Snowy Woods

Snowy Woods is the submission from DarKingdomHearts for the Snowytime Writing Contest. The story contains several small stories describing Christmas in the Dark Woods of several times throughout the series.
==Characters featured==
===Main===
*Plague Master
*Pan
*Lamia
*Rosie & Posie
*Ashley
===Other===
*Nostradamus' mother
*Petia
*Stein
==Story==
======
Nostradamus, at the age of 14 was sitting on the couch in him home. He was reading a book, as he usually did. One couldn't make up what the book was about but probably related to the origins of Eden, the Solar, Lunar, Nocturnal and Nova powers. It was a great read for Nostradamus, he could get very lost inside the pages.
"Nostradamus! There is someone here to see you!" a female voice, one belonging to his mother, shouted from the front door. Nostradamus ignored his mothers warning and continued reading. He heard footsteps interrupting his reading.
"Nostra! Nostra! Nostra!" a young boy's voice shouted, making him lose the concentration to read any further. Nostradamus laid the book beside of him and stared down. There he saw a young boy with silver hair, tied into a short ponytail on the back of his head. He was wearing a blue beanie, and a cotton blue jacket that really made him look like a gentleman. His shoes were covered by white stuff of which other bits were scattered over the floor.
"Nostra! Haven't you looked outside? It's snowing!" the energetic boy said.
"Oh, really Pan?" Nostra replied. Nostra put away his book. "We've never had snow here before." he commented.
"Let's go outside!" Pan pulled Nostra's arm, who quickly pulled his back.
"Dude, I'm not going outside in this, I'll freeze to death!" he said and pointed to his black hoodie, dark blue jeans and socks which made up his attire as of now. "I'll be back in a sec."
Once Nostradamus put on a thick jacket with a fur collar along with heavy snow boots. He put on the hood of his jacket to cover his long black hair. The two boys headed outside into the cold white snow. The ran towards the usual spot they played, only this time it was covered with snow. After a half hour of playing together a young girl joined the two. She was wearing a white fur jacket and hat, hiding her mouth in her collar.
"Hi guys." she said.
"Lamia!" Pan shouted in happiness.
"What took you so long?" Nostra asked.
Lamia smiled, happy to see the boys greeting her. "My parents held me up, they were afraid I would get a cold. So I'm packed in this ice bear right now."
"Whaaat!! You're wearing an ice bear!?" Pan said surprised.
Lamia giggled. "Of course not silly, it is only fake fur."
A wide grin appeared on Pan's face and out of nowhere he jumped against Lamia pushing her into the snow. Lamia let out a surprise scream of joy and shock and the two rolled down the hill.
It was nice to see the two having fun in the snow. I honestly must say that I do enjoy the snow, it is so peaceful and tranquil. It looks like Christmas is shaping up to be very special this year. But we must do something to remember this forever, something we can touch that will keep us in memory of the snowy Christmas.
"Guys!" Nostra shouted. "Let's build a snowman!"
"A snowman?" Pan asked.
"Yeah you know, a man made out of snow." Lamia giggled.
Pan looked at Lamia with a grumpy face. "I know what a snowman is. It was more like I was asking why we would build one."
Nostra slid down the hill, coming to a halt next to them. "For fun. To have something that will remind us all winter about this amazing Christmas tonight."
"Too bad we can't celebrate it together." Lamia said.
"We'll do eventually. When we're big!!" Pan shouted and then jumped into the snow to come out with a huge pile of snow in his arms. "Let's build this man!"
The three friends sculptured the snowman, making it consist out of a lower half, upper half and a head. They decorated it by putting in pebbles as his eyes and mouth. They stuck sticks in his upper half to act as arms. Now all they needed was a nose, a hat and a scarf. Lamia went home to grab her scarf, pink in color. Pan grabbed one of his many hats that he collected, this one being one shaped like a Christmas hat and Nostradamus got his hands on a carrot for his nose, God knows where he got it.
The three stood still and looked at the snowman for nearly 10 minutes in complete silence. "It's beautiful." they said together, and laughed.
The three laid down in the snow with the heads pointed to the snowman and looked up to the clouded sky.
"I'm really glad to have you all as friends." Lamia said.
"Me too!" Pan said, and Nostra only nodded.
"I hope we can stay like this forever..." it started to snow.
----
The three had gone to their home before a severe blizzard covered Eden. Nostra was at home with his mother and his little sister, Patia. They ate dinner and opened their presents, they would sit and watch TV afterwards. Mother tucked Patia into the bed and went to herself after a few hours warning Nostra to not make it too late.
