Koala rubbed her nose. She sneezed. She rubbed her nose again. “What is that?”, she exclaimed confusedly.
“That’s the first snowflake of the year, and it landed directly on your nose.”, answered Turtle with a smile on his face. He saw the flake fall shortly before Koala realized what had happened, and her reaction was just too adorable.
“Humpf”, grumbled Koala, “I don’t think I like it very much. It’s not very polite.” Then she saw other snowflakes come down, and her eyes widened in wonder. “What’s this? And that? And that one over there?”
“Those are all snowflakes”, explained Turtle with a big smile on his face. He enjoyed being able to explain things, especially to this small furry creature. Her excitement for all the things that had seemed so little before made them grow big and important.
Koala turned and followed the course of one of the snowflakes down to the ground. She even bent down to look at it melt on the not quite frozen ground. “Those are pretty!”, she exclaimed. “We don’t have those where I come from. Maybe I do like them.”
Now one landed on Turtle’s nose and he shook his head and sneezed. Koala turned around and, realizing what happened, let out a big laugh. “That’s what you get for being Mr. Smartypants!”
Turtle pouted for a second, then he smiled. “Do you know what a snowball fight is, little grey one?”