Winterlights by Elleth

Gratitude

For prompt #3: Under the mistletoe. Nellas shows Niënor a token of life in winter.

The dark and cold of girithron numbs Niënor's exuberant spirits; she vanishes into a bundle of blankets, sleeping curled against Nellas. "I miss life, and green things," she says when she wakes, and seeks Nellas' eyes, her own pained with summer-memories.

"All life must rest in winter," says Nellas, "but one, and thrushes flock to it." It takes coaxing, but they wrap in furs and wander into the Queen's orchards, where the deer seek fruit beneath the snow, and high in an apple-tree, coiling bright green against the leaden sky, grows mistletoe.

Niënor's bright gratitude is better than the kisses.