Pulling her coat tight about her thin shoulders, Buffy tucked her head low and stepped out into the frosty air. Icicles hung in sharp glassy stakes from the tops of evetroughs, and a thin layer of frost blanketed all metallic objects. Stepping through the icy snow, she winced with every tell- tale thunk her feet made through the snow.
She thought with a frown, struggling to control her bodies motions in order to minimize the sound of her passage.
She shook her head in rueful amazement. How could one of her most beloved childhood stories turn into such a nightmare. Frosty gone bad.
Ferocity, as Giles had come to call the killer snowman, had already killed two dozen kids. His very touch freezing the children solid, and then the sharp hit of Ferocity's broom shattered those icy statuettes to crystalline slivers. It was a nightmare, in Sunnydale, far worse than anything the vampires could produce.
Buffy snarled. The evil vampiress, Angel's daughter-from- hell, had found that old silk hat, had put the evil enchantment on it, and then given it to those poor children for them to "make a snowman.". Druscilla had killed those children, as surely as Ferocity had a carrot nose!
"Enough, Buffy." She murmured to herself. "If I was a killer snowman...where would I roll to during the night?" Standing at the foot of Walace Street, Buffy's eyes were inexorably drawn to the park. Securing the strap of her backpack, and her secret and deadly arsenal therein, Buffy made her way towards the park. The moonlight made the frosted snow glitter with a pale blueish beauty, creating an enchanted wonderland. Softly sighing in wonder, admiring the poetic grace of this transformed place, Buffy walked through arches of trees with a gentle smile touching her lips.
"I never knew that winter could be so beautiful!" She whispered, fingers reaching out to touch ice on a tree-trunk. Sunnydale wasn't accustomed to such weather, but the freak summer storms had mucked up the environment, that this rare snowfall had occurred. It wouldn't last long, meaning Ferocity had a natural death coming...but he had to be stopped now, to prevent more of his murderous rampages.
Buffy pursed her lips, wincing to notice that they were getting chapped. Her thoughts broke off, suddenly, as she heard something moving in the darkness ahead of her. Quickly, Buffy let her body mould against the trunk of the tree, and inched herself around it. The person moving nearby clumped past her, with loud thumping boots slogging through the snow. A thunderstorms rumble was quieter.
Buffy swung around the tree, now standing behind the person by a few feet. The dim night sky was dark, except for the moon, the reflection of the moon, however, on the snow created a blinding illumination in open areas, not shaded by trees. Quite clearly, Buffy could see the slight, heavily bundled body ahead of her, the green wood hat, and striped green, red, and white scarf, as well as the heavy mitts. She concluded with a silent sigh.
Moving quickly, she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.
"EEEEEEEEEKKKK!!!!" The Hacker's blood-curdeling scream was cut off with Buffy's gloved hand.
"Sssh!" Buffy hissed, spinning the girl around to face her. "It's me! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Willow gasped for air, the shriek having left her lungs exhausted. "You're Mom! She...*gasp* said you *gasp* went out...."
Buffy grimaced. "No Duh. Remember? We were in the library, talking, and we decided I needed to branch out in my Slayage, and begin taking out killer snowmen?" Waving a black gloved finger at her friend. "So, Wills...since I'm the slayer, meant to do the slaying...why are you here?"
Willow winced. "It wasn't my idea!" She protested. "I don't LIKE winter, I don't LIKE the cold. I'm constantly freezing, there isn't a jacket or mitts or hat or ANYTHING warm enough for me! I'm a cold-blooded creature, I guess, I like my weather warm!"
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Get to the point Willow, and be quieter. Remember, we're hunting a Snowman!"
Willow carried on, not paying any attention to the Slayer. "But Xander just HAD to get a detention, and then grounded by his parents, so he couldn't come out. Cordelia is a bigger coward than me, and Giles said Watcher's Watch, they don't give messages, so he sent ME out."
With amusement, Buffy watched Willow rant on, not pausing to take in air as she rambled.
"According to Giles, you can't slay a Snowdemon with an icicle, it won't work. They don't have a heart to start with."
Buffy frowned. This was not good news. "Did he said how I WAS to slay him? I mean, it's a little late now for sudden plan revisions!" Her eyes slid past Willow's shoulders, to the open field behind the girl.
"Umm..yeah. He thinks if you take Frosty's hat off, he'll um...freeze."
