They were catching up! Ales ducked into side streets, regretting this already. Each time he got closer to his house, another set of snowballs rained at him, some hitting him. At one point, the kids knocked off his hat and laughed when they found out that he was wearing a wig. He was pelted with another ball as he stopped to pick it up.

They only got tired of chasing him once he reached the perimeter of the housing district, but by then, he was soaking wet and tired from all that running.

He slammed the door once he was inside, grateful for heating housing, and trudged to the kitchen, where Mimi was drinking some soup.

"A-Ales! Kupo! Are you okay? What happened?" She flew over to him. The worst thing that could happen to her hero was for him to die of hypothermia. Not exactly the most noble of deaths.

"Snowball fight," he replied miserably and pushed a stool to the stove. "I'll just eat and go to sleep today." He climbed up. "We have something valuable to retrieve from the city tomorrow."

Mimi watched him nervously the entire time, and only went back to her dinner once Ales went upstairs.