Unlike the day before, in the first day of winter Evelyn woke up quite late. As a matter of fact she woke up so late that when she opened her eyes, the sun was bashfully shining in the middle of the sky. She got up quickly and scared, realizing she had lost precious time.
She put on a warm brown dress, placed a butterfly pin in her long white hair and flew towards the kitchen. There, were five fairies which usually cleaned up the castle and cooked food for Evelyn and her parents.
The little fairy expected them to ask her why had she woken up so late, but to her surprise, nobody said anything; they were too busy finishing their work as fast as they could so they could also take care of the festival. Seeing that they did not pay attention to her, Evelyn took an apple from a basket, and left.
“Thank God they didn’t see me and ask me why my parents hadn’t told them anything about the festival!” – thought she.
In the Valley of Linah there were a lot of fairies who had woken up earlier than her. She could clearly see that because everybody was doing something. They were cleaning up the alleys, bringing tables and chairs and putting them on the river bank, and some were simply flying from one side of the river to the other, to see if everything looked good from all angles. Evelyn smiled excited, then hurried towards the castle of the Spring guardians. She wanted to tell Fae once more how happy she was that she had thought of such a wonderful idea. On the way, every single Ghodianeek waved to her and asked her if they were doing their job correctly. She nodded every single time and thanked them again for helping her.
-Good morning Laila! – said she when reaching Fae’s house and seeing her mother.
-Good morning! - replied Laila. – Tell me, what do you think of the flowers I managed to collect this far? – continued she, pointing towards a pile of white roses which were gathered on a red velvet cloth.
Evelyn looked at the little heap. The flowers were very beautiful, with their perfectly white petals and the long stems from which tiny little thorns showed up their heads. She smiled and clapped, then hugged Laila.
-Oh! Well I imagine you like them then! – said Fae’s mother. – And wait until Fae returns with the carnations!
-She has already left? – asked Evelyn disappointed.
Laila nodded then told her she still has a lot of work to do so she cannot stay and talk to her anymore. Evelyn said good-bye and left.
The truth was that even if she tried her best to hide it, our little heroine was worried. And she was worried because she did not know what to do. In the previous years she spent the first day of winter announcing everybody that the cold season was just a few hours away, but she had already done that. She also used to talk with Fae about her enthusiasm, but Fae was not available that day. And she could not help with the festival either because she had dispensed all the work.
But I imagine it is natural to have such feelings when big changes emerge. Finally, after flying along the river for a while, she decided to go back at her house and stay in the kitchen, watching the fairies as they worked.
On the way back home, she was greeted again by every single Ghodianeek she met.
When she finally entered in the kitchen of her house, the room was empty. There was not a single fairy there, but everything looked clean, the pots with food were neatly put on one of the tables and the fire was only burning strong enough to warm the chamber. All these were signs that the fairies had finished their housework and that they were somewhere outside supervising that everything was going well, just like she had told them to. Evelyn sighed and sat down on a chair. It was really boring not being able to do anything, not even to watch other fairies. And as she was thinking about that, she realized something.
“Hey, I can watch other fairies! I can even give them some suggestions!”
So she flew outside, directly on the window, and started supervising the rest of the Ghodianeeks, as they did their work.
After some time of flying from here to there and telling everybody how to do what they were already doing, Evelyn saw Fae flying towards her with a huge heap of white carnations. She waved, happy that she could finally talk to her, and Fae waved back. But when she did that, our heroine’s friend dropped some of the flowers. The carnations fell right in the river, and started floating away.
-Do not worry; I’ve got more at my house! – yelled Fae at Evelyn.
But our little friend did not care about the carnations as much as she wanted to talk with Fae, so despite the fact that the problem could easily be solved, she still made a pouted face. Fortunately for her, it did not take long for her friend to come back, and after she arranged all the carnations, they started talking.
-So, how was your day? Mine was fantastic! You should have seen how many provisions of flowers the Timmerneeks have; mountains of them. – said Fae obviously excited about the piles of flowers she had seen. – And they are of all types and colors!
-I am glad you had a good time! – replied Evelyn. – I had to stay here all day long, doing nothing!
Fae looked at her surprised. She had never heard her friend saying that there was nothing to do during a winter day. Usually there were too many things to do for Evelyn. So many that she got dizzy only thinking at them. She told her that.
-But it is not winter yet! – answered Evelyn. – It will not be until my parents arrive.
“Now she notices! “ – thought Fae.
The Ghodianeeks had worked so well at the arrangements for the festival, that in the afternoon everything was ready and the right bank of the Ghodi River was beautifully decorated.
There were tables and chairs placed all in a circle, within one meter of each other; on every single table there was a centerpiece made of white lilies, carnations, roses and field flowers, in the middle of which three white candles were put. Underneath the centerpiece, it was a beautiful table cloth made of silk with spiral motifs on the edge. The chairs were all white and had white pillows tied to them with a cordon which ended with a beautiful ribbon in the back.
