Just as a small info at the start, I recently started reading again and wanted to try a slight formatting difference in my writing. If I like it enough, I might start using this formatting more often. (This is a formatting style I often see in light novels)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was another quiet morning in the Elysian Realm. Snowy had been here for a few months by know, slowly getting used to her new environment. As she slipped out of her pyjamas into her normal clothes, she could already smell something baking down in the kitchen. She quickly grabbed her coat to help against the cold of the Elysian Realm, before heading downstairs to find both Prisma and Thorn already in the kitchen. While Thorn was already reading some report at the table, Prisma was looking into the oven, clearly baking something for breakfast.

“Morning.” she said, while entering the kitchen.

Both Prisma and Thorn looked over at her.

“Moring Snowy.” they both said simultaneously.

As she set down at the table, she noticed Prisma humming. That in itself wasn’t anything new, as he often hummed songs while he’s cooking, but this song sounded different. It was a lot jollier than everything he’d normally hum. But before she could question it further, he pulled something out of the oven. It was some kind of dough, wrapped around wooden cylinders. He removed the cylinders, before setting them on simple plates and adding some cinnamon.

“Ok, breakfast is ready.” he said, as he placed the plates on the table.

Thorn finally looked up from the report, looking at the weird looking creation in front of him.

“What exactly did you make?” he looked at Prisma, clearly not knowing what Prisma had actually baked.

Snowy did the same, having never seen anything like it before.

“Oh, those are Chimney cakes. I told you I wanted to try making those a few weeks ago.” he said without looking up.

Both Snowy and Thorn weren’t sure what to actually think of this, as the pasties in front of them looked nothing like anything Prisma had made before. But while the looks weren’t really convincing them, it smelled amazing and they both trusted Prisma’s cooking skills, so they tried it. And oh, Snowy was glad that she gave it a try. The dough itself had a hard outside crust from baking, while the inner walls were nice and fluffy. It was clearly sweet dough, but she could also taste cinnamon and a slight taste of vanilla.

“Th- These are amazing…” she said without looking up.

Thorn started to nod in agreement.

“You clearly outdid yourself there.”

“I’m glad you like it. Next time I’ll try to add a little more to them like maybe using almonds, walnuts, chocolate or maybe even sprinkles.”

Snowy’s eyes clearly lid up at the mention of such sweet pastries.

“Haha, seems like someone really likes the idea of making more of those in the future.” Prisma said, as he saw Snowy’s expression.

“Just because they’re so good.” she answered, while her cheeks started to flush a little pink, clearly embarrassed that her emotions were showing this easily.

Meanwhile Thorn just remained silent, a small smile forming on his face, clearly enjoying the morning already. After finishing their breakfast and putting the plates away, Prisma looked at Snowy with a mischievous clint in his eyes.

“Snowy, just so you know, there will be no Magic training today. We actually need your help with something else.” he said while looking over at Thorn.

Thorn just looked at Prisma, his expression completely unreadable.

“Just come with me really quick.” he said, before leading both of them out of the mansion, towards the Imaginary tree.

As they walked through the front garden, Snowy noticed fairy lights strung all over the garden fences. She quickly turned around to see that the whole mansion was covered in fairy lights and not just the garden.

“W- Why are there so many fairy lights?” she asked, clearly looking at Thorn.

He let out a deep sigh before answering “Ask Prisma. I just woke up to find my mansion covered in those lights.”

She looked over at Prisma, but he just smiled at her clearly knowing something she didn’t.

When they arrived at the tree, he finally turned around to look at them again.

“Oh, you know exactly why I covered your house in fairy lights brother.” he said while looking at Thorn.

Thorn just let out another long sigh clearly knowing what this was about. Without waiting for an answer to him, Prisma continued.

“It’s Christmas!”

“Christmas? Uhm, what’s Christmas?” Snowy asked, looking at Prisma with big eyes.

Hearing those words Prisma just looked at her, as if she had just told him that the Imaginary Tree wasn’t really while literally standing directly in front of it. Meanwhile Thorn let out a small chuckle, clearly amused with seeing his brother’s reaction. Meanwhile Snowy had no idea if she said something wrong, so she quickly started to apologize.

“S- Sorry I-…”

But she couldn’t say more before being cut off by Thorn.

“You did nothing wrong Snowy. At this point you just gave me the greatest gift ever by making my brother look like he doesn’t understand the world anymore.”

At this point his chuckle had turned into full on laughter. And while Thorn kept on laughing, Prisma finally got his act back together.

“I- Uhm… You… You really don’t know what Christmas is?” he asks, voice shaking slightly.

She just shakes her head once again reinforcing that she had no idea what he was talking about.

