It hits and Merrill laughs, almost shrieking with it. A brief moment of consideration has her decide that yes, they absolutely have time for a snowball fight before making their snow griffin, and so she forms a real snowball and lightly tosses it between her hands.

"Afraid to take on a mage in the snow?" It's all a tease -- for one thing, she's not going to use magic to make balls of ice and then pelt them at him -- followed by a toss of the snowball toward his chest.