SciFi and Fantasy Stories: Myth 2 of 2

Myth.

Rain and Frost (second part)

Sandra  Viglione.

January, 2008.

The trees had closed around Bright like a wall of enemies. He had never seen trees like these ones. He shouldn’t have entered, he repeated once and again. But indeed he needed help. And he knew, better than others in the castle who inhabited the dark woods.

The trees closed in front of him like a wall. He looked around. He only could come back. He would get no help here. He gave one or two steps, and the trees cut his way. There waas no wayout.

‘Please!’ he whispered to the dark grove. ‘Rain needs help.’

A strong wind, a breeze with flavor of dawn, whirled in the hollow, carrying with it some golden leaves. Bright caught one of them and observed it. They were just like the ones Rain’s friend left behind him.

‘What are you loking, Son of the Summer?’ a soft and cool voice asked.

Bright rised the sight. There was a lady before him, the silver hair twinkling with dew and the skin blushing like the clouds at dawn.

‘Milady… I need help.’

‘I’ve heard it.’

‘My friend Rain… Lady Summer found her with one of the Sons of the Winter… She is not allowed to go out the castle, and… And she wants me to find her friend…’

‘An icy man?’

‘Yes, milady. Please…’

The lady turned round.

‘Please! I need…’

But the lady didn’t leave him. She simply took one of the golden leaves and blew upon it.

‘Go, my husband. Fly away and bring this icy man…’ she whispered.

Bright stayed very quiet and still.

‘Milady, you are…’

‘Morning Breeze, lady of this forest.’

‘Then… the stories… were true.’

The lady smiled.

‘In this forest, we have welcomed all the exiles of the Castle of the Sun and of the Barracks of Ice... from always. I’m not even the first one.’

Bright looked at her with blended astonishment and curiosity. Morning Breeze was fresh, yes, as all the Daughters of the Winter. But she was soft, refreshing, white, luminous... and beautiful. As beautiful as none of the burning Daughters of the Sun could ever be, because her beauty was different. It came from the cold.

‘Why is it so… dark?’

The lady smiled once again.

‘Protection. Who comes here, comes brought by necessity. And they are ready to accept us exactly as we are. It’s a matter of… surviving.’

That moment, the trees opened to give way to a man, astonished face, and a red leaf in his hand.

‘Ah, Captain Frost. It’s a pleasure to have you with us.’

The stunned Frost stared at the lady, and then at her companion. His expression changed when he recognized Bright, and he took a hand to the sword.

The trees darkened a little more, and the leaves gave way to another man, as tall as the lady, and crowned with red leaves.

‘Milord,’ the lady greeted with a bow.

‘Don’t disturb the peace of this woods, icy man. Sheathe your sword.

Frost stared at him for a moment, but the man of the leaves’crown held his look. Frost lowered the sword.

‘Milord, you must be…’

‘Goldenleaf. I was a Son of the Sun, just like you, but the Lady expelled me for living Morning Breeze, Daughter of the Winter. We sheltered here… where is neither summer nor winter… And here, icy man, there is only one law: peace. If you accept it, you may stay with us.’

‘Stay? I only want to find Rain. Rain, the one who dances in the forest and brings the rainbow…’

Bright advanced one step.

‘Lady Summer has forbidden her to come out the castle. Rain wants to talk with the Lady, but I don’t think it’d work…’

Frost trespassed him with his icy eyes.

‘I must go for her.’

‘And hen?’ Bright said. ‘What will you do? For the Lady won’t…’

‘Lady Summer is as uncompromising as your Master of the Winter, captain Frost.’

Frost stared at Goldenleaf, and then at Morning Breeze. The eyes of the lady shone with the lights of the morning. A cold morning, but not frozen. He pursed the lips.

‘I’ll look for a place for her. A forest where she may dance… Where winter don’t freese her birds, and…’

‘She won’t dance if you are not with her,’ Goldenleaf said.

‘I’ll look for a place where Summer don’t find us either.’

‘Summer is not looking for you,’ Bright said. ‘But she’ll never allow Rain to go.’

‘And Winter looks for you, captain. The Master of the Winter doesn’t allow his sons to leave the Evendim.’

Frost looked at them one by one.

‘I’ll find a place for us both,’ he repeated, stubbornly.

The lady smiled suddenly.

‘You’ve already find it,’ she said. ‘You have understood which the spirit of the refugee’s woods is.’