“Oh no, I can’t believe it. This can’t stay like that. Today we’ll both teach you everything you need to know about Christmas, right Thorn.”

Thorn finally stopped laughing, hearing his name mentioned.

“Wait what? I never agreed on…”

But before he could say anything else, Prisma already went into explaining.

“Christmas is a beautiful holiday that’s present in many different dimensions. It’s a yearly celebration, most often placed in the colder season. And while origins might differentiate, the message is nearly always the same. It’s there to spend time with family and friends and to just appreciate the little things.” he explained.

“Oh, that sounds nice. But we don’t have seasons here. S- So how exactly do you know that it’s Christmas?” she asked.

“He doesn’t. He basically just guesses.”

“I can’t believe you. I don’t just guess. I meticulously calculate a certain time frame using hundreds of dimensions, to get it down to the precise week. After that it’s a guessing on the day, but hey, that’s just small details, am I right?”

Thorn just leaves it, knowing that it’s not worth to start a discussion over this.

“So, you needed us for something, right? Spill it out already.” he said.

“Ah yes, let’s start. Now, as Snowy pointed out correctly, we don’t have seasons in the Elysian Realm. But we did teach a pretty nice first spell that’s gonna help change that.” he told them.

And he was right. The first spell he had ever taught Snowy after learning of her high mana capacity was a spell that covered everything in a 5-meter radius in snow and froze the water. But 5 meters wasn’t much, so what exactly was he planning?

“B-But that spell only covers 5 meters…”

“Correct. But that’s only because you haven’t fully mastered it yet and only summoned it using speechless incantations. But if I give you a staff and with some guidance, the radius should increase dramatically.”

Without another word, he summoned his staff out of thin air, handing it to Snowy. The crystals were shining beautifully, by reflecting the light of the imaginary tree. The design fascinated her every time, but she still hesitated when taking it, knowing how powerful the staff truly was. Prisma practically had to shove it into her hands.

“Hey. Wait a moment. That staff of yours might be pretty powerful but it’s also pretty dangerous. You can’t just give it to her without any protection.” Thorn interrupted.

And he was right. One wrong move with the staff could mean that all the magic power channeled into a spell would backfire onto the spellcaster. But he wouldn’t just give her such a powerful tool without having any idea how to deal with them, right?

“That’s why we’re gonna help. While she provides the mana and casts the spell, we’ll make sure that the magical flow is perfectly stable.” while he finished his explanation, he placed a hand on her left shoulder.

As Prisma looked at Thorn expectantly, Thorn just placed his hand on Snowy’s right shoulder without saying another word. She felt a light squeeze on her right shoulder, signaling her that she’ll be ok. So, she started chanting the spell, closing her eyes to concentrate on only the spell. Air started circulating around her, slowly turning colder as she kept going. As the air kept getting colder and colder, snowflakes started forming in the air, circulating around her. Then, as she reached the end of the spell, she opened her eyes, her pupils emitting a dim glow. She held the staff up high, as all the air and snowflakes started moving towards the sky, where they formed into a giant ring. The ring started off big, slowly shrinking, as more and more snowflakes accumulated. As the ring finally became small enough to be barely visible, it suddenly exploded into millions of snowflakes falling from the sky. The sudden release of all that cold air instantly made any water around them freeze. After finishing, she finally put down the staff handing it back to Prisma. As he took his staff it shrunk again, allowing him to use the top as a handle, as he leaned against it. All three of them looked around in awe, as the entire Elysian Realm was now coated in snow and ice as far as they could see and snow falling. The next thing she heard was an impressed whistle from Prisma.

“Well, color me impressed. This thing had a way higher reach than I ever thought.” he said.

He then went towards the frozen sea of Quanta, knocking on the ice in multiple places, listening to the sound, before standing up again. Then he just jumped onto it, using his momentum to slide a little distance, while also turning around mid-motion. Then he placed his staff down to lean against it, thinking that the bottom crystal would pick a little dent into the ice, making it hold steadily. But instead the crystal just slid on the ice, making him fall onto the ice. Looking at his displayed confidence and his sudden fall, Thorn couldn’t help but start laughing again.

“Hahaha, I can’t believe it. This day just keeps getting better and better.”

Meanwhile Snow just stood there, stunned at Prisma’s sudden fall and his decision to even stand on the ice, considering what was below it.

“I- Isn’t it dangerous to stand there?”

As Prisma started trying to get back on his feet, he started explaining.

“No, not really. The ice should be around 8-10 meters thick, so it can’t break under my weight.”

After explaining this, he started chipping at the ice with his staff, making a small dent that allowed him to anker his staff. Then he used his staff to get back onto his feet. Then the crystals on his staff started giving off a dim glow, indicating that he himself was chanting a spell of his own. Thron was still too busy laughing to notice it, while Snowy felt like something had changed below her feet.

