How Green Becomes Wood

Enkidu caught the second snowball and then skidded to a stop, rolling gleefully in the snow before Xander waved the stick for him, at which point he leapt up, ready to catch it, too.

Ivy watched him, but didn't sit down yet, being a bit overwhelmed, but after Dark handed her a bit of snow she giggled... and immediately tried to eat it.
 
Xander chucked the stick for Enkidu and played with him a bit more before tromping over to see what Alec was doing. "If this was sand, I'd bury you."

Alec giggled. "Nice, cold, cold snow! It's basically shaved ice, isn't it, Ivy?"
 
"She still cannot eat it," Dark replied while Ivy attempted to squat back down, but only fell into the snow. It was definitely deeper for her than it was for the rest of the family, and she sat there amazed, finally picking some up for herself and showing it around with joyous noises.
 
"Why not?" Alec asked, genuinely confused as he pushed himself up. "Hello, Ivy! You're so cute sitting there!" He started packing snow into small balls and stacking them to make miniature snowmen.
 
"It can have bacteria in it," Dark replied, "and still be polluted, even though it is white." Daizi didn't personally believe it was that dangerous, but she wasn't going to argue him about something minor like that.

Not knowing what Alec was doing, Ivy started trying to pick up the snowballs he was making. Seeing this, Dark tried to intervene by making his own snowballs and handing them to her, trying to help her to stack them, especially since she had been working on learning how to.
 
"Uh-huh," Alec said doubtfully. He wondered how long Ivy would go before she inevitably did something like eat dirt or dog food or whatever else toddlers were legendary for getting into in a moment of distraction. Dark might start wishing all she had ever eaten was snow! He returned to his snowmen and made two rather nice ones.

Xander came up behind Alec and dropped an armful of snow over his head. "Special delivery!"

"Hey!" Alec yelped. He shook himself and keened in displeasure. "Oh! That's cold! It went down my back! It went down my back!" He snatched up one of his poor snowmen and started chasing Xander, chucking snowballs at him every couple of steps. Xander cackled and dodged, tossing handfulls of snow back at him.
 
Ivy giggled, watching her brothers run around, and she turned to try to chase after them but only ended up falling over. Confused, managed to sit back up and then very carefully stood. Dark, watching her, chuckled beneath his breath, "Ivy-Qadira, you look like a meerkat."
 
Once the twins had gotten an appropriate amount of snow down each other's backs, Xander walked back to Ivy. He scooped up a small amount and slowly held it over her head. "Ready?" he asked her. "Ready? It's going to be cold!" He let it fall more like a dribble than a plop, watching to make sure she was okay with it.

Meanwhile, Alec moved up behind Dark, waited for him to have his focus 100% on Ivy, and then plunged a handful of snow down the back of his coat. He didn't wait for the reaction but took off running immediately.
 
When the snow started falling on her head, Ivy froze, not understanding what was happening and not recognizing the sound of the snow on her swishy hood. Then she looked up and a tiny bit of snow fell on her face and she blinked in surprise before shaking her head.

With the snow down on his back, Dark immediately leapt up in shock, trying to get the snow out of his coat, but when he saw Alec running away, he immediately started chasing after him.
 
Alec squealed when Dark, predictably, started chasing him, but he didn't run too fast, not wanting Dark to get too far from the others immediately for Phase Two.

Xander cackled, his part in being the distraction successful. He whipped out a hand and launched a snowball toward Dark, aiming for the lower part of the back of his neck. Then he, too, started running in the opposite direction from Alec.
 
"Wow, really?" Dark replied, turning back to Xander for a moment, aghast, and then after throwing a quick snowball at him, kept chasing after Alec. He couldn't catch them both at once, but he could punish them one at a time.

Ivy, meanwhile, watched this in absolute delight, and Daizi moved closer to her to ask, "Are Baba and your brothers being silly?" Really, she didn't have much of an idea of what was happening, snow dampened a lot of sounds, but she knew Dark leapt up and ran away, and clearly the twins were up to something by the squeal and her husband's exapseration.
 
Dark's pause had given Alec time to get farther away, and now that he knew Dark wasn't going to go after Xander, he was taking advantage of that pause to get as far ahead as the yard would allow.

Xander quickly realized Dark wasn't going for him, so he came to a stop and started scooping up snowballs. He lobbed them in gentle arcs, hoping to hit Dark, but his aim wasn't as good as a straight shot. Still, the falling missels surely gave dark something to think about as they landed around him and (hopefully) ocassionally hit him.
 
Unfortunately for Dark, even though he was generally a graceful man, he was still a large target with a lot of space on his back to hit. The snow slowed him down, but he was used to training with ankle weights which helped, and he still tried to run in a zig-zag to avoid being hit. Alec did get ahead, but he had faith he'd be able to catch up. As soon as he did, the kid was done for.

"Be careful of my flowers!" Daizi called out while Ivy laughed, finding it all very silly. She picked up the snow but still hadn't quite figured out how to throw, so she just dropped it to the ground.
 
Alec took advantage of the flower beds by dodging around and over them. He was smaller, even with his bulky winter coat, and able to make it around just ever so slightly faster than his father. That tiny amount of extra speed was all that was saving him as he worked his way around so that he was running back toward Daizi and Ivy.

Xander kept up his throwing, accidentally hitting Alec once glancingly, but aiming pretty well for Dark.
 
Alec promptly took the fistful of snow he'd been hiding in one hand and shoved it into Dark's shirt. "In for a penny, in for a pound!" He gasped in breathless laughter.
 
"Daizi, my love," Dark asked, holding Alec steady over his shoulder, "Will you build a mound of snow?"

"If you bring me into this, they're just going to accost me with snowballs," Daizi replied, but did casually begin to mound some snow.

"No, my darling, that would be cruel of them."
 
"I don't know, that would make you an accomplice," Alec wheezed. "We wouldn't throw things at you, that would be cruel. But we could sneak up behind you with snow to put down your back. Like Xander's doing now."

Xander was not, in fact, sneaking up on anyone, content to watch to see what happened, but Alec hoped to at least throw some confusion into the mix.
 
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