6/20/2023 0 Comments Small favor by jim butcher![]() ![]() ![]() I thanked the little girl gravely, and bounced the snowball on my palm a few times. I beamed at her, and accepted a freshly-made snowball from little Hope, who had apparently appointed herself my squire. “You’re just doing this for your own sick amusement, Harry.” “This can’t possibly be real training,” she said, her voice quivering with cold. Molly stood between them, shivering, and gave me an impatient look. The back yard of the Carpenter household was already thoroughly chewed up from an evening of winter warfare, and two low “fortress” walls faced one another across ten yards of open lawn. The children, her younger brothers and sisters, immediately began packing fresh ammunition to hurl at her. ![]() I carefully kept any laughter I might have wanted to indulge in from my voice. Tall, blond and athletic, dressed in jeans and a heavy winter coat, she looked natural in the snowy setting, her cheeks and nose turning red with the cold. Molly Carpenter sputtered, spitting snow, and a round of hooting laughter went up from the children gathered around her. Since she was muttering a mantra-style chant when it hit her, she wound up with a mouthful of frozen cheer-which may or may not have been more startling for her than for most people, given how many metallic piercings were in suddenly in direct contact with the snow. Winter came early that year: it should have been a tip-off.Ī snowball soared through the evening air and smacked into my apprentice’s mouth. ![]()
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