Snow Fire
"Ughhh, hngh."
[Stop crying already. Do you even know how many days it's been?]
"Sniff, three days and seventeen hours..."
[...How the hell do you even know that.]
"I've got a good memory."
[Is this something you remember...?]
The dragon gave me a look like she'd seen a ghost.
But right now, none of that registered with me.
Probably because my eyes were squeezed shut from all the crying.
"Fire attribute..."
Why, of all things, did it have to be fire?
I'd thought I had insane talent for snow.
I figured even in the scorching midsummer heat, I'd be chowing down on snow-made patbingsu and sledding like a pro.
Fire attribute, though...
According to the dragon, fire was the absolute worst match for snow.
"Waaahhh."
[She finally quieted down for a bit, and now she's at it again.]
Did she think I was born without tear ducts or something?
I was bawling like an orphan who'd lost their parents, so the dragon got up and walked over to me.
And then, suddenly—
"Huh?"
The dragon was enveloped in a white light!
Inside that glow, I could see her silhouette writhing.
Her massive wings shrank down.
Her head, body, and legs followed suit, compressing one after another.
Finally, the pure white light faded, and someone stepped out from within.
"Phew, it's been ages since I last polymorphed. Kinda tiring."
"...A total stranger beauty!"
"Guess raising a disciple was pointless after all. Can't even recognize your own master's face."
She let out a sigh and walked toward me.
Uh, but was "girl" the right word?
She looked a bit older.
A woman a full head taller than me, with two massive lumps on her chest the size of her head.
"Now, hold out your hand."
"Like this?"
"That's right. And look at your hand."
With that, Dragon-lady (presumably) grabbed both my hands tight.
She overlaid her hands on mine, drawing mana from her heart.
The color of that mana... it was more snow-like than any snow I'd ever seen.
White, colorless—an exquisite shade in between.
That mana flowed out through her hands.
Well, "flowed out" might not be the right way to put it.
"Whoa...!"
It piled up on my hands like falling snow.
In an instant, my hands were buried in pristine white snow.
The dragon snapped her fingers like Thanos in the Avengers. Thankfully, no global half-snow apocalypse ensued.
-Krurruk.
"Eek!"
The snow on my hands started moving all at once.
No one touched it, but it clumped together on its own, splitting into two groups.
One made a round snowball, the other a slightly smaller one.
They merged, sprouting eyes, a nose, a mouth, and arms.
Soon, it was hopping around on my hands—plop plop plop.
"A snow golem. Basic spirit magic combined with my own."
"But why show me this?"
"A gift. Humans give these for happy or sad occasions, right? I might've forced magic on you half against your will, but you're still my disciple."
She said it and patted my head a couple times.
"Can't have my one and only disciple—especially one with insane fire magic talent—crying while I ignore it. Not very master-like."
"...Didn't expect a gift like this. Kinda touching."
Pat pat. I stroked the hopping snow golem on my hand.
This texture, this chill—real snow!
From now on, your name's Snowy.
"Naming sense is the worst."
"It's cute, though. Or maybe Ruler of the Frozen Snowy Mountains, Ice—"
"Snowy's better."
"See? My naming sense rocks."
"Lost for words."
The dragon's satisfied, so Snowy it is from now on.
So quit glaring like that.
Oh, right.
"Hey, Dragon-lady, got a question."
"What."
"Were you a girl the whole time? Thought you were a guy."
"A dragon of my caliber can switch genders at will. Behold."
In a flash, she turned into a tall, long-haired, shirtless dude.
"Ugh, just stay a girl. That's hideous."
"..."
The dragon sulked and holed up in dragon form in the cave for two days straight.
Anyway, with the dragon's comfort, I figured I'd give fire magic a shot.
Sure, fire's a terrible match for snow and kinda pisses me off, but hey, I've got talent, right?
"Once I learn it, something's bound to work out."
-Nod nod!
Snowy, perched on my head, nodded in agreement.
So I asked the dragon for some beginner-friendly fire magic, but...
"Ugly dragon like me doesn't know that stuff..."
"Oh come on, why you still sulking."
"Ahem, kidding. I really don't know."
"Why not?"
"Why? I handle snow and ice—how would I know fire?"
Fair point.
No Admiral Yi Sun-sin in this world.
His legendary "know thyself, know the enemy" wisdom apparently never made it here.
Worship you forever, Great Sun-sin...
Anyway.
"Guess I'm self-studying after all."
That lizard calls herself my master but hasn't taught jack.
Still, gotta follow through.
Luckily, when I asked again, she gave some magic tips.
Dragon-lady, best master ever.
According to her, there are two kinds of magic.
Public magic, learned from people or books.
And unique magic, born from personal insight.
But I can't learn public magic right now.
No books or fire magic teachers.
"So I gotta awaken unique magic, huh."
But unique magic's hundreds of times harder than public.
You observe your attribute endlessly, imagine, expand it.
Repeat that dozens, hundreds—maybe thousands—of times.
That's what births unique magic.
She added that talentless humans take about 30 years.
'But you've got fire talent, so maybe just 10 years of suffering.'
"10 years ain't short. Sigh..."
I sighed and rolled Snowy across the floor.
Snowy being snow, it grew bigger the more I rolled—double size now.
"...Y'know, snow's pretty amazing when you think about it."
It clumps bigger when it merges.
And in these eternal snow-packed mountains? Synergy city.
Endless falling snow plus unmelting snow—could make an infinitely huge snowman, right?
"Focus. Think fire magic."
I crossed my legs for meditation, but snow fantasies kept flooding my head.
Snow's prettiest when you see it with snow-covered eyes, right? That's why they call it snow.
Total nonsense.
But I loved dwelling on that nonsense.
Fire attribute? Not even on my radar.
"Wish I'd been born snow attribute. Live life making it snow nonstop."
I flopped back, spread-eagled, staring at the snow.
Snow falling from the sky. Forever. Torrential.
Nonstop downpour.
...And what if I swapped that for fire?
The thought flashed like lightning.
Snow pouring from the sky.
Endless, eternal.
Why couldn't it be fire?
"The sensation of falling snow..."
One of the feelings I knew best.
Lived my life as a snow-gazing otaku; lately, even slept naked in snowdrifts.
Reproduce snow's motion with fire.
The moment I thought that—
"Huh?"
The sky changed.
The dull gray gloom lifted, replaced by orange.
Not sunset orange—deeper, redder.
Then—
-Plip, plip, plop.
Fiery snow began to fall.
The flakes multiplied, building to blizzard intensity.
Hm, not snow, so blizzard of flames? Firestorm?
Whatever—some indescribable phenomenon was happening.
-!!!
Snowy dodged the fiery flakes and zipped into the cave; right after, the dragon came running.
"What the hell is th— "Hey, Dragon-lady, this unique magic, right?"
"Insane! Stop it now! STOP!!"
"Whoa, tsundere mode off again."
"Just stop it first!"
Aww, the fiery snow was kinda pretty.
...I have no idea how to even describe this.
I told her to sense mana, and she stands naked in the snow to awaken it.
Fine, up to there—genius stuff.
But unique magic isn't just raw talent.
It needs vast attribute knowledge and effort.
Yet that white-haired girl, my disciple—
She manifested snow magic with fire attribute.
No clue how, but...
"...Insane talent."
First human I've seen with that.
Maybe even among dragons...
"Nah, impossible. How could a human outdo a dragon?"
Anyway, looks like I picked up a ridiculous genius.
Thinking that, the dragon stared at the girl.
The girl, meanwhile—
'Wonder if I can make Snowy into a fire-snow golem later.'
—had taken a shine to something besides snow.
"Still, snow's the best."