‘You may stay here. Golden and red trees will show you the way,’ Goldenleaf said, handing him a eddish leaf. Frost held it in his hand for a moment.

And Goldenleaf anf Morning Breeze vanished in a whirl of cool wind and red leaves.

Frost looked at the leaves flying in the wind and nodded slowly. He kept the leaf in his chest, by the frozen flower, and looked at Bright, who watched the leaves with a smile. He frowned a little. Bright looked back at him.

‘What? Don’t you know how to smile?’ he said.

Frost looked ath him, serious.

‘No. We are in war, while you play with flowers and birds. Winter’s sons do not smile.’

Bright stared at him perplexed. That couldn’t be true. He had heard about the banquets in the headquarters… long ago, from a frozen girl that got lost in the forest. And he had taken the girl back home, while he heard her stories: her grandma, Morning Breeze, her sister, Snowfall, and the soldiers of the winter.

He shrugged.

‘Rain will get sad sick if I don’ take you there soon. Let’s go from here.’

‘I follow you.’

The air was suffocating here. Frost stumbled and he had to lean on the wall. Bright looked at him.

‘What’s up?’ he whispered. ‘We must hurry.’

Frost gulped and looked at him.

‘Yes,’ he said.

But he couldn’t move. The heat, coming fron the floor and the walls was killing him.

‘Is it the heat, isn’t it?’

Frost nodded, stunned.

‘Lean on me.’

Whith a chill, Bright passed Frost’s arm around his shoulders, and he took hm, almost dragging him, along the long corridor.

He had chosen one of the less travelled service corridors. His favorite wayout, the same he had taken to go away. The icy man, as Morning Breeze and Golgdenleaf called him, had kept his distance, and at first, he thought it was distrustfulness. But as they approached the castle, and temperature rose up, and Bright’s muscled turned more agile and flexible, Frost walked slower and heavier. He looked simply exhaust.

‘We’ll reach the garden soon… It’ll be cooler there,’ he whispered.

And after another endless corridor, ther reached the back of the service dependences.

The laundry was normally noisy. The laundrywomen liked splashing and laughing as they worked. Many of them sang as they do it, and not all of them sang the same song at the same time. But today, there was a strange silence in that place. Bright pushed Frost to a dark corner, and he peered in.

The laundry was deserted but for one of the eldest women, Foam, who drowsed in a corner. Bright approached her.

‘Foam? Foam!’

The old woman opened her eyes and half smiled.

‘Boy! Let this poor old woman sleep…’

Bright let out a little laughter, though his nervous.

‘Where is everybody, Foam?’

‘Up there, of course. The Lady summoned everybody to the Hall. Didn’t you hear it?’

I was sleeping, just like you…’ Bright smiled. The old woman pinched his cheek.

‘Mischievous boy…’ she said, closing her eyes again. Bright smiled and left her.

Frost had recovered a little. The air was cooler at the laundry. He looked questioningly at Bright.

‘We’re lucky. Everybody is up in the Hall.’

‘Why?’

‘Bright shrugged.

I don’t know. But we may reach Rain’s rooms trough the service corridor. Nobody will be there.’

Frost nodded. Knowing that Rain was waiting for him gave him strenght and self control.

‘Lead me,’ he said. And Bright started to walk again.

In her rooms, Rain had also heard the calling. The Lady wanted to see all her children in the Hall. She sat by the window, watching the white clouds approaching the Castle of the Sun.

The air smelled of tears again. Like it did every time she got near the window. She didn’t care. As for her, it might rain all year long, until there were no mor water in the skies. She closed her eyes, and got lost in the fading gray of the rain.

Giggles at her door borught her back. Somebody was knocking.

‘Rain?’

She turned round. Hummingbird and Butterfly were there. Butterfly looked a bit guilty.

‘Rain… The Lady…’ she began.

Hummingbird broke off.

‘The Lady wants to see us all. Up there, in the Hall…’

Rain looked at them, but still she said nothing. Butterfly approached, almost cautiously, as if she feared the rain Rain brought with her.

‘Rain…’

Butterfly got a little closer, and held her hands. She felt them cold.

‘Rain, we always have been friends…’ she said with little hesitation.

Rain looked at her. She, Butterfly, had been the first in flee from the rain. And then she smiled sadly; her wings wouldn’t resist it.

Hummingbird stayed still just enough as to lean by Rain and caressing her cheek.

