Autumn's Fall

XXVI. Fun, Fright, Fountain

With one last desperate turn, the Minister of Autumn sat up in his bed. He just couldn't do it. Two hundred plus years of sleeping on the hard ground had ruined this bed for him. With a defeated sigh, he slipped his feet off the bed and shuffled over to his closet, pulling out a warm robe to wear over his PJ's. Grabbing up a few of the crumpled blankets, he silently exited his room.

The inside of the tower was dimly lit. Only the pale light of the moon broke through the windows as he slowly walked down the long steps to the garden bathed in moonlight. He was in no rush.

He let what memories he could recollect of his former life here return to him...not much of it was pleasant. He'd been selfish, incredibly so, and he didn't have any desire to return to what he had been. A new start and a second chance had been given to him. He dared not squander it.

With a gentle swishing of his robe, he entered the indoor garden. It was abandoned at this time of night, or was it morning? He hadn't checked the clock, yet another thing he'd have to relearn.

The fountain stood alone at the middle of the garden, the water throwing off the lightest hint of being illuminated from within. Setting his blankets at the foot of a nearby tree, Autumn walked to the side of the fountain and stood watching it for a long while, mesmerized by the flowing of the water.

Back in his youth he'd loved to watch the water of the fountain. His domain was air, but he felt a sort of kinship with the way the water mirrored his own invisible kingdom. Perhaps that was part of the reason why he had gotten along so well with the previous Minister of Winter.

The four cups of the seasons sat as they always had at the side of the fountain, and he lifted Winter's in his hands. The silver metal reflected the moonlight, casting dull rays of light against his olive skin.

The cup had etchings of snowflakes, drifts, and icicles by the handle, but as he slowly turned it around, it merged to show melting snow, rivers, waves, and even rain by the time it reached the handle again. A reflection of both her domain and her powers. He missed her; the woman he had counted as the mother he'd never had. She had not taken part in the battles against him, and he missed her presence all the more because of it.

This new Minister of Winter. She was different from the last one, only her eyes remained the same color blue. (Another inheritance, when one became a minister, along with their powers was a change in eye color.) This Winter was...she was...compassionate, and she had an inner strength to her that no one could miss. She had helped him from the first moment they'd met, even though it had almost cost her her life. Even now she had yet to rise from her bed, though they all claimed that she just needed to rest. But still he worried, as he had worried about her every day these last two weeks.

"Please Spirit, help her be well again."

"Help who?"

Spinning on his heels, Autumn let the cup fall from his hands in shock, unwittingly sending not only Winter's cup, but all of the cups flying across the ground in so loud a clatter that he was half afraid he'd just woken the entire tower and quite possibly the dead.

A soft chuckle came from the darkness beyond the trees, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Autumn's poor heart was thumping loudly in his chest from his fright, and some other emotion that he could barely describe or recognize. "That's, that's alright. No harm done, I think." Getting down on his hands and knees, he felt around for the cups in the dim moonlight.

A thin mist began to flow through the trees, but it quickly grew thick enough that he couldn't see through to the other side of the garden. Two cups were in his hands by now, just how far had the other two bounced away?! He stretched out his hand toward a gleaming something in the moonlight when he felt a presence before him.