Winter Challange Part 1-5
So I've gotten a "Winter Writing Prompts" challange, one word for every day of December. I'm sadly a bit behind, but I'll try my best. I've decided to write around 200 words for every prompt, and everyone from Saiph's POV to get to know him as he is ment to be one of the characters in "Tales of Stars Gathering". Here's the first five. Enjoy!
Saiph opened the door to his little hut and looked out on the snow falling there. He wasn't fond of snow, as it had more cons than pros. The only good thing about it was that one could bring it in in a jug and turn it into water by warming it up. The downside was that one could no longer find things, and let's not even talk about how hard it was to get somewhere without leaving tracks. Could he not been a hedgehog or bear? Think how nice it would have been to hibernate and wake up to spring.
He pulled his brown cloak tighter around the body and stepped out with his staff in hand. In the other hand had he a basket. Saiph turned his gaze up to the grey sky and the odd eyes narrowed. It wasn't supposed to snow today. He muttered, annoyed, because yesterday hadn't shown any signs of snow. Now it would take a while to find all the mushrooms and fungi he needed for his stew.
The snow wasn’t deep yet, so luckily it wasn’t too hard to find what he needed. Some yellow chanterelle and dotted stem bolete, but also some which weren’t for eating.
It was only once in a while Saiph went to the market in the Elven capital, Irmasari, and this time he had met a merchant from a land far away. This merchant sold spices and meat, and the most curious scent came from his booth.
As Saiph got closer, he realized that the scent came from a steaming hot liquid in a cauldron over a fire. It didn’t smell like anything he had smelled before, and looked strange with its brown colour.
”Would you like some hot chocolate?” the merchant asked, as he saw how curious Saiph was.
”Yes. What is it?” Saiph couldn’t take his eyes of the brown liquid.
”Warm milk, a little sugar and most important, cacao powder.” The merchant poured some of the hot chocolate in a cup, and gave it to Saiph. ”Careful, it’s hot.”
”Cacao powder?”
”Yes, it’s made from the seeds of the Cacao plant growing on Serine.”
Saiph nodded and smelled the hot chocolate, and waited for it to cool off as he wanted to try it without burning his tongue. He had learned the hard way to wait for things to get cold, but figured this should still be lukewarm when one drank it.
Elven children were rare. As rare as they were, the Elven folk most of the time hid them away from other people. Saiph however, would never harm the children, as nothing was more innocent than the young Elven offspring. But he couldn’t help but stop and look at them when he saw any.
This time it was in a small village were some children were playing outside in the snow. He stood there calmly, looking at them, his cloak on and staff in hand. Saiph had seen these children before, years ago, in summertime and they had grown. Not much, as Elven children took years to grow but some.
They made snowballs, bigger and bigger, and put them on top of each other. A snowman. As they played Saiph could also see an Elven woman watching them, and she nodded with a smile when their eyes met. He knew he was accepted as long as he held his distance.
When he was back at his hut, deep in the forest, he built his own snowman. It was taller than the one the children had made. It got some berries for eyes, a small stick as nose. He even gave it an old scarf around its neck.
Saiph came inside his hut and walked straight to the fireplace to put on a new log and made sure the fire was breathing. The flames soon grew bigger and bigger, crackles was heard as the wood was burning. A warmth started to spread in the room which made the most of the hut. Saiph's home wasn't a big place compared to most, but he didn't need much. It had room for his things and a bed to sleep in.
He stopped in front of the fireplace and looked into the flickering blue flames. It was the birch that made the color of the fire, and Saiph enjoyed looking at it. The scent of smoke felt like home, as he always had a fire on, something which was important during the winter. There, in the flames, he saw things. Little red ember salamanders crawling up on the wood, bathing in the warm fire. They were always there, helping him keep the fire alive and eating old ashes. But those wasn't the only things he saw.
This time a pair of eyes were staring back at him. Golden fox eyes. Saiph knew for certain those eyes didn't belong to just any fox.
Saiph could hear the wind howling outside of his hut. The night was dark out there, but yet he could see the snow blowing through the window. He was warm and safe inside his hut. At the moment he sat in a chair by the fireplace reading an old book written in Elvish language. A study of dragons. It was a perfect book to read to the sound of a cracklling fire.
When he first heard the sound from outside, he didn't react to it, but the second time the book got put away, and he got up in a hurry. The sound of a barking deer in distress. Saiph put on his brown cloak and went out. It didn't matter anymore that there was a snowstorm outside the door.
He stopped to listen and soon heard the deer's cry for help. With his staff in hand he followed the barking through the blowing snowstorm to a small mere in the forest. In a hole in the ice there was a deer. The deer he was looking for.
"Help is coming", he told the deer in Elvish.
It wasn't easy, but Saiph refused to give up, and as soon as he had gotten the deer out of the water he brought it home with him to warm the poor thing up.
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