“Be careful. I just removed most the friction between you and the floor.” he warned her.

Then as if on cue, Thorn slipped, instantly falling to the ground, solidifying Prisma’s statement.

“Ouch, why the hell did you do that?” he asked, his voice laced with anger and embarrassment.

Well, to start the perfect activity of the day. Because now we’re gonna start ice skating.” Prisma just answered.

Snowy was intrigued, while Thorn just rolled his eyes. To show what exactly he meant by that, Prisma started sliding on the ice with barely any effort. Snowy, clearly fascinated by this, tried to step on the ice, only to nearly fall, before being caught by Thorn who was now standing behind her.

“Careful there. Nearly no friction truly means exactly that.” he said, before looking at Prisma.

“Hey, when you said you removed most of the friction, did you really mean that, or did you just make our shoes work like ice skates?” he asked his brother directly.

“Oh, I guess I should have explained it like that. Yeah, they basically work like ice skates. So, there’s friction when your foot is angled at any degree higher than 45 degrees from your body’s normal rotation.” he explained, before going back to skate.

Snowy looked up at Thorn, slightly confused by Prisma’s explanation.

“What he means is that when you’re standing like normal, you slide. But when you put you foot into an angled position, you have friction again.” he explained, while how his foot didn’t slide after he put it at angle.

“Now here’s the important part. You always keep one foot straight, while putting the other at an angle to push yourself forward.” he explained, while showing her exactly what he had just told her.

Then he went next to her, holding her hand as they slowly started to skate on the ice. Over the next 30 minutes, Thorn kept guiding Snowy, until she wanted to try to skate without help. At first when he let her hand go and she tried to move, she nearly fell but caught herself before going down. She kept on trying, until she finally managed to get flowing movement, being able to skate alongside Thorn and Prisma. They kept skating for the next few hours, with Prisma even trying to teach both Thorn and Snowy a few little tricks. In the end he managed to teach them multiple ways to stop while skating and even got them to try jumping while skating, which ended in both of them falling many times. But they all had fun, so no one really cared. After hours, they stopped to get something simple for lunch with nothing interesting really happening. But after lunch, Prisma had another idea, dragging them out into the back garden. Snowy, still happy from the ice skating and interested in what Prisma had planned next just went without question, while Thorn was definitely a little more careful, not sure what Prisma wanted to do in his back garden, just hoping that his flowers and plants would stay unharmed. As Prisma kneeled down, Thorn finally asked.

“So, why did you bring us into the back garden? I hope it’s not something usele-…”

Before he could finish his sentence, a snowball hit him straight in the face. Snowy looked at him, not really sure what to say. That’s when she heard Prisma chuckling.

“And here I though you’re always on high alert.” he said, while laughing.

Thorn just simply got rid of the snow in his face, glaring at Prisma. Instead of addressing Thorn again, Prisma looked at Snowy.

“Snowy, you do know what a snowball fight is, right?”

She did. She had read about it in “Teardrop Moon”. But she had never thought that she’d ever have one herself. She just nodded.

“Good. Because we’re gonna have one. So better start making some snowballs.”

As he finished his sentence, a Snowball hit him, making his hat fall to the floor. Turning around, Snowy saw that Thorn had decided on throwing a snowball at Prisma. He was already forming another snowball, seemingly joining the game. She quickly made a snowball herself, as Prisma got up again and tried to throw one at her, instead of Thorn. She quickly ducked, barely avoiding it, before throwing her own snowball towards Thorn. As they kept going, it slowly snowballed into an all-out war against each other. And while Prisma and Thorn had originally planned on going easy on Snowy, they slowly realized that both her small size and speed made her a formidable opponent they actually had to take serious. In the end, their clothes were completely soaked after uncountable amounts of snowballs had been thrown at each other. As the day slowly turned to night, the climate of the Elysian Realm got colder, forcing them to go back inside for a change of clothes and to take a shower or bath, depending on the person. After enjoying a simple bath and a new change of clothes, Snowy went back into the kitchen, finding Prisma already standing at the counter preparing something. Looking over at the dinner table, she noticed that Thorn still hadn’t arrived, but there was some device that looked somewhat like a grill on the table. Without turning around, Prisma answered her question.

“If you’re wondering, that’s a raclette grill. It’s used for tonight’s dinner. Oh, when you’re already here, could you help me set the table?” he asked, while pointing towards multiple plates filled with different kinds of cheese and vegetables. There were also sauces as well as many seasonings.

As she walked past him, she noticed that he was boiling potatoes. She helped him, set everything on the table, as Thorn arrived in the kitchen. He looked at the table, before looking back at Prisma.

“That’s a lot of food. Is that all for tonight?”

