Of Sprites and Spring

[TheCakeIsAlive]

Firstly: the credit for the concept must go to Blah-San, whose idea I shamelessly used to my own, fetishy ends (with permission). So thank you Blah. ^^

Secondly: I purposely kept this gender ambiguous, which may have led to a number of awkward formulations to avoid using gender-specific words.

So yes, a quick couldn't-be-a-drabble-if-it-tried, I hope you'll enjoy reading it.

Of Sprites and Spring

They were sitting in a small hole in the ground, between the roots of a large tree. It was a location that suited them both, winter and spring spirit alike. The small, hibernating creatures were the territory of the former, while the freshly awoken roots belonged to the latter.

Sitting was not the entirely correct term for it. It was more a sort of floating, a few inches above the floor, on chairs that were suspiciously see-through, much like their occupants.

Between them floated a table with two steaming mugs of tea and a small plate of biscuits. The sprites sipped their drinks slowly and talked.

"It's good to see you again. Such a shame that there is always an entire year between our tea-parties." The winter sprite said. The sprites bloomed and faded away with their seasons and there was only a short window of time when the seasons could meet.

The spring sprite nodded vigorously. "I have missed you, old friend. How has Winter been treating you?"

"Quite well, thank you. It's been a good winter. Nice and frosty most of the time. None of that swampy half-winter nonsense we had a few years ago. Winter didn't tolerate any slacking off this year." The look on its face was dreamy, as if it were remembering winters long gone.

The spring sprite shivered. "I've noticed. Thankfully, we're warming things up now, melting all that ice swiftly. We've been allowed a warm spring this year." The spring sprite was almost bouncing in its chair, the wild movement sending small puffs of spores and pollen into the air. "Spring has even allowed us blooming flowers at the start!" It seemed to be too much for the sprite to keep its calmth. The chair wavered in the air as the spirit did a small dance.

The winter sprite looked at the little clouds with growing concern. Soon the pollen and spores would fill the whole room. And it had such dreadful hay fever. "Please sit down," it asked, "I'm afraid you may ignite my hay... my hay..." Too late, it thought as its voice faltered in favour of short hitches. Its nose twitched and wriggled, trying to escape the pollen from entering by the breathful. Its head started to rear back to accomodate its expanding lungs. "... my hayfever." Its voice sounded choked, the words forced out as the urge to sneeze became overwhelming.

The other sprite calmed down immediately, looking at its friend with growing concern. When it realised what was going to happen, it hid under the table. The sneeze of a winter sprite was like a small breath of winter: icy cold and chilling to the bone. Only its eyes peeked over the edge nervously, ready to dive below at the first sneeze. "Please don't sneeze" it pleaded in a small voice.

A nose full of pollen and there was nothing it could do but do just that until it was all gone again. Oh the irony that it should be so allergic to something its best friend produced in high doses. It wasn't even as if all winter spirits were affected. As the little, allergic, breaths filled its lungs, it pinched its nose between white fingers. "Hehh... ehhh..." The hitches were like a gust of icy wind, just a taste of what would happen after. "EHHH-CHMPH!"

The little spirit had closed its eyes, but opened them again as the icy blast of cold air stayed out. The sight greeting it wasn't too favourable though. Its fingers still clasped around its nose, the winter sprite looked even more desperate than before. Small wonder, as its fingers kept the pollen nicely contained, just blasting them around inside, making things even worse. Neither spirits realised this though.

"EhhH... HEH-CHHUMPHFF! HEH-CHHHMFFF! EH-CHUMMPHFF!" The last sneeze made its fingers slip from its nose. "Hehh... aahh... AAAH-CHOO!" The icy blast hit the spring fairy right in its face, making it shiver. "Ah... ahh... aaah... ehh-CHOO!" The table did next to nothing to protect from the swirling wind.

After a few moments of silence, the spring spirit cautiously climbed up again. The winter sprite had picked up one of the small tissues that were piled up besides the biscuits and was quietly blowing its nose into it to rid itself of the pollen that way. The tissue slowly turned to ice as it went on. A deep sigh and it sat down again. "My apologies. Are you okay?" it said stuffily.

The little spring creature was shivering violently. "Q-q-quite well thank you" it responded nonetheless. It stifled a tiny, cold-induced, sneeze into its sleeve, knowing it would otherwise blow more pollen into the air and that was the last thing it wanted.

"So full spring will come early this year?" followed the polite inquiry.

"Yes, quite early. I'd say it's starting to get there this very minute." It replied enthusiastically, remembering this time to stay put. "The first birches have started pollinating yesterday. I can't remember a spring in the last 30 years that has been this early. It's quite exciting." Then it suddenly remembered which tree they were having tea under.

The winter spirit tried to listen attentively, but its concentration started wavering. Nodding its head to try and show it was still paying attention, its eyes began to close of their own accord. "My apologies, but I fear... I may... not be... behhh... ehhh... done... hehh... ehhh.... AAAAH-CHOOOOOH!" The blast caused the teacups to fall over and spill on the table, but their contents froze before they could fall off its surface. It sniffled pathetically. "I'm sorry." It looked unhappy and frustrated. A deep sigh followed. "See you next year?" The spring spirit nodded and with a last shiver from the one and a sniffle from the other, they vanished into thin air.

The End

[Chanel_no5]

Awwww, this was so cute!! Absolutely lovely!

[TheCakeIsAlive]

Yay Am really glad you like it.

... okay, I'll stop being hyper now. But thanks.

[Sneeze999]

Wow! Great story! Really! wonderfull and cute

[NameTaken]

Aww, this is adorable! And I love the ambiguity of the gender too. Really lovely

[TheCakeIsAlive]

Thank you very much.

@NameTaken: Am really glad you like that bit. I was quite worried the repetitiveness of the word "it" and "its" would get really annoying.

[Lalaith]

This is really cute I like it a lot.

[TheCakeIsAlive]

Thank you!

[Graham Cracked]

Aww, I liked this~ It's cool to see the fantasy aspect of the story, I've always been a sucker for that kind of stuff. Great job!

[obsessed]

Nicely done Siggy!

[TheCakeIsAlive]

@OinaGirl: Very glad you liked it. Am quite a sucker for fantasy settings myself.

@Obby: Thank you!