The young man was alittle ahead of Summer, glancing back and forth at all the shops. His thick, black wool medium-lengthed coat was dusted lightly with flakes of ivory snow, and he occasionally whisked his fingers lightly through his brown hair to rid it of the snow.

He was grinning, and he had pushed Brandon and Stacy to the back of his mind. The young boy felt safe with Summer, and he knew he'd be protected from them if they tried anything .. But it wasn't as if anything would happen. They wouldn't find him, and he'd spend an awesome Christmas with Summer.

"Aww, look!" Aeson stood at the window of the pet shop, smiling through the glass at the bouncing lab puppies. "I love the yellow ones, they're so adorable."

"Yeah they are if I ever get a place that allows pets I so want a dog." Summer agreed. The snow didn't seem to bother the young storm mage at all.

She was glad that her friend seemed less troubled than he had earlier and she too let thoughts of his foster family drift away as she moved down the sidewalk beside him.

The snow seemed to glide over the yellow nylon shell of her quilted yellow parka.

"How could anyone not love them? Banning sweet little things like that," He giggled as he watched one of the puppies open its large brown eyes and yawn. The small yellow puppy got up and waddled over to the glass, wagging its tail.

"Oohhh, look, Summer! It likes me." Aeson cooed through the glass and turned back to his friend. "Can we go inside and look?" He smiled.

"Yeah, we can look." she said smiling at his boyish and youthful enthusiasm over the puppy. The little critter did seem to like him.

She followed him inside taking in the petstore smells as they entered. Cedar and newspaper shavings. It was nice and warm in here. As the door closed behind them a quaker parrot greeted them.

Aeson was grinning the entire time as they entered the warm building. He waved to the parrot that had squawked a nice hello, and alerted the pretty female clerk of customers. The boy moved to the glass aquariam-type thing the lab puppies were in.

"Excuse me, ma'am .. ?" Aeson quietly asked for the attention of the young woman. "May we please .. Play with with the puppies?" He smiled as she nodded her head and told them it was fine.

Aeson went to the puppies cage in front of the window and grinned as the sleepy little canines woke up and began tumble slowly over one another to get nearer to the boy's hand. Aww!

The clerk came over and took a few of the puppies out so that they could be played with.

Aeson and Summer each played with a puppy apiece. It was terribly fun inpart because the puppies already had toys that the pet shop sold.

"So cute." Summer kept saying to the puppies.

Aeson continued playing with the puppies; one yellow one in particular. It was alittle chubby, and its paws were a bit bigger than the others', and he looked a bit unproportioned. But that only added to the adroable quality of the little thing.

"Oohh, I wish I had enough to buy you, sweety," He cooed at the little puppy who leaned up to lick his nose. He glanced up to Summer. "Which is your favorite?"

"Oh that's a hard choice, the one you have is so sweet, but I also like the fluffy tailed one, though the fluffy tailed one nips a bit hard." she said. She reahed over to pet the one Aeson was playing with. "Cute, cute, cute, cute!" she proclaimed giddily. The puppy gave her a lick, as if to say yeah Summer, you're okay too.

"Ohh, he likes us." she said laughing at the puppy's antics.