[spookies] Snowy story by the ocean~

On this evening of the Lunisolar festival the sky was painted purple. The moon had already begun to rise, and the sound of crickets became much more audible. Yara, Silvia and three village children sat on the porch, illuminated by a single candle standing in the middle of the table. A good time for a spooky story, isn’t it?

“Okay little ones, is everyone ready for a story?” Yara asked with obvious excitement in her voice, and after everyone replied with a “Yes!” and went quiet, she said “Then let’s begin!”.

A light ocean breeze blew and it seemed that it would extinguish the candle, but it didn’t.

“Have you ever heard about the ghost of the Arctic region?” Yara begun, “Well. Once upon a time there was a boy who wanted to climb the highest snowy mountain and observe the whole Capricorn-13. He was always attracted to that idea, but his parents and siblings did not allow him to go there. They were saying that it was too dangerous and cold, and that even his arctic fur won’t save him from the snowstorms and snowslips… That the snow winds there were so strong that they would blow him away in an instant! And the boy listened to them and did not dare to go there.”

Suddenly her story was interrupted by Silvia. It looks like she wanted to tell her own plot line, Yara didn’t really mind that.

“No, nor true! The boy was too naughty to listen.” Silvia continued with a smirk on her face, “One day on his way home he saw a strange silhouette. He noticed it with a corner of his eye, but the silhouette quickly disappeared with the wind. It peaked his interest, but there was a snowstorm that day, so the boy decided to get home as quickly as possible before it got worse. ‘What could it be..?’ – the boy kept wondering. Once he came home he told his mother about the silhouette he saw. She scolded him for to lingering in the middle of a snowstorm starting, but decided to tell him a legend about The Snow Ghost.”

Silvia then looked at Yara desperately, as if saying: ‘Please help me, I haven’t thought of the rest part yet’, so Yara continued for her dear friend.

“The mother told the boy that lately a scary ghost wanders around the village. People say that it is a soul of one of the founders of the village, whose days ended a couple of centuries ago. But none of the current villages have seen him before, his ghost appeared not long ago and out of nowhere. That ghost was scaring the villagers for several days already.” Yara said.

“But why did he appear all of a sudden? Strange… ” one of the 3 children asked, sitting on Silvia’s lap.

“Hmm maybe he was mad at something?” the second child asked.

“Good guess.” Yara said, “If you’re right, then it’s robably because the harvest was poor that summer.”

“Yeah! Or maybe the residents just started looking after the village less well.” Silvia added.

“But the boy’s interest increased after what his mom told him, even after she said that he must not follow the ghost. Some time passed, and the boy saw the ghost again. It hapoened when he looked out of the window and saw the silhouette outside standing by a nearby tree. But this time he decided to come closer. The boy quickly got out of his house and quietly approached the ghost. But once he got close enough the ghost began to walk away. But the boy didn’t stop. The ghost walked into the mountains, and the boy followed it. He thought it was a good idea, because he always wanted to go to the mountains, and he believed that the ghost would probably lead him to the very top.” Yara said, but got interrupted by Silvia again.

“An hour passed, and the boy started freezing and slowing down. He got so tiredband cold that he decided to call out to the ghost, because what if it didn't even know that he was following it? Then, the boy shouted its name so loud, that a strange noise was heard in the mountains, and the ground got a bit shaky. The ghost turned around to look at the boy… Its eyes were red, and it seemed really angry at the boy for following it so far. It started approaching him with a growl!”

“Ohhh…” The quietest child whined, expressing her fear, so Yara picked her up and patted her head.

“Shh… It’s fine, don’t be scared. You still don’t know what happened next.” Yara said with a gentle voice.

Meanwhile the look on Silvia’s face was a bit guilty. She realised that she might have told too much that she scared a child, so she let her friend continue the story for her.

