Golden Wolf was asking himself why he had even woken up from his nap instead of sleeping the day off when Kuba went to see him.
"Are you alright, milord?"
"I'm fine. I simply can't tolerate nonsense. You go and enjoy it. I'll stay here and grumble. You know, I thought about something. Since nonsense can apparently happen here, I have a theory. Maybe nobody actually received lesser portions of food. Maybe it was an illusion. That can certainly happen."
"It's no illusion. It's magic," Kuba rectified, desperate to make him less upset.
She then thought about Sapphire Rod. As she turned around, they saw him conveniently walk through the door with mountains of snow in his hands.
"What are you doing?" Golden Wolf protested, exasperated.
Sapphire Rod started to hum a little song instead of answering, and it was rather adorable, but that wasn't the point. He became stuck in the door, and Golden Wolf annoyedly went to help him out. Sapphire Rod blushed a little, because he was very tall, which was inconvenient for his dignity.
"Biscuit plane, most likely," Kuba suggested.
Golden Wolf couldn't help but picture it: a life-size biscuit plane with chocolates as bolts, and marshmallows, and that delicious frosting. He wanted to eat that biscuit plane now.
"Gingerbread plane?" he let out timidly.
Sapphire Rod nodded enthusiastically. Golden Wolf thought about it, then went to fetch more snow, and brought it to the workshop where Sapphire Rod was heading. Perhaps he was too hungry to think properly. That's certainly what Golden Wolf decided to make himself feel less ridiculous.
"Why was your first idea upon seeing food snow to make a plane out of it?" Golden Wolf protested.
Sapphire Rod shrugged.
"Just make a giant biscuit," Golden Wolf went on. "If you make it into a plane, you'll have to step in it, and it'll be disgusting to eat afterwards."
Sapphire Rod nodded thoughtfully.
"Boat," he suggested.
"That's the same thing," Golden Wolf laughed.
Sapphire Rod kicked his shin.
"Hey!"
They started to try to kick each other's legs, but out of their fear of dropping the magical snow, they decided to make a truce for now.
They kept arguing as they reached the workshop.
"Pinwheel," Sapphire Rod suggested.
"No! The toppings will fly everywhere!" Golden Wolf exclaimed. "Why do you want to make it into something that moves?"
Then he had an idea.
"Fine, then maybe you can make it into a nutcracker."
Sapphire Rod smiled, but shook his head.
"What? Because of the wheels and whatnot? You were going to make a plane," he accused.
Sapphire Rod shrugged, then nodded.
"Yes to the nutcracker?"
Sapphire Rod opined happily, then smiled warmly at Golden Wolf. He was taking this biscuit business seriously, which was rather nice to see.
"Is it even going to work?"
Sapphire Rod shrugged. Golden Wolf remembered the strawberry bushes and had an idea.
"Here, let me try. Actually, can you tell me what the individual pieces to build a nutcracker look like? Then we'll decide what material we'll make them out of."
Sapphire Rod was already salivating. He decided to eat a snowball.
"Hey!" Golden Wolf protested, and he pushed away his hand, which meant that their hands touched, which embarrassed the both of them.
Sapphire Rod looked away shyly, but Golden Wolf kept staring at him.
"You know, we haven't talked a lot since what happened with White Wolf. Should we talk about it?"
"Nothing say. Betrayer," Sapphire Rod answered with his eyes down and full of bitterness.
"Hm. Well, if you ever change your mind, I'm right here."
Sapphire Rod briefly looked at him, then nodded, and looked back down with a heavy sigh.
"Shame. Good team," Sapphire Rod ended up adding, and he elbowed his friend.
Golden Wolf smiled.
"You think so?"
Sapphire Rod stuck out his tongue and started to look for sketches of different kinds of nuts and bolts in his drawers. Golden Wolf wanted to say that he had always admired his talent for building things, but decided not to say it.
"How Book?" Sapphire Rod inquired after a few seconds of silence. "Pink?"
"They're alright. They were -- well, you can guess how they were. I can't find any words to describe it. Upset, I think. I mean, I know they were, but I can't explain it any better than that. You certainly came back at a bad time. Just yesterday, we were fighting. The whole castle together, split in two, over nonsense. There's literally no evidence about anything. I'm pretty upset about the whole thing, but, I mean, I guess they have half of a good point. I did see Beeno crying sometimes over his schoolwork, and they wanted better conditions for the younglings. So, you know. But still! It's very rude."
His friend nodded as he looked over various blueprints.
"Why are we talking about this while it's snowing magic snow outside?" Golden Wolf protested. "Is it still snowing? It's some strange kind of magic, I'm telling you."
"Miracle," Sapphire Rod nodded.
"It just might be," Golden Wolf frowned, because miracles didn't make sense, and things that didn't make sense annoyed him. "You missed the whole fight, didn't you?"
"Bet fought nice," Sapphire Rod answered.
"I fought a man with a broomstick, so, no. I suppose you were in class, then."
Sapphire Rod nodded peacefully.
"Well, I'm sure it's better this way, or people could have gotten hurt. My point is that this lady arrived -- Lady Kuba, as people decided to call her -- and she split the fight in half. Literally. With a wave of her hand. And then, as though that wasn't enough, we all rushed over, and it felt like we had been waiting for her. Some of us even hugged her. There's something about her, that's for sure."
Sapphire Rod nodded again. It was very obvious.
"She even helped us regrow the strawberry crops. I drew one in the snow, and it grew back -- woah!"
Sapphire Rod was leading him outside to the front of the castle where the crops had been, and drew a banana in the snow. Nothing happened, so he sat down and waited.
"It grew instantly last time," Golden Wolf commented.
Sapphire Rod stuck his tongue out in annoyance and drew a strawberry. Again, nothing happened.
"Maybe the magic snow is only on the other side of the castle," Golden Wolf suggested. "Now, come on, what about the nutcracker?"
Sapphire Rod hummed and dragged him back inside. They went back to work, and when it was time to eat it, they split the parts. There was a delightful chocolate and nut filling in the chest, and the eyes were lemon-flavored. The skin was made of brittle vanilla biscuit that melted in your mouth when you ate it, and the hair was soft caramel. It looked like a snow statue, but if you closed your eyes, it was exactly like a pastry. Sapphire Rod carefully cut the head in half, and chomped on his half excitedly. It was crunchy -- hard candy just brittle enough to break when you bit into it, and soft enough not to leave you chewing on it for hours. As for the flavor, Sapphire Rod had no idea, but it tasted blue.
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