The Battle For Summer
By S.Cu’Anam Policar
The warm summer
breeze caused light ripples in the lake’s otherwise still waters. The
surrounding forest was quiet and tranquil that night. All the forest’s creature
lay sleeping and dreaming of things only they could know.
Well, almost all.
In the hollow of a tree Lylac was wide awake. The miniscule sounds of slumber,
unheard by a larger being’s ear, invaded her mind and made her restless. With a
sigh, Lylac stood up and spread her transparent, purple hued, wings and
fluttered out of the tree.
She zigged and
zagged with graceful abandon, her pointed ears focused, listening for an owl or
other nightly animal of prey as she zipped to the water’s edge.
Planting herself
on a water lily, she drew her legs up to her chest, crossed her arms over them,
then rested her chin upon her knees. She felt the feather light brushing of her
white strands being pulled behind her ear, yet did not move. There was only one
person who would think he was sneaking up on her.
“Hello Poppy.” She
said softly, her voice holding a slight sorrowful note to it.
A boy with wings
like a monarch butterfly, and orange hair that hung to his shoulders in gentle
waves, moved to sit beside her.
“It’s late Ly, why
are you still awake?” He asked with concern.
Lylac shrugged disheartened.
“Summer will be over soon. The frost nymphs always ruin everything we create,
and they make it so cold! I wish they wouldn’t come anymore. So it could be
summer forever.”
Poppy chuckled and
fell backwards coming to rest on the bloom of the water lilly. “We always make
it better when the Oak King rises again. “
“That isn’t the
point! Why does the Holly King have to come with his nymphs of death and kill
everything we breathe life into?!” Lylac almost growled. Her cheeks taking on a
deep red color in her ire.
Poppy blinked and
ceased his laughter. Somehow he figured that Lylac was not joking around. “That’s
how it’s always been. Every year they war each other for control. The Holly
King will be here in a month and a half and put an end to what we do so his
nymphs can do what they do.”
Lylac nestled into
Poppy, she loved how she fit perfectly into his form. “It shouldn’t be that way
Poppy. We should fight back! We should make the Holly King go back to where
ever he goes when Spring arrives once and for all. Then it could be summer
forever.”
Poppy pursed his
lips. This idea of Lylac’s was trouble and he knew it, but how could he go against
her? “How do you plan to do this?”
A smile crossed
Lylac’s lips. She knew she could count on Poppy. She whispered her plan into
Poppy’s ear. Poppy’s eyes grew larger and larger as he listened. This plan was
definitely not as brilliant as Lylac thought it was.
Almost on cue, as
soon as August rolled around, the nights began to grow colder. Lylac and Poppy
had been telling the other fairies their master plan.
“The Oak King has
been readying himself for battle Lylac .” A chubby fairy said with an unusually
deep voice.
Lylac nodded
sharply and she and Poppy fluttered out of their tree home. As they flitted
about they whispered to the animals. They rallied the otters, the beavers, the
frogs, the bees, and even the skunks to their cause.
Around the middle
of August, the Oak King, his antlers freshly sharpened, his wolf hide loincloth
as pristine as it had been when it adorned the body of the wolf, a bow strapped
to his back with a leather quiver, a spear in his hand, made his first
thunderous steps through the forest.
Lylac and Poppy saw him walk through their
home and raised their small stick staves before flitting out of the tree to
fall in line behind the god. The other fairies followed suit and soon The Oak
King had an army of fairy and animal followers.
They walked for
days with no stops to rest before they came to a large empty expanse of
grassland. It was almost as it Gaia herself had drawn the battle line as exactly
half the plain was green and lush, the other half was brown and dead with
touches of frost on the tips of each blade of withered grass.
The Holly King
stood at the line that separated summer and winter, his the sun glinting off
his silver antlers. His red and white furred robe made of fox fur was cinched
at the waist leaving his chest bare. Lylac could not help noticing how similar the
Holly King and the Oak King looked despite their small differences.