"Oh." Buffy's lips parted, and she watched the field appraisingly. "I see." Her tongue poked to the corner of her mouth, protruding slightly. "Well, then. That's good to know."
"It is?"
"Yeah." Buffy nodded, her hand once again reaching out to firmly grasp Willow's shoulder. "Definitely, ?cause here comes Ferocity, now." Her fingers clamped down, and pulled Willow to and behind her. "DUCK!"
Willow eeked again, but this time was muffled by the snow bank she fell into. Buffy stepped clear in front of her friend, facing the burning hell of Ferocity's eyes. The snowman was silent, except for his ever present growl.
"Time to go back to puddle-ville, Frosty!" Buffy taunted, dropping into a fighting crouch. It was Giles' theory, that Ferocity's touch WOULDN'T freeze her, based on her supernatural abilities. Of course, since Buffy had no intention of letting the snowball from hell touch her, she wasn't too interested in testing out her Watcher's theories.
Ferocity swung his branchy arms at her, the wooden small branches acting as fingers hooked into cruel claws. Buffy ducked easily, moving around him, and kicking her leg up to hit the snowman in his upper torso. "Owww!" She whined, her foot not sinking into the soft white fluffy snow that his torso looked like. The snow had been transformed into a hard ice, and her ankle was testimony to the hardness. "CRAP!"
Ferocity, swung again, rolling to face her, and moving closer. Buffy feinted, dodged, swung out and lashed back as she went along. In between her actions, she slid her backback to a more optimal position, and prepared to pull out her secret weapon. < I hope this works. > She thought, letting her body drop and roll to avoid those twiggy claws.
They fought on, neither truly gaining ground, but Buffy felt herself tiring. She instinctively ducked, swinging up and delivering a sharp punch.
Ferocity grinned suddenly, a frigid expression, in Buffy's opinion. The rough feel of a tree trunk behind her answered that question.
"BUFFY!" Willow cried out.
Buffy feinted right, then left, narrowly eluding those deadly claws. "Not....uh...NOW...Willow!"
"But, BUFFY!" Willow pleaded, somewhere off to the slayers right.
"Willow..shut up! Just get the hell outta here!" Buffy replied, her eyes widening in horror as Ferocity spread his arms wide, preparing to deliver a fatal scrape across her face and neck.
*THUNK* The snowball bashed hard into the snowman's head. For one starry moment, Ferocity paused. Buffy's hands dropped into the backpack, and whipped the thermos out in record time. Wrenching the lid off, she lobbed the container full of hot coffee at the snowman's face. "GOTCHA!"
Ferocity screamed, his claws swinging wildly, nearly striking Buffy once, and guaranteed to hit Buffy the next time. "Nooo!"
Another snowball sailed through the air, a clean, tightly packed ball of salvation. In a gracious and gentle arc, it swooped down, with a tremendous velocity behind it, and struck the snowman's black top hat hard.
The hat fell off.
Buffy slumped down to the bottom of the tree, a steamy sigh of relief escaping her mouth. Willow ran over, and flopped to her knees beside the Slayer. "Are you okay?" The redhead asked with concern.
"Yeah." Buffy smiled wanly. "Good throw!"
The hacker smiled back. "Thanks!" They were silent for a moment, studying the frozen and still terror that had so ravaged Sunnydale's children. "So, now what?"
Buffy grinned. "Now we end our problem forever." Scooting past the inert snowman, Buffy picked up the be spelled black top hat. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a lighter.
Willow raised an enquiring eyebrow. "Is that....?"
Buffy smiled. "The very one. A memento, if you will, of that particular bonfire." Flicking the lighter, a bright flame of warmth sprung up. Buffy leaned the flame in close to the black hat of terror. With an explosion of sparks, the hat encountered the flame and crumbled to dark. "Adios, Frosty!" Buffy smirked, brushing her hands together to clean off the ashes.
"What about him." Willow thrust her chin out at the three balls of snow, and coal eyes that made up the physical aspect of the snowman.
Buffy shrugged. "What about him? He's just balls of ice now." She rolled her tired shoulders, and smiled broadly. "And before WE turn into ice, let's go home for some hot chocolate."
Willow grinned. "With marshmallows?"
Buffy laughed. "Yeah! The colored little bitty ones!" Throwing her arm about Willow's shoulder, they made their way out of the snow-covered park.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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