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Snow Glow (15) : On especially cold nights, strange puffs of light rise from the snow like warm steam--only this 'steam' glows in soft, sparkling colors and moves in slow, liquid shapes, like wax escaped a lava lamp and is rising towards the sky. Scientists insist it’s an unusual, but natural, phenomenon caused by pressure and temperature changes, but that doesn’t explain how the lights react when you reach for them--swirling around your fingers like playful, weightless ribbons. Sometimes, around these strange pockets, the snow beneath your feet glimmers when you step near the lights, and coming into contact with the glow results in it clinging to your skin or clothes in faint, shimmering patches. The luminescent residue fades after a few hours and has no lasting effects.
Jadyn was relaxing in his room, idly playing chords on his guitar, when he saw the lights in the back yard. Wait, what? They hadn't put any lights up in the back yard. He and Marni had put everything up in the front yard because no one would see them if they put any in the back. Well, time to investigate! He threw on some sweats, socks, a heavy jacket, and his boots before heading out to the back yard.
"What the hell are you doing, Jade? It's almost midnight and it's freezing outside," his sister said as he tromped through the living room toward the back door.
"Why are you even still up? Don't you have to work in the morning?" he asked. "Also, I saw weird lights outside and I wanted to go find out what they were," he said. "Wanna come with?" He grinned at her, even though he was pretty sure that she wasn't going to move from her comfy looking blanket nest on the cough.
"I'm studying, and no I don't have work tomorrow because the restaurant is closed," Marni said, turning the page in her book. "And hell no, I'm definitely not going outside in this weather. You have fun with your weird... lights... or whatever," she said. "I love you, little brother, but you're weird as ******** sometimes, you know that?" she asked him.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. And I love you too, big sister," he said with a smile before coming over and flopping on her to give her a biiiig hug. She squealed in protest, but then started laughing. "Get off me, you're so damn heavy!!"
"Have fun studying, Marn," he said. Once he had gotten off of his sister, he grinned and continued on to the back door. Outside he could see the lights better. They seemed to be puffs of colorful steam coming from the piles of snow but… that didn't make sense. If something was under there hot enough to steam, then wouldn't it melt the snow? He shook his head at his attempt to apply logic to any of the weird s**t that happened in Destiny City. Definitely not something that worked, like ever.
Curious, he stepped up to one of the steam puffs, a Christmas red colored one. Well, it was kind of pretty. He snapped a couple pictures and sent them to his sister so she could see what he had been coming out to see. He laughed at her response of “Bro wtf” and sent back a shrugging emoji.
He wanted to stick his hand in the steam, but what if it did something bad to him? Oh, well. It didn't seem like that was going to stop him in the least. He first extended a finger and touched that to the steam, chuckling a little. It was only slightly warm, and when he pulled his finger back it was shimmering in the same color as the steam. “Whoa.” He immediately stuck his whole hand in and grinned when it came out red and shimmery.
A little bit away, he spied another steam puff in blue, so he stuck his other hand in there. Same feeling, and it also came out blue. He laughed and stuck his hand back in the blue steam, marveling at the way the steam seemed to twine around his fingers and shimmer, almost like a lava lamp.
He had been obsessed with those things when he was younger. The science behind them had fascinated him to the point he had done experiments at home to make his own. He wondered if there was any kind of science behind these puffs or if it was just more of the weird stuff that happened here.
Either way it was pretty cool and not a weird magical wolf made of wind and snow trying to eat him.
