Author's Note: This drabble was written for the lovely Heliopausa for the annual Christmas Card drabble exchange on Livejournal. She prompted me with "something gentle, refreshing to the spirit and/or happy," and I hope I obliged.
A lonely light shines through the darkness, a single flickering candle's humble offering of brightness and warmth against the winter's chill. Its glow cuts through the quiet stillness of the wood, the valiant, unfailing flame burning as it has since the First Days. The iron sentinel waits alone as always, but this night is different. Hope, a weak and tiny flame itself after a century of ice, shines in the darkness as the faint singing of the long-silent Stars whispers down through the snow-heavy trees. The sentinel's long watch is nearly complete; something wonderful is coming with the breaking dawn.