"So winter is like, all white then?" Sunflower asks. She, Mary and Clarion were seated around a table in Clarion's study as the queen recounts her recent endeavors.
"The nature is pretty much all white. The only colour is the blue ice and the clothes they wear."
Sunflower chuckles, leaning back on her chair. "I can't imagine living in a world without colour."
"It really is beautiful. It's like nothing you've ever seen."
"We would love to see it, Ree but there isn't much to see from the borders." Mary smiles sadly. "If only we had drawings or something."
Clarion's head snaps up. "Why don't we have drawings?" She wonders.
"To be fair, Queen Maeve never cared much about winter. Probably saw it as a distraction." Sunflower laughs.
"There's no reason why us warm fairies can't learn about winter." Clarion thinks outloud.
Mary laughs hesitatingly, "Where are you going to get books about winter though. It's not like the librarians here have seen winter."
"I have a plan." She said. "I need to head to winter for a moment."
"All right then. Don't be late for your meeting with the garden fairies this afternoon though." Mary calls as the queen fetches her coat before leaving.
Clarion had memorised the way to Dewey's library from the times Milori showed it to her briefly. The winter fairies seemed to be busy that day so she managed to get around rather unnoticed. She just reached the clearing of the forest where the lake was when she heard a very familiar voice.
"Ree!" Milori calls, flying towards her to walk by her side. "What are you doing here? Couldn't get enough of my season?"
"I came to see the keeper actually. I have a proposal." She answers, lifting a satchel to show him.
"Not to see me?" He squints playfully at her with a slight disappointed look.
She giggles "I didn't know if you were free and I'm sort of working against the clock right now."
"Well, I can take you there right now." He smiles, taking her hand in his.
Milori pushes open a large heavy door. She barely manages to study the intricate carvings on the ice as he ushers her in. The library was huge, carved deep into the side of a mountain. Clarion had barely stepped into the entrance but she could already tell that it was bigger than the libraries in her seasons combined.
The short librarian sat slumped over a desk in the middle of the room, his feathered pen running quickly over the pieces of parchment. She vaguely hears Milori call out to grab his attention but Clarion was more amazed by the floor to ceiling bookshelves lining the entire interior of the space. The covers of the books all had intricate designed covers. The keeper was definitely one with a lot of attention to detail.
"W-what can I do for you, your majesty?" Dewey immediately stops his work at the sight of her.
"I have a proposal for you." She smiles. Slowly, she explains her plan. An exchange of books form their respective seasons so that all fairies can learn about their seasons instead of being confined to the seasons they could enter. "I brought a few books I could take from the library in the Pixie Dust Tree. You can take a look, I hope you can learn something from them." She said pulling three books from her satchel, each on her three seasons.
Dewey does a quick flip through of her books, slightly surprised at the descriptions and drawings he managed to take a peek of. "I would love to learn more about your seasons, Queen Clarion. If Milori agrees with this I don't see a reason why not."
"I definitely do." Milori said, picking up a book about summer. "Would you get her some books about winter? It's not fair for her to bring something without getting a few back for the libraries there." He tells his friend.
"Of course." Dewey smiles, flying up to certain shelves to pick up a few books. "These three are some of the most informative, they've also got good illustrations too." He said, helping to pack the books into her satchel.
Clarion beams. "If this is popular with the fairies I would be happy to exchange more books with you again." She said, throwing her satchel over her shoulder. Clarion and Milori say a few more words before bidding Dewey goodbye.
"It's a really good idea I think. Let me get that." He takes the bag from her and slings it over his own shoulder.
The queen blushes slightly. "You don't have to."
"I want to. I'm the one with wings after all." He smiles. "Do you think the fairies would like this?"
"There's nothing wrong with learning something new." She stated. "I would love to stay a little longer but I have a meeting to get back to." She sighs.
"I'll take you back to spring then. We can meet again tonight." He smiles.
Sure enough, the winter books brought in were way more popular than Clarion thought. Her fairies were confused at the new books at first but all it took was a few fairies to take a look and tell everyone else about them for groups of fairies to huddle in the library over one of the new books. Even fairies who did not enjoy reading were seen in the library to take a look at some of the drawings. They were actually so popular in winter too that Clarion even had storybooks from winter delivered.
"Tulips are such pretty flowers." Milori states, flipping through a summer book as he sits at the border. "Butterflies too, I didn't even know they existed."
"They're rather mischievous though I heard." Clarion laughs. She always heard the animal fairies complaining about butterfly rearing.
Milori smiles at her. "They're still pretty. I thought these books could satisfy me but now I just want to see summer for myself."
"If only there was a way for you to cross." She frowns. "There are so many things I want you to see."
She wasn't a tinker by any means but her mind seemed to be going miles per hour as she tried to think of a solution. "We covered my wings to shield them from the cold." Clarion starts. "What if we wrapped your wings to keep them from getting too warm."
"I think a coat would just warm them up more, love." Milori chuckles.
"No, what if we wrapped them with ice. That will cool them down for a while."
He pauses to think for a moment. "Do you think that could work?"
"There's no reason why it can't. We can try it out once my nature fairies leave for summer." She suggests, eyes bright.
"Then I'll look forward to summer."
Sorry if the chapters are a little boring, I've been busy :")