There weren’t many other fairies out at this time. At the most, if I recall correctly there were two others like me. Because for every landscape within the woods, there were three winter fairies, therefore it was the loneliest time of year. As for the fall, there were thousands; they created the falling leaves in the wind, one leaf for each fairy. In the summer there were lots as well, they caused the raindrops from thunderstorms crashing to the ground. In the spring, the millions of fairies drove the emersion of the spring flower blossoms. Yet in the winter, there were only three, they were known as Snow, Ice and a third fairy that would rather not give her name. I was the Ice Fairy, and I hadn’t seen my sisters since ridding the landscape of all of the fall fairies. The fairies that represented the seasons were doomed to death as soon as the turn of the seasons rolled around. Though I tried to ignore this, life was literally too short for me to worry. Though the over-looming fact that I would have to die always stood over me, as though the thought was captured in the trees. Of course, there were fairies that lived forever, such as the Sun Fairies and the Air Fairies. Every fairy that ever existed carried a wand, it did not matter if they were immortal or not.
I didn’t mind how lonesome the winter landscape could get; all considered I enjoyed being alone quite a lot. Being the Ice Fairy meant being cold to others, it meant being sharp and hard, just like the substance of which I was named. Even my façade was sharp. My ever-growing hair I cut messily with a blade of ice, giving it an unruly appearance. My wings looked as though they were built ramshackle with shards of ice. Even my face was pale, with pale skin, a pointed chin and ice blue eyes.
No one could bother me as I watched the snow fall silently to the ground, in the darkest hours of night. Though night made it easy to wander around as I pleased, without being noticed by passing humans, day was not too difficult either. During the day, without the leaves on the trees, light made it to the ground and reflect off the ice and snow laced across the landscape, the light was disorienting to others it allowed me to navigate as I pleased. And during the snow, my visage was so pale I could also meander as I pleased.
One day, as I walked through the frozen woods, sun high in the sky framed by ice blue and clouds starting to roll over its face. Over my shoulder I heard a slight giggle, but not a cold one like the other winter fairies would produce. A warm giggle… I turned sharply, wondering what may have created such a noise. I started towards the sound, but was stopped in my tracks as a few flakes of snow had started to fall. Overjoyed, I spiraled into the air and danced among the frosted trees and falling snow.
The snow didn’t last long, which was disappointing, because I hadn’t seen snow fall in quite some time. The flurries quickly slowed to nothing, the air hung empty again. I flew over and sat on a fir tree branch, I decided not to lose hope; I stared up at the sky, waiting for the clouds to open up again, so they could douse the air in snow. Yet they went against me and eventually cleared, showing me ink blue sky and a moon surrounded my millions of twinkling stars. My eyes started to flutter shut; I brushed off the snow on the branch, placed my wand down on the branch, lay down and fell asleep.