‘Let’s be friends again,’ she said.

Rain shook here head and pointed the window, where water drummed on the crystals.

‘Can you fly under the rain, Hummingbird? Can you stand the water, Butterfly? I think we’ll never dance together in the gardens… or in the woods…’

‘I’ll resist,’ Hummingbird said, as simpulsive as usual. And Rain smiled. Colored lights invaded the sky.

‘I don’t think so. And I wouldn’t stand doing you any harm. No, my friends… I don’t think that…’

‘At least come with us now,’ Butterfly said. Her hands trembled. Rain stared at her. Maybe never more… With a sigh, she freed her hands and got up.

‘All right. I’ll try…’ she said.

And she got out, along with her friends.

‘She’s not here. I thought you said…’

Rain’s rooms were empty. A feeble ray of sun entred by the window. There didn’t rain. Bright looked frowning at the window.

‘So weird. When she looks out the window, there starts to rain…’

Bright tried to peer out the balcony, but the light bars didn’t allow him. Frost shuddered. It was a prision, no matter how nice and fresh it looked like.

‘Where is she, then?’ he asked.

The sound of the trumpets filled the silence. Bright lifted the head and stared at Frost, pale.

‘Up there,’ they whispered. And they ran to the corridors again.

Lady Summer’s halls were full of light and color. Golden colors sparkled, luminous, green ones looked brilliant by the red and orange ones; blue ones barely rimmed the violet colors. Clear leaves drew the ceiling, waving slightly in the breeze, and sunlight entered through all the windows. All but one: the one by Rain had sat down.

The Lady looked a couple of times in her dierction, but she couldn’t or she didn’t want to come closer. All of her children reclaimed her attention, every one of them showing her a new color, or a new shade they had got from the reflections of the sun in the plumage of a bird, or the surfave of a lake, o the new green they had painted on the leaves… In a millon ways, the Sons of the Summer built the Spring all around them. Only Rain remained a little apart, wrapped in that gray solitude of the falling raindrops.

And then a gust of air, more than fresh, cold air, hade her lift the head. She looked to the door, and she saw Bright, upset, and accompanied by somebody else. And she turned to Rain, who had got up lively, as enlivened by the cool air.

‘Bright?’ the Lady called, frowning.

Bright looked at her, pale. But he stepped aside, to let the other man in.

‘What’s this?!’

But no one could respond the Lady.

Frost entered the Hall of the Summer without even realising it. Rain walked to him not knowing what she was doing. She stretched her hands to him. He held them. And as it had happened in the hollow, they melt again into each other’s arms.

‘What? What’s this…?’

‘Beautiful…’

‘Wonderful…’

Rain’s drops turned into snowflakes in the Hall of the Summer. Snowflakes that fell on the amazed Sons of the Sun, and melted on their faces and hands. Some giggles bursted here and there. This was something completely new and marvelous for them. It had never snowed in the Summer Halls.

The Lady had them quiet with a blow of her sceptre on the floor. That moment, Frost turned round and saw her.

Lady Summer glared at him with eyes of fier. A fire that could annihilated anihilated him right there. But it didn’t. He stood, martial, and made a reverence to the Lady.

‘Captain Frost, second division, third body of the Master of the Winter’s army,’ he said, and he made an involuntary grimace. ‘Well, not any more. I’m just Frost, Son of the Winter.’

The Lady looked at him for a moment. Frost felt the heat concentrating upon him, and he shuddered. The look of Lady Summer could melt him just as if he himself was a snowman, he knew it well. But he remanined in his place, facing the Lady. Rain stepped in the middle.

‘No, don’t do it! I…’

‘You what, Rain? Are you going to tell me you love him? He’s the enemy. He es one of those that freeze your flowers and kill your birds with ice and snow…’

And however, Frost fell the heat retiring from him, maybe because of Rain, maybe retired by the same Lady. He took Rain’s hand and held her back.

‘War has lasted enough, noble Lady of the Summer,’ he said. ‘Rain and I will look for a place where we may live in peace.’

‘Live in peace! There is no peace! I’ll show you what kind of peace will you get…’ the Lady said, lifting her sceptre.

Frost and Rain held each other, expecting a lethal blow, but the Lady confined herself to hit the floor with it. A blue lightning filled the room, and temperature fell suddenly. At the call of his sister, the Master of the Winter had come.

