When we were playing our game, I felt the phone that was laying on my desk starting to vibrate. I quickly grabbed it to check who was calling, it was Claire.

“Hey Claire, what’s up?” I asked as I picked up.

“Hey Aurora… Uhm… I got to ask you something, but it’s totally fine if you say no.”

“That sounds serious, what’s wrong?” I turned on my chair in the direction of my girlfriends, who all turned away from their games too.

“Anya and I are stuck at the train station right now, we were heading off to celebrate New Year's Eve with her parents, but thanks to the heavy snow literally nothing is going in and out anymore. The train stopped in your town and isn’t moving any further anymore…”

“Heavy snow…?” I got up from my seat and walked over to the window. When I looked outside, I could practically not see more than two meters in front of me thanks to the amount of snow that was coming down. “Oh shit, I hadn’t even noticed. Do you need a place to stay?”

“I know it’s much to ask on New Year’s Eve, but I don’t really know who else to call…”

“It’s really no issue. Do you want me to come pick you up or do you remember your way over here?”

“Uh…”

“I will come over. Just stay there and I’ll try to get there as soon as possible, okay?”

“Thanks, Aurora, I owe you.”

“Just try to stay warm, I’ll be there soon.” We hung up the phone, leaving me with the concerned looks on my girlfriends' faces.

“What happened?” Ria asked.

“Apparently, Claire and Anya got stranded at the train station. I’m gonna go and get them. I’m sorry that this evening won’t just be the three of us.”

“Hey, our friends are in need, we don’t mind at all. Should we get an extra meat platter for the gourmet?” Em asked. “The butcher’s should still be open. With this weather, there might be some last minute cancellations. I can call to be sure.”

“On foot?”

“It’s just around the corner, isn’t it? I’ll be fine.” Em retorted.

“Okay, but stay safe, alright?”

“Auro, immortal… remember?”

“Good point.” I looked at Ria. “Could you start making some hot chocolate in the meantime then? Anya and Claire are quite possibly going to be a bit cold.”

Ria smiled and gave me a quite quick salute. “I’m on it!”

“Alright.” I smiled back. “Then I’ll go take my jacket and make my way towards the train station.

“Take some extra shawls with you too. Can always come in handy.” Em replied.

“I’m on it.”

After swiftly putting on my winter jacket and some warm boots, I made my way outside with some extra warm shawls stuffed into my handbag.

When I stepped through the front door, I immediately got blasted by icy wind and snow. This snowstorm had really come out of nowhere. It had been predicted to be a rather nice evening with maybe some light snow, but this had turned into almost ‘Day Before Yesterday’- levels of snow. If it continued snowing like this the entire day, we would quickly have issues getting outside. Definitely not something I have seen before in my life.

As I started to make my way towards the train station I passed Lady Blanchet’s house, her door swung open just as I passed in front of it.

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“Aurora, is that you?” I could hear Julie call out to me but I couldn’t really look in her direction because the snow was blowing into my face if I looked in her direction.

“Yeah.”

“What are you doing outside in this kind of weather?”

“I need to go get my friends. They are stranded at the train station.” I replied, slowly trudging on.

“I’d offer to drive you… but…”

“Yeah, we’d probably be stuck the moment we stepped into the car. Don’t worry, I’ll be able to get them back safely. Have a nice New Year’s Eve!”

“You too! If you need everything, call us, alright?”

I stuck up my thumb and kept walking. It was going to take a while to get to the train station but at least I’d be able to guide my friends home safely. And if the wind didn’t turn halfway through, we’d have the snow in our back on our way back home.

On route to the train station, I did pass the butcher’s that Em was probably going to get some extra meat from. Luckily, it seemed like they were still open. Not that they would get many customers anymore today considering the weather, but there were a couple of people inside, presumably getting their orders. Let’s hope they were not traveling far.

The rest of the city was just outright deserted, apart from maybe one or two other people who were brave enough to go outside on foot. It was a sight to behold this much snow.

It took me about twenty minutes to get to the city’s train station. As I walked into the main building a police officer stopped me.

“Ma’am, there’s no more trains riding today.”

“I know, I’m just here to take my friends home.” I looked around him inside of the building. It looked like there were still twenty to thirty people inside, together with other police officers and firemen and medical personnel. It also looked like they were providing the people inside with hot meals and drinks.

“You are not here with your car, are you?”

“No, I live nearby, I’ll just walk them there.”

The officer nodded and let me past him, though I didn’t need to walk far before Claire and Anya approached. I gave both of them a hug. “Come, let’s get you two home. We should have the wind in our backs if we leave now.”

“Thank you.” Anya seemed to have been crying a bit earlier and was just about to start again until Claire pulled her close to her.

“She’s been a bit stressed.” Claire replied.

“Understandable.” I put my left hand on Anya’s arm and gave her a soft squeeze. “Let’s go, then we can eat some nice warm food.” With my other arm, I took the shawls out of my bag and handed them over. “This will keep you a bit warmer while we walk back.”

Claire smiled and accepted the shawls, draping two shawls around her girlfriend, after which she draped two around herself as well. “Okay, we are ready to go.”

I nodded and walked my two friends out past the police officer, who gave me a friendly nod in return.

As I had hoped, the wind hadn’t turned, so most of our trip would transpire without cold snow being blown directly into our faces.

“It’s not that far from here.” I reassured my friends as we left the station’ square.

“I know, but I didn’t want to risk getting lost on our own in the city. I don’t know it that well.” Claire replied.

“That’s understandable.” I nodded.

“Are Ria and Emma at your house too?”

“Mhmm.” I nodded again. “Em’s buying another meat platter for the gourmet so we’ll have plenty of good meats to go around and Ria is busy preparing something hot for the both of you. And you don’t need to worry about a place to sleep, either. We have enough guest rooms.”

“I’m sorry to impose on your New Year’s Eve.”

“Really, don’t worry about it. Em and Ria also immediately wanted to help, besides, you are our friends, why would we not want to celebrate New Year’s Eve with you two.” I patted my friend on her back. “And it gives us the opportunity to hang out with Anya too.”

Anya, who still wasn’t feeling her best, looked at me, right at the moment I lost my footing on an icy patch of snow, which landed me with my back in the snow.

“Oh My Goddess, are you alright!?” Anya called out to me.

“Yeah… I’m fine… there’s just snow inside of my jacket now… It’s making its way to my bra…”

Claire snorted while her girlfriend helped me upright. From her face I could tell that Anya found it slightly amusing too though. But I was happy to see that my misfortune had helped cheer up Anya a bit. Totally worth the cold tiddy if you ask me.

Getting back to the house, without any further slipping accidents, took around twenty minutes. Which I was glad for, because I was starting to get reaaallyyy cold now.

When we entered the house, we immediately got greeted by the sight of my girlfriends at work in the small downstairs kitchen preparing some snacks.

“Heya, look who I brought.” I smiled.

Em and Ria quickly stopped what they were doing to come and greet our friends, giving them both a big hug after they had thrown off their jackets.

“Okay, now that we are all nice and warm in this cozy house, give me a sec to go and get some different clothes on.”

“What happened?” Em asked.

“Aurora made a bit of a tumble and got her bra wet.”

“Yes… and it’s very very cold.”

“Poor nip nips must be having a hard time.” Ria commented so dryly, it made people burst out into laughter, myself included.