Disclaimer: Wishfully not mine.
A/N: This started out as just another unconnected vignette in As Deep as the Sky, and that was all I expected it to be. Then a second idea came to me, and I can feel others stirring in the back of my brain. I don't know if anything will come of them, but for now it seemed better to make this a separate project that I can update if and when inspiration strikes. Reviews still appreciated, though! No writer is an island, after all.
Snowdrop Wishes
© Scribbler, May 2009.
1. Amane
Under the snow,
Beneath the frozen streams,
There is life.
You have to know
When nature sleeps she dreams -
There is life.
And the colder the winter,
The warmer the spring;
The deeper the sorrow,
The more our hearts sing;
Even when you can't see it,
Inside everything,
There is life.
-- From There is Life by Alison Krauss.
Amane was aware of the stranger approaching, but she didn't look up. Nothing could hurt her here, and she was preoccupied with the little mound of snow. She poked at it with one finger. The knees of her dungarees were soaked.
"What are you doing?"
"Shhh," she murmured. "I'm waiting."
"Waiting for what?" the stranger asked in a whisper, after a long moment in which nothing happened.
"You'll see."
"I will?"
"Mm-hmm." Still she didn't look up. Mummy used to say things about watched pots not boiling, but this wasn't a pot, and she certainly didn't want it to boil. The frozen crystals twinkled like something from a Christmas card – stupid, really, since she was pretty sure it was July. Or maybe it was August. It was easy to lose track of things here.
"Are you waiting for someone?" the stranger asked.
"You ask a lot of questions. You must be new."
He paused. "You could say that."
The top of the mound quivered.
"Here we go," Amane said with satisfaction. "I knew if I waited long enough I'd see it."
"See what?"
"Watch."
Gradually, though at a much faster rate than was natural, a small green shoot poked through the snow. It reached upward, lengthening and sticking out leaves like someone stretching after a long nap. The bud on the end trembled before suddenly, with one quick pop, bursting into flower.
"Snowdrop," Amane announced. "They're difficult to find since there aren't any real seasons here. You have to look really hard. Seeing one open is good luck. You get to make a wish for someone you left behind." She closed her eyes and made the same wish, the same way she'd made every snowdrop-wish since she got here what seemed like a life ago. Maybe it was. Please let my big brother be safe and happy. Please give him friends. Please don't let him be lonely anymore. "I wish …" she murmured, hands clenched into tight little fists that cut half-moons into her palms.
"Am I also allowed a wish?" the stranger asked. "Or is it limited to one per flower?" His tone suggested he was uncomfortable asking someone as young as her such a question. Amane didn't mind. Half the time she found she was actually older than the new arrivals. This one spoke formally, though, so perhaps for once he really was older than her real age.
Although when she finally looked up she doubted it. He'd said he was new, and he didn't look much past his mid teens. Weird clothes didn't hide the lankiness of his legs, or the thin chest he hadn't yet grown into.
She shrugged. "I suppose you'd be allowed one; as long as you have someone you left behind you want to make a wish for."
His eyes became unfocussed. She knew he was thinking back to the other side of the veil. After a moment he looked back at her.
She smiled and stood up. "I'm Amane."
"Do you often go looking for this white substance so you may make wishes on flowers?"
"White substance?" She blinked. "You mean snow?"
"Ah. Yes. Snow." He seemed vaguely discomfited, as if he should've known this. "I've never actually, ah, seen it before. Not for myself. I hear it's very cold."
"If you want it to be. Things work differently around here." She glanced down at her knees. They were already dry. The snowdrop had withered away again and was currently desiccating into dust. She sighed, hoping this time her wish had come true. "You want me to show you around?"
"I did have a guide, actually." He looked over his shoulder, as if expecting that person to reappear. "But she seems to have wandered off. Perhaps she found a giant vase to hide in," he muttered under his breath.
Amane laughed. She'd been here a long time and had an idea who he meant. There were thousands of restless souls wandering this place, unable to move on because they were still connected to the mortal world somehow, but one or two stood out. You didn't get too many explosions from backfired spells, after all, so it was easy to trace them back to the same person.
"C'mon," Amane said, taking the stranger's hand. He looked shocked at the contact, though whether because she was being presumptuous, or because he just plain felt her touch was debateable. "I'll help you find her. What did you say your name was?"
"I didn't." He paused. His next words didn't seem to come easily. There was definitely a story to be told there, and Amane shivered with delight. She loved stories, and she was nothing if not patient when it came to waiting for good things to happen. "But it's Atem."