"I CAN'T PULL YOU CLOSER THAN THIS
IT'S JUST YOU AND THE MOON ON MY SKIN."

I had never seen such a thing before - the Earth Turtle was not a creature she had met before. However she was quite enraptured already, I smiled as he placed his orb upon the branches of the great tree. It seemed that many others were familiar with the Turtle, for others came and freely decorated the tree with the most precious of items, and that made my heart swell in my chest. Perhaps the world needed more creatures like this Turtle when times were trying. Over the last year, one thing that I’d learned is that others seemed to have very short memories. But that was neither here nor there on a beautiful day like today. 

“Everly, can you help me?” I asked, aloud, but quietly. It was crowded, and I didn’t want to disturb anyone even though the mood seemed happy; peaceful.  A nice change to be sure.  Immediately, the zephyr swooped down to me, gently landing on my neck and made quick work of untangling my most prized possession from my mane. The little bundle of charms that Papa had given me for my birthday.  There were four glass charms total and a few assorted small glass beads.  A large crescent moon, representing Papa.  A large, bright star for Mama.  And from the larger charms hung two more delicate charms, a star each for Virga and me - each similar but still unique.  Once I felt the bundle pull free of my mane, I lifted my silver eyes to the vast tree to seek out a branch to put them,  

“There, Ev,” I said, seeing an empty branch midway up the tree - somewhere where the light would catch the glass just so and cast patterns all over the snow below. With a small chirp of agreement, the starry zephyr spread her wings and was off - carefully placing the charm on the branch and securing it so it wouldn’t fall if the wind picked up. 

It was only when I stepped back to admire Ev’s work that I saw Papa on the other side of the gathering. Careful not to disturb anyone, I carefully wove my way through the gathering to stand next to him.  I offered only a smile in greeting before gently leaning into his side, thoroughly content but wishing that Virga and Mama were here with us too. 

V E S P E R