By
@PlatinumSkink.
A night below the stars, illuminated by the white moon. Around stood trees without leaves, the ground colored orange, red or dead by their tint. A single girl with black hair, white skin and a red tattered dress stood alone among the trees. She looked with her brown eyes into the distance, where the people were sewing their seeds in the fields by their hastily built wooden buildings, and she saw that her task had been completed.
Knowing there was but one final step left on her journey, she wandered into the forest. There, underneath a majestic spruce with its green needles sprouting in an area of otherwise leafless trees like a great green cloud, lay a girl in white. White long hair spread over the ground, her frail body clothed in lightly blue sheet of unnatural cloth. Her skin was as white as her hair, and her body perfectly preserved. The girl in black and red sighed, knowing what came next.
“It is time,” Autumn said. “It is your turn, now.”
And with that, the girl woke up. She instantly drew a deep intake of air. Her blue eyes opened wide in surprise, staring aimlessly into the starry night sky. The first thing that struck her was how beautiful it was, and the moon sat in the sky watching over her from above. She looked around her. There was a dreary forest of trees without leaves. The only green was in the spruce she had woke up under. The girl was alone, except for with the colors of the leaves under the trees. They felt oddly comforting to her. It felt she could relax and go back to sleep right here.
Yet, she knew she had things to do. The girl stood up with determination, taking a moment to dust off nature's touch from her cloth that she wore like a dress, before she lifted her hands into the air. A calm but cold wind blew through the forest as she willed it. Along with the sound of trees brushed by the moving air came small white specks drifting down as if it was raining stars. The snow collected, a little at a time, as the temperature dropped around her. Soon enough, the forest floor and the trees around were covered in a thin sheet of white snow. The girl smiled, knowing she was doing her job. For she was Winter.
Winter followed her instincts, a set of instructions imbued upon her mind which she followed tirelessly. She brought cold which killed the hostile insects that had been plaguing the land, she lay her blanket of white upon everything in her reach. Birds flew south, she saw the humans huddling in their homes by fires, working to take advantage of the area around them to survive the cold. This wasn’t the natural environment for such creatures, and they were struggling. Seeing their troubles, Winter wondered what she was doing. Her instincts told her to do this, but for what reason?
That's when she was distracted by the sounds of children playing and laughing in the snow. It was a sound she had never heard before, that of laughter. Curious, the girl sought her way to them, to listen to their tales. There, a young boy with black hair, dressed in a thick brown fur coat approached her, his brown eyes looking curious about the girl with white hair wearing so little.
“Aren't you cold?” the boy asked.
“Why are you so happy?” the baffled Winter asked, looking at the playing children. The need to respond to his question when the answer was so obvious did not even occur to her. “It is cold, everything is dead, and you have to work so hard to stay warm and alive. How can you laugh?” she continued. The boy looked at her in surprise, but then smiled and responded.
“Because, it is fun!” he replied. “Before the snow came, beasts big and small threatened us and mother would not let us play outside. But with the cold, the beasts have retreated and we can play! We're safe in the winter! The snow makes everything so bright, and we can do so much with it! Even if it is cold, it is so cozy when we huddle together around the fire at night, as a family! This is the best time I've had in my life!” he announced. Winter was stunned at his words, but considered them deeply. Not letting her stand around, the boy invited her to play. They built a snowman, they sled down hills together and fought in snowball fights with their friends. Winter regained her smile, for she experienced fun.
Winter found her personal purpose. She didn't have to do this all just because her instincts told her so. She was protecting the humans, and letting the children play in the snow! She saw it in their eyes as she peeked at them from a distance through their windows. The families were happy, comfortable and warm inside their houses. The trees in their white winter wonderland stood merely as background and firewood, and Winter found her happiness. Day and day again, she'd come play with the boy, and the humans accepted her for whom she appeared to be. Winter continued to make things white.
So it continued, for months upon end. Winter enjoyed herself, obeying her instincts, making everything white and shiny, and the children happy. That was her purpose in life. She smiled everyday playing with the boy and the children of the humans, and watched on as they hunted for survival and tended their crops in the midst of winter. The human species mystified her so much. Yet, she loved them all. She never wanted to leave them. She never wanted it to end.
