of her mother reached her ears.
Gwyndlyn tensed as she heard Gawain turn around. 'Don't see me, don't see me, Don't see me...'
The crunch of his footsteps drew closer and Gwyndlyn found herself wondering if maybe she should just run out of the snow and run for the flag, but right when the steps were on top of her, she felt her brother jump off the snow pile and onto the wall.
"I know you're out here somewhere Gwyndlyn, come out, come out, wherever you are!"
Taking a risk, she popped her head out of the snow to see Gawain facing away from her, staring out at the expanse of snow beyond his walls instead of on the flag like mama had told him to.
This was her chance!
Readying the snowball, she aimed carefully and threw it will all the might in her little dragon body...!
Her shot struck true, hitting the back of Gawain's big dumb head and sending him tumbling over the wall. With that, she popped out of the now and ran toward the flag.
"Oh no you don't!" She heard gawain's voice from behind her.
But, it was too late.
A snowball hit her right between the wings, but all it did was send her tumbling forward right into the flag.
"Papaaaaa!" She let out her happiest victory cry, clutching Gawain's flag in her grasp, "I woooooon!"
Tonight, dessert was all hers!
"And what have we learned?"
Gawain let out a sigh... "Don't understimate dad..."
"And?"
"Don't underestimate Gwyndlyn either." Gawain said, pouting.
"Good." Garrick said, taking another slow bite out of his dessert, "Very good."
"Yeah!" Gwyndlyn followed up, in between gem bites, "Don't underestimate me!"
"Da!" Gilda, who had been sitting with Gabriella, spoke up.
"See? Even Gilda agrees."
"And now the score is in your favor once again, Garrick." Gabriella spoke up, taking tentative sips of water with a frown, missing her desired alcohol, "But let it be known tonight you aren't getting let off that easy."
Garrick replied with a smile, taking another glance at the two flags, his daughter's resting above his son's, on the wall, "I look forward to it."
His father in law, who also sat at the table today, spoke up, "Oi, you two, you better not be taking about what I think you two are talking about!"
Garrick shared a look with his wife and chuckled.
And that's that. Truth be told, Garrick's initial plan had been just ot use his daughter to just collapse his son's bluff on itself, but decided it might be too risky.
Garrick lelouch's his way to victory once more! Anyway, kinda lost a bit of steam near the end because my allergies are KILLING ME SUPER HARD.
This omake brought to you by deja vu, of initial D fame.
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- Location
- sweden
- Location
- Maryland
+20 to a roll! Warms my heart to see such wholesome family bonding!
- Location
- A house
Yay~! Thanks! It's all your fault for writing that snippet this turn anyway...
Wanted to toss one of my omakes in this turn for something, but the ones I wanted to are already full... well, least I can give +40 to something like kaboom.
Still working on the other ones... but again, if anyone has any ideas that you'd think I'd like, I dont mind trying to write em out if they interest me.
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- Location
- South Carolina
Lisain said:
I think something displaying Gwyndlyn's crush- I mean, interest in the Neighponese Emporer would be funny. Have it split perspectives between smol lizard and Garrick, with Gwyn trying (and failing miserably, not that she notices) to stalk- I mean, spy on- er, closely follow him while both emperors are aware and amused... well, half amused, and half plotting regicide, in Garrick's case.
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- Location
- A house
.... THAT WAS ONE OF THE OMAKES I WAS WORKING ON. NO JOKE. Cept slightly different take. More of "gwyndlyn convinces the neighponese emperor to help steal candy out of her dads candy jar and shares it with him. Garrick plots murder."
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- Location
- Back in Cali
The only problem with that is that not only is the Dragon Emperor ruling his Kingdom and thus not around. But Gywn is too young to think about that. Children don't understand or start developing interests in others until much later.
- Location
- South Carolina
Adventwolf said:
Well, the idea would be that he comes over to our palace for some political/diplomatic reason to talk Emperor-y stuff with Garrick, or, if whoever writes this is a bit more ambitious with some worldbuilding, have Garrick and kids going to his castle, with wife and maybe youngest birbcat staying home.
Edit: That and it doesn't necessarily have to be an actual crush. The author could just leave it purposefully ambiguous and just have Garrick overreacting and seeing what isn't there.
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- Location
- Back in Cali
would need to be a personal action of us going to go visit him. Doesn't matter as it would be non-canon unless that option comes up. But like I said children that young do not have any interest like that. She wants a friend, not anything else.