Fanfiction: Winter Holiday by kycse

December 2010 Fanfiction Contest Winner

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Winter Holiday – by kycse

It is winter right now on this continent. It is freezing cold and snowing.

You might wonder why, because if there is a weather god, he shouldn’t be able to use his powers on the continent! Let me explain it to you.

The Contract of the Gods fortunately has several subclauses. As everyone knows, the gods are not allowed to use their powers directly on the continent. There are some cases however, that bypass that general rule. One of those is the rules about the weather.

You can easily understand why. If no god would determine the weather, our continent – our world actually – would vanish in the void. In order to avoid that, some gods still have to use their powers directly. However, if one God alone would be in charge of the weather, it would be unfair right? That’s why we have seasons.

The beginning of winter is determined by the harvest. And it ended just three days ago, which means winter started three days ago as well.

But why, why is it so damn freezing cold? Where is the period in which we usually get to get accustomed to the cold weather?

You might want to ask now, “You are the Sun Knight! If “Sun” is your name, shouldn’t you be able to use some spells to warm yourself?”

The answer is: NO, I can’t cast any such spells. The name “Sun” was just bestowed upon the “Sun Knight” in order to get a warm feeling to our believers across. My teacher once told me that it should have been “Light Knight” originally, but apparently, the believers thought the Light Knight was the incarnation of the God of Light himself, able to perform miracles. Since he received only a fraction of the divinity of the God of Light, he wasn’t able to do so and disappointed them. Therefore he was renamed into the “Sun Knight”.

Might that be the reason why I have to be fair-skinned? After all, isn’t total bright light, white?

At any rate, due to the weather I got one holiday today. Great if you think about it…

However, thanks to a certain corpse, I am outside right now, building a snow man! Just because she lost her sense of touch and can’t feel the cold, she doesn’t have to drag me out of my warm room to have some fun. Can’t she just play with one of her corpses? Besides, why did she want to build a snowman family?

Suddenly I heard a young girl’s voice behind me, “Sun, playing with corpses is fun, but having your company is still far more fun.”

“How did you– …I guess it’s obvious what I was thinking.” I muttered in a small voice.

“Exactly. I have to know what my apprentice thinks after all,” said Pink enthusiastically, while gathering snow to build a new snowman. “Sun, come over and help me.”

Grumpy I went over to her to help her rolling the snow ball. The moment I started to push the ball, Pink started to hum happily.

The ball slowly increased in size, and when it was nearly as big as Pink was, Pink asked me “Sun, if you are that cold, I might find something in my house that’ll keep you warm.” She started giggling halfway through her sentence, leaving me a premonition of a very catastrophic fate.

“No thanks, I’ll keep myself warm by building snowmen.” You probably think this is irony, but no it’s not. It’s so cold, that you feel warmer by building snowmen! Plus, if I were to accept Pink’s “something”, this might turn into a catastrophe. And I would have to pay her back, probably. During the years I’ve known her, I learned never to accept something from her.

This reminds me of the day my teacher introduced her to me.

“Teacher, where are we? Isn’t the Sun Knight supposed to walk in the Light and not sneak through alleyways?”

“Do you remember the day I gave you the card of a necromancer?”

“Yes, you said I should go to her when I feel stressed.”

“Indeed, and you have been stressed during the last few days, so I asked her whether you have visited her or not.”

“I didn’t visit her, because I think I shouldn’t. I can keep up with the stress.”

“Because you think like that I dragged you out here today. I had her to create an undead creature for you. I told you to relieve yourself of your stress, but you didn’t, that’s why I’ll force you to.”

“But…”

“No buts, we’ve arrived. Oh, and before you meet her, I’ll give you one warning. She might act nice, but don’t take that for granted. Especially if she wants something from you, never play into her hand.”

“…”

In the end I didn’t heed my teachers warning, but I told you that already. However that day I learned that thrashing undead creatures to your heart contents is the best way to relieve stress. It’s so addicting, I could do it the whole day. As long no one watches of course.

During my reminiscing we finished the snowman. This was the third one, and now the family was complete. This should satisfy her.

Pink ran around the family, smiling like a little kid. She looks as if she’s gotten a lollipop… Did she want to build them that badly?

“You’ve got your family there and had your fun, but I’m freezing to death. Can I go back now?” I asked with clattering teeth. Unfortunately, I still have to be kind of polite to her… Who knows what she’ll do to me if I’m not. Don’t misunderstand; I don’t call her corpse solely out of disrespect. After all she really is a corpse, and it’s one of her real nicknames…

“If you want to, you can go back now. However I’ll prophesize that you’ll be back soon enough,” Pink said with a knowing smile. But since I was nearly frozen to the bone, I ignored that and ran – no, walked graciously fast – back to the church. Later I noticed that I could have run the whole way, since I couldn’t see a single soul on the street because of the cold.

Arriving at the Holy Church, I saw several knights of Judge’s squad getting ready for something. Walking while keeping my gaze on their preparations, I wondered, Where is Judge going? Suddenly a felt a force pressing against my chest and turned my head around to see Judge in front of me, stopping my advance with his hand.

“Sun Knight Captain, the harsh God of Light always watches carefully in one direction, in order not to miss any criminal.” In other words he wanted me to be careful not to walk into anyone.

I told Judge, “May this be a teaching for Sun from the benevolent God of Light. But Sun wonders where my brothers may head off to with all those preparations.”, to confirm that I’ll be careful next time and ask where he was going.

