Cirno was playing around the lake as usual, freezing frogs, watching them thaw, and freezing them again. She was alone today, all the other fairies were off doing something else, presumably. Just as she was about to freeze this one really fat frog she bore witness to a bizarre occurrence unlike any other she had ever seen. A bit startled, the ice fairy flew over to get a closer look. In the middle of the lake there was a tall tree unlike any other she had ever seen, and to top it all off, it had appeared out of nowhere! Cirno pondered the suddenly appearing tree for a while and eventually concluded that it was nothing unusual. After all, weird, unexplained things were not at all that uncommon in Gensokyo. You know, like the incident with the scarlet mist, or the freezing cold, winter-like spring. Just as Cirno started to turn around, bored of the dumb tree, a red streak caught her eye. The sight of it filled her with dread. She didn't know why, but she started to panic. Getter closer still, her eyes beheld something horrific. Upon one of the branches was an impaled fairy. She didn't recognize the fairy, which admittedly made her ashamed; as queen of the fairies, Cirno always made it a point that she knew every fairy by name. Even though she didn't know her, she felt pretty riled up. How dare this insolent tree attack a fairy?! she thought. Looking up the tree, her eyes widened in fear. It wasn't just nameless over here, Leila, Mami, Aerith, Emmeryn, Alys, and even the fairies of light! Upon each of the many branches of this accursed tree was a different fairy, her end met by one of those branches. Tears now streaming from her eyes, Cirno circled around the tree, naming every fairy she saw and reminiscing the times they had together. When she finally came full circle, there was the last person she wanted to see dangling from that tree: her best friend, whom she called Dai-chan. Cirno let out a scream, she couldn't take it anymore. She turned away, wanting to see it no longer, but there it was in front of her again. And impaled on the branch next to Dai-chan, there was someone Cirno only ever saw occasionally when looking into the water: herself.
Then, Cirno heard a voice above her, calling her name. A soft, friendly voice she had heard before, but her thoughts were too jumbled to remember whose it was. All she knew was that she had to go to that person, and so she flew up as fast as she could. Suddenly, she was on the ground, and above her was the furrowed brow of Dai-chan. "Cirno, what's wrong? You were crying in your sleep, did you have a nightmare?" asked Dai-chan. Cirno stammered, but failed to find the words to describe what she had seen. Instead, she just cried into her friend's arms for a few days. Eventually, she finally calmed down, and looked around. The fairies were enjoying their time playing around the lake. The sun was setting, and all seemed well. With a deep sigh, Cirno felt at ease again. With a smile, she looked upon the glistening lake and the colorful sunset. "Everything is going to be alright," she told herself.