A Little Bit of Frost

"Just a fun game," Avaritia replied to Trea, "I'm sure it'll do us all some good to get used to one another," she gave a wry look toward Yukio. "I guess we'll pick our own teams," she said after a moment of thought and seeing the slightly fearful look on Yukio's face as he looked at her, "I don't mind who's with me." She almost regretted the words right when she said them, knowing a certain wind spirit will jump at the opportunity.

Yukio looked down at the ground, having his hair cover his eyes. Well, as long as he was teamed with Trea he should be fine. Trea could protect the flag by hiding as a regular tree. This could actually become interesting. He thought, dropping down from Trea and slowly floating down to the ground thanks to snow powder.

Trea just looks at everyone, blinking in confusion "You people confuse me" he said

"I can see it now my Avaritia! We could soar through the skies together!" He used both his hands to symbol birds flying through the sky, but can to a quick abrupt pause. "And capture the flag together..." He looked down at the dirt noticing how unromantic that thought was. He quickly snapped out of his trance and grabbed her hand again, yanking her off the ground, the wind doing the work of course. He tossed one of her cloths over to the Yukio and Trea before pulling Avaritia into the woods behind them.

Yukio made a snowball in his hand before Venti left, cranked back, and threw it at the back of his head. "This is war!" He declared loudly, picking up the scarf and noting the direction that Venti and Avaritia had gone in.

Venti slightly stumbled forward as the cold wet powder dripped down his jacket, white powder stuck to his hair, polluting the pure blackness of it. He drew his sword with the hand opposite the one dragging Avaritia. Spinning around to meet Yukios stare. "Hah! its been war!" He turned back around sword in one, Avaritia in the other, half carrying himself with the wind to speed up the process of running. Once in hidden cover of trees he stopping looking at the female in his presence, looking at the small cloth. "Any ideas?" For once he kept his sentence short and to the point.

"I can hide our scarf pretty well, come on," Avaritia said, grudgingly tightening his hold on her hand. She lead him even farther into their cover and tied it to an inconspicuous tree. Just as she finished tying it, it disappeared as if weren't there, an illusion hiding it. "Now we wait for the five minutes," she murmured, "should one of us stay here and guard it?"

Venti looked in amazement at where the scarf once hung. "Ah! The perfect idea from the perfect person!" He thought for a second on her question but came to a quick conclusion. "Ah, sadly we've both seen what Yukio can do, plus they have a giant tree, I dont think our combat matches theirs, but we have speed and wits on our side!" He opened the brown leather bag at his side, playing with the pure white feathers for a moment before re closing it. "From the sky we will be unreachable and uncatchable!" He said, proud of his simplistic idea.

Yukio flew Trea and himself to another area using snow. He dug into the had frozen soil with a blade made of ice, and buried it again. Then he froze the soil of the area all the way through. "Trea, stand here and pose as a real tree, hide your lantern. If they find out you're you, just tell them it's that way, okay?" He pointed to a patch of pine trees behind them. Then he became one with the wintery breeze of the area and disappeared.

"Ok" he said and rooted himself in the ground and he put his arm in his face and stuck the lantern down his mouth with the flag down his mouth "Cover up blue heart on back?" he asked

Yukio reformed momentarily to stick some moss onto the blue heart on Trea's back, then disappeared again. He flew toward Venti and Avaritia as a cold, icy breeze.

"Sounds good," Avaritia replied to Venti with a determined and competitive look in her eyes. "Though if we just take off, our position will be a dead giveaway, I'll cover us." With that said, she made herself and her companion disappear, only visible to the other. She spread her wings and took to the air. "So," she said, "where do we look?"

"Ah, wait for me, my flying doll!" He began to float, only a minute or two off the ground did he finally get his snow colored feathers onto his back. "You have one brilliant plan after another dont you?" He asked rhetorically. He began to scan the horizon for anything out of the ordinary. "Well, I'm guessing they are going to use the big guy to hide the flag, so any tree out of the ordinary is where I would start." He said.

Yukio rushed past the two quickly, as a flurry of snow and ice that blended in with the rest of the wind. He made sure to blast them both with an extreme burst of cold, before he went along his path. He started flying along, not exactly looking. Rather, he was creating fierce wind to somehow make the flag show itself.

Avaritia glanced back and smirked, "Guess so," she replied to Venti, then saw just what Yukio was doing. Knowing it may actually work, she concentrated and suddenly a waving red scarf appeared on the thousands of trees around him. "That ought to keep him busy," her voice faltered at the end. Her illusions were draining the power she had just recovered. "I only know one tree that'll respond to food," she held up another limp rabbit she had saved for herself later, "we just have to get close."

Nothing had happened, he did have no nose, and since he has his eyes closed to hide them, making it where they can't see anything of him

Yukio saw all of the flags. Well there's only one real one. And that has to be the one that actually has texture. He continued to blast away at the area with pressurized blasts of sub-zero air, starting to aim dangerously close to where their real flag was unintentionally.

Venti floated there for a moment, keeping an eye open for any movement. "He's just be pretty strong willed about playing this game" He said a look of disappointment flushed over him. His face lit up yet again with a new idea. "Trea, the game is over! You can come out now." Venti's shouts were just loud enough to be heard in their general area.

A strong breeze goes past Venti, more then likely just a breeze, but a cold one though

After there was no sign of Trea responding, Avaritia decided to pull her trump card. "Well, shouting is getting us no where. Alucard, Sebastian, mind helping us out?" Two small, winged figures crawled out from their concealment within Avaritia's clothes. They were two sleepy-eyed bats, one a furry brown and the other jet black, who looked out into the sunlight with confusion. They crawled onto each of Avaritia's shoulders. 

"You know the exact shape and size of the tree we rode, right?" she asked the bats, and the two nodded and took to the air, "well, lead me to it." The two bats streaked ahead without needing another prompt and hurtled into the forest, they had echolocation to guide them to the exact spot. Avaritia followed, knowing Trea wasn't far off.

Yukio, tired of trial and error, stood in the middle of the area where he assumed that Venti and Avaritia hid their flag. He looked at all of the flags, then, out of frustration, created a huge blizzard that basically covered the entire area, kicking up tempest speed winds and tons of snow and ice.

Venti watched the small rodents with naked wings fly through the sky. More of a flutter or freak out then soar. He got a slight look of disgust. "I'm not sure how I feel about the bats my dear, but I supposed anything would suit you!" He said with passion in his voice. As they flew he could feel the effects of the constant use of his energy begin to come into effect. "Ah, I don't mean to appear weak dear but uh," he let out a grunt, a grimace falling over his face. "I don't know how longer I can keep the wings up." He put the flock of birds back into his leather baggie, snow covering them. At least this way he only had to hold himself up, not the weight of over a thousand white feathers.

The two bats flew into a swift descent toward a familiar tree. "Just in time, I'm about beat myself," Avaritia replied, going into a descent with them. Once she landed, she wasn't sure if her bats had it right. "Er, Trea," she said while holding her hand out. "We're here for your flag, you have us beat. You can win by giving us the flag, I'm sure Yukio will be really proud."

---

Yukio's blizzard was enough to shatter the illusions. Unfortunately, now all of the surrounding trees were covered in snow and ice, obscuring any hint of the actual flag.

Yukio simply made the snow and ice slip off of the trees and onto the ground.

"Um... Flag that way" he said, pointing in a direction "Got to go over there for it" he said as he removed his arm off his face and opened his eyes