During the cold winter, there seems to be only darkness and depression. You may wonder if you will ever escape from the seemingly endless night's chilling grasp; you will soon find a brightness to the day.
“Miss Tik?”
The kobold peeks her head up from the work she was writing, looking over towards her slimy assistant.
“Oh, sorry, Eshere. I was meditating on life. Happiness, sadness, all that stuff.”
The slime slurps up to her mistress, standing above the kobold. “I-It’s cold outside,” the slime says, rubbing her arm. “I think I’ll freeze if I go out there tonight. Maybe I should call things off?”
“Nonsense,” Tik Tik says, curling a finger toward herself. “Come closer, my apprentice.”
Eshere leans in, tilting her head slightly. “What is it, Miss Tik?”
With a flick of her finger, Tik Tik beckons a jug that floats over Eshere’s head. Pointing down, she commands it to pour over the head of her slime girl secretary, spilling an opaque mixture all over her.
“Eeee!” Esher squeals, shaking and shuddering, sloshing away from Tik Tik. “W-what did you do?”
“It’s a new mixture I came up with,” Tik Tik says. “Should last you the night and keep you from freezing outside.” She hands Eshere a slip of paper. “The incantation and recipe is here. Consider it a Winter Festival gift.”
Eshere takes the paper, her slimy fingers not staining the treated page. “Miss Tik, you’re too kind to me.”
“Nonsense!” Tik Tik barks, returning to her writing. “You enjoy yourself.”
“And… what about you?”
Tik Tik smirks, putting her quill back down. She spins around in her seat and offers the slime girl a comforting smile. “My dear Eshere, I’m enjoying celebrating so many festivals this year. I don’t need to celebrate one right now on my own.”
“And speaking of doing things on your own, don’t you have a date to get to?” The kobold asks, indicating the clock on her wall with the feathered end of her quill.
“Ah! You’re right!” The slime girl squeaks, slipping onto the floor and underneath the door.
“There’s bound to be some more interest when it comes to her and her friend,” Tik Tik says, sighing. “Am I getting old, I wonder? Ah, the introspection of winter…”
She leans back and closes her eyes, letting her arms drape behind her seat. “In times like this, I wish I still had the Stick of Champions.”
—
Erin Marie Sherdon stands on the street corner. The college student is dressed in heavy winter clothing, wrapping up her pleasantly plump form in multiple layers of warmth. She clasps her hands together, her mittens keeping her from twirling her fingers, no matter how much she wants to, and the blush on her face is from more than the biting cold.
Soon, from the cracks of the ground emerges the form of Eshere. The slime girl stands before the human with a smile on her constructed face. “There you are,” says Eshere. “You ready?”
“Y-you bet!” Erin says.
Eshere holds out her hand.
Erin stares down at it, her glasses fogging up. “A… ah?”
Eshere clenches and unclenches her hand, holding it open wide for Erin.
Erin reaches for a mittened handout, trembling, hovering close to the slimes, but she doesn’t make complete contact.
Eshere meets her halfway, grasping her, enveloping the mitten in her green goop.
“A… ah warm!”
“Thank Miss Tik for that!” Eshere says. “Now, shall we go?”
The two of them walk their way through lamp-lit streets. The soft-falling snow sprinkled the ground with a cascade of white. Erin’s stride gets closer to Eshere while Eshere lifts her free arm, her hand turning into an umbrella, catching and dissolving the snow before it can reach them.
“Y-you’re too kind,” Erin says. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”
“Why not?” Eshere asks as they make their way through the park.
“B-because we’re roommates… friends.”
“We’re seeing if this can work,” Eshere says. “There’s nothing more to it than that. Unless you want there to be.”
Erin rubs her cheek, shuddering. “M-maybe,” she says. “I have never been on a date before… for the festival.”
“Me neither,” Eshere says. “But I’d always see it, even before I knew what it was.”
“O-oh?”
They pass through multiple statues and even walk past a blue-haired maiden with pale skin sitting on a park bench, her head cast downward.
“Indeed,” says Eshere. “I’m Anteronian born and raised. Well… more like spontaneous genesis.”
“I… it’s almost as if the city is your mother, then,” Erin muses.
“Heh… maybe. Guess that makes my mom a slut.”
Erin bites her lip. “Heh, y-you said it, not me.”
They stop at the park exit, and Eshere squeezes her hand. “Don’t be afraid to express your feelings, Erin. After all, I’m intimately familiar with what makes you tick.”
“I… yeah, you’re right. It’s a bit one-sided.” Erin admits. “There’s so much you know about me, but I don’t know anything about you. Not as much as I’d like.”
“Let me be an open book for you,” Eshere says, leaning in, her lips so warm as they stand there in the cold.
Erin bites her lip, hesitating. She sighs and then stands on her tip-toes to meet Eshere, tasting that odd mixture of the coolness of her minty taste and the warmth of Tik Tik’s magic.
“You always taste so spectacular.” She says before pulling back. “N-no, that’s so weird to say.”
“No, not at all,” Eshere says, slipping past her. “According to Tik Tik's notes, my cytoplasm is still perfectly edible, even with the warming agent in it. Why don’t we get a bite to eat, hm?”
She says this, slipping her way across the street, where the bright lights and inviting aroma of Baker’s Bakery invite the two.
“But Eshere,” Erin says, following her. “You don’t eat sweets and treats. You eat…”
Eshere flutters and tilts her head back, a smug smirk filling her face.
Suddenly, Erin didn’t feel so cold anymore.
—
“And that shall be the end of my winter musings—a happier note. There are many more stories to tell, and life makes things too busy. I hope you have enjoyed reading these little vignettes and, in truth, deciding which of them you want to be accurate and which are fiction, for that’s something else one must consider whenever you read a piece. After all, I am a wizard, and I give you gifts. I work magic with my words to weave a spell you can enjoy. And for sure, I wish you all happy holidays, no matter how late this final piece makes it to you!