In the middle of the circle of tables and chairs there was a larger table which was rectangular. On it, all sorts of tasty dishes were steaming, making the most covetous Ghodianeeks stare at them for quite long, before deciding to hurry off at them. But each time, a wiser Ghoadianeek saw them and scolded them, so they could never actually get to the delicious meals.
The trees were also decorated but they looked rather funny, because you see, winter had not arrived yet in the Valley of Linah, so the trees still hold a few brown leaves within their branches. Therefore they looked like some dirty men on which elegant clothes were thrown. The “clothes” were garlands made of fir leaves, among which the fairies had put fireflies, so in the darkness the garland lightened up so brightly that it looked like someone would have put it in front of the sun, giving its light only a few holes through which escape.
The Autumn Ghodianeeks, which Evelyn had charged with the music, had built a little bridge over the river (which was lighted by white, large candles placed in the water), from which they were planning to interpret the ode they had prepared for the event.
Seeing that everything was so beautifully made, Evelyn forgot about the sad day she had had that far, and started feeling a happiness which she had never felt before. It was the same feeling we have when we have the premonition that something important and magical will happen around us.
She did not even remember that her parents were not aware of the celebration, but even if she had, I doubt that it would have ruined her good mood. After all, what she had achieved was a good thing; it was a marvelous thing.
The festival was not to begin until Evelyn’s parents would arrive, so after checking the last details, the fairies started talking and playing around.
-What do you think? – Evelyn asked Fae.
Fae was not a fan of the winter festival, as you already know, and she accepted to take part of that “foolishness” only because she didn’t want to let Evelyn down. But now that she saw how good things were marching, somehow she started to fancy the idea. Still, she was too much of a Spring fairy to admit it.
-I imagine it is pretty! – said she with haughtiness.
Evelyn gave her a nudge to show her she did not believe her words. Fae kept on pretending she was not so happy about the festival.
-Aww! I said it is pretty!
Still, in spite of her friend not wanting to admit she liked the festival, the little Winter fairy was not upset because she knew deep inside her, Fae shared her thoughts.
But the festival itself is not what really matters in our story because even if there had never been a winter festival in the Land of the Crystal before, the celebration was just like any other celebration the Lilyaneeks have had. And by that I do not mean that it was ordinary, but that it was gorgeous. Even the badly dressed trees looked beautiful in their strange, particular way. What really matters is what happened during this festival; a detail which made it the most important festival the Ghodianeeks had ever participated at. And the peculiar thing is that most of them are not even aware that it was that happening that caused the events which followed after.
One of the things which Lilyaneeks like to do when gathering together is telling stories. As a matter of fact they love to do such a thing, even when they are left out of them, in which case they start improvising. So it was not a surprise for anyone when tales started to be told. Each Ghodianeek which wanted to do so, had the right to say one legend, myth or fact, and only if there were no tellers left, then he could tell another story, if the crowd wished it. That way each fairy got a chance to share the wonders he had seen or heard.
That night a lot of tales were said, but not all of them are as important as the one said by one of the Guardians of Summer. Her name was Beatrix, and since she was pretty old, at her 115 years, that was the last year she had brought summer upon the Land of the Crystal.
Curiously, her story was not about her season at all. Even more curiously, it was a story Evelyn’s parents did not know about, even if it was about winter. Truth to be told, I do not think anybody else than Beatrix did know the story.
She raised herself in the sky, so the Ghodianeeks could see her better and, placing her hands one over the other, she started:
-This tale is a story a lot of you might not have heard of, because it is so old that even I have some problems in remembering it entirely. It was told to me by a Timmerneek whom is now so old that probably does not recall it anymore. He said to me that at the beginning of our world, the Lilyaneeks missed the humans’ world so much that they got past the Gate very often. And even though the humans could not see them anymore, they still loved that land. Soon, their love for it grew even larger than it had been when they lived in it, so they decided to form groups and go each season to spend some time with the humans. Everything went well until winter came. The Lilyaneeks had never opened the Gate during winter, so they did not know what was about to happen.
As she was telling her story, all the Ghodianeeks looked enchanted at the wise fairy which had magical things to reveal.
-They were all very glad to see the humans again, but when they opened the door, a flood of white rain hit them….
When Evelyn heard the words “white rain”, her heart started pumping very fast and her eyes dilated. The Summer fairy had used the word rain, but she knew exactly what it was. She slowly whispered:
-Snow…
That word gave her such a thrill that she could not move for some good moments. She felt as if the entire word has stopped and she was standing in the middle of it, experimenting the most beautiful moment of her life. She did not pay attention to the rest of the story; she had listened all she ever wanted to listen from a Lilyaneek: that there had been snow in the Land of the Crystal. Therefore, she missed the part where the snow had frozen the gate, making it impossible to close, or how the entire Land of the Crystal was covered in snow even when the Winter ended, so Guardians of Spring were unable of delivering Spring on time. Everything she knew was that she had a hope; a tiny little crumb of hope, and that was all she needed to change Winter forever!