So far winter was not the slender girls favorite month. Summer had been wonderful with long days spent basking in the sun, even fall had been an adventure chasing leaves as they fell with wondrous colors, but winter… winter was just plain cold! Her coat was of a shorter variety, and while plush it wasn’t the thickest which left her snuggling in closer than normal to her siblings every night and tucking her long tail over her nose. It also brought many clouds with it which blocked the stars from view, and not being able to look up at them every night was like losing a friend. Luckily, though, she still had Zelda! She was fast friends with her brothers and sister, but it was something different to have a friend who wasn’t related to her!

Perhaps adventuring in the heart of winter wasn’t the best idea the two small girls ever had, but when were adventures ever supposed to be smart? She was her father’s daughter to an end in that regard as she traveled alongside the mahogany girl. Occasionally her dark side would press into the mottled brown of her friend for both the extra warmth and support. Soon their wanderings led them to the crags, a rocky field to which she had never been before this. As Zelda paused Astraea leaned against her as the winds blew fiercely as if trying to carry away their young forms. One day she would be tall and slender, but for now however she was gangly with legs too long and ears too big if they didn’t freeze off today that is. At Zelda’s question her violet and golden eyes narrowed, fighting against the wind to scan the area around them, a slight smile breaking out across her lips at the sight of one of this area’s famous rock formations nearby. Nosing her friend’s shoulder she motioned toward it, “I think we can hide in there!”

The wind tried to steal her words as they pressed on, her ears flattening against her head and a shiver running across her star-covered form. When they finally made it to the shelter created by the rocks she breathed a sigh of relief, shaking once as if it might remove the cold that still clung to her white lined form. Their hiding place wasn’t necessarily any warmer, but the lack of wind momentarily made it seem like paradise. She turned to Zelda s she sighed, giving her an encouraging smile before the sound of someone speaking made her ears prick forward in curiosity. Following the other girl she peered down to see a girl the color of a sunset lying down, her head tilting at her final words.

Astraea is a girl built on a large foundation of imagination. Whether this came from the penchant for what was written in the stars that came in her family line or perhaps the tales her father often told them had taken a deeper root than expected was unknown. What she did know is that the world was full of far more than what they saw on a day to day basis, she simply knew something more was out there, and the afternoons she spent talking to the water sprites or chasing gnomes through the trees only confirmed it. So had she known the other girl was talking to fairies it would have set her lustrous tail to waving faster than it already was. As it were Zelda called out her hello followed quickly by her own dark head popping up with an unabashed, “Who are you talking to?” Forward as ever, the intricacies of what to do when meeting a stranger still evaded the small girl.