3,000 Years

Loyalty

A/N: A weird winter piece of mine

.....

It was cold that night. Very cold.

The winter frost had rained down in white sparkles, thick and shiny in the inky atmosphere of the night sky. Not a single life form had been spared from the merciless verglas, moss and stone turning out to be futile defenses against this naturally cruel enemy. Trees had been dotted with freshly powdered snow; grass had been frozen into muddy chunks of blended emerald blades and gritty rock-hard dirt; even the stones of caves had formed sharpened icicles, their forms covered in the gelid webbing of the winter season.

But all of this only juxtaposed the dazzling sky above, spiraling clouds of steamed breath floating to join it. Sparkling stars blazed as white-hot dots, their light penetrating the darkness of the moth-eaten sky and illuminating the misty world below. All was clear, the grey and dreary clouds of the winter day and morning long erased by the calming fingers of the night. Even the chill had died down a little, the dark blue sky allowing the draft of the morning to fade into a nipping bite.

A single goddess walked along the empty roads of a village, her pink jacket wrapped closely to her round frame as her boots clicked against the worn cobblestones. Her porcelain skin was flushed from contact with the chilly air, her nose reddened by the bite of Jack Frost. Her silver hair fanned out behind her, bouncing with every step as she hurried along the darkened roads. It was only her wings that blended within the drafty night air, their pure white feathers melding perfectly with the milky snow.

Each footstep echoed upon the empty stretches of road, her blue eyes scanning the surrounding buildings, but ultimately failing at spotting anyone inside. They were too merry with the season to care to look out and spot the lone goddess; they were all too drunk with fullness and actual intoxication to wonder where this lone angel may be wandering to on such a cold and clear night.

But the goddess didn't mind it. She didn't heed it.

It was better to not be seen anyway.

The goddess walked towards the sanctuary of evergreens that sprouted thicker the further away from town she got. They towered tall and prominent, their darkened pine needles covered in a fine dust of white. Their thick boughs and trunks were dark in the winter gloom, the prickly patterning of their bark being a weird sensation for the goddess to brush upon on such an eerie and silent night. Some branches even tried to grab upon her, the flimsy limbs snapping when she had trekked further away.

A thin path meandered through the grove of trees, well trod on and owning several tracks. The milky snow had been ploughed towards the sides, the gleaming flakes now turned into a sludgy and muddy mess. The muddy piles were pushed right towards the thicket, clearing the way for any visitors and leaving plenty of room for wider vehicles or other modes of transportation.

However despite the bitter coldness and eeriness of the setting, the goddess couldn't feel scared. She had used this path many times, had trekked upon it whether rain or shine, to get to the stately home hidden within the overgrown trees and thickets to feel scared.

It didn't take too long to reach the curling iron gates up front. They were quite simple in design, owning the usual features of an iron gate, but had been changed by the winter season. Specks of white power were settled on the top, causing the black paint to stand out more. The gates were a modern addition, a request by the son of the latest owner of the grounds. It was so they didn't have to walk all the way to the boundaries of the grounds to let visitors in. It also kept unwanted people out.

A brick wall surrounded the house and its gardens, dark and formidable by nature. There were stone gargoyles and spikes at intervals, the Victorian Gothic influence not at all hidden to any passersby. Some of the statues had grotesque and quite abstract faces, while others portrayed local folklore. It was apparently a tradition for each new heir to add a statue onto the wall - whatever that was supposed to symbolize.