12 Days of Christmas

8 - When the Sun Stands Still We Must Part, but I'll Hurry Back to You, My Love

With pale skin, dark hair, and eyes the green of the deepest ocean, Winter is an enduring beauty. She is a moment frozen in time, a rare bit of serenity within the endless cycle of growth and recession, life and death. She weeds out the weak, strengthening the whole in return. Often, she is gentle, a light dusting on the ground with a breeze that makes one respect home, hearth, and togetherness. Sometimes, she is angry, and her voice howls freezing rain and snow, hail battering at the defenses of mortals and making them prove their metal. She is eternal, continual, and she is something unknown. She is often misunderstood, a mystery accepted but seldom welcomed, but she is much more than most minds can grasp.

Winter hides a secret away from prying mortal eyes, from those who fear her and those who respect her, from those who have learned to live in harmony with her and those who pray she is gentle with them this year and hastens her visit. In one way, she is not so different from these mortals, from the growers and gatherers alike. You see, Winter is in love with Summer. Perhaps even more surprising, Summer loves her in return.

"Don't go. Not yet." It's a whispered plea partnered with a tensed, tan arm pulling back against a pale midsection. "I'm not ready for you to go yet."

They've done this dance for all of time. Half the year is theirs, the times that Spring and Autumn take their turns to walk upon the Earth, but twice a year, they must part. They know this day must come. They accept it, but it does not mean they have to like it.

"Love—"

"Shhhh," Summer snuggles in a little tighter, the big spoon pressed against the back of her beloved. "Just five more minutes."

Winter's laugh is almost childlike, full of mirth that most would not assign her, but love can warm even the iciest exterior. "You said that five minutes ago and five minutes before that."

"This time I mean it." The kisses she plants along the curve of Winter's neck receive a quiet moan. It's all the encouragement she needs to pull her love closer, to pepper more kisses that trail their way across that pale throat. Searching hands explore familiar hills and valleys, a landscape she has memorized over the millennia yet never tires in retracing.

"Mmmm. Okay, now you really have to stop." Winter turns to face her beloved, to stare into those bright blue eyes, to run her fingers through those golden locks, to press her lips just once more against that welcoming and full mouth. It's a final moment together to tide them over during the long months of separation... a promise of things to come upon her return. "It's time, my love."

The answering pout is adorable. How one of the most primal forces in the world can resemble a petulant child is yet one more of life's mysteries. "No, you don't have to go yet."

"I wish that was true, but darling—"

"The groundhog saw its shadow."

When Summer cracks a smile at her own antics, Winter kisses her once more. It's long and deep, a cold breath exalted into the waiting warmth. She is light where Winter is dark. She is tan where Winter is pale. She is life where Winter is... They are opposites but alike in the thing that matters: love.

"It's time."

Summer only nods now, sliding out of their bed, the bed that will be colder for the absence of the ice queen, and dresses. Her robe is a splash of color buckled with a golden sunburst. The whites and light blues of Winter's garb is subtle in contrast. Hand in hand, they make their way out to meet the season whose time is passed.

Spring waits for them, her skin the rich ebony of the earth, of the trees, of growth and life anew. Her airy green dress flutters as she turns, and the crown of flowers that adorns her head shifts with her raised brows. As the lovers near, her expression is knowing and voice reproachful. "Finally, I thought I was going to have to drag you two out of bed."

Summer has the good graces to look abashed. However, Winter wags a finger at the lively season. "Now, now, I seem to remember a time or two thousand when I was left waiting for a certain someone to drag herself away."

It's true, and Spring makes no attempt to deny it. "Well, since you're here, would you open the portal? It's been a long Fall, and my arms are so lonely."

Winter just nods and raises her icy staff. Magic swirls and coalesces into a glowing oval, and before anyone can speak, a figure comes bursting through. Her clothing is a patchwork brown suit, a bit worn but functional, and her hair is the fiery red of changed leaves. She scoops up a giggling Spring and spins the other season in a circle before they settle into a loving embrace.

"I have missed you every moment of every day of every week of every month until this moment when I can hold you in my arms again." Autumn's brown eyes twinkle as she draws her beloved in for a kiss, the first of many to come. They have some lost time to make up.

"Mmmm," Spring hums into the kiss before stepping away. With a broad smile, she draws Autumn along with her. "I hope you were good to my plants. They were thriving when I saw them last."

"I tucked them in for their long slumber," Autumn replies with a wicked grin.

"I'm not sure I would approve of that treatment." She walks backward, still gentling the other season along with her. "I might have to punish you."

"Well, if you insist."

The laughing of the other seasons fades out, as they wander off for their own privacy. That leaves Summer and Winter alone again, bathed in the glowing light of the portal.

"I won't be gone long, my love," Winter says.

"Yet it will feel like an eternity."

She kisses Summer once more. It's not enough. It's never enough. "I know, but they need me." She moves to leave, but her hand is quickly grabbed, and blue eyes plead once more when she turns back.

"It's not fair. They don't love you like I do. Tell me there is just one mortal there who loves you like I do."

"I cannot," Winter admits. To be loved by Summer, by life itself, is more than she once thought she deserved, but she has learned otherwise through a million or more gentle embraces and kind words. "Not all the love that all of the mortals have for me combined can hold a candle to your commitment. You know it doesn't matter though. They may not love me, but they need me. The Earth needs to rest, to reset, to take a moment to slumber."

"They don't respect the Earth."

"Some don't. Some do. But it's not our job to judge; we just do what we must do." She steps away, her hands slipping from the warmth of a loving touch. One last glance is cast from the edge of the portal. "I love you."

"I love you too. I'll wait," then Winter steps through, leaving Summer alone like so many times before, "forever."

Solstice is the time of year that the sun stands still. Tonight, the longest night, the bonfires will be lit. Dancers will wind around the flames, calling for Winter to be kind to them and release the sun from slumber. Winter will exhale upon the world, allowing it to rest and heal so it can start anew. And somewhere, some place outside of the knowing or understanding of mortals, Summer waits for her love to return home again.