As the Holly King
and the Oak King began to take their traditional steps toward each other, the
fairies fanned out to either side of the Oak King. Much to Lylac’s
miscalculations, she noted the frost nymphs fanning out to either side of the
Holly King. They had apparently had the same thoughts as she had.
A female frost nymph
darted over the line and came straight for Lylac. Lylac easily dodged. The nymph
was the frost nymph leader. “Blight take your people and leave here! Leave now
and no blood needs to be shed!”
Blight laughed, it
gave off the sound of icicles hitting the ground. “It’s our turn little
lightening bug. You’ve had your turn, now play nice and go into your hollows
until your turn returns.”
“Never! I won’t
see you destroy all the beautiful things we create anylonger!” Lylac hissed as
she lunged for the Blight with her spear. The tip of the spear caught Blight’s
shoulder causing a small trail of blue to trail from the wound. She grimaced as
she pulled the broken piece of wood out and tossed it on the ground.
The ground shook
violently causing the animals Lylac and Poppy had collected scattered as The
Oak King and Holly King collided beginning their war. The fairies and nymphs
were well into their own battle, both sides evenly matched.
Lylac heard a
scream to her left. Turning her head she saw Poppy’s wings stop fluttering,
then he fell to the ground. Forgetting Blight for the moment, she zipped to
Poppy picking him up just was the Oak King’s foot came down where he’d been
standing.
Poppy’s extra
weight proved too much for Lylac and she had to land a few feet away from the
gods’ battle. Landing, she hovered over Poppy’s body. Even as she watched, his
body grew paler taking on a frosted coloring.
“No Poppy..No..You
can’t leave me!” Her eyes filled with tears which she ignored to let fall upon
his face. “Please don’t leave me.”
Poppy lifted his
hand weakly and lightly brushed a strand of hair from Lylac’s face. “I can’t
stay Lylac. Forgive me for what I’ll do…”
Lylac allowed
herself a few minutes to cry before she flittered back to the battle. Her heart
no longer in it. She raised her hand signaling a retreat and flew off letting
whatever would happen, happen.
Winter passed in a
blur for the fairies as it always does. They slept in hibernation while the
frost nymphs did their work. Lylac slept through spring and well into summer.
The sound of fireworks booming into the skies finally rousing her from her
slumber. She rolled over, and lashed her arm out as she’d always done to wake
Poppy. A lump formed in her throat as she hit nothing but his empty pallet. “Poppy…”
She said softly.
She left the tree
hollow feeling as though a thousand pounds had been added to her wings. She
hardly noticed the other fairies gasping and moving out of the way when they
spotted her. She landed on a lilly pad floating alone in the lake and allowed
herself to weep for Poppy. He had been her best friend. She had hoped when they
were ready he would be more than that, but that just was not possible not.
Lylac had never felt more alone in her life. Not even when the Holly King took
her mother and father to his side when she was little, leaving her to lead the
fairies. Even then, she had not been
completely alone. Then she had had Poppy, now she had no one.
Lylac could not bear
to remain in the forest anymore. She let her wings take her where they would
and soon found herself in the lair of the Oak King.
It took little
time for the Oak King to notice the little fairy’s presence. “What brings you
here little one?”
Lylac looked up to
the god of nature and ignored the tears that once again flowed freely. “Why
does the Holly King take everything we love?”
The Oak King
canted his thorn crowned head. “Come here Little One and I will explain.”
As instructed,
Lylac and to sit on the Oak King’s massive knee. With sad eyes she looked up to
his weathered face.
With one massive
finger, the Oak King patted Lylac’s head lovingly. “The Holly King does nothing
different than what I do.”
“What do you mean?”
Lylac asked more than a little confused.
“Summer and Winter
are no different than life and death. It is a circle. When the days grow short
and the nights grow long, it is my brother’s time to claim the lands. Just as
when a fairy dies, it is time for them to be a frost nymph. It does not last
forever Little One. If it were always summer or always winter the world would
suffer. The flowers would wilt and die anyway, the animals would work
themselves to death, and the celebrations the mortals celebrate would cease to
have meaning.” The Oak King kindly explained.