Then one day, Winter felt something odd in her instincts. They were telling her to let the snow melt, to let the temperature rise and the season come to pass. But, this defied her purpose. She was to keep the families safe, to allow the children to play in her white snow and let the happiness remain. So, she didn't. For the first time ever, Winter defied her instincts and did what she wanted. She kept the air cold, she kept the snow as it were, and all would continue as it had.
At first, it worked! They were having as much fun as they had before, and Winter could ride in the sled with the boy as much as she wanted. This truly was life! One day, when she and the boy sat in their sled at the top of a hill, he spoke to her.
“I've been wondering, who are you?” he asked.
“I am Winter,” she replied automatically.
“So you've said before, but, what are you really?” the boy asked with more specification. It took Winter a little by surprise, but she saw no reason to conceal the truth.
“I'm a Spirit of the Earth, the Causer of Cold and Spreader of Snow. I am Winter, and I keep you safe.” So she said. For to her, that was the truth. Everything felt so right, except for that nagging feeling of discomfort at defying her instincts.
“You really are,” the boy commented, and then he looked a bit sad. Winter became worried and was about to ask why, but then he told her. “Mother has told us we cannot play with you anymore.”
“What!?” Winter yelled and rose to her feet. “Why!?”
“Because if we don't, you might never end,” the boy answered honestly, looking up to her.
Winter's eyes flared out in anger at the boy at this statement, and she turned around and blew away, powerful cold winds catching her body and flinging her off where she wanted to go. The boy yelled after her to stop, for he had more to say and didn't mean her any ill, but she wasn't giving him the chance. He couldn't possibly catch a spirit flying away from him at full power. Serves him right for angering her, Winter thought. That night, a very fearsome and chilling snowstorm hit the town, as the vengeful Winter vented her anger at those who did not feel thankful for her protection.
Everything felt wrong. In the days that followed, she saw it. The humans were running out of the supplies that they had stored for her arrival. Plants were dying, food was hard to get, and as the children grew hungrier so too did their smiles disappear. Never again did they play with her, for their mother's kept them inside to prevent contact with her. But, this couldn't be. It couldn't be her purpose to simply wane away. Her instincts still told her to end the season... but she did not want to. She kept the temperature cold, and she kept the snow falling. This couldn't be it.
The Sun, sensing that Winter was defying her place in the balance of nature, launched an attack at her snow-covered lands. The girl who had simply been roaming her lands gasped out in surprise as powerful warm rays shot down through the trees, melting her snow. Once again, her anger flared up, and she counter-attacked with snow clouds. For the days that followed, the Sun and Winter were locked in battle, and one day the ground would be peeking out and then the next everything was covered in snow. On the day the Sun would melt the snow, but come night Winter would once again spread her white influence across the land.
As using her powers for a purpose it wasn't meant for was very taxing on her, Winter felt stressed. As the time of her season came and went, so too did her power grow weaker and she couldn't win her battle against the Sun, her snow melting all over the land. But, she refused to be defeated. As a spirit, the Sun could not actually kill her. So as she could no longer snow over the land under the Sun's supervision, she instead froze the ground and trees. The ground grew hard and cold, the trees died and little could survive in her land. That would do for now, Winter thought, her objection would be heard.
That's when he appeared. The boy she had befriended approached her where she sat on her knees beneath her spruce, which it too had been completely frozen over by now. At first she believed he had arrived to apologize, which she accepted happily at the thought of comfort. However, with alarm she realized that it was not him at all. It was a greater, much more powerful being taking his form. Winter stood, readying her powers for battle, yet the being held up a hand of peace to her.
“Who are you!?” Winter demanded, her patience having worn thin.
“Earth,” he declared in a straight voice much too deep for the boy. “I am your father.”
Winter recoiled, eyes wide, but realized with a start that her father had come to berate her for her wrongdoings. With that, her will to fight vanished and she regretfully relaxed in defeat. Father looked at her grimly, and then waved in a direction.
“Let us take a walk,” he said to her. Winter complied, and they walked.
They walked through the frost-bitten forest that Winter had created. As they walked, Earth told her a story. Once long ago, he, the Moon and the Sun were the only beings in existence anywhere close. There were the Stars in the Skies, but they were too far away for any of them to interact with. So, they decided to create life. The Sun would support their growth with warmth and limitless energy. The Moon would turn the skies, guiding the Earth around the Sun and rotate him so to sort the Sun’s energy in a way hospitable for life, creating night and day. The Earth would produce the air, minerals and also offer his own body for them to live on.
