Natsu no Ringo
By SMYGO4EVA
Ame-warashi knew that the vestal sprite, Zashiki-warashi, was painfully shy, and not a free spirit. She never has been and she never will be; after all ambition and timidity would be a clash of traits, would they not? In the spring, she would only admire the lovely colors and the desire to reach out and grab the lightning of the summer storm would never come to pass. The vestal sprite is withdrawn, fragile and could be broken easily; perhaps that is the truth but perhaps in her upbringing as one of the other world she was forced to be that way, she cannot tell.
Zashiki-warashi was infatuated with that human boy, the one who was always near the Dimensional Witch, and the rain sprite did not understand why. To love a human was almost blasphemous to their own kind, but she must have seen something that was different from her, for her to strive after, to risk her life for. Ame-warashi knew that light in her friend's eyes anywhere, something that wasn't seen in the longest time. She said what was on her mind most of the time, but never took the time to really say what mattered, as if something was out of her grasp, out of her hands for all time.
Both sprites were of another world, but they have seen the seasons go by faster than the orbit of the Earth, gliding and tilting. The winters were harsh, the spring was envied by the fall, and the summers were exceptionally beautiful. It was then that the rain sprite had realized something – she and the vestal sprite, they reach for different objectives, but it turns out that they strive for the same thing. They both yearn for the light in a world so strange and yet so familiar, the dewdrops fresh of the rain's gift and the hands reaching, just inches away from the very first summer apple.