“You will leave tomorrow, and you will be accompanied by Ysera here,” Bridget explained as she placed the quest parchment upon the table.
   “Right,” Felix nodded. The scrawny man had to admit though that he only understood some of what the high priestess of the mechanical clock was saying. Some of the time talk was quite complex and hard to follow. It was sometimes just much more interesting to admire the beauty of her rose golden metal body, as she was simply entrancing.
   “I am familiar with the lay of the land as it was 1042 years ago, so that should help us navigate the Valley of Seasons,” Ysera said. Unlike Bridget, who has only been a priestess for a few years now, the high priestess of the water clock was alive way back, before the fall of the goddess of time. If Felix wasn’t distracted by Bridget’s looks, he also had Ysera’s marine metal body to admire.
   Shifting his attention away from the two women, Felix looked over the parchment. Just as Bridget had explained, it detailed his objectives. He was to go to the ancient Valley of Seasons and investigate an old shrine there. Back in its heyday, it was supposedly visited by people from all corners of the land, but had long since fallen into ruin. The main goal of this quest was to find some clues as to the whereabouts of the shrine’s keeper, who had gone into a deep slumber since the goddess’ fall, much like Ysera had.
   “And uh… you will pay me when we return, right?” Felix asked, feeling a slight blush appearing on his face for asking it. He nervously adjusted his glasses to try and mask it. He really needed the money though. Whether it was gold or a rare Divine Level Creation, he would take it as long as it would prevent his landlord from kicking him out on the streets.
   Bridget chuckled “Yes. No need to worry about your payment.”
   “Right… thank you,” Felix said, bowing his head slightly to avert his eyes.
   “I will see you tomorrow then, Sir Felix. I know you’re still a little wet behind the ears, but I’m sure you’ll do just fine,” Ysera grinned.
   “Right, until tomorrow!” the warrior nodded, placing a hand over his scabbard. It was true that he had only just started out as a adventurer, but he had trained for this for much longer than that. He was ready for this.
   “WAIT!” came a sudden high pitched voice from above them.
   “Huh?” Felix asked, looking up. What he saw surprised him greatly. There, fluttering just a few feet above him, was a fairy. Her body seemed to be made of silver while her eyes, hair and clothes were moss green. There was a tiny clock resting on her belly button but the most interesting aspect of her were her wings. As she was fluttering, her wings actually showed a perfect clock, much like a sort of flip book. Its arms were actually moving too, and Felix assumed that it was a very accurate clock too, all things considered.
   “Aria? What are you doing here? I thought you were in the library today with Zexa Xeza?” Bridget asked, confused.
   The fairy fluttered down, hovered in front of Bridget’s face and folded her arms. “The library’s soooo boring, and those twins only really have eye for their precious Julia.”
   Bridget sighed at that, while Ysera simply chuckled. “Sounds like my time with them in Listanta,” she said.
   “I will speak with them,” Bridget groaned.
   “No! I mean… let me go with him instead of Ysera!” Aria protested.
   Felix raised an eyebrow. He had been glad to be accompanied by an experienced priestess, who would even be able to heal him in case he got hurt. Now, this fairy wanted to replace her? What would a fairy even be able to do?
   Judging by the expressions of the other priestesses, they looked equally skeptic. “Aria, this isn’t one of Akita’s games. This is serious.”
   “I know! And I am serious! I wanna do this,” the fairy huffed.
   “Without the shrine’s keeper around, there could be lots of dangers lurking around,” Ysera continued.
   “But I’m a priestess of time, just like you two! I can do this,” Aria whined.
The two high priestesses looked at one another, contemplating the situation. Finally, Ysera spoke up again. “Very well then. I suppose I will return to the Valley of Seasons another time with Hestia.”
   “Wha-... Ysera, you can’t be serious!” Bridget protested.
   “She looks determined enough, honestly. I think she’ll do just fine,” Ysera shrugged.
