Chapter 257 The End Of Winter.
Most people did not see the last snowflakes, because they were sleeping but Scarlet did because she was wide awake and capturing two soul eaters that had been hovering close to the temple but not daring to head inside to feast on the souls which followed the light emitted by the soul attraction stone.
After capturing the soul eaters, she sat on the roof of the castle, close to highest tip from where images of fallen mecha warriors were projected and she looked over small the city with a smile on her face.
"I did this." She thought, with pride. Even though she did not build the buildings with her own hands, she contributed resources. Sitting next to her was Severus, in puppy form licking his paws.
She rubbed his head and he brought it closer, behaving like an ordinary dog. She laughed softly and carried him on to her laps and they watched the last bits of thin snow falling and then stop.
The chill in the air remained, but she reckoned that it would be dispelled in a day or two.
She waved at the sky, bidding goodbye to the snow and then looked at the bright twinkling christmas lights on the roof or wall of almost every building and she realized that she would never celebrate a snowy Christmas ever again. It was not the first time she was having this thought, but watching the snow dwindle emphasized this fact on this night. How sad!!
"You know what Severus, I think I just might miss the winter." She said.
"I won\'t." Her soul pet responded. "I enjoy playing in the lake and mud ponds with the children. I also love hunting which we can only do when the sun is out and bright. Among the world\'s I have seen, this one might rank third on those with the worst seasons, winter especially."
She looked at the hound and asked, "And how many worlds have you seen?"
"Three thousand sixty eight." He said.
That number was quite specific, so, she asked, "Do you keep count?"
"Yes, I keep count and I keep pictures."
"Those are too many worlds." She said one of her thoughts on this out loud.
"There are too many deities." Severus replied.
Scarlet looked up at the sky, and she wondered where all those worlds were right now and what they looked like. Were some primitive and others modern? Did they have worlds were animals talked or giants lived?
Where there worlds with only one gender and there were no female or male specifications?
Could there be worlds were only souls lived or only mutated beasts and animals with no humans? Or maybe elves, orcs or half human-half animal beings?
Three thousand sixty eight worlds were too many, anything was possible.
"How many worlds are there?" She asked him.
"Too many." The hound answered. "The sun and the moon rotate, seasons change and in every cycle some worlds die and others are born. The deities don\'t stop, which is why we are immortal, because they never stop creating."
She laid back against the roof and looked at the dark sky, and the pale moon which was not very big but somehow was casting it\'s soft pale light on every inch of the planet.
Scarlet raised her hand to her face and covered one of her eyes, the moon stayed the same, not diminishing or enlarging and she giggled like a silly fool.
"What are you doing?\' Severus asked her.
"Something my younger brother always did, he would try to see if the moon became smaller if you could only see it with one eye. It\'s stupid, right?" She scratched Severus\'s ear vigorously.
"Hmmm." Severus answered.
She sighed, the hound Severus was enjoying the scratches and she would get nothing coherent from him at the moment. She closed her eyes, and decided that on this night which seemed mournful, perhaps a drink and some music could be good to accompany the fading winter.
She took the iPod which she brought from her earth out, and inserted air pods in her ears. Then, she brought out some spirit lotus wine which she stole from Lythia from the storage bracelet as well. It was not theft if the owner forgot it and never asked for it.
"Do you want some?" she asked Severus.
"Spirit wine, yes please." The hound got off her body and sat down next to her. "Play your music loudly, don\'t worry about anybody hearing it, I can cast a sound barrier."
Even though he said he was grateful to see the winter end, there was something sad in the air tonight, and he felt it as much as she did.
She did as Severus asked, playing slow mournful music and singing along.
"The wind was mourning in the night, the fire was red...." Scarlet sung with her eyes closed, and she moved her body slowly.
Severus added a howl to the singing, it was loud and sad and it was heard over many miles. It travelled all the way to the Yellow star, and captured the attention of Ramslin who came over in a hurry.
He sighed in relief when he saw that the hound and it\'s master were doing okay, they were simply drinking lotus wine which he could smell all the way from he stood in the sky. He wondered if these two knew that spirit lotus wine amplified the emotions of the drinker, whatever they were feeling sad about, the wine intensified the feeling.
And why was the hound howling as if it\'s reaper was gone?
"Fools." Ramslin\'s spirit pet looked at Scarlet and Severus disdainfully before Ramslin blinked back to his home.
Theirs was the the only attention to be drawn, because even the spirit animals came out of the castle and took a look outside, wondering what the fuss was all about.
Their was a mixture of meowls and barks which drew the attention of the castle guards, waking up those who were sensitive sleepers.
"What is wrong with them?"
"I am trying to sleep."
"Someone tell them to keep it down."
"Did something happen?"
"They are drunk, they are drinking concentrated lotus wine, I can smell it all the way below here."
The humans could not understand the language of the animals so they simply searched castle grounds for what was exciting the animals and they found nothing, they shooed them back inside forcefully.
Mega Su was one of the light sleepers who was woken up because of the fuss and she looked outside her window and sighed.
"Honey, come back to bed, you have been standing their for over five minutes." Her husband called out from where he was laying in the bed.
She sighed again.
"What\'s wrong?" Her husband joined her at the window and his eyes lit up when he noticed that the snow was gone. "It\'s over, winter is finally over. We should be celebrating, why are you sad?"
"I don\'t know, I just feel_, weird." she said. "As if I want to cry but I have nothing to cry over." She could feel something stuffed in her chest and her throat that was eager to escape in the form of tears.
Her husband simply hugged her from the back and comforted her without saying a single word.
In the temple, monk Fion who was more attuned to spirituality and blessed by the old deity heard the howl. Other monks too arose, very sleepless because there was something restless in the air.
"Let\'s pray for the souls of the dead.\' Monk Fion told them.