Winter Orchid

The Big Bonfire

The dreaded day had arrived. Well, dreaded for Moomintroll, at least. Though he had learned to understand why Snufkin always left,  though he knew Snufkin would certainly come back, he was still sad about it. He opened the drawer in his desk and stared down at the gloves he made, but only shut it and ran downstairs.
Too Ticky was already rushing everyone to begin moving the firewood, and they were quite glad they'd prepared a bit the day before. None of them were happy when they had to carry all of that wood so far across the valley, though. Moomintroll tried his hardest not to seem sad for Snufkin's sake, but he could tell it wasn't working. Then, Snufkin ran and caught up with him as they returned back home to collect more wood.
"Moomintroll!" Shouted Snufkin, "I can't wait to see this bonfire."
"Really?" Moomintroll asked, perking up almost instantly. Snufkin could tell he was sad about the time soon to come, but he decided not to talk about it as it would only make him sadder.
"Yes! What does it look like when the sun comes up?" He asked.
"Oh, well, it comes up a bit after the fire," Moomintroll explained, "it's only there for a bit. But it's quite nice to feel spring again." Snufkin smiled at him, and Moomintroll grabbed his wrist and hurried him to the woodshed. As Snufkin was acting so enthusiastic, Moomintroll remembered that Snufkin said he was always thinking of him, and that made it a bit less painful.
They continued carrying the firewood for hours, until they had finally finished. They were so tired that they all sat down and admired the gigantic stack of wood before them.
"That was too much work!" Yelled Little My, "I wish I could've fallen back to sleep today!"
"But now we'll get to see the bonfire together!" Said Snorkmaiden. Moomintroll and Snufkin were sitting next to each other, and Too Ticky walked next to them with a matchbox, and winked at Snufkin. Snufkin, remembering their conversation a week prior, turned his head away out of embarrassment. Too Ticky lit the match and threw it into the fire. The bonfire had begun.
What a beautiful sight it was! As a mixture of red and orange blazed into the night sky, the creatures of Winter gathered together and danced. The creeps joined in on this, and the smallest one even mustered up the courage to ask Snorkmaiden to dance with it. It was quite difficult since it was so small, but it turned out to be fun. Moomintroll then took Snufkins hand.
"Uh, um," Stuttered Moomintroll, "would you dance with me as well?" Snufkin was surprised by this question, but before he knew it, he agreed and was clumsily trying to do the box step with Moomintroll. They kept stepping on each other's feet, or bumping into each other and falling over, but they were both more than happy. Too Ticky danced each of the three creeps, and Little My asked Snorkmaiden to dance after the smallest creep had stopped.
"How are you two so elegant?" Asked Moomintroll.
"It's not so hard to dance!" Little My shouted, smirking, "Why, Snufkin, I'm sure you could dance better than that! Especially if it's for your oh-so precious Moomintroll!"
"I'm trying my best!" He mumbled. They kept dancing until they were so tired that they fell into the snow, laughing the whole time. Snufkin then played his jolliest tune on his harmonica.