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Prompt 1 (Diamond Dust): This time of year, snow is common. What’s uncommon is the single, strange snowfall where each snowflake that fell glistened like tiny diamonds. For the most part, the snow seems fairly normal—it’s cold, wet, and melts just like any other snow, it just also happens to look like tiny little gems falling from the sky. Depending on who you’re with, it’s either incredibly strange, or incredibly romantic.

When the snow is coming down at its strongest, crystalized snowflakes trickle down with the rest of the snow. These are roughly the size of a quarter and are light and hollow. They are fragile, like glass, but glisten like a fine cut gem. No one can explain this anomaly, but these small snowflakes won't melt. And they are all over Destiny City. You can find them gently falling to the ground, or lying in the fresh fallen snow. There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly magical about them, but they are beautiful and make pretty keepsakes.


Nate could see his breath in the cold twilight air. It was quite magical, the white powdery flakes drifted down even as the whole city seemed to take on a rapidly fading blue hue. Holiday lights were twinkling everywhere, greenery and trees up in most windows. Color splashed here and there, a stark difference then the almost shocking black and white of the slumbering parks dusted in snow. Fresh snowfall was his favorite. It was before the hustle and bustle of the city turned the pristine white to a dingy and dirty gray… or yellow if the snow was unfortunate. But right now… it was breathtaking.

He shivered when a particularly strong wind tugged at his winter jacket, sneaking up from the bottom and down from the collar. Nate tugged his coat closer and picked up his speed. The first holiday just ended, now he just had a few days to work before the New Year started. New Year, new you and all of that. He wanted to get stronger, wanted to be better, and wanted to be the best father he could be. He also would adore becoming the best boyfriend or husband he could be but that was slow going. Right now he felt more like a burden on Dessie, both as the father of their daughter and as a knight. He needed to get better. He wanted to stand beside her as an equal not as someone who needed protection. So here he was, walking through the snowy night, trying to make his way to the small gym by his apartment that he had been spending all his free time at when he wasn’t with Sarah and Dessie, or otherwise dealing with life.

The crosswalk sign turned green and the young man hurried across the rapidly slickening roadway. The snow might be pretty but it was also making traversing it a bit dangerous. Nate contemplated his choices, was going to the gym the right one? Or should he just go home? He could also head over to Dessie’s, use the excuse of the holiday’s to spend more time with Sarah and to also spend time with Dessie. His mulling was interrupted as he crossed a small, like barely there, patch of greenery that was more or less a spot for dog walkers. The snow was still pristine, unmarred by other walkers and untouched by dogs. No yellow snow here, at least not yet.

It was there, in the untouched snow that he absently stuck his hand out to catch a few flakes, that what he found in his palm were not frozen snow but some other type of magic. The snowflake was large, about the size of a 10p coin, but it was light. Super light. It also didn’t seem to just disintegrate in his hands like the other, more natural, flakes did. Unsure what to make of it he carefully placed the little crystalized snowflake into a napkin and slid it into his pocket. It gave him just the right excuse to go see Dessie, other than seeing his daughter of course. Nate was sure she would know what the flake was…. And maybe he could convince her to take a walk with him to see if she could find one as well.

Maybe.

Probably not, but hope springs eternal.