Winter's Storm

His name was Winter. It was his job to put life in its slumber so that it could awake refreshed when Spring came.

His cold touch was always enough, but today, he was so cold that he burned with some unfulfilled desire, he wanted to go further.

"Maple..." He whispered, his breath a chilled breeze in the wind.

A beauty with hair deep red and amber and rich skin turned at his voice.

"Winter, I always look forward to seeing you..." she started, but stopped. Looking into his eyes she could see he was unstable, a calm grey surrounded by the harshest storm.

"Winter?" She asked slowly backing away.

"I..." He fought with his conscience. But he was frustrated and lonely being as cold as he was.

His lust won and so he revealed his icy smile and reached out with his frozen glass fingers. At his touch, all the liquid in her veins froze. Her skin hardened, croaked as she bent to try and get away, but soon she was too petrified to move. Even if she could move, she wouldn't have been able to. Winter began to wrap his chilling self around her, squeezing her tightly. He brushed his lips on hers and they turned to ice. He felt her skin underneath her leafy cloak solidifying her body. But he wanted more, his breath was fast, he was excited. So he inserted himself into her. With a scream into the wind, her whole body shattered into a thousand pieces of cold ice, he had broken her.

With more anger and frustration than ever before, he shrieked to the heavens, and the mountains shook and a storm of snow fell from its side suffocating the land in the frozen blinding white.

"Damn you Spring, damn you Summer, damn you autumn!!!" He continued to howl at the top of his voice, his jealousy of their warmth consuming him. "And most of all damn you earth for giving me this curse!!"

He crumpled to the ground pounding his fist into the ice. A crack as wide as a river, as deep as the great gorge spread out from his hand the force as it crept along the ice thrusting him back. His tears had frozen on his eyelashes painting them silver as he watch the crevice stretch to the horizon. He suddenly knew of a way to end it all, to disappear and leave all his troubles behind him. For the first time in a long time, the grey in his eyes sparkled.

Eva had appeared by him and saw this. She was a beauty of dark forest green, her pine scent having always captivated Winter, her ability to smile at his touch leaving him awestruck. There had been a time when they were together, Winter and Evergreen. But she had been afraid that she would become like all the Maples, Cedars, and Ashes. She didn't want to be dead during his reign like the Ferns, Oaks and the Willows. So she had said no. And so then they had split.

But it was that sparkle in his eyes which made her realise that she had been wrong all this time. They were lovers, she could take his cold heart and hold it and love it the way it was, she would not freeze. She believed it whole heartedly.

She placed a hand on his shoulder as she tried to find the right words to explain this feeling but he brushed her away.

"I'm leaving."

"No," Eva said, "do it with me, I will make you happy, I will not break."

"Don't lie to me," he pushed her aside and inched closer to the edge til his legs were dangling over the abyss. "I know the rules of the earth. I cannot even be with you."

"Yes you can!" She turned to face him, straddling him before pushing him flat on his back. "I am an Evergreen after all," she laughed.

Her voice had never sounded so genuine as it did now, but still his mind was set. He would never even try, he did not want to destroy her.

But she was excited. She parted her hair and the green which dressed her to reveal her wholly naked body. She pulled at his ice coat and watched it melt at her touch. For once, Winter was frozen, or perhaps it was that his once cold heart was melting. This was exactly what he wanted, he had wanted to feel love, the psychological and the physical, but...

She gently stroked his chest down to his waist mesmerised by the ripple of his muscles as he sat up to meet her.

"Eva-"

"Shhhh..." She put a hand to his lips and slowly lent in, first nibbling his jaw line. He let out a haunted moan, like when cold winds stir.

She could feel that the more she touched his bare skin, the colder she was getting. But she didn't mind. She wanted him. She needed him. And it had taken the possibility of losing him for her to realise.

There was the smallest second of hesitation before she went for it, pressing her lips to his. And so they kissed with open mouths, his chilled breath freezing inside of her.

And suddenly, she was too cold to move properly, her lips slowed until she couldn't do it anymore. He pulled away the minute she was frozen still. As soon as they weren't touching, she began to warm again so she tried to hide what had happened with a smile, but there was already pain in his eyes. He had hurt her, were his thoughts.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "But even you cannot withstand my touch."

"But I can, I did not break..." Eva was sobbing now, sap leaking from her eyes.

"It doesn't matter, you were still frozen! It is the same thing."

"Winter!"

"Leave me!" His voice a gust of wind threw her backwards so that she was several metres away, her back landing on the ice.

"Winter," she called again as she struggled to get up.

Winter turned his back on the one he loved, his stormy gaze fixed on the black ice canyon before him. One last time he breathed in deeply, remembering what was once his place as one of the four, the way he was able to walk the earth so freely. But he then remembered the pain and sorrow and Eva...

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of footsteps on the ice. He could hear her voice on the cold winds that belonged to him. But he had to let her go. He had to let it all go.

With eyes closed, Winter bent his knees before leaping off the edge into oblivion.

Eva's hands stretched out only managing to brush the edge of his coat as her feet teetered on the edge.

He was gone forever so she rocked back onto the ground. After a minute of tears, she looked around and watched as all the ice disappeared, shoots of green springing up everywhere, meltwaters forming streams and buds emerging from her fellow wild friends. The earth was stirring, Winter was no more and would never be again.

For Eva, spring was always a beautiful season, but this would be the coldest spring she had ever lived.