The next morning, I woke to find that the snow had not started falling again, instead a thin sheet of ice crystallized everything in sight, suggesting it had rained as I slept. But it seemed just barely cold enough to freeze the rain. Worse, I heard the babbling of running water. I felt a pang in my chest, and sprang up from my resting place. This motion caused some snow to fall, and as I watched it reach the ground, I saw that several thin shoots of grass were sticking out of the snow. My heart started pounding so heavily in my chest. Though try as I did, I could not control my nerves, the end of me had finally arrived. There could be hope though… If I warned the other winter fairies, perhaps we could travel north. Up north, winter lasted forever.
I sprang up as much as my spindly legs would allow and took to the uncomfortably torrid air.
As I soared I kept my eyes peeled for the other fairies. Though looking for a perfectly white fairy amongst a landscape of white sparkling snow would be nearly impossible.
I clamped my hand at my eyebrows to search for my companions. Though my efforts seemed to be in vain because there was no sign of them anywhere. I kept my eyes pointed directly towards the ground as I scanned to find them.
Suddenly I collided with something in the air, and I was too high up for it to be a tree. I had a horrifying thought that it was a bird. Birds would only come here if it were warm enough. I slowly looked up, but what looked back at me wasn’t a bird; she was in fact who I had been looking for the whole time.
She was the Snow Fairy. Her hair and pale like mine, but something about her was much softer then what I was. Her wings were not jagged and icy looking but mine, but round and looked as though they were fixed out of woven snow. Our eyes were different too; hers a much lighter blue then mine. Her hair looked as though she allowed it to grow to the extent it pleased. On her neat white hair she wore a tiara with visible snowflakes adorning it. She was just as I remembered.
“What should we do?” she asked in a voice much softer than mine. “The snow is melting, we don’t have much time.” She spoke with a soft quality, very quiet and malleable, just like the snow she created. But it still had a cold quality to it.
“Should we try and travel north once we find our third sister?” I asked in my cold sharp voice.
“We don’t have much time,” she whispered, obviously scared of me. “We need to leave now or we’ll never make it”
“Why don’t we look around the forest once, and if we don’t find her we can leave?” I suggested, in the kindest voice I could muster.
Once she agreed we took to the skies. But we didn’t end up circling the forest once, not twice, but three times before we flew down and landed on an exposed tree stump to rest. The Third Winter Fairy was nowhere to be found. To our astonishment we could no longer see our breath because the temperature was rising so quickly.
Suddenly a giggle rang our from behind a tree, the same giggle I had heard the evening before. The Snow Fairy and I sprang up our wands out. More and more giggles surrounded us, and one brightly colored fairy came out from behind one of the trees. She was plumper then we were, with a rounder, kinder face. Her wings looked as though they were made of petals, and she had long brown curly hair with a crown made of braided grass sitting atop those curls. She too had her wand out stretched but it wasn’t black like the ones my sister and I had, but light brown with a thin vine twirling up the whole thing. Her dress was pink, as though she had taken all the pink from the flowers last year and sewn them onto her dress. And underneath where she hovered, the snow melted away and the grass changed from dead to green. She was a Spring Fairy, no doubt.
After her, came another, than another until five stood all around us. They all had the same sweet expression, but I wasn’t dumb enough to fall for the sweet facades, I knew why they were here, as well as their intentions.
“Where’s our sister?” Asked the Snow Fairy in a voice ore demanding than I ever thought could escape her lips. Though she too seemed shocked at her sudden arousal of bravery, and immediately shrunk back and silenced herself.
They all stared with vacant expressions painted on their sweet faces. “We thought there were only two of you,” said one with black hair and a shocking yellow outfit.
“No there’s another,” I choked out. “But we mean you no harm, if you let us go, we will head north where winter is forever. I, the Snow Fairy and our sister will never be seen by you again.”
“That won’t do,” said one with wavy blonde hair and a lilac dress that looked like velvet. “Up north, there are many Winter Fairies. I know you’re planning to take them all down here to defeat us Spring Fairies, you can’t fool me.” At these harsh words the Snow Fairy recoiled even more then she had before, just as snow would.
“No, I promise that’s not true,” I answered. “Why would we leave a land of our sisters to come back to a place where winter is only a quarter of the year?”
“To make this place winter forever as well!” interjected one of the Spring Fairies, who was blonde and in a white outfit.
“Quiet dear breeze,” said one with black hair and a blue and pink dress. “I’m sure that is not their intention.” My sister and I exhaled as our expressions turned from horror to ease, we were going to live. “However,” she added in a wicked voice. “Who are we to change an ancient tradition of ridding this area of the season before it? We don’t know what the consequences of letting the Winter Fairies live may be. Perhaps the season will not fully change. Therefore we should just go through with what millions have done before us, including these two. Don’t forget, they slaughtered the Fall Fairies.” Though she melted snow like the others, she looked different. Less pronounced. I wasn’t sure why but she stood out, her pale eyes mostly. She articulated herself as though she believed she was above the intelligence of the other Spring Fairies, as if she was secure in what she was saying.
Our faces turned back to shock at these words. We weren’t going to make it. I assumed we had no choice but to accept our fate as the spring fairies flew ever closer and closer to us.
The closer they got, the warmer it got. They all soon drew their wands and began chanting things that went with the spring season; such as “grass, warmth, life, flowers.” And with every word I felt my power draining. I soon dropped my wand and fell to the ground. The Snow Fairy did the same, and we both lay there in agony.
Soon we were close to unconscious, the spring fairies took our wands and snapped them in half. At that I lost consciousness.