The Sons of the Sun looked astonished around. In black and white, glimmering in blue and silver, half of his Hall of the Summer had melted with the Hall of the Winter, the throne’s hall in the headquarters of the Master of the Winter, in the far Evendim. In front of the Lady’s throne, across the room, there stood the ice throne of the Master of the Winter. And sitting at the throne, surrounded by his children, it was the very same Lord.

‘Summer,’ he greeted, coldly, getting up.

The Sons of the Winter turned round, surprised, and looked at the Sons od the Summer.

‘Winter,’ she greeted. ‘How many of mine will you take, brother?’

Winter frowned at her.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. Your withces of sun ate who seduce my sons, and your sorecerers of light bewitch my maidens.

‘Nonsense! Your cold servants freeze the blood and kill the spring of my children!’ Frost had neared Rain, and held her hand. The Master of the Wind settled a pejorative look upon him and turned to his sister.

‘This one is no longer one of mine. Keep him if you like him so much…’ he said turning his back on the Lady.

‘I do not want him!’ the Lady said. ‘I want that your sons stop killing what we buld. I do not want your son keep on sealing mine. I demand you to sotp!’

The Master of the Winter turned back slowly, and the air moved, cold, in the room. His eyes sparkled.

‘That my sons… That my sons!’ And suddenly, Winter lifted his staff and pointed the snowy ceiling of his half of the hall. The roof darkened, and white snow started to fall upon both sides. ‘I was not the one who started the war, Summer.’

‘Neither did I,’ she said, blazing eyes, hitting the floor with her sceptre. The golden drawings in her walls shone as burning sun, melting the snow. ‘But I’m stronger and I can…’

The Sons of the Sun had got amazed at the first snowflakes, but snow rested them light and strenght. They had gathered around their Lady.

The bright sunlight, drew by the magic from the golden drawings had fascinated the Sons of the Winter, but soon, the heat enfeebled them, and they began to back up to the ice throne, at the bottom of their hall. But a maiden stayed behind. She seemed to have found something very interesting in the blend of half melting snow and the reflections of the light.

‘Snowstorm!’ called a voice.

And a too brilliant shine hit her and made her stumble. Bright approached and held her.

‘Hey… You really grew up,’ he said. The girl lifter eyes as dark as storm clouds to him and giggled.

‘I expect you remember how to play a snowball battle,’ she said.

Bright smiled. Yes, he did remember. How couldn’t he, after all they had laughed playing in the snow at the end of the forest! And before he left her at the doors of the ice camp.

‘I don’t think it’d be most appropriate now,’ he said, dragging her to a corner, by a window.

Summer and Winter had lost all control. They cast lightning with their sceptres, liberating a magic that should be used for a different purpose. The Sons of the Summer looked scared at Winter, and distrust his sons. The soldiers fo the Winter had closed files, and had sent the ladies back, to protect them. The sound of drawn swords could be heard.

‘Stop!’

The voice sounded sudddenly, clear and strong. So neat and stronf that the masters of the Summer and the Winter stopped their quarrel at once.

Plop!

A snowflake, especially heavy and big had formed upon the window, and it fell upon Bright, with too much noise. Snowstorm cleaned his face among giggles, and the giggles echoed in the hall, making the Sons of the Summer and Winter peer out.

‘Yes, dear,’ the vouce said again. ‘That is the way. Do you see, captain Frost? We told you in the woods… The masters are too much stubborn. They won’t give you peace.’

‘Who speaks?’ Winter roared.

‘Show yourself,’ Summer added, imperious.

‘All right,’ the voice said, clamly. ‘We’ll show up.’

A morning fresh breeze, carrying with it some golden leaves entered by the window and whirled a little in the middle of the hall.

‘Breeze…’

‘Yes, I’m Morning Breeze,’ she said, looking at the Lady.

‘And I’m Goldenleaf.’

The Son of the Summer faced the Master of the Winter. Summer stepped back.

‘See? She stole me Newleaves and turned him onto Goldenleaf. And he…’ and the finder pointed out Frost, ‘he took away Dancingflower and turned her into Dancin’rain.’

Morning Breeze looked at the Lady in the eyes, and let out a crystalline laughter. But Goldenleaf said:

‘Milady, there’s been many years you expelled me from here. It was not Breeze who took me out. And however, we were not the first ones. You have expelled your own children with your intransigence. They preferred to leave you, before living in a neverending and useless war. And even this way, you didn’t learn anything.’

