The Villainess Will Live a Good Life

56. Season of Frost

Sorry for the delay.  I went over this chapter yesterday and thought, 'Meh.  Too rushed.' So now I've doubled the content and feel better about it.  Because I've added a lot to it, you may find more grammatical errors than usual.  I've looked it over, but I always seem to miss some.  If anyone wants to point them out, I will correct them with haste.  Otherwise, it will wait for a few weeks or months until I go over this chapter again.  

Enjoy. --Posted: May 2, 2023.

The first snow marked the start of the season of frost. Nana brought all of the cubs outside to play in it. She was careful not to let the youngest ones stay out too long, but her boys would be fine.

Other families would be aghast if they knew she was allowing such a young female cub out and about in this weather. But Nana wasn't one to care about that. She checked the health of the female, the males too, every day. She even had a healer check on them when she had them weaned. They were doing well, not great or amazing, but they were still healthy.

She let them chase snow flakes while she watched. Tashi and Aden were not so interested in the snow, but they enjoyed running around.

After a few days, they got enough snow to cover the ground. Nana guessed six inches. After another week, she had well over a foot of it. Nana decided to have a snowball fight now that she had a bigger family.

Karan and Mundo sat it out. Amil didn't like the word 'fight' since Nana was planning to participate. He opted to remain on standby in case he needed to grab the first aid kit. Nana assured him that there was no danger, but Amil insisted. Everyone else was willing.

Nana showed them the idea. They played battle royale style and things got pretty hectic. Nana really got into it and she wasn't the only one. Her boys played too. They obviously couldn't make snowballs, but they made do by swiping snow on whoever they could.

Troy and Zen got into a really heated battle. Troy was pestering Zen and Zen finally fought back. The two slung balls so fast that Nana couldn't keep up. She still tried to hit Troy. To not play favorites, she threw a few Zen's way too. Amil got a little too stressed and joined the fight as Nana's guard. Any snow that came near her would be deflected by Amil.

Troy noticed the extra snowballs, and who threw them, and made sure to respond in turn. He couldn't leave his mate out now could he? Grinning at the added difficulty, Troy fired packed balls of snow at both Zen and Nana. Amil naturally prevented any of those from hitting Nana, but Troy was not discouraged in the least.

Zen noticed Nana's half-hearted attempts to hit him and rolled his eyes. He sent one ball hurtling toward her to show that he was well aware of her presence on this battlefield. He did not, however, try nearly as hard as Troy did.

"Weak!" Nana shouted as she returned fire.

Zen and Troy's ears perked at the insult and they immediately became more invested.

"Weak?" Troy scoffed and hurled a ball right towards her.

Zen's tail stiffened and he put more power into his throw. He was not usually one to be so easily goaded, but he felt he should fix this misconception quickly.

Poor Amil ate almost every snowball that came Nana's way. They hit him with loud thunks that made Nana check on him periodically. He was so busy guarding that he could not return fire.

The boys and Dakotah got really excited and joined Nana's team. Troy and Zen were outnumbered, but hardly outmatched. Dakotah took up the post as Nana's shield and gave Amil the chance to counterattack.