Following Vim through the forest, I studied the deep footprints he left behind him as he trudged through snow.

I was following him on purpose, instead of walking behind him, as to try and mimic him. He was somehow walking through the snow without causing any of the packed snow to shift or fall. His footprints looked perfect, each time, even when we walked up or down a hill or through thicker shrubbery.

As if he wasn't walking, but somehow standing still with every step.

Occasionally there was a footprint that wasn't perfect, with fallen snow into it or a slight scrape from his heel or toe, but they were rare.

Glancing behind me, at my own footprints, I huffed at the sight of the mess I was leaving behind.

I couldn't step completely into his footprints, and use them as a guide or anything. His strides were too long compared to mine. I was only able to use his footprints once every few steps, and even those looked bothered and ruined thanks to me.

Basically the only way I could somehow mimic Vim's perfect steps, was if I didn't walk forward. I could stand still, push a foot down into the snow, and then lift it up. But I was not able to do it while I walked.

"It's not because I walk any better than you, Renn."

I paused, glancing over at Vim as he turned to look at me. He had a soft smile as he pointed down at his feet.

Hurrying up to him, I watched as he stepped down into the packed snow. He then lifted it, slowly, to display how he did it.

"Oh. It's your weight," I said, understanding.

He nodded. "I'm basically stepping down with such force that the snow around my foot gets compacted. If the snow wasn't so packed already, so solid, it'd not be as perfect either," he explained.

I sighed and nodded. "That makes sense…" I said. I felt a little silly now. I had spent the last hour or so trying to replicate his footsteps.

Bending down a little, Vim moved his foot away so I could study his newly made footprint. I touched the edges of the print, and found it was indeed much harder and solid than normal. To the point it almost felt… smooth and sleek, as if it wasn't snow but ice.

"Do you do this intentionally, Vim?" I asked.

"Not really. I'm always subconsciously walking carefully, Renn, as to not harm the world around me. But right now my mind had been on other things," he said.

"Like what?" I asked as I looked up at him. I smirked at the sight of him staring down at me, it wasn't often I looked up at him from this angle.

He smiled back at me. "I'm looking for a specific place. As to finally give you the neat reward I promised, for Sivra choosing to stay with the Cloth family," he said.

Oh…? I stood up, smiling excitedly. "Out here? It's cold Vim," I said happily. It was cold enough that I mentioned it, but I wouldn't have allowed even this cold to stop his gift giving.

What was it going to be? He had said it was neater than the kiss, but…

He chuckled at me. "That's kind of the point. Come on, I smell frozen water this way," he said as he turned and returned to walking.

Joining him side-by-side this time, I giggled too. "Frozen water? Vim it's all around us," I said with a gesture at the white world around us.

"Well… that is true…" he admitted.

Amused by his oddness, I wondered what he was searching for.

He had made something for me, at our last location. After dropping Sivra off with that family, we've slowly headed farther north. Along the way we had stopped at a few other member locations, but one of them we had spent more than a single day at. While there Vim had made what I had thought had been shoes for us, but he's not given me them yet. He had made them while I had spent time with the elderly couple we had visited. So at first I had assumed he simply had made an extra set, just in case or something, but now I was starting to believe it had something to do with this neat gift he had planned for me.

What could it be…? We were deep in a forest, in the dead middle of winter, and as far as I was aware we weren't heading to another member's location or one of his little hideaway places. We were in fact going a few days out of the way, as far as I understood it.

Basically we were on another little quest. Though this time it wasn't one that concerned the Society or its members. It was… just for us.

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For me.

How fun. Hopefully he found whatever he was looking for. I was really looking forward to this gift of his.

We walked for another hour or so, and a few snowflakes started to fall for the first time in over a day. I could smell on the dry air that a storm was approaching, though was still distant.

"It's going to get cold tonight, Vim," I warned him.

Not that he was bothered by the cold. But lately I'd been feeling it more than usual.

"I can tell. If this lake isn't suitable we'll start heading eastward," he said gently.

Lake…?

Before I could ask what he meant we rounded a small mound, and sure enough came upon a lake.

One frozen over.

Frowning at the glistening ice spanning what looked to be a moderate sized lake, which even had a couple little islands in the center of it, I wondered if this was what he had been searching for.

