(Untitled)

[princeduality]

FIRST SNOW.Before the cold is long and bitter, snow falls once, gently, and comes to rest over the fallen leaves and chilled land like the softest blanket. It's not much, and certainly the sun will dry it away before dark, but until then all is white

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[lagopa]

[ She also seems like a part of the landscape, she's so pale-- so thin. Like a slender tree with whiting bark, leaves long gone. She hardly even seems to breathe. Just the faintest puffs of foggy air from her mouth and a tint of pink on her face show life, besides her movements.

A winter phantom, lost perhaps. But less concerned with where she is than the falling snow, the frosty chill. She seems enamored with the weather, wandering along the dirt path in a thick fur coat with her eyes tilted upwards toward the sky. ]

[deer_eyed]

[Forest creature, dear one, she watches with brown eyes, admires the flighty grace of her sister's pets. Her own steps are quiet, cervid.]

Keep yourself warm, little one.

[lagopa]

[ The spirit tilts her head to the sound of that voice-- the shape of a woman, but the movements of a timid beast. Still, for a beat, before her gaze finds brown eyes. A hesitation, then quiet response: ]

Thank you, but I do not mind the cold.

[deer_eyed]

[Lydia smiles, warmly, leisurely. Her steps out onto the road are nervous, looking around herself with the alertness of the hunted. She is never to know when Man might be lurking, waiting for her hide.]

She has not yet reached the pitch of her cruelty.

[lagopa]

[ The warmth of her smile seems to make the fox-spirit shy. She dips her head downwards, tucking her chin slightly towards herself. Her eyes continue to watch-- but only through dark eyelashes. ]

No, this winter is still mild. [ She agrees softly. Back home, the winters were fierce. Unforgiving. ] But the snow is a small comfort to me.

[deer_eyed]

The first snow gives her such delight. [She speaks with a quiet fondness. She does love to see her little sister happy.]

[lagopa]

You know her?

[ A tentative question. The spirit tilts her head, perhaps a bit eager to know. ]

You are a friend to winter?

[deer_eyed]

[Lydia's hands are crossed at the small of her back, she nods slowly.]

The youngest of us four. She is still so innocent and so very cruel, I wonder if others notice it of her. Always, I wonder this as it is time to leave the worlds in her care.

I wonder if she is loved, as I love her, or despised as our brothers often claim.

[Lydia is a simple kind of girl, when she realizes she's been rambling at someone poor spirit she looks a bit embarrassed with herself.

She has always maintained the most friendly contact with man and beast and living things, not like the scornful Burning Path or the manipulative Spring. Not like flighty Blizzardseason, who only makes herself known to one or two of them in an innumerable number of years.]

[lagopa]

[ The spirit listens intently, enamored with the season as she's ever been. Hearing someone speak so familiarly of winter reminds her of home. Her voice is reverent when she speaks in answer: ]

I can think of nothing I love more than winter. Winter is my happiness.

[deer_eyed]

[She looks relieved. She reaches out and gently runs the back of her hands along the little spirit's cheek.]

Thank you.

[princeduality]

[eventually, after all that wandering, he finds a broken monument: pieces of a serene face separated from a lithe body, whose lost fist was probably raised with resolve. Chemin tilts his head at it before he hears chatter--look, her!--and snaps his head up, wide eyes locked on the shape.]

[lagopa]

[ As if by instinct, at the same moment, her head tilts up towards the air-- almost as if picking up a scent, though by appearance, she is clearly no beast, but a woman. A second of stillness, then suddenly-- her gaze finds his. Staring. Wary. ]

...

[princeduality]

[spirits don't smell, but there is a...quality about them that he can tell. it's not anything he could ever hope to explain, but it didn't change the fact that the back of his neck tingled and raised his ears to alert.

the wind didn't give her a name, either. stranger? dangerous? hard to tell. he was taught to show repsect to all of those kind, though. the best he could do (beyond the constant staring) was curl an arm around his waist and drop into a bow.

hopefully she wouldn't smite him just for staring.]

[lagopa]

[ This gesture seems to startle the spirit, whose large eyes grow even larger. Rings of white around ice-blue. A gesture of respect? It's surely been decades since the last time a being recognized her for what she was and showed such reverence.

She hesitates before speaking. Her voice is soft, but it seems to be carried on the wind-- everywhere at once, like the whisper of snow in a storm. ]

Please, rise. I am no great power that you should bow to me.

[princeduality]

[he does so obediently, eyes downcast, though damned if they're not itching to stare some more. he swallows a couple times before he gets a voice again.]

Th. They say you're...[ahm.] Stranger--[no, wait-]Foreign?

[lagopa]

[ Stranger. Foreign. At these words, the fox-spirit tilts her head down towards the snow-covered ground, eyes likewise downcast and hidden by thick eyelashes. ]

Yes. My home is far from here. [ A pause, then with tentative curiosity: ] Who speaks to you?