“Ice Knight Captain thinks that the unnatural weather originates from a place in this town. Apparently it’s even colder at that place than it is here. The God of Light sends me to find out why the weather is like this and, if possible, to get it back to normal.”

“And where is that place, where the God of Light’s light does not reach?”

“The God of Light told me it is in a run-down street in the poorer district of the City.”

Why is Judge using our secret phrase to mention Pink? I immediately remembered that when I was dragged to Pink’s house, it had become even colder. Could it be…

“Judgment Knight Captain, please excuse me, for the God of Light calls out to me. There is a certain wish of the God of Light, which needs immediate attention,” I answered hurriedly with a worried expression.

“May the God of Light not hinder your way in the search of the criminal.”

Telling me I have to hurry and to confirm whether Pink really is the culprit, Judge turned around and inspected his knight’s preparations. Thanks Judge, I’ll hurry. And with that, I started running back towards Pink’s house.

Upon my arrival, I found Pink wearing a knowing smile. Running towards her, I shouted, “What did you do this time Corpse?! Isn’t it enough to pester me? Do you want to pester the whole town now?”

Pink suddenly pouted and answered “I did nothing to cause this. You are so mean, Sun! I will try to return the weather to normal, so help me build an igloo!”

Stunned that Pink was actually doing something for the good of the city – is it just the city? – I walked over and helped her to build an igloo. Pink might be a corpse and is mischievous, but she would never lie to me.

“You’ll explain this to me when it’s over!” I said to her while we were building an igloo. Pink however didn’t answer and just silently continued to build the igloo.

After this we held a snowball match and went into the igloo for a while. When I looked outside and muttered “It seems to be getting warmer. The snow on the roof of the houses is starting to slowly melt a bit.”

Pink heard my muttering said, “Good, seems like we’ve appeased him.” And then she crawled out of the igloo.

I followed her through the igloo’s entrance, asking “Whom did we appease?”

Pink turned around and answered, “The God of Ice of course. The other gods who reign over the weather together with him are more revered than he is. Especially the Sun God, since most people love the warm weather. So he grew lonely.”

Shocked with my mouth hanging open I asked, “Gods can be lonely?”

Pink continued to explain. “The Ice God is responsible for snow, ice, and, together with the Sun God, for the temperature. However very few people appreciate his blessing and the rest forget.”

Isn’t that obvious? We would freeze to death!

“Gods can’t be measured by our standards, but they have the same emotions we have. They try to satisfy people by gathering believers and trying to do something for them.” further elaborated Pink.

“What the… Aren’t gods immortal and nearly almighty? Isn’t that a grand life? Why would they be lonely? And what’s with that doing something for their believers?” I muttered with a shocked expression on my face.

Do you really want to tell me that I, who has to wear a smile every day, has to forgive any criminal, has to have a certain appearance, and, above all, isn’t allowed to complain about anything, has to endure the whims of a god, because he suffers from loneliness? My whole holiday was wasted just because of that? If I were to meet him right now, I would, despite his immortality, kill him and take his damn place! I’m angry enough to try that.

Pink whispered to herself just barely audible with a little sad looking expression, “You might think being a god is something you would enjoy, but essentially you are alone your whole eternal life and have to watch the fate of your believers. It is a cruel destiny.”

I wondered how Pink knows all that about gods, so I asked. “Are you a god yourself, or why do you know all that stuff about them?” A sudden gust of wind blew and I shivered.

Pink noticed that and suggested, “Let’s go inside first and have some hot tea to drink.”, and then started walking into her house

I nodded to myself and followed her. I was tired after this long day after all. I sat myself down on a chair. Pink carried two teacups gave me one. I took a sip and suddenly remembered Damn…I forgot to…never to accept some—

Pink looking at the sleeping Sun said, “I might tell you when you’ve become my apprentice, but as long as you are not, I won’t tell you.”

I woke up in an unfamiliar pink room and wondered where I was. After a few seconds, I realized that I was in Pink’s house. And I identified the familiar looking guy who sat on the chair near the bed as Judge.

What is he doing here? I told him once where Pink lives, but I never expected him to ever come here.

Judge, who noticed that Sun had woken up, rose from the chair he was sitting in and said with a very calm and cold voice, “Before I came here, the weather normalized. So I sent my knights back to the church and went to search for you. I found you here sleeping soundly. But since you’ve woken up, come back to the church with me. There is work for you to do; your holiday is over. And explain me sometime later what happened.”

Still being in an half asleep state, I asked myself, “Didn’t I have a holiday today?”

Judge looked strangely at me and answered “You had one yesterday, so come.”

Hmm… I can’t remember having one. That’s strange. I’ll probably remember when I’m more awake.

Without giving it any further thought I followed Judge outside. After we’d walked a little distance away from the house in silence, I stopped suddenly, turned my head around to watch in the direction of Pink’s house, and thought I feel like I’m forgetting something, but I just can’t seem to grasp it. It was probably nothing important then. Forgetting something isn’t uncommon when Pink is involved…

I turned around and looked at Judge. I started to ask him, “What does the Pope want this time?”, I noticed that we had already reached a street full of people – When did it get warm enough for people to go out? It was probably overnight… – so I asked instead, “Which wish of the benevolent God of Light can I fulfill today?”

And thus I forgot the “holiday” I got and spent the next 3 months working without a break.