here is day five of my December stories, i hope you enjoy! *side note, i fixed one of the sentences in the day four story, where McGee looked at his watch*
Conor watched the mixed group of spirit animals and Greencloaks. There was a meeting in the great hall, and while Conor and the other four fallen were 'attending' the meeting, they were not really paying attention. The meeting wasn't too formal, but most people had dressed a little nicer than they normally did, the Four Fallen included.
"Conor," Meilin hissed, "Stop staring, you're going to annoy someone's spirit animal."
"What?" Conor asked as he shook himself to regain focus.
Meilin sighed. "Come on, Abeke and Rollan are over by the snack table," she said even as she dragged the boy towards the edge of the room.
It turned out that only Rollan was at the snack table.
"Hey, Rollan." Conor greeted the other boy, "Meilin said Abeke was over here with you, where did she go?"
Rollan swallowed his food and answered. "She's over by the fireplace, apparently she is still cold inside the castle."
Conor looked over to the large fireplace and saw Abeke a few feet away from the grate. He nodded to Rollan and Meilin as he walked away from them. "Abeke," he called as he made his way there, "is the fire helping?"
Abeke looked up when she heard her name, "I'm feeling warmer now, Conor, thanks for asking." As she spoke, she shivered, her body betraying her words.
"I don't think you're as warm as you say you are." Meilin said as she and Rollan joined Abeke and Conor.
Abeke gave Meilin a half-hearted glare, "Greenhaven castle is quite drafty, Nilo never got this cold."
Rollan glanced around the room. "It doesn't help that the great hall is not heated the best, either."
Meilin smiled. "It's not like they're going to notice we left, our tower is fairly warm. We could always escape this meeting."
Conor, Abeke, and Rollan all looked very excited at the idea of ditching the meeting. Rollan shoved his last piece of food from the snack table into his mouth and nodded, mumbling something that he was ready to go.
"I'm ready to go." Conor said, Abeke nodding next to him.
Meilin led the way from the great hall as she knew the hallways the best of the four of them. It took them only five minutes to get to the base of the tower their rooms were at. The journey up the stairs didn't take very long, either, and soon they were in the common area their rooms connected to. They still had a fire going from when they had left for the meeting almost an hour ago.
"Finally," Abeke muttered as she practically fell into one of the large chairs in front of the fire.
Meilin entered the room she shared with Abeke and closed the door, and sounds of the dresser drawers could be heard.
"I'm going to change out of these clothes." Rollan said as he entered the room he and Conor shared.
Conor threw another log on the fire, forcing a small cloud of embers to fly into the air. After checking the window was closed, he sat down in the chair next to Abeke. "When I was younger," he said, drawing Abeke's attention, "in the four days leading up to the winter solstice, my entire family would gather in front of the fire. Those four nights, my father and brothers and I took turns keeping watch over the sheep. Those of us not watching the sheep would tell stories of funny things that happened over the previous year and eat sweets."
Conor turned to look at Abeke instead of the fire. "What about you?" he asked.
"We did similar things, the day and night of the winter." Abeke responded, "telling stories and eating treats, or, at least the village did. Father kept me and my sister in our hut and we had a quiet day, remembering our mother."
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." Conor said quickly.
Abeke shook her head, "It's fine, Conor, you didn't know."
One of the doors opened and Conor and Abeke turned around to see Meilin entering the common area wearing a looser shirt and no make-up. "My father always took me to another high-ranking general's home. Northern Zhong was always the prettiest place to be for the winter solstice. We got to play games and open presents." Meilin smiled as she reminisced. "I hope to be able to go back sometime, maybe next year."
Rollan entered the room as Meilin finished speaking. "What's up?" he asked, glancing around the room. Seeing that the three chairs had been taken, he stood behind Abeke's chair, placing his hand on the back of it.
"We're talking about what we did for the winter solstice." Conor told him, "What did you do for it?"
The smile on Rollan's face fell, "I was a street orphan, the only thing the winter solstice meant for me was a long cold night."
"I'm sorry." Abeke said, her voice distorted from shivering.
"It's whatever." Rollan said shortly, "Are you cold again?" he asked, looking at Abeke, who was, indeed, shivering.
Conor also looked closer at Abeke, "Get closer to the fire." he said, handing her his cloak, "you're shivering."
Abeke got off the chair and sat down next to the fireplace grate, wrapping herself in Conor's green cloak. "I'll be fine, I'm just not used to the cold yet." she said, finally stopping her shivering.
"We need new solstice traditions." Meilin said, "most of us can no longer do ours."
Abeke looked excited at the idea, "Yes!" She smiled broadly, "That is a brilliant idea."
"We should include Briggan and the others." Conor said, releasing the wolf.
Briggan ran a lap around the room before sitting by Conor and resting his head on the boy's leg. Conor reached down to scratch his ears.
Abeke lifted her sleeve to let Uraza out and the leopard snorted and curled up next to the fire.
Next to appear was Jhi, and she sat next to Meilin's chair and nuzzled her face into Meilin's shoulder.
Essix appeared with a loud shriek and landed on Rollan's shoulder. He smiled, "this is the best winter solstice I've ever had." He said, "even if we are only up here because Abeke got too cold."