Bridget sighed. “Alright then…” she muttered.
   “YAY!” Aria cheered, starting to fly around the room in circles.
   “... so long as it’s okay with Felix, that is,” Bridget finished.
Aria gasped and halted, zipping over to hover in front of Felix’s face. “That’s okay, right? Right? Riiiiiight?”
   Felix eyed the fairy who was obviously putting up her sweetest face right now. This was just plain evil! How could he resist that face?! Even though he still much prefered to go with Ysera… he simply couldn’t help himself. “Yes… that’s fine,” he just blurted out.

The following morning, Ysera and Aria were already waiting as Felix arrived at the temple, together with a woman mostly made out of glass. The hourglass within her body was a dead giveaway that this was high priestess Lavini.
   “Good morning, partner!” Aria cheered, zipping over.
   “Ah… good morning, er… partner,” Felix replied nervously.
   “Are you ready for the mission? Huh? Huh? Huh?” Aria gushed.
   “Hold your horses, Aria dear,” Lavini chuckled.
   The fairy zipped on over to the glass woman then. “Sorry! I’m just… really excited to go!”
   “Do you remember everything I’ve told you?” Ysera asked.
   “Yes, yes, of course. Valley of Seasons, big treehouse shrine, missing sister, got it,” Aria nodded, slightly annoyed.
   “And the way to get there? And of course the dru-,” Ysera started but Aria interrupted her.
   “I knooooow, you don’t have to repeat it AGAIN. You’ve done that all night already! I just wanna go! Now!” the fairy chittered excitedly.
   The two high priestesses sighed and turned to Felix then. “Well, are you ready for this adventure?” Lavini asked.
   “I… yeah I am,” he nodded, not wanting to worry them. In reality, he was having quite a lot of doubts about this fairy accompanying him. He should have just said no when he had the chance yesterday, but it was too late now. He had packed a full rucksack with rations and warm clothing. Though the weather wasn’t too cold here, the Valley of Seasons was supposedly a very peculiar place, where temperatures could vary greatly, depending on where in the valley you were standing. He thankfully did not have to carry around any food for Aria, seeing as almost none of the maidens of the clock actually needed to eat.
   Ysera nodded. “Well, good luck then, you two. Keep a close eye on each-other and I’m sure you’ll find the Keeper of Seasons.”
   “Yes ma’am!” Aria saluted. It was then that Lavini waved her staff in a circle as the sands of time shot out from its tip. A tip that held a particularly rare DLC as Felix could tell. The sands proceeded to form a portal.
   “I cannot send you to the Valley all the way, but I am able to send you to the closest town. It should just be a short walk from there,” Lavini explained.
   “No biggie! We’ve got this! Right partner?” Aria cheered.
   “Yes… o-of course!” Felix said, trying to sound equally cheerful. Mentally, though, he wanted to beg for one of the priestesses to accompany him instead.
   “Let’s go then!” Aria yelled and dashed through the portal.
   Felix took this moment to look at the two women and give them a pleading look. “I… guess I’ll be going then.”
   “Don’t worry, Felix. Aria’s a capable mage, and I told her everything I know about the valley,” Ysera told him, shattering his hope of her accompanying him after all.
   “Thanks,” the warrior muttered. “Well, here goes nothing.” As he stepped through the portal, it felt quite odd to go from the relatively warm, early autumn streets of New Stepolis to the much colder environment of this small village somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Looking around, there didn’t seem to be many people out. There was only the mailman and a rather confused young kid staring at them.
   “So!” Aria said, disregarding the young lad entirely. She then fumbled around in her little haversack and retrieved a map from it. “We’re supposed to go north from here and follow this road for about a mile, and then we go left, right, left, and then we should be there!”
   Felix tried to look at the map the fairy was holding, but it was much too small for him. He really should have packed a map for himself as well. Now, he had to rely on the hyperactive, bubbly fairy to guide him. At the very least, she seemed to know the way. “Well, let’s go then. If it’s only one mile, we’ll be able to make it before dusk.”