At a wave of his hand, many other couples appeared in the hall. Some of the Sons of the Sun or the Winter recognised them and they called them by their names… the names they had had before being expelled or running away.

Mist!

Goldensparkle?

Skyblue! With Blueice?!

Treewhisper…

M’tree approached to a tall gray man and loked at him with a doubtful smile.

‘Fir?’ The man looked at her and agreed with a smile. 

‘She is my wife, Mountain Wind...’ he said, almost like an excuse. But M’tree cling her arms to his neck and kissed him in both cheeks. Then she turned to Mountain Wind and alos kissed her.

‘I didn’t know what happened to you, brohter… You just… vanished!

All around, many others found old lost friends. And even the Sons of the Summer and the Winter mixed when getting near to greet old friends. Lasy Summer looked around perplexed. She turned to her brother, questioningly. The Master of the Winter looked at her equally surprised. His tidy troops had blended, and they were talking to whom had been their enemies up until very little time.

‘Can you see it, milords?’ Morning Breeze said, getting closer. ‘Your children don’t need a war.’

‘And neither do you,’ Goldenleaf said with a smile.

Lady Summer looked again to her brother, and the Master of the Winter arched his brows in a question. She shrugged.

‘Actually,  don’t know why did we start,’ she said, looking around.

‘It’s time to make up…’

Summer nodded slowly, and pushed her sceptre forward. Winter rose his.

‘We’ll be one kingdom forever…’ he said, and his sister, Summer, started to agree.

‘Stop!’ somebody shouted.

Summer and Winter sceptres lowered down without touching each other. Some of the exiles looked for the origin og the voice with furious look. They had waited for this peace for years and years, and now… somebody was impeding it.

‘Only one kingdom! Have you turned stupid, or what? We cannot live in only one kingdom…’

From the dephts of the hall of the Winter, an old man was coming, very thin and mostly frozen.

‘North Wind. Why can’t we live in only one kingdom? Is it you love war so much, that you reject peace and you challenge your own sovereign?’

North Wind let out a cold laughter that made everybody shudder, those of the Summer, but even those of the Winter.

‘I don’t like war, milord. And no doubt, I would never challenge you… But…’

The old man is right,’ said a golden voice.

And now, it was Lady Summer who turned angry to her sons.

‘What are you saying, Burning Sun?’

Little Sun looked at the old North Wind and the old man nodded. They both had thought the same thing.

‘Some of your children, milady, wouldn’t stand the slightest contact of those of the Winter. What would you say about Storm, Desert, or Tropical Flower? Many of us wouldn’t survive a snowfall.’

Snowfall, in the other end of the room, got startled. Ice, captain to the second division, pressed her hand.

‘And the same for ours, Winter,’ said North Wind pasionately. ‘What would be of Snowfall if she’d got too close that boy, Bright? Look how Snowstorm is melting…’

But Snowstorm didn’t seem worried at all. Once and again, she congealed the snow stuck to the window, and splashed Bright, who tried uselessly to keep her still.

Summer looked at Winter again, and he looked her back. And he lifted high his sceptre, comand staff of all his armies.

‘We will be only one kingdom,’ he said. And North Wind stepped back, with a grimace.

Lady Summer loked at him in the eyes, and raised her sceptre, touching its end with hers.

‘We will be only one kingdom,’ she repeated. Burning Sun also backed up. But the Lady hadn’t fisnished.

‘To the South, in Menaros, there they’ll stay, those who can’t stand my brother’s sons. To the North, in Evendim, there they’ll stay, those who can’t stand getting close to my sons.’

‘And in the central lands, from the mountains of Evem to river Menar, they will stay, those who wish to share the good in both kingdoms.

And the jewels sparkled, blue and silver for Winter, green and gold for Summer, sealing the pact.

Eversince that day, the central lands, from river Menar to the mountains of Evem, from the dark woods of Zindar, that now dress up in red and gold every season, to the shore of the sea of Pull, there they meet, the sons of both kingdoms, sometimes dancing in the dew of the spring, sometimes playing in the white snow.

And they say that in the hollow of a forest where once they met and joined the halls of the Summer and Winter, the trees dress up in green embroidered in white mist in the springs; and golden dew every summer; that they cover in gold and copper leaves every autum, and white frost draw them in silver; and the rain dances in whirls before it falls as white soft snow upon the red leaves every winter.