For all alien crew members on the Pioneer, Earth is not an unfamiliar place. From time to time, they have shore leave to the planet when the Pioneer is docked for maintenance. In the three years Kyrashu had been serving on the ship, he had been to Earth a few times, and he always looked forward to the next time they went there. However, he had never been there during winter. Fortunately, he would not be alone on this trip: he'd be joined by two friends, a the Eduani sisters Daela and Laika, who've been around Earth for a longer time.

With their winter clothing packed, they went down to Earth to Northern America. Laika had been listing all the winter activities they could do together, and show their Kalasian companion the beauty of the frozen landscapes. The three of them got a lot of eyes drawn towards them with their unusual anatomy, and although Earth was starting to get used to having Eduani around, Kalasians were still a rare sight. It did make Kyrashu nervous from time to time, not being used to all this attention. He often hid his upper head behind his comically oversized scarf. Daela reassured him that it used to be like that for them as well and he'll get used to it sooner or later... or the people around them will get used to them.

When they came to a large frozen lake, they saw a whole skating rink had been set up, with several stalls on the lake shore. They decided to borrow some skates and go skating themselves. However, Kyrashu had never done this before and was surprised how difficult it was. Those Terrans made it look so easy! Luckily, this wasn't the first time for the Eduani sisters. They helped him to find his balance on his skates and teach him the tricks of skating.

(Of course, they'd get some nice warm soup at the stalls afterwards)
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This illustration is done by the wonderful  Bean-Muffin , featuring my Kalasian character Kyrashu with  Sabrina-taur 's Eduani characters Daela and Laika. I actually commissioned this as a bit of a surprise for Sabrina, with whom I've done quite a bit of story writing last year. And since the winter solstice is tomorrow, it felt appropriate to post this weird but wholesome winter scene.

Kyrashu by  MandelSoft
Daela, Laika and the Eduani species by  Sabrina-taur
Kalasian species by  phantomshotgun and  xolroc

Check out the original here