Episode 1.
A New Kind of Snow-Fort
"Rowsby, what exactly are you?"
Annie asked as she headed out the backdoor to her first recess at Woodriver Elementary. They had met the day before, in her back-yard. She had been piling snow in a big lump in order to build her first snow-fort when she heard a voice behind her:
"You'll never build a snow-fort that way." She turned around and saw-- something-- she didn't know it was-- a cat, or maybe even a monkey, though she knew that monkeys didn't live in Alaska.
"Who are you?" She had asked. It had told her, and then told her that she needed to make giant snowballs and put them in a circle in order to make a snow-fort. That night, he had slept on the floor next to her bed, and now he was walking to school with her. But Annie still didn't quite understand what he was.
"I'm a Rowsby, naturally." Rowsby answered gently.
"Your name is Rowsby, but what are you?"
"A Rowsby."
But what is a Rowsby?"
"Rowsbys both are and aren't a great many things." he said wisely. Annie nodded, and seeing that he had her attention, he continued. "They don't need to say they're something else as, apparently, Annie's do. If you're a Rowsby, you'll know it."
"I know I'm not a Rowsby." Annie answered
"Than you are almost certainly not one." Rowsby replied.
Annie stepped outside, and a single blast of wind seemed to cut right through her massively puffy snowsuit and through her skin and freezed her very bones in an instant. Immediately she huddled back inside the door.
"What's wrong?"
"It's so cold!" She whimpered.
"Annie's don't like the cold?" Rowsby asked, tilting his head quizzically. Annie just rubbed her arm. "Try again," He insisted "you'll get used to it." But Annie shook her head: her bones will still shivering from that one gust. The thought of half an hour outside made her feel cold all over again.
"Let's go back inside."
"What will we do in there?"
Annie thought for a while. What could she do besides go outside? "It will be a new kind of snow-fort," she started out, than, in response to Rowsby's skeptical look "It will be like a game of hide-and-go-seek in a new kind of snow fort. "We can hide, and then, when everybody comes out, we can suddenly jump out and surprise them." She jumped to emphasize her point, and Rowsby jumped to, excited by the thought of surprising somebody.
"OK," Rowsby agreed, where should we hide?
"Lets hide in the coat-rack, it will be like a little nest.
"I'll tell stories while we wait for everyone!" Rowsby said, shaking as he got excited. "Rowsbys love to tell stories."
"But the teacher musn't see us." Annie continued, "she might not like it."
"So its an adventure too?" Rowsby exclaimed, I love this new snow fort.