The blizzard had not calmed down, but Nostra decided to go outside nonetheless. He dressed himself and headed out to the snowman to check if it was still okay. There it was safe and sound, two shadows approached him, each from another side. It were Lamia and Pan.
"What are you guys doing here?" Nostra asked.
"We figured you would come to check on the snowman, so we both came so we could spend this Christmas together."
The three held hands and looked at their precious snowman.
======
"Seamstress, I collected another Lilith that fled to the other dimension." Pan said as he entered the circus tent.
"Call me Lamia for now again, okay? And could you take a rest from collecting the Lilith? It's Christmas..." she said.
Pan approached and held the white gloves that concealed her hands. "You know that I'm doing this for you, right?"
"...I know. But... we must celebrate Christmas together, we all must, the three of us." she said.
Pan let go of her hands and turned around. He took off his hat and rubbed his forehead before putting it back one. He turned back in a swift motion. "Plague Master is busy with the preperations."
"We used to celebrate it together. And we promised we always would."
"We're doing this all for you."
"Then STOP!" Lamia suddenly shouted sending both of them in shock. Lamia covered her mouth with her hands and quickly ran out of the circus tent.
"What did I do wrong this time? I'm helping her, aren't I?" Pan mumbled to himself puzzled in his own thoughts.
----
Lamia strolled through the Dark Woods. There was no snow this year, again. She could remember the years when there was snow in Eden, they were beautiful years. Soft white snow in contrast to the thick dark skies. How could a dark lump drop fragile dots of light? She sat down against a tree and looked to the silver moon in the sky. The moon gave her determination.
Her lunar abilities are said to come from the silver moon goddess Luna. And angel sitting on the moon watching down on them. What if she couldn't get a child? What if their plan would fail? She needed to send the spirit of Luna into someone else. Someone strong yet sincere and elegant. Lamia stood up and returned to the circus tent. Pan had apparently left, maybe searching for her.
She continued and entered the backroom where the began sewing under the silver moon. A blindfold was the result. "Luna, if it is okay, I'm going to transfer my powers in the blindfold. I will find someone more worthy of wielding these powers than me." she said. She opened two lines under her eyes and let drops of blood filled tears drop down on the blindfold, enchanting it. She spend the next hour sewing up her own face again.
----
Meanwhile Pan headed to the village where they once lived, and where Plague Master was located, at the top of the hill in the church. Pan knocked and entered.
"Plague Master, it's me, Ringmaster." he said.
"You're still using the silly nicknames Pan?" Plague Master sighed. "Ringmaster. What is it?"
"I think I have upset Seam-- Lamia. I told her we were too busy to even have time celebrating Christmas."
Plague Master's head lifted up, followed by the rest of his body standing up. "I am never too busy for Christmas, how dare you." he said. "Rosie, Posie," the two entities appeared from Plague Master's sleeves. "Collect tree decorations, now."
"What about the summoning?" Pan asked.
"It can wait, we're doing this for Lamia. What use would it be if she isn't happy now?" he said. "And seeing as we have no snow here, we need to take a diffent approach. So Pan, find a pinetree and use your Solar powers to make it alive again so we can make it a Christmas tree."
"Uhm... okay..." Pan said and hurried off, he turned around before disappearing out of sight. "Thank you Nostra."
Plague Master smiled. "In the end the kid hasn't changed a bit."
----
Lamia was done sewing her face together, two sewed up scars were now visible under her eyes, but she did not regret. She entered the main hall of the circus tent and saw a large decorated Christmas tree standing in the middle.
"Wow... I mean...... wow. Who did this?" Lamia asked.
"We both did." Plague Master said as he and Pan revealed themselves from behind the tree along with Rosie and Posie.
"I was rude to you earlier and we had to make it up." Pan said.
"It's beautiful." Lamia turned her head to the two, and her scars were now really visible to the two.
Pan and Plague Master both looked rather shocked. "Waht happned to your face." the former asked.
"Do not fret, this has nothing to do with the fact that Christmas was forgotten. I just got rid of my powers and stored them in a blindfold, that I for now will use as a scarf. My pink one was getting boring anyway." she explained.
"But Lamia!-" Pan said before getting an elbow in his side from Plague Master.
"I'm glad you could make the decision on your own, because I would not have agreed to it, neither would Pan. But for now let's just gather around the tree and make this a Christmas to never forget.