It was night when I awoke. I was shocked. I thought that was the end. Maybe the death of seasons was a lie. Maybe, all fairies were immortal including the fairies of the seasons, even the Fall Fairies that we had ridded.
Though I didn’t feel like a fairy anymore. I reached and touched my back and my wings were the size of a dragonflies, not a sparrows. I looked over to my sisters, and she was the same way. The spring fairies had simply taken our powers, not killed us.
“Snow, Snow, wakeup,” I said.
“I am awake,” she mumbled. “Look around though, nothings the same.”
She was right, most of the snow had gone, moss and grass hang sprung up, and some of the trees even sported buds. And I could hear the cries of birds and frogs. A fog hung over the remaining snow. The temperature was nearly unbearable, and dampness had replaced the dry of winter. The babbling of running water was prominent instead of simple background noise. I could even smell the fragrance of flowers and hear the footsteps of large animals.
Suddenly a hush came over the forest. All the noise stopped. The Snow Fairy and I sprang up. From behind a tree, came a fairy that looked like our lost sister.
She was larger than us though, with a pointed face and white eyes without pupils. Her face was wicked, and to me she looked like a half formed idea. Though where she stepped little bits of ice and snow did come.
“Quiet,” she whispered, when I tried to scream in protest as harsh ice would do, my jaw seemed to be cemented shut. I panicked, what type of fairy would use such magic against a sister of seasons. I turned to the Snow Fairy, and she was shaking and tears were streaking her face.
She withdrew her wand, it was black, but had thorns around it was what looked like a crow feather attached to it as well. I had never seen a wand that sinister before.
“Me videant,” she whispered. It sounded like one of the ancient spells, one you only heard from those who practiced the old ways, like the everlasting sun fairies. Suddenly she was changing, her face became more wicked, her hair darkening as well as her clothes. Her white wings changed to that of a bat. Her face looked older too, but wiser. Her eyes stayed the same, evil looking white.

Ice ran up my spine, my instincts told me to run but I couldn’t. The Snow Fairy was now in desperation, and making hideous sobbing noises.

The dark fairy smirked and raised her wand again. “Don’t move,” she instructed. We obeyed. “Good,” she continued. “Before I kill you both I suppose you deserve an explanation. I am not your sister fairy but the Death Fairy, Mortem. After the Spring Fairies stripped you of your powers I am actually able to kill you. Just as I have done to the Fall Fairies you helped me with, and all other fairies of the seasons before. I posed as your third sister to go unnoticed. It’s worked ten-thousand times, and you’re just as gullible.”

I felt my jaw fall to the forest floor. Her face screwed up wickedly.

“That is all,” she said simply. “Moraintur,” she said as she flicked her wand with the same banality as she had spoken with before. As if it we’re nothing.

At that spell felt as though a hand had clamped around my chest. My breath became shallow and labored and progressively so. I heard coughing and sputtering from myself and from the Snow Fairy who was taking the curse as though she thought it was inevitable.

“Ver,” stated the death fairy and she began to change into a colorful impersonation of the Spring Fairies. I recognized her as the spring fairy that had urged the others to do us in. The black haired fairy with the blue and pink dress soon appeared before me. But the eyes remained white and soulless just as they were before.

As I took my dying breath my feeling of betrayal grew. Two sisters were left to die, while one killed them both. The fairy that they had stayed behind to save from the fate they were now suffering. However, I found solace in the cold fact that the Spring Fairies that had lead to our demise would suffer the same fate and betrayal as we had. Death would always win, for death will always exist, until the end of all life.

And with that winter ended.