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I love fog. Always have. Maybe it’s the sense of being cut off from everything, just in your own private section of the world.
Having lived in FL for 17 years, I didn’t get to see snow until I was almost 18, but when I did, I loved it, and that sense of peace during and after a good snow is something I wanted to capture when I wrote this fanfic short story several years ago.
Excerpt:
I made it back just in time to snag an unlit candle from Tirzah, who was walking around the gathering handing them out. I found my mother near the middle of the crowd. She smiled at our friend Garren, and he smiled back then lit her wick from his.
I ducked beside her and held up my candle. “Made it!” I grinned as she hugged me and then passed the flame. The light traveled around the whole assembly until every candle flame danced.
Wolf Frakken, one of the councilmen, stood in the gathering’s center, but I was too short to see him very well, so I slipped closer to the front. “Let’s take a moment to think about one of the people who means the most to us.” He bowed his head. His candle flame flickered as a brief gust blew in from the north, but the light didn’t go out.
Councilor Frakken’s wild hair always seemed askew, and his thick mustache and goatee reminded me of a bear with furry ears. But he knew better than most how to survive when it came to a fight.
As he instructed, I bowed my head and waited.
“Speak,” said the councilman.
Everyone around me said the name of someone they loved or cared about. As I spoke Melda’s name I smiled. She was the first real friend I’d made since mother and I came to this planet.
The councilman planted his candle in the snow and stepped back as the rest of the camp crowded in and placed their candles.
I arranged mine and stepped back.
The three unsteady circles glimmered in the fresh snow like rings of sparkling stars bound to earth. This was my first Firgunor, but I knew I liked it.
“The circles represent our lives and how they affect each other,” Councilor Frakken said as he stepped into the center of one lit circle. “Tonight, we celebrate our friends, our families, the ones we love. May this week be a time of hope and joy.”
The gathering dispersed, and most people broke up into groups. A few left to sit at the watch-fire with their instruments and sing. I didn’t know any of the songs, but my favorite tune was light and crisp, like falling snow, and I hummed along when I next heard it.
