7th Day of Yuletide

The snow clouds were heavy and low closing the tundra in on itself as cozily as a vast expanse of gently rolling land can be.  Surrounded by drifts of snow the gathering was snug and cheery about their fire as fat warm snowflakes fell from the sky.  The children of a snow maiden and a fox shifter pounced on the falling flakes and rolled down the snow banks upon landing, they hadn’t quite figured out how to plan for after they jumped.  Their parents smiled at them indulgently.  The woman in white caught one kit before she could roll too close to the fire and put her back on her feet smiling.  The kit bowed in cheery gratitude, nearly tumbling over again, and went off to join her brother in pouncing on their father’s tail.  The bard watched the white woman’s smile as it nearly concealed her wistfulness and hid a slightly haunted look of his own by tuning his lute.  Settling in to his snowy seat by the fire he picked out a merry traveling tune on his lute, a repetitious piece that could wind over hill and over ice floe, if he let it.  “As all storms will this one came to pass and the travelers were faced with a decision.  A decision on which rested more than they could know.”

The Decision of a Beginning

The storm reveled in the wild expanse

Of the North with its stunted trees and sprawling tundra

But eventually, with a great clap of thunder

The storm gave a great yawn

And dwindled away.

Slowly the quiet percolated down

Through ice and snow and stone

To the two travelers in the cavern

Conversing in the dark

As time wound on,

They came to realize the existence

Of a new absence

The absence of the storm

And silence fell between them

The time had come to decide,

For each knew the other

Was on the same quest as their self

In search of the voice

That haunted them still

With melancholy that sang in the heart,

Jarel Frost broke the ice with cautious good cheer

“It was a pleasure meeting you.

Now that the storm has passed I will be continuing on.”

“Likewise.”  The Winter Queen replied

“And I too shall resume my query.”

She hesitated, but Jarel did not

He quite liked the sound of her

And, she kept the loneliness at bay

“It would seem dear Winter Queen,

That we are going the same way.”

She started, it had been a long time

Since any had spoken so affectionately

She hesitated to involve herself

But wasn’t that exactly what she sought

A kindred spirit?  And here one was.

“So, it would.  But the way North is both broad

And quite narrow.”

“Shall we take the narrow way?”  He proposed

“I should like that.”

She replied cautiously,

“Then lead on, I believe your entrance

Will make a better exit than mine.”

Jarel Frost gestured grandly

Unseen in the dark

The Winter Queen retraced her steps

Opening the tunnel before them,

Following the snow soft sound

Of her footsteps transitioning from stone to snow

Jarel Frost followed her

Up through a tunnel of delightful cold

Trailing his fingers along the wall of crystalline ice.