February Ice

The pink petals flow through the wind, breaking from the branches for all around to see the remarkable beauty. The road of cherry blossoms was incredible, and they all could see their dance with the forces of air entwining the threads that held them in place. It was like a ball where the people of the area dressed in fine clothes and donned masks that resembled the nature of the celebration. A celebration of the new year at the Relliden’s Manor, and each of the twelve trees presented the coming and going of the months.

A great manor stood tall at the middle of the city, flushed with greenery and beauty. There stood the twelve cherry blossom trees within the courtyard, lining the circular wall around the gardens. A symphony played a number of songs to the guests leisure, followed by a great feast of all kinds of fruits and vegetables. The many guests found themselves dancing at the tree of their birth month, giving their blessings and wishes of a hopeful future. It was a beautiful sight to behold, one to tell to generations to come.

As those trees blossomed and waved with the current, there was one that stood out above the rest. This one was still and naked, neither dead nor alive, shrouded in a darkness of blood red. This shadow was unseen by the people that flourished in the party, except by one. A boy as white as the brightest of light and eyes matching the crimson shadow that loomed over him and the tree. He had matching long hair that curled at his shoulders where the white robes blended in if not lined with the stain of that shadow.

It was three centuries ago that this tree was planted at this very spot. It used to bloom beautifully, with a fragrance that left a pleasurable memory. They called the month February, the month of love, where one meets their soulmate presented to them by their God. Lynus Malidrov had just turned sixteen when he met her. They planted the tree together and became close, always seen together and holding the other’s hand with a gentle squeeze.

One fateful day, on Lynus’s eighteenth birthday in February, he received a letter left at his working desk. He was just preparing for his coming of age ceremony to become the Head of the Malidrov Manor, until he found some excitement in the words he read. The scribble was only written in the hand he knew all too familiar with. In his robes of red and white and the ceremonial nott at his waist, he rushed outside, reaching the gardens and passing the naked trees hibernating and waiting for the next month for their buds to grow, and finding his tree. The February cherry blossom tree.

“Airriella…?” he called out, seeing his soulmate not there as she had said she would in the note. “Airriella, please come out of hiding.” He felt excitement drilling into his veins as they would always play this game of hide and seek in the many curves in the gardens.

The tree moaned with the slight breeze that flew into the courtyard, a message to tell him to look behind. Behind where, exactly? Lynus peered over the other side of the tree’s young body to find just the opposite side of a tree. Then his eyes saw crimson and the glint of a dagger protruding from his left. Airriella’s beautiful silhouette stood with a grin he never seen before, eyes full of malice and hate. Why, he wondered, why would she be plunging the blade into his heart like so?

Both the pain of his heart being run through and the ache of her betrayal filled his soul. It was that very soul floating beside that tree, watching the party go on with his blood-filled eyes and the shadow ever growing to his disgust. He may be unseen by these people, they still did not go near the tree for it gave off a sickening aura, filling them with hate and pain.

The owner and Head of the estate had seen this, but waited till the next day when all excitement died down. Many spiritualists had come to do their exorcisms yet all failed in their attempt. Therefore, he was forced to do the unexpected. Hiring any woodsmen and gardner to his aid, they were given the mission to cut down and rid the grounds of a loveless, unblossomed, tree.

Outside, unknowing of what is to come, the tree appeared to be in a peaceful state with the wind tickling its icy bark. The shadow fallen into a shape of the boy that circled around the tree, the grown legs poking through the ground never touching him. Not a waver in his form, just a floating body. Would this boy know no peace as did the trees around him? Only February stayed by his side, not betraying his every thought nor every step he made in the air inches above the ground.

“Good to see you all arrive safely and motivated,” said the manor’s Head. The plump man grinned through his over exerted clothes presenting his status to the world of men before him. Each man carried something: an axe, saw, even torches dripping with oil begging to be lit aflame. “I bring you here to take down a tree that has brought nothing but misfortune to this great city, and to my wonderful abode. You take care of this and there will be a great reward. Go to the gardens, take this disgraceful deadwood from the yard. Immediately!”

It was then that Lynus’s spirit sensed the sound of battle ringing louder as in inched closer within his home. They came upon him with axes, saws, and burning torches, all eager to destroy what was standing a nuisance among the rest of pure beauty. Their grinning faces full of excitement that knew no anguish.

The very first to take a step forward were the saw men, unknowingly taking in the surrounding darkness risen from the depths of the soul. Two men, one on each side, pressed the canines at the base of the tree. Only when they began to cut did they notice the teeth had dulled and became a crusty rust. They scratched their brows one after the other, all try and fail the same.

Next came the woodsmen with their mighty axes sharpened for the delightful clean chop of the tree. Again, though this time they swung with full strength, the blade aged while the wood remained unscathed. Both saw and axe men came to no answer of such power emanating from the frozen tree. Only the fire handling men chuckled.

The blaze was lit and dancing to the breathless air about them. Every inch, though, the torches came close and stretched away for release of their handler. They never touched the tree, never managed to taste the branched out arms over their heads. Fear dropped the flame to unleash the raging inferno unto the gardens.

“You may cut…”

“You may chop…”

“You may even burn…”

“But this heart will forever be cold…”

The words echoed behind the pink flesh open to listen to what can and should be heard. It struck fear into their souls, shudders tormenting the body and weapons fall with heavy thuds, coated red by the red shadowy touch. Cries of pain and horror bellowed throughout the courtyard, dawning onto the men and women governing the manor, and pouring down a heavy weight on the Head’s shoulders bearing him down to his knees.

These...Relliden’s took everything from him, destroying what was Lynus’s home and very soul. Here, today, he took his vengeance upon the manor, the flames that licked the ground beneath his feet all but burned. Leaves curled to the lacking oxygen, blades of grass turn black that fed the fires, flowers dry out and crumple. The beauty now replaced by the fury of one soul, a soul in an unending chaos.

The white innocence stained of the blood shed, betrayed by the trusted and loved. The ice never melted to the painful burn, only turned colder. The eyes seen all he needed to see, ears heard everything needed to be heard, but the soul remained bound by the ice. Lynus knew no peace, only hurt.

“Airriella Relliden…” he whispered into the wind feeding the fires. A trickle of crimson dribble down his white cheek to the delicate curtains drawing closed. “Why do you pain me so…?”

There was nothing the residents of the Relliden manor nor the city people could do the extinguish the flames as it took hold of the estate, the gardens, even the Head. Its choking breath darkened the sky for seven days and seven nights, eating the very essence of what was the center of the great city. All that was left, all that remained, was the hidden chambers accessible only by a Malidrov and his February cherry blossom tree.

The icy chains that bound him at that tree did not release for several more months to pass, Airriella still haunting his every light of day and moonlit night. Lynus hungered for her, yet he could never be replenished. He moaned into the tree to see her, strangle her, ask her why. Though he destroyed that which descended from her, he did not meet rest. Airriella still held the blade plunged into his side, that evil smile marking her a witch.

It was the spirit of Lynus Malidrov that brought the people together, building a shrine for his peace. They begged for this restless soul to bring good fortune, even a fiery Hell on those they hate. They thought him to be a god rather a being of pain and suffering. These feelings made him strong for them to believe this. Everyday, they would hear the frozen tree sigh, finding this as misfortune. He only wished for peace from the cold grasp of the February ice.