The Imperial Witch ⚜ Ch. 6

Soon enough, the snow came and winter decorations starting going up around town. Everywhere you turned were garlands, wreaths, and trees decorated with freshly fallen snow and icicles.

Going to town with her friends, Faraja was ecstatic. "Look at all of this! It looks like a Christmas village off a greeting card."

Medea chuckled. "You would know. You've bought one of each from the school store."

"You wanted Christmas, Raja, well here it is," Valentina grinned.

"Come on, let's do some early shopping," Samira suggested, pointing ahead.

They went up to the first store and stopped at the window.

"Oh, look at those tiny little houses. And they light up!" Faraja smiled. "And look at the little enchanted ice skater figurines."

"I think they use magnets," Medea said.

Faraja looked closer. "Really? Huh. I could have sworn it was magic."

"Come on ladies, it's freezing out here!" Samira said, going inside ahead of them.

"She just loves shopping," Valentina whispered with a smirk.

They went into the cozy little trinket shop, with lights strung across the ceiling and everything imaginable on its rows of shelves. They started searching for something that could make a good gift.

Faraja was overwhelmed with the variety of things tucked away on row after row of shelves. She paused at a pretty shell compact. Maybe for Samira? A little further down she spotted an embroidered bookmark. Medea would use that. But what to get for Valentina?

Her thoughts were interrupted by something hitting the store window. With a gasp she looked back to see a snowball sliding down the glass.

She grinned. Taking what she'd found to the cashier, she quickly tucked the two gifts away in her bag before the others could see.

"I'm just going to step out for a minute," she told them.

"What? Why? There's a snowball fight happening," Samira questioned.

The princess bit her lip and grinned.

Her friend sighed. "Of course you want to join them."

Valentina poked her head out from the back. "Did someone say snowball fight?" A snowball hitting hitting the door answered her question. She handed something to the shopkeeper with a whisper before going to join Faraja. "Come on!"

They stepped out into the cold where the boys were having an all out war.

"Let's go!" Faraja ran forward and scooped up some snow, packing it and searching for a good target. Seeing a curly haired boy hiding behind a snow fort, she tried to hit him.

"Wow, that was quite the throw," Valentina grinned beside her, watching the boy shake snow out of his hair.

"Your turn," she said, handing her friend a snowball. She made another herself and dodged an incoming throw. She laughed as it hit just at Valentina's feet, making her hop backwards. A second later, she gasped as one hit her in the back. "Hey!"

Her friend smirked and readied another one.

"Oh no you don't!"

Faraja stepped back to throw one at her, and bumped into someone.

"Woah, easy."

She saw Valentina put on a smile and turned around to see Bain. A little ways off was Salma. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"No worries, my lady. Carry on."

She smiled at him, then waved to Salma. She noticed and waved back.

It was worth the snowball to her head.