The world was muted. The snow fell slowly from a hazy white sky, clouds so thick you did not know where they ended and the snowflakes began, yet few would look up on a late evening such as this. The sun had not risen for many days already, and what little light there was around noon did little to aid those who found themselves in the lands cast in white cold.
The lakes would sing at night, freezing what little had thawed in the less cold daytime hours. Icy crystals climbed the trees and their branches, making them, as well as the snow, glitter in the moonlight, even as the sight of Luna was hidden behind the clouds up above.
This was the time of the year which Error loved the most. It was quiet. It was peaceful. The fairies of Dream’s Valley were at rest, sleeping within warm nests until the days the sun would return. No song could be heard from there, and no laughter could be heard from the fairies of Ink’s great forest. They, too, were at rest. No, the only fairies, besides his kin of winter, that were awake and aware were those of autumn. Huddled and silent they may be within Nightmare’s underground nest, but sometimes during the evening and the night, Error would see them from his place atop his highest mountain peak.
Their light was hard to ignore. The crystals of their home twinkled with ancient magic, casting specks of blue, green, and purple across the white land, and the fairies of autumn would dance and twirl for the fairies of winter as they approached, eager for company in an otherwise deadly quiet world.
Strange it was not that there were more hybrids of winter and autumn, Error thought. They find themselves lonely, even as the dark and the cold bring comfort and rest.
He sat down upon the mountain’s ledge, letting his legs hang in the air as strings of silver blue swayed in the gentle wind. Specks of snow passed him by, and he sighed in contentment, savouring the moment of a time he desired to last forevermore. He would have let it go on, his beloved winter, if only he’d allowed himself the indulgence.
If only he allowed himself to let go of care and affection, thought Error. Then the world could forever be at rest, cast in a permanent state of white beauty and blissful cold, where only he and his kin would thrive.
Such horrid thoughts of his, a dark desire he’s since long ensnared and kept hidden deep within himself, yet never it left him. Never would he fully rid himself of it, because he truly did not want it to fade from him. It was a fantasy he could indulge in within his daydreams, allowing himself the pleasure of thinking ‘what if’.
Horrid and beautiful it was to imagine his fellow firstborn at rest. Dream would be such a beauty in his sleep, surrounded by crystals of cold as he remained beneath a blanket of moss and green grass. Ink would be another sight, entrapped within a cocoon of sticks and flowers frozen in time, restless even in his sleep, but never waking. And Nightmare, oh beautiful Nightmare, he’d be drowsy and tired, sleeping more than he needed in a palace of velvets and toadstools, tapestries of intricate designs framing his bed as he struggles to awaken in the night, frost enticing him to relax yet, all the same, wishing him awake and aware.
Error shuddered, letting the dark fantasy pass along with the wind as the voices of the big folk echoed through his mountains. They were singing again, passing along his border with blue glass spheres within their cold hands, their lights glowing gently. Clad in wool dyed with different shades of blue, they passed near silently over snow and ice, their voices oddly pleasant as they sang for peace and comfort to all who struggled this winter, wishing for the cold not to take them this year either.
Error knew they sang to him, gently pleading with him to show them mercy, to not take their homes and lives with the growing freeze. Sometimes, he listened, drawing back his cold from their villages and allowing them moments of rest so their fires could bring some warmth. However, sometimes, their pleas could not penetrate the freezing rage within him, and on those winters, many would pass; often the elderly… and the children.
What would Dream, Ink, and Nightmare think if they knew how little Error cared? What would they think if they knew that the suffering of innocent big folk didn’t thaw his frozen soul? Surely, they’d be appalled.
Well, maybe not quite, thought Error.
They’ve all caused suffering, be it intentional or not, yet none, not even Ink, took outright pure pleasure from it. If someone deserved it then they might, but Error took a wicked delight in the woes of the big folk, of hearing them weep as they clutched a babe to their chest, dead from the cold or the sickness that came with it.
He took a breath, a wisp of mist filling the air as he released it. Each winter the desire to let go increased, and each time his resistance grew weaker and weaker. A part of him did not wish to be this way, the part of him that once was innocent and young upon the meadow they’d been born to, and though that part of him still lived within him, it was weakened.
Weakened, but not yet dead, thought Error. Still, he feels it, even at the present, bringing warmth to him as the song of the big folk drew faint and distant, swallowed up by the continuously falling snow. And all the more he feels it when his fairies surround him, their armoured, leather, and fur-covered bodies moving seamlessly about his Mountain Halls. The light of their lanterns, so golden and warm, brought a sense of comfort to him, too.
It is they, and his firstborn, that keep the darkness within Error at bay. Without them, he would not have cared anymore. Without them, the world would forevermore have been cast in darkness and cold, forced to sleep beneath a blanket of white snow that glittered in the light of only the moon and the stars.