“Oh now, it’s not just for tonight. Tonight, we’ll eat as much as everything wants and I’ll use the leftovers to cook other stuff over the rest of the week.”

As he finished his explanation, he want back to the boiling pot, checking if the potatoes were ready. When he noticed that they were, he drained the pot, before putting them into some kind of pouch, before closing the lid and bringing them to the table. He noticed both Thorn’s and Snowy’s confused expressions, looking at the pouch.

“Oh, that’s so the potatoes we’re not currently eating stay warm throughout the dinner.” he simply explained before sitting down.

They both sat down as well but clearly didn’t know what the exact purpose of the raclette grill was.

“So…. How exactly do we use this?” Thorn asked, looking at Prisma.

“Oh, it’s simple. You just take a piece of cheese, put it on one of the small pans, put it under the grill and wait until it melts. Then you can put it over potatoes, or any vegetables you’d like. And afterwards you can add seasonings just how you feel.” Prisma explained to them, while putting a slice below the grill himself.

Both Snowy and Thorn did the same, choosing some cheeses, before putting a slice below the grill and looking for what they’d like to eat with it. They slowly filled their plates with various vegetables and potatoes, while the cheese was slowly melting in the pan. After around 2-3 minutes, the cheese was done and they started spreading it over their plates, before trying different seasonings and starting to eat. And even though the ingredients were simple, it tasted amazing to them. They all fell into a cozy silence, as they enjoyed dinner. After dinner, Prisma needed them to follow him one more time, guiding them to the Imaginary Tree once again. After arriving there, Snowy saw two boxes beneath the tree. When she looked closer, she saw that those were presents. That’s when Prisma started explaining once more.

“Now, the last part of Christmas is to place gifts for others beneath a pinecone tree. And I know this isn’t really a pinecone tree, but I made something to change that.

“He pulled out a golden Christmas ball ornament, before hanging it from the tree. Then he simply snapped his fingers, as the Imaginary Tree suddenly changed into a fully decorated Christmas tree.

“Before you lose your cool brother, this is just an illusion. I made this simple prototype while preparing something else, as I wanted to test if it worked. After confirming that it worked, I didn’t want to throw it away, so I changed it into this little ornament.” he explained, while showing that his hand simply went through branches that just appeared out of nowhere. Then he took a step back, to admire his work, before turning to Snowy.

“The gifts below the tree belong to you. Go on, open them.”

“F- For me? But I didn’t get you anything.” she said shily.

“Just take them, ok? We’re far to old for presents anyway.” Thorn told her.

At their insistence, she slowly started to get closer to the gifts, taking the first one. It was wrapped in beautiful shimmering red and green wrapping paper. As she opened it, she took out a dark grey beret with golden vines sewn into the headband, just like her coat. And on its side was her ice rose that she had given to Thorn a few days ago, after he told her that he wanted to check something. She quickly tried putting it on, noticing how perfectly it fit. She turned towards Thorn, smiling at him and thanking him. He just smiled back, before starting to explain something.

“There’s still something important you need to know. I infused your rose with the same magic that’s stored in Prisma’s and my rose. If you’re ever in life threatening danger and you have this rose on you, ours will start glowing, signaling to us that you need help. And the same of course also goes for our roses, so yours will glow if one of us is ever in danger. It’s just something to avoid high risks.” he explained to her.

She just looked at him with wide eyes, not sure what to say to the explanation he had just given her. And before she could find out what to say, Prisma joined the conversation.

“I think it’s best if you just ignore his explanation right now. How about opening the second gift?”

She turned around towards the tree again, seeing the second gift, wrapped in shining red and silver wrapping paper. As she opened it, she pulled out a pair of black leather gloves. And while the right one looked pretty normal, the left one had a light blue gem embedded into its design. That’s when Prisma explained what exactly she was looking at.

“Now, the right glove is just a normal glove. But the gem in the left glove is to help you better channel spells. It’s like a more unique approach to spellcasting instead of having a full staff. And while I know that it’s of course weaker and all that, I couldn’t find good materials to make a staff yet, so I though that this would be best until I can get you a proper staff.”

As she put the gloves on, the gem started shining, clearly reacting to her mana. Then before anyone could say anything else, she sprinted towards both of them, pulling them into a hug.

“Thank you so much.”

They just hugged her back, knowing that they didn’t need to say anything else.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And that’s where I’m gonna leave this little Christmas story. And I know that it’s been nearly three weeks since Christmas, but it just took a long time to get into this new formatting style. If possible, I’d also like to know what you think about this way of formatting my stories, as I’m thinking about using it more in the future for the Intermissions I’ll be writing.lsthough I also understand the the current way my Website Shows thee stories leaves too much room between lines, so I might Need to change that.