For a while, this was enough. They experimented, and managed to produce life. Their finest creations were humans, who were intelligent and could adapt to their environments. However, the things around the humans were not developing as intended. Disease-filled bugs and great beasts wandered the lands, crops and vegetation was not growing as intended in the constantly similar nature, and only a thin band of the planet was inhabitable as the ends were frozen and the middle too hot. A solution was needed.
And so, Earth created the Spirits of the Seasons, each to govern a fourth of the passage of the Earth around the Sun, each blessed with powers from the Moon. To ensure life would never stagnate, they would ensure that life would follow a flow, from warmth to cold, from birth to death. Winter blinked a bit in realization, looking to her father as he started explaining her duty.
Winter's purpose was always to protect. By bringing cold for a fourth of the year, she could expel the creation of the smallest and most dangerous of life-forms. The snow she spread over the land kept the seeds in the ground below warm for the season, and when it then melted the ground would be well nurtured with the water she gave it. Without her, the ground would die and humans would not be able to live on crops as they now did. By spreading the time into a cold time and a warm time, more of the Earth was available for life to live on, as no area would stagnate.
“However…” Father Earth said, before stopping by a tree. Winter wondered briefly why they had stopped, before she looked down at the base of a tree and gasped.
A blonde young girl lay there, in a short green tattered dress, her eyes closed and her white skin was frozen whiter than it should be, her naked legs and arms lying on the frozen ground around her. Winter knew instinctively who this was. It was her sister, Spring, who would not wake until Winter accepted that her mission was complete. … And she looked like she was freezing to death, lying there lifelessly, her limbs frostbit and powerless. Winter staring down in terror at her.
“... Your efforts are for naught if you do not let Spring capitalize on your work. For Spring will take the seeds which Autumn planted, which you protected, and let them grow into new life across the land. With that, life will return, and life can continue living. Summer will then watch over life and keep it warm and alive until it is time once again for Autumn to prepare it for the next Winter. For that to happen, for life not to end right here… you need to end,” Father explained.
Winter recoiled, feeling tears come down her cheeks on her own, looking down on Spring's frozen body.
“Only you can call your mission successful,” he continued, turning away from the scene and looking back through the forest. “You can choose to keep on living. However, know that if you keep on what you're doing, then life will die. It is your call.”
So he said, before wandering back into the woods. Winter was left staring down at Spring, horror and hesitance equal inside her. But, she finally realized her true purpose, first after being told it. Her instincts were simply meant to guide her for that purpose, but she had been misled by the more immediate benefits. She had never been meant to last forever, despite her means to do so. Winter remained there for many hours, coming to terms with her situation. As the hours went by, she slowly grew calmer, slowly grew more sure of what she had to do.
With a heavy heart, she breathed out, and then leaned down over Spring. She smiled a sad little smile, running a hand through the spirit's blonde hair while looking down into her still expression, before finally saying her final words.
“C'mon, Spring,” she said. “You're late. Everyone's waiting for you.”
And so, Winter completed her mission and faded from this world, finally at peace with herself.
As the spell was cast, a surge of warmth shot out through Spring's body, and she blinked awake. Taking a deep breath, the girl stretched her limbs, the frozen particles simply falling off the spirit's invulnerable form. Then, her instincts kicked into place and the girl realized she was late, and she agitatedly jumped onto her feet and threw out her hands. Her power stretched out, and plants recovered their will to live as she used the water she could save to nurture the seeds, and plants started to grow out of the dying grounds, once again restoring life to the world.
In the town nearby, the citizens were all collectively gripped by relief, but also by regret at how they'd been forced to treat their Winter who had protected them and played with their children just to make her go away. After all, to them, she had always been their beloved Winter, no matter her nature. The boy himself cried at her passing, but would soon enough regain his strength to continue his life, as Spring meant a lot of work to rebuild what Winter had left behind.
Seasons would pass. After Spring, Summer would rise, the bright red-head with gaudy yellow dress dancing on a hill somewhere shining warmth and light on all, before then Autumn would rise again to do her part. Then finally, a new Winter would arise, and the Cycle of Seasons would continue.
And so it continues up to this day.