======
It was another Christmas eve in the Dark Woods, once again there was no snow, there never was any snow. It has been three years since the death of Nostradamus and two since the birth of Ashley. Lamia, Rosie and Posie has moved into the fortress that they now called home.
Rosie skipped down the hall and stopped at the workroom of Lamia. She knocked and opened the door. There she saw the blondine working on a body of sorts. It looked more like pieces of other creatures stitched together. After all, there was a reason where the nickname Seamstress came from.
"Lamia. It is Christmas Eve, you should stop working and join us." Rosie spoke.
Lamia didn't turn around and kept her focus on the body. "I'll join you two shortly. Is Ashley with Posie?"
"She is. Posie is also making dinner... so I'm going back so she doesn't have to watch Ashley." she said. "Will you be up shortly?"
"I will." Lamia answered. Rosie waited for Lamia to turn around and look at her, but if she would do that, she could wait forever. It seemed like Lamia was too lost in her work to even bother. Rosie closed the door and headed back to the second floor.
As soon as Rosie left Lamia let the equipment in her hands fall to the ground. She burried her head in the completed chest of the body. "I'm such a bad mother." she mumbled. She sat up straight again and opened her blouse. Unlike her regular dress she now wore a light-yellow blouse and a long skirt. Her hair was tied back in a knot as well. After she opened her blouse she untied her bra and looked at her breasts.
The two hills didn't look healthy anymore. Purple to black lines covered the area around the nipple, which itself also had began turning purple. She was infected, by her own daughter. She tried squeezing out some milk, but the only thing that came out was a transparant liquid. Lamia chuckled. "It seems like I can't even feed my child milk anymore." she said to herself. She dressed herself again and put the completed body back into its container and left the chamber, heading to the second floor where the others were.
She opened the door and saw a Christmas tree in the room with a few presents underneath it, two to be exact. In the back was a lit fireplace and around the room was some poorly made Christmas decoration.
"Merry Christmas!" Rosie and Posie said in chorus, Rosie obviously sounding more excited than Posie as usual.
"Merry Christmas..." Lamia responded and put on a tired fake smile. Rosie handed Ashley back to Lamia.
The magenta haired baby girl looked up at her mother and made a motion to her breasts. Lamia smiled. "Sorry dear, I can't feed you anymore. Your abilities infected my body... now to the point where I can't produce any milk anymore." she said to the toddler who couldn't even understand it.
Rosie and Posie sat next to Lamia. Posie looked at Rosie. "Can you prepare the table?" she said monotonous. Rosie nodded and jumped to the kitchen where everything was prepared.
"What is wrong Lamia? You don't look so well." she said, still monotonous, but one could feel her genuine concern.
"It's... nothing." Lamia replied.
"Why don't you then just enjoy Christmas with us? Put on a smile, like you used to always have."
"As if you ever smile Posie."
"That may be true, but I simply have a hard time controlling and understanding emotions. But I can clearly see that you're far gone." Posie would lay a hand on Lamia's shoulder if her only hand wasn't infected.
"Dinner is ready!" Rosie shouted.
"Let's eat first." Posie said. The four gathered around a table and digged in on the Christmas dinner. It was a rather silent meal with only a few attempts to start a conversation by Rosie, and some random squeels of Ashley. After dinner was over they cleaned everything.
Lamia took Ashley in her hands again and sat on the couch, Rosie and Posie stood in front of her. "I think it is time that I told you both the truth."
"Please do." Posie replied.
"I'm dying, probably sooner than you all will expect. It could be today, it could be tomorrow, it could be next week. But I'm pretty sure it is coming soon. I only feel fatigue and...." Lamia opened her blouse and untied her bra again, showing the infection on her body. She looked at herself as well and was shocked to see that it almost covered her entire chest, with a few veins bending around the heart.
"Lamia..." Rosie said.
"We can help." Posie said. "We can... no that won't help... Maybe if..."
"Don't Posie. Can I entrust you both with Ashley if I die?" she asked, going with her fingers through the magenta hair of her daughter.
"You can." they both said.
"Thank you both. Would you mind if we got some time alone. You'll probably hear it when you can come back." she said. Rosie and Posie nodded and left the room. Lamia looked at Ashley, her eyes filling with tears as they slowly slid down over her cheeks to her chin.
"Ashley, I love you so much, I really wish I could have been... a better mother." tears fell on Ashley's pink body suit. "I want you to remember us, your father and me. Your father was a great man who sacrified a lot to get you here. So I made something for you to remember him by, although you have never seen him."
