"Mundane" Renaud the Lupe muttered to himself, scowling as he scuffed his foot on the icy ice cream cart. Mr Chipper was on his annual leave to Lutari Island, leaving him in charge. He had just closed the cart for the evening, but he was not alone. Tourists were still walking in Happy Valley, arm-in-arm, breath steaming in the brisk air as they laughed over their gifts from the Advent Calendar, or their latest adventure with the Snowager. It was the middle of the Winter Starlight celebration, and the streets were lined with lights. They lit the town up and made the falling snow look almost like small, soft crystals.

"Well, not mundane in a bad way." Renaud knew that he was muttering out loud, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. "But it would be nice to have some warm weather. Or some warm food around here. Permanent winter can start to wear down on you."

It was cold today. As it had been the entire week before that. And the week before that, and the week before that. Renaud had never left Terror Mountain, had never wanted to leave Terror Mountain, but he couldn't help but voicing a thought that he had been gently nursing for the year.

"I wish that Terror Mountain was warm for a day!" He burst out.

From behind him there came a chuckle, raspy and alarming. Renaud turned, startled, and saw...

"You want Terror Mountain to be warm for a day don't you young one," the menacing Jhudora asked, "I'll help you, but you will have to do something for me in return."

"W-What is it," Renaud asked.

The dark faerie spoke, "Bring me a bottled air and fire faerie, I'll need them for the spell."

The Lupe wasn't sure how to react, but he quickly nodded, put a "back for lunch" sign on the cart, and rushed to find the requested item. As he was on his search, he stumbled into one of the snowball fights in Happy Valley. Renaud was just passing by a tree when he got pummeled by a rather hard snowball and got launched into it. Renaud got up with a huge scowl on his face when he heard a voice calling him.

"Hey bud," a female white wocky called, "Sorry, didn't mean to get you. Name's Lucy. I was just trying to get my sister, Mary."

"Ugh," Renaud grumbled, "It's fine. Name’s Renaud. I am just looking for a bottled air and fire faerie, you happen to have any?"

"Pfft, of course, you dummy," the slightly oblivious wocky answered handing Renaud his items.

"Lucy," a silver kacheek called, "Can you please come back, we need to go back home."

"Yeah, I'll be back in a minute," the wocky called looking back at Renaud, "Man do I love it here, sometimes I wish that Mary and I could stay here forever. You?"

"Well," Renaud said, "I really would want to be somewhere more...warmer."

Renaud stared. This Wocky was from someplace warmer, and yet she couldn't appreciate what she had back at home? Ignorant, Renaud thought privately. If he'd been lucky enough to born someplace warm, he'd appreciate it properly. Not like Lucy.

"You'd rather have snow any day, but would you rather have snow every day?" Renaud pressed. It wasn't that he didn't like his home. There was something magical how every Month of Celebration, the town lit up like a gingerbread portrait magically come to life. But then the months of spring and summer would creep upon the rest of the world, and still the snow would linger here - cold as ever. And Renaud would be lying if he said he wasn't a little jealous of the places he'd heard stories about, places where the air wasn't so frigid that your breath would hang visibly in front of you and you didn't have to shovel your driveway every morning, every day of the year.

"If I could, sure," Lucy said flippantly, eyes darting over to where her sister was waiting and the bottom of the hill. "But I can't. I gotta go home now."

Home. Renaud didn't know where Lucy's home was, but he was envious that he couldn't tag along. If only they could trade places, maybe - and Lucy could stay where it was cold all the time, and Renaud could experience some warmth...

But before he could finish that train of thought, a swirling cloud of violet announced the arrival of a dark faerie.

She'd returned.

"So, Neopet," Jhudora said, not bothering to ask for Renaud's name, "do you have the items I asked for?"

Renaud looked down at the bottled faeries that Lucy had handled him, mind whirring...

"Well done, young one. It seems as though you will get your wish after all. Terror Mountain will no longer be plagued by blizzards and avalanches... in fact, I imagine it will no longer be terrible at all!" Jhudora's words warmed Renaud, as his imagination wandered towards images of warm breezes over sunny beaches. Yes, it wouldn’t be terrible at all.

“Is that all, Jhudora? Uh, I mean, Dark Faerie…ma’am?” Renaud stumbled out his words as he looked at the imposing figure before him.

Jhudora’s mouth upturned into a silken smile. “Yes, young one. You have done more than enough. Rest assured, by tomorrow you’ll be slinging your ice creams in much more favourable weather.”

The Dark Faerie tapped her cloak where she’s stored the bottled faeries and winked once at Renaud before she turned and made her way down the mountain. Renaud watched after her, baffled by the ease in which she walked, with no hint of apprehension – as if the ice under her feet would never dare cause her to slip, trip or slide. Shoving his hands deep in his own pockets, Renaud carefully trudged his way home, careful not to let the loose snow hit his socks, or get inside his boots.

That night, as Renaud gingerly climbed into his cold, empty bed, he allowed himself to spare a thought for those two faeries. What would become of them? He wondered. Then, in those final moments before he drifted off to sleep, he thought of Mary and Lucy, from the snowball fight, and settled into the knowledge that the next morning, he would wake up to warm air and sunshine, just like them.

At least, he would have, if not for the fact that the next morning, just as dawn was creeping its way up the mountain, everyone on Terror Mountain was startled away by a deep rumbling from beneath the snow.

How will this story end?

No matter how tightly he curled up under the blankets he couldn’t shake the cold that chilled him to the bone. He thought again of the faeries he had given to Jhudora. Well, hadn’t exactly given them to her, but he still felt terrible. He could swear that he heard them pleading for his help. It could’ve been his guilty conscience, but Renaud thought it was equally likely to be faerie magic. Maybe it wasn’t too late to save them!

Since he couldn’t sleep anyway, he pulled on his parka, scarf, gloves, and boots and headed out into the freezing dawn. He was relieved to find that the voices weren’t coming from the direction of the Snowager’s icy clouds. It didn’t take long for him to find the two tiny faeries huddling near a sleeping Feepit. Unsure what to say, he held out a gloved paw.

“Please help us!” The light faerie cried.

“Our magic isn’t strong enough to keep us warm forever!” said the fire faerie. “How did we end up in such a terrible place, anyways?”

Renaud realized that the faeries didn’t remember him nor the role he played in trapping them in such an unforgiving climate. “I...I’m sorry,” he stammered. “Jhudora tricked me into--”

“Jhudora!” squealed the light faerie. “I remember now! She was running from the Snowager! And then she fell! And then our bottles broke! And then we were free!”

Renaud couldn’t help but smile at the thought of Jhudora running in fear. But he quickly returned to a sombre expression as he contemplated the two faeries in front of him. “I’m just an ordinary Lupe, but is there anything I can do that would help?”

“YES!” exclaimed the fire faerie. “Take us back to Faerieland!”

Renaud thought about it. He had some neopoints saved up. He couldn’t open the ice cream cart when the Snowager was rampaging. And Faerieland would certainly be warmer than Terror Mountain. It wasn’t what he expected, but it looked like he would have a vacation from the snow after all.

The End,