Lylac pondered his
words. “If that’s true, then how come you and the Holly King fight at Spring
and Autumn? I mean if it’s a natural cycle and all like you said, why don’t
either of you gracefully bow out and let the other take other?”
It was a valid
question, he smiled his appreciation of it. “You have no brothers or sisters do
you Little One?” When Lylac shook her head, the Oak King chuckled. “Then that
is why you do not understand. The Holly King is my brother. Gaia is our mother.
It has been many, many millennia and I do not remember why, but she felt it
would be better if we were not allowed to be near other often. So we only see
each other at Spring and Autumn. We have always liked to rough house and so I
suppose it is our way of catching up on the time we missed by being apart.”
“You’re just
saying hello?!” Lylac asked in near shock. “It’s not a real fight?” As the Oak
King’s words became clear to her, she felt another wave of tears threaten. It
was her fault Poppy was gone. It was all her fault that she would never feel
his warm embrace again, or have him brush the hair from her face again.
The Oak King left
Lylac to her thoughts for a bit, but he knew time was growing short. “Come with
me Lylac. Perhaps you will understand better.”
Lylac rode on the
Oak King’s shoulder as he made his infamous journey to the divider plains. The
other fairies watched them pass in awe and soon began to follow out of
curiosity. As the Oak King stopped at the divider line, a mere few feet from
the Holly King, Lylac was able to clearly see Blight and Poppy adorning the
Holly King’s shoulder just as she adorned the Oak King’s.
Blight had spotted
her and Lylac could not help the blaze of white anger that coursed through her
veins as she not only saw Blight pull Poppy into a kiss, but him respond to it.
“I think I’ve seen
all I need to Oak King.” She said softly as she lifted off his shoulder and
began to flit away.
She had not gone
too far before she felt an icy grip on her arm pulling her to a stop. Her eyes
narrowed and she spun in the grasp to face the frost nymph. She found herself
face to face with Poppy.
The two stared at
each other for a few minutes before he leaned toward her and placed a soft kiss
on her lips. He forced his breath down her throat, and she instantly felt the
heat leave her body.
Poppy broke their
kiss and Lylac’s gaze fell to her hands which lay on his shoulders. She blinked
as she noticed their frosted color.
“A gift from
Blight.” Poppy said softly as he took her hand.
“Blight? Why would
she do this? She hates me!” Lylac asked confused.
Poppy, still
holding Lylac’s hand began to guide her back to the two gods. “No Lylac, you
hated Blight. But you don’t remember her, I didn’t either at first.”
“What do you mean?”
Lylac was thoroughly confused now, though she remained with her hand entwined
in Poppy’s. She had missed him so much. Now, with him beside her, she felt a
huge weight lifted from her shoulders.
“Blight has never
died Ly.. She’s never been anything but a frost nympth.. You and me.. This is
our second death.” Poppy stated as he pulled Lylac beneath a leaf within range
of the battling gods.
“Death? That would
mean that we..” Lylac began as Poppy nodded.
“Frost nymphs.
Blight is part of us Lylac and we are part of her.” Poppy glanced to the Oak
King and Holly King. The Holly King had begun vigorously driving the Oak King back. “It’s time to go. But
first..” Poppy kissed her again. When he broke the kiss a spit a small nut into
his hand before tossing it on the ground.
“A poison berry…
But why?” Lylac asked still confused by the whole situation.
Poppy pulled her
closed and held her tightly. “Because I spent the whole winter missing you.”
Lylac blushed and
smiled. “We’ll never be apart again Poppy. Whether it’s winter or summer let’s
always be together.”
Poppy smiled and
placed a soft, meaningful kiss to Lylac’s lips. As their kiss deepened, summer
faded away and winter began to cover the land.
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