Vim indeed stepped over to it. He walked right up to the bank of the lake, knelt down and studied the ice closely.

Walking over to him, I hummed a little as I waited to hear what he'd say. Did he want to ice fish? I haven't done that in decades, since Nory had been young. It'd be fun to sit with him and fish, but to be honest I had expected something a little different.

Vim reached out, and I watched as he touched the ice. He didn't break or shatter it, but instead ran his hand along it for a moment. I noted the sound his palm made as it scraped the ice.

"It looks thick," I noted. I hadn't thought it was cold enough for it to be as solid as it looked, but it was obvious the stuff had to be more than thick enough that it would support my weight.

Though if it'd support Vim's…

"Looks good. Plus the weather is perfect. Though it might be too nasty tomorrow, so we might only get the rest of the day," Vim said as he stood up.

"Hm?" So he did want to ice fish? If so I'm going to sit on his lap while we do.

Vim smiled at me and looked around, and found a fallen log nearby. One half covered in snow. He gestured for me to follow him over to it.

I happily obliged, and patiently waited for him to finally tell me his plan. He took off some bags, putting them down near the log, and then glanced around. "Find a spot for a fire, Renn," he said.

Fire…? Oh. I looked around for a bit, finding a small area beneath a huge tree that was suitable. There wasn't much snow on the ground, and the large tree and the ones around it would protect us from heavier snow fall. It was near the lake, but not so close that the heavy winds that would undoubtedly come tonight would bother us too much. I knew from experience how terribly chilling the winds got when rolling along such ice.

"Here Vim," I shouted at him, since I had walked a bit away from him. He glanced at me and nodded, then went to picking up the bags again. He had stuff in his arms, telling me he had dug stuff out of the bags and had been messing with them.

As he approached, I frowned at the sight of glistening blades in his hand.

"Knives?" I asked. Maybe to cut the ice? They looked odd though.

"A form of them. They're blades," he said.

I could see that. And why did he have those shoes out too? They looked funny now that I got a good look at them, some kind of thick boot.

Vim put the bags down, and the shoes and blades, and then went to build us a fire. As he did, and I put my own bags down, I sneaked a look at the shoes. Picking one of them up, I found that they had little metal pieces attached to the bottom of them. At first the things made no sense at all, because one wouldn't be able to walk at least not comfortably, but upon picking up one of the blades they made sense.

"Vim…?" I turned to look at him as he got the fire going strong. A little too strong, but I knew it was because he wanted to dry the area out a little around our small camp. He then grabbed a nearby log, shook it a little, and then placed it near the fire. He gestured at it, and I felt strangely giddy as I hurried over to sit on it.

"Take your cloak off, Renn. You'll likely want it later, but to be safe I want nothing on you to cause issues," he said as he picked up the shoes and blades.

"On me? Want me to get naked?" I asked as I undid the little fasteners and took the heavy cloak off.

He chuckled at me. "No. Just no bags or cloak."

I obliged, and once done he kneeled in front of me. He had connected the blades to the bottom of the boots, and I couldn't help but grin happily as he went to taking off the boots I had on.

"Vim… what is this…?" I asked, doing my best to not sound too excited. I knew he could see my excitement on my ears and tail; I didn't need to make it even more obvious.

"We're going to ice skate. It'll take you a moment to adjust, but you'll be fine. You're more agile than you think. Just be mindful if you slip and fall that you have knives on your feet, so keep hands and fingers away from them," he said as he went to putting the boots with knives on my feet.

Breathing quickly, I felt suddenly apprehensive.

Ice skate.

"We're going on the ice," I whispered.

He nodded.

Blinking blurry eyes as Vim firmly tied and secured the boots onto my feet, I waited until he was content with them before I reached out and grabbed his face.

I gave him a kiss as he lifted me up, carrying me over to the lake.

"Wait," I complained once I realized this was really happening.

He chuckled at me as he stepped out onto the ice, which thankfully didn't creak or crack even with our combined weight. He slowly lowered me, and I carefully placed my feet down. It took a moment to realize how I was supposed to stand and angle with the blade beneath me, but once I figured it out it actually made a lot of sense and didn't feel too weird.

"Take it slow. Crawl if you have to. I'll be out there with you in a few moments," he said… and then pushed me out onto the ice.

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