Lamia revealed a hairclip with a plague doctor mask attached to it and pinned it in her hair. "Unfortunately I won't be her for long as well... I really have been a bad mother, but I really cherished our time together." she grabbed the flower out of her hair, one that would never wither and attached it to Ashley's hair. "I love you Ashley."
.
.
.
.
A baby's crying was heard.
Rosie and Posie hurried into the room and found a resting Lamia on the couch with Ashley still in her hands. Posie felt her wrist, but there was no pulse. Rosie looked at Lamia's face. "At least she went with a smile on her face." she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Posie picked Ashley up and stopped her crying. She noticed the new hair pieces in Ashley's hair. She then looked at Lamia and a faint smile appeared on her face, the first time she smiled. Not because she was happy that Lamia was deceased, but rather that she could go in peace. "Merry Christmas."
==Chapter 4: The Candle==
Ashley was sitting in her throne, legs crossed and supporting her head with her arm. She sighed. Rosie and Posie were outside doing patrol. It didn't happen much but sometimes people still tried to sneak in. She looked at the calender in her room.
"Ow, it already is Christmas. Huh, guess we missed Christmas Eve." she said to no one in particular. "Not that we celebrate Christmas. I've only heard concepts of this so called holiday, but we never celebrated it. I wonder why, not that I have any interest in this holiday. Why am I talking to myself." she sighed as she got out of the throne.
She stormed outside of the carnival castle onto the stage where Rosie and Posie were. "You two!" she caught the attention of her caretakers. "I want to know something important, right now."
Rosie and Posie looked at her with dazzled looks on their faces.
"Is there something wrong Lady Ashley?" Posie asked.
"I want to know the meaning of this Christmas thing. I read its existence, but I have no idea what it really is and it bothers me lot. Did you two ever celebrate it?"
"Uhm..." Rosie and Posie both said.
"What 'uhm'? You guys know something. Tell me." Ashley commanded.
"Maybe it is best if you sit down for this." Posie said.
"Yeah, it's kind off a sad story..." Rosie added.
The three headed back into the carnival castle and took place at a table. There was a small pause of silence, till Ashley interrupted it. "Okay, speak up."
"Well, you celebrated Christmas, a few years ago. But you were too young to remember. It was the last day your mother breath air." Posie explained. She continued telling the complete story of how Lamia was infected by the poison flowing inside of Ashley's body and how she died because of it.
Ashley simply nodded while the monotonous story was told by Posie. There was a silence after Posie finished the story. Rosie and Posie looked at Ashley waiting for a response.
"How..."
"Weak." Ashley said to the surprise of the two diseases.
"She, uhm, basically sacrificed her life for you." Rosie said.
"Yeah, she shouldn't have. Wasn't she a powerful woman? Was she really this weak. She could have survived if she was strong enough, I bet my father wasn't that weak."
"No, your father was amazing!" Rosie said in excitement.
"Rosie." Posie corrected her. "That is not the point. She did everything for you. And I feel like I just couldn't bring myself to celebrate Christmas ever again after her death on this day."
"Well, I do wanna celebrate Christmas, and there's not much you can do about that. So arrange me a Christmas." Ashley said.
"It will be arranged, Lady Ashley." Posie said. Ashley nodded, stood up and left the building.
"Where will you be going Ashley-chan?" Rosie asked.
"Somewhere, which it is none of your business." she said and immediately left. She walked through the Dark Woods towards the Fortress where she formerly lived. It was the place where Lamia's body was burried. She entered the building with no trouble, not that is was locked. The place was desolated, not a single soul being inside. Well, she could sense one.
The sense of the soul led her to the workroom of Lamia. There she saw a confinement pod with a body frozen inside of it. "Hmm, she did perform some wonderful work here, there's no denying that." She searched further and found some documents. One of them read that the one confined in the pod was Exp 0.1 Stein. He seemed to contained DNA of Rai and Hein, two persons she did not know. She searched for them in other documents and learned about Hein, Lily and Rai.
When reading Lily's file she also learned that Lily inherited the powers of Lamia. Apparently her mother stored her Lunar powers inside of a blindfold temperory and anyone who would wear it would slowly gain the Lunar abilities she had. So there was a legit reason why she was weak, why giving birth to such a powerful being was such a heavy toll on her. And seeing she herself had such great powers, could only mean that her father was a great and powerful man. How she wished to be with her father.
