It’s #bookqw and Fern & Beri will celebrate the Solstice in a ‘familiar’ way, but with all the hi-jinks new family members can bring!
Excerpt:
“You are gonna love it,” Fern gushed, and he had to smile. “What are you most excited about doing for your first Christmas?”
“Now that classes have ended for the holiday? Spending time with you,” he said. “And sleeping.”
Fern grinned, her brown eyes brightening. “Don’t let Mom hear you say those two things in the same sentence.” She swatted his chest, her hand sliding up his down vest to corral him around the neck. She pressed her lips to his.
Mmm, nice. Before he could draw her closer, she lifted her head and laughed, her breath puffing white and warm in the chill mountain air.
“But I know what you mean,” she said. “We never have enough time together.” Long, black hair swinging, she linked her arm through his and tugged him along, clearly too impatient to kiss more.
“Do you think it’ll snow?” he asked. “Another real one.” Colorado’s one early snowfall had melted fast with the warm weather that followed, and the dry weather here gave him no clue if another was coming despite the clouds building in the afternoon skies.
“It might. We should carry a load of ornament boxes from the garage as we head in. One less trip for later.”
Snow didn’t carry the same interest for Fern. “I can carry quite a lot,” he said.
“We have a gazillion things Mom has made over the years, glass pieces I wouldn’t let her sell because I loved them so. Things I made that she saved and ones we’ve traded for at craft shows. You’ll love the animals! It’s mostly animals. There’s this sweet little hedgehog made of a dried teasel with a red scarf…” And she was off, describing one animal after another.
’Twas odd to hear her coo over wild beasts wearing bells and whatnot. From the talk of other students in his classes, gift-giving was a big part of their human holiday. He’d quizzed Fern on the traditions that she and her mum, Lady Heather, kept and was relieved to learn they celebrated this holiday in a modest fashion. Good, because no one on the Isle of Giuthas had the trade credit in the human world to do anything extravagant, least of all him, an apprentice.
Still, he was worried that the gift he’d prepared for Fern might not be enough. It’d be the first thing he’d given her…
She poked him. “So? What do you think? Will celebrating the Solstice with us be as good as an Isle of Giuthas celebration?”
“I think so. It’s more important that your mum and Merlin agreed we should hold it at your cabin. They can find so much to fight about.” Merlin was Fern’s father, who had raised Beri after his parents had died.
“No kidding.”
“I’m relieved you celebrate the Solstice, like we do,” he admitted. “And with some familiar traditions, even though Lady Heather kept your heritage from you.” It went without saying that the ‘we’ and ‘heritage’ he referred to were the Windborne wizards and their world that he’d grown up within, because Lady Heather had forbid saying these names—or any reference to magic of any sort—outside the confines of the closed doors of the Fields’ family cabin.
“Yep, Mom always said the twenty-first was soon enough to set up the tree, and in a middle school science class I learned that was the Solstice and asked if we were Wiccan.”
“Wind—we are nae,” he said.
“I know. She told me her reason was the Solstice is a natural earth event that more people should take note of and appreciate. Because if the earth wasn’t situated around the sun precisely the way it is, life wouldn’t have formed and none of us would be here.”
“True. That’s why we revere”— he couldn’t say, the Great Orb—“the sun on the solstices and the equinoxes. Those are our only regular holidays. The extras, like blue moons and eclipses, are special treats.”
“You probably think we have too many vacation days, but no one complains. Even Mom promised to quit glassworking early today, and I’m gonna make her stick to it, whether or not she thinks she has enough pieces for tomorrow’s craft show. Come on.”
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This free 9K short story is releasing in my Winter Solstice newsletter. It follows The Witch of the Meadows, but you don’t need to have read Book 1 to enjoy it. Click here to receive my newsletter email on December 21st!
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