A HOLIDAY STORYUsername: anemosagkelos
Preferences: Winter Daybreak, Winter Nightfall
Story: Esti was newly grown when winter crept in. A mikroi sworn to Demeter, a frown had twisted the horse's lips when the snowfall covered the plants that had once responded to her presence. The world had turned brown and then become flooded with white; what a hideous transformation! And further, it seemed the winter was enjoyed! What madness clung to the snow and the chill?
Bedding down in one of the shelters that dotted the valley, she watched the landowner's daughter delight in the snow as they went through their daily food provision for the wild hoi that frequented their land. Kyriaki was usually so sensible with her hands in the dirt as they tended gardens and crops—Esti liked to help with that, wild as she was—but there was nothing to grow in this disaster of cold and flurries! She snorted, annoyed and confused, as she rested her chin on a haybale.
She missed the apples of autumn, the carrots of midsummer. Oats and hay and the dried fruits and the occasional vegetable were fine, but there was nothing like helping oneself to the earth's own produce. Even if Kyriaki would slip them sugar cubes, this weather was atrocious. An offense to Demeter herself!
It was
Bahari who found her, sulking for lack of a better term, in the shelter as a fresh round of snowflakes began to fall. The male's white stripes blended in perfectly with the snow, but made his brown and black coloring pop. It made the mikroi's eyes tired, trying to sort out the camouflage and illusion, until he shook the snow from his coat.
"You surely cannot be that cold to hide in the shelter all day," Bahari chuckled.
"It looks like death out there," Esti pouted, "and I don't see any fun in that!" A bit ironic, perhaps, considering the bones that decorated her hide and face. (But that was in honor of autumn and spirits and life!)
The striped hoi considered the orange yellow mikroi.
"Why would Demeter allow this? Why hasn't she come to make it all green and bright?"
A fond smile pulled at the male's mouth; she had such a young soul.
"Esti," Bahari started as he shuffled closer and then folded himself down across from her. "What would you do if you were awake all day and all night and all week and all month and all year?"
A wrinkled nose, "I'd be tired!"
"Very tired and it'd be much harder to think and speak and do just about anything, wouldn't it?"
Esti regretted the conversation almost immediately. When he talked like that, Bahari had a
point. She wasn't sure that she wanted to know what it was now. Except he was blocking the exit. She huffed, annoyed, and trapped.
"Yes," the word spilled from her mouth, slow and peeved.
Bahari smiled, "And don't you think the gods and goddesses might get tired, too? If Demeter had to grow everything all throughout the year with no break at all?"
She grimaced, "But, she's a
goddess!"
"And she tends to a whole world, Esti. Not just here, you know. This little valley isn't everything there is, though you'll have to ask Ylva about what's farther away than beyond the hills. She's the explorer." How she managed to travel past the hills, the thought alone was tiring to him.
"But, why are the humans all so happy? Why are
you?"
"The winter solstice brings festivities for the humans and presents. Some of us hoi exchange gifts, as well. And there are many festivals for Poseidon and Dionysus and, even, Demeter."
Surprise flashed in Esti's eyes. There was a festival for Demeter in winter? She didn't know that. She should know that.
"I can tell you're not convinced, so let us go up to the hill. There's something there you should see," Bahari prompted as he rose and shook the loose hay from his short fur.
Esti opened her mouth to complain, but Bahari interrupted, "If I'm wrong and you don't like it, then you can hide in here all winter and I won't say a word more."
That was too good an opportunity to pass up. Unfortunately. And, of course, Bahari knew that. She sighed.
The two hoi left the shelter as the snow continued to fall. The hillside was not very far from the north and ahead of them footprints from the humans could be seen. A strange sight considered they never seemed to breach the north hills.
Bahari reached the top of the hillside first as Esti grudgingly followed. Eyes shut against the wind, she didn't see the sight until the older hoi nudged her cheek. And then her mouth fell open.
Past the north hills, a forest of trees resided. Not bare and brown like the valley trees. But green and flush and full as though summer had never gone! Esti gasped at the verdance.
"They call them evergreens and they never lose their leaves or their color. So even while Demeter rests, she isn't gone completely," Bahari smiled.
Esti galloped down into the evergreens with delight. Their branches kept the ground free of white! And thought it was still cold the boughs buffeted the wind away and out. She could almost pretend it was summer again!
And so as the humans found their winter solstice tree, Esti found that winter wasn't so bad as she had imagined. And the snow did not bring madness as she feared.
"But I'll stay here or in the shelter as long as it snows," she told the male hoi. "I like the green better and even the yellow of hay."