"I will come back for you later... when I need you." she said to the body inside of the pod. She left the room again and headed to the dusty glass window that lead to the garden of the fortress. As she entered the gardens she saw a tomb greatly displayed in the middle, being covered with lots of vegetation. She entered the tomb that held a coffin, with the name tag displaying the name of her mother 'Lamia'.
"I shouldn't have been so rought on you I guess." Ashley said, as if she was bothered by her own behavior.
She conjured a candle out of nothingness. The candle was red with shiny golden stripes diagonally across it. She placed the candle on the coffin, followed by a small ember that floated towards the fuse. The candle became lit.
"Here. Now I've done my part. I paid you back. Now I don't want to get remembered of you ever again." she commented. She turned around and left the tomb, briefly looking back if the candle was still burning.
==Chapter 5: The Saint==
It was the first year of Christmas that Ashley and Nostradamus spend together after the latter was revived from the death. Their lives were going well despite the dispute over the realm of the Dark Woods between The Enemy and The Threat. But luckily they didn't notice anything of it during these days.
"Still no snow in the Dark Woods I see?" Plague Master said to his daughter.
"Yeah, there never has been. What in the hell is snow actually. I've heard in in several fairy tales and such... but..." Ashley said looking away, being a bit embarrassed to not know anything of it.
"Well... snow is... white ash? But soft and... fluffy?" Plague Master sighed. "It's hard to explain."
Ashley smiled. "Don't worry." she stood up and walked away.
"Where are you going?"
"I have to visit a place, I go there every year." she said, not wanting to tell any further. Plague Master didn't say anything else and let his daughter go. After a few minutes he sprouted two gigantic wings from his back and followed his daughter. She entered the Lich Graveyard and entered the giant tomb on top of the hill in the center. Plague Master landed on the roof and the wings merged into his body once again.
He descended from the roof and followed his daughter into the tomb. He walked down a long spiral staircase, the place being lit by torches on the wall. He arrived at the bottom where a door was open on a crack. Plague Master peeked through and saw his daughter standing before a coffin with, what seemed, an eternal candle on it.
"Merry Christmas mother." Plague Master heard her mumble. He aw her turning around again, Plague Master quickly hid in the shadows as she exited the room. Ashley didn't notice her father and went her way upstairs. In the meantime Plague Master entered the chamber and stood in front of the coffin.
"So this is where you went Lamia." he said with a smile, hidden by his mask. "She says she hates you, she says you're weak. Then why does she keep visiting you every year? She loves you, you know that right?" he said. The heat from the candle was nice and warm. "I'm glad you ended up her safe instead of rotting in the ground like everyone else... even Pan. Well, I see you soon my dear, I've got a Christmas to make." he said and left the tomb as well.
----
Plague Master walked into the circus tent where he saw Ashley playing around with the ghostly forms of Rosie and Posie. Although they weren't capable of speech anymore they still were the same ones who raised her. "Where have you been father?"
"I was just taking a stroll." he sat next down to his daughter. "I have a weird question."
"Define weird."
"Did... do you love your mother?"
"Uhm..." she paused. "That is a weird question indeed."
"I know you say you loathe your mother and that you think she's weak. And she may have been psychical but not mentally. She was always there for me and our best friend, and was the more mature one in each situation."
"I know... it's not that I really despise her or anything." she sighed. "I think I have been blaming her for not having the childhood I imagined. I expected to be raised by a mother and a father. But for the most of my life I was raised by Rosie and Posie, until I resurrected you."
"I get what you mean. And I'm sorry for dying on you." Plague Master said.
"I wish we could have been a happy family together."
"There might be a away to revive your mother."
"No, she went in peace. Unlike you had, she has nothing that would keep her here." Plague Master nodded at Ashley's response and headed outside of the circus tent, much to the confusion of Ashley. She waited inside for a couple of minutes wondering what he could possibly be doing out there, but didn't take the effort to go outside.
"Ashley! Come look at this!" she heard her father shout from outside. As soon as she heard it she stepped outside and found her foot being covered by snow. She looked up and saw the white crystals descend from the sky. Plague Master landed on the ground.
"This is snow." he said.
"It's beautiful. Thank you dad."
Plague Master looked up in the sky and saw the faces of Lamia and Pan, lit brightly in the snowing skies.
"Merry Christmas Ashley. And Merry Christmas to you as well my best friends. May your souls rest in peace."
THE END
Category:Dark Heart Games
Category:Dark Woods
Category:Novel
Category:Fantendo Holiday Showcase 2015