Deck The Halls With Brand New Stories: Ho Ho Holiday Anthology

Equinox

This story was contributed by JaCrispy_Jamaine

Jack spent centuries knowing only the cold.

There was never a single thing around him that wasn't caked in snow. Toboggans, penguins, polar bears, if there was anyone who knew about walking in a Winter Wonderland, it was him. But eventually, the things that were once wonderful became predictable. Jack knew the exact number of snowflakes that descended upon their humble little cabin, the total pounds of snow used to bring the snowmen populating the nearby village to life, and the various patterns the northern lights formed in the night sky.

The only thing Jack knew nothing about was what awaited him beyond the forest.

But several centuries passed. Jack would've resembled an eight-year-old boy in the eyes of a regular human being. He could create snowballs in the palms of his hands and skate across fields of ice as if gravity had no effect on him. And while he couldn't stand around in sunlight for long, he managed to peek through the gap in the forest longer than before.

Granted, he fainted out of exhaustion, but he still saw it as progress of some kind.

But one day, after learning how to coat the windows of his cabin with frost, he walked with his father to the edge of his world, the snow-covered forest towering above him. "Today is the day," Old Man Winter declared. "Are you ready to meet the deities of spring?"

"Yes, Father," Jack replied.

With a nod of his head, Old Man Winter extended his hand toward the trees in front of them. A blast of wind rushed out of the woods like a stampede, and the leaves rustled in the wind as the trees moved aside. A road opened up to the two winter deities, and a massive wall of cloud stood before them. The two of them exchanged a quick, loving glance before stepping into the mist.

Jack was greeted by a large, emerald-green field stretching as far as the eye could see. Trees surrounded Jack and his father like a bowl, and a mountain, capped with snow, rose to the sky thousands of feet above them at the far-left corner of the field. At the far-right corner rested a lake reflecting the sun above them, four streams trailing away from it toward the forest, vessels pumping lifeblood through the untamable beast known as Earth.

Jack was too busy staring at the ground to notice such wonderful sights, fear burning in his stomach as each flower was consumed by the ice that remained from each footstep. Every rose, every daisy, every tulip, consumed by the unforgiving coldness like poison as he passed by each one

"There they are!" Mr. Winter declared.

Jack squinted to see two people out in the distance, a woman and her child. The woman was Mother Nature, a young and beautiful woman wearing a long, chartreuse-colored gown that flowed in the wind as if it were the breeze itself. The little girl beside her wore a dark green dress and a brown cloak around her head and neck. The two of them had lovely green eyes and long locks of chestnut brown hair wrapped up in braids and peppered with various spring flowers. Jack saw that the little girl held a bunny in her arms, nervously rocking it back and forth like a baby.

"Morning," Old Man Winter greeted with a smile, his son hiding behind him. "Beautiful day, isn't it?"

"Of course!" Mother Nature replied. "We created this glade ourselves, remember? And around these little tykes' ages, too."

Old Man Winter looked down at the little girl, a gathering of dandelions sprouting beside her feet. "So this is Ostara," he said as he kneeled down to her level. "Hello there, little one. We're the winter deities. How are you?"