“But suddenly,” Yara said “The ground seemed to shake even more. The boy looked up a mountain and saw a snow avalanche coming down the to him. He got so scared that he wanted to run away, but he was too cold and too weak to do something but just stay still and look at the coming avalanche. He was ready to accept his fate and sighed but then the scary ghost suddenly took him by the hand. And although the ghost's hand was not tangible, the boy's body got suddenly filled with warmth and energy. That energy made the boy stand up from the snow. Then, the ghost started leading him away from the avalanche, then brought him back to his house. The boy wanted to thank the ghost but it disappeared in a blink of an eye, he didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye. Upon entering the house, he met his mother that was so worried for him. She asked him: ‘Where were you!? Why so late?’ but the boy just said that he went outside to play with his friends and forgot about time. He was too tired to stay awake, so the boy went straight to bed without even asking his mother to read him a bedtime story. The boy fell asleep really fast, and he dreamed that he finally climbed to the top of that mountain and saw the entire Capricorn-13… After that day the ghost stopped haunting the village and left forever, and when the boy grew up he became a mountain climber. He fulfilled his childhood dream, and not only climed up the highest mountain, but every mountain of our continent!... The end.” Yara finally ended the story with a small smile on her face.

“That’s so impressive! I want to climb a mountain too!” One of the little Symprites said.

“Bet! We can try tomo…” Silvia laughed but got her mouth closed by Yara.

“Shush.” Yara said “Once you get a little older you can try. As for now, just enjoy the flat ground, the sand and the ocean.” She sighed, “I hope none of you are naughty enough to go somewhere far away without your parents’ permission, okay?”

“Yes aunt Yara!” all three of the kids said.

The smallest child, who was the most frightened by the story, said “I will never go to the arctic region, it must be too cold for me there!”

Then, Yara chuckled “It is indeed pretty cold there, especially for us. We’re Oceans, so you’ll certainly need a warm coat to walk around in the snow.” She smiled and patted the child’s head again.

“Who’s ‘we’?” Silvia raised her eyebrow. “I’m a Swamp!”

“It still won’t help you much in the snowy enviroment, Silvia. Both Swamps and Oceans don’t have a natural warm coat to feel comfortable in the frost unlike Arctics.” Yara shaked her head slowly. Of course she knew that Silvia is aware of that, she just made an explanation for the children.

Even though Yara has never visited the snowy region herself, she had a friend from there who shared a lot of stories about that place with her. She was about to tell a couple of them to the children, but...

“Time for bed!” Suddenly a female voice was heard from a nearby house. It was the mother of the three children calling them for bed because it was getting a little late.

“Aaa it must be your mom?” Silvia asked the kids.

“Mommy!” The younget child said.

After Silvia and Yara walked the children into the house, they returned back to the porch to chat some more. The sky was fully dark, and the stars could be seen all around. Nothing could interrupt their night conversation.

“Good job Silvia. Though, I think you went a little overboard with that part of the story where the ghost approached the boy.” Yara said.

“Ohh come on! Without my help it wouldn’t sound like a spooky story. More like the moralizing stories you always tell the children. This time at least I tried…”

“Yeah, I understand. But you have to be more careful unless you want a judging look from their mother if the child tells her about you, ha-ha. Watch the gestures of children. While they are little, you can tell from their faces if they are feeling scared or not.”

“Aaa you always have your way with children! Okay, I might try next time.” Silvia sighed and took a candy out of a trick-or-treat basket.

After staying there for a while, it was time to say goodbye for today. It seemed like it was almost midnight: time for bed even for the adults.

“We had a great time today and I am so thankful for that! I’m happy to have a friend like you, Silvia. We’re meeting tomorrow on the exact same place, right?” Yara asked while yawning, then blew out the candle.

Silvia yawned too, “Mhm, see ya tomorrow! Happy to spend this day with you. Lunisolar festival is my favorite holiday!”

And after a warm hug they went the opposite ways to their houses with the sound of the ocean breeze.