   “Indeed!” Aria cheered, folded her map up again and put it away. “Let’s go!” She then zipped off in a direction, leaving Felix standing slightly bewildered. She… did realize that he was definitely not as fast as she was, right? Luckily though, she returned shortly afterwards, only to simply dash off into a different direction. And again. And again! Finally though, she returned and stayed fluttering before Felix’ face. She held her arms behind her back and looked slightly flustered. “Uhm… which way is north?” she asked.
   This was going to be a looooong trip, Felix thought to himself.

Sure enough, the journey was a very long one. Not because they came across any monsters or thugs, but because Aria tended to get distracted easily. She simply HAD to stop by every single flower to smell it. Felix had assumed that these time elementals would be very much on-point when it comes to time, and they wouldn’t want to waste any of it, yet here they were… At least she wasn’t annoying or anything. In fact, Felix had started to grow quite fond of the fairy, as she was very much determined to do her best, which was quite endearing.
   “Ooh, look at this one! Such pretty colours!” she said, pointing at yet another daffodil.
   “It looks so different from the previous 40,” Felix said jokingly.
   “Oh, shush it, you!” Aria laughed.
   “You don’t get to see flowers much, do you? I would have assumed that a fairy would be all about flowers and nature,” the warrior asked.
   “Well, I’m not just any normal fairy! I have my duties back at the church,” the fairy explained.
   “Is that why you wanted to go on this adventure? To be out in nature for once?” Felix asked as they started moving on again.
   “Oh… no,” Aria sighed as she went to sit on Felix’s shoulder. Interestingly enough though, she still insisted on flapping her wings for just a millisecond once every second. It was probably her own way of a ticking clock. “The other priestesses don’t seem to think that I’m a part of them…” she admitted.
   “Not a part of them?” Felix asked, confused. “You’re a time elemental like them, aren’t you?”
   “Well yeah… but like… Bridget and her sisters don’t consider me a part of them, because I wasn’t chosen by one of Bridget’s five DLC’s she received when she became the first new time elemental, and I’m not a part of Ysera’s sisterhood either because they became time elementals back when the goddess was still alive.”
   Felix tilted his head at this. “Then how did you become the way you are?”
   “Thanks to a different DLC that they got later,” Aria said, pointing to the little clock over her belly button.
   “Ah, I see…” Felix said, uncertain on how to react to that. He felt kinda bad now about dismissing her earlier, even though he didn’t say so out loud. “Well, if it means anything to you, you’re a part of them in my book.”
   Aria fell silent. The only sound she made were her ticking wings. Eventually though, Felix could feel two cold, tiny arms wrapping around his cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered softly.
   Felix smiled. It may have been a small gesture, but he was happy that his words had meant something for the fairy. It was just then that he noticed something on the side of the road. “Look!” he said.
   There on the side of the road was an old sign, covered in moss. Aria perked up and fluttered on over, starting to work on removing the overgrowth. “Come on, stupid moss!” she huffed as she struggled with the moss.
   Felix just chuckled and helped her out with his superior strength. He was, after all, much bigger of course. With the moss gone, they could finally see what the sign said… but it was written in symbols very much unfamiliar to him. “Uh… well that’s not exactly helpful.”
   “This… these symbols are druidic!” Aria exclaimed.
   “Druidic?” Felix tilted his head.
Aria nodded proudly. “Ysera told me about this. It means we’re on the right track!”
   “That’s great! What does it say?”
   The fairy halted then and opened her eyes wide, looking over the symbols again. “Uh… uhm… well… It means...“ she stammered.
   “You don’t know… do you?” the warrior realized.
   “I do know! I just… forgot. That’s completely different!” Aria huffed.
   “Well the result is the same! We can’t understand what it says!” Felix argued.
   The fairy blushed at that, knowing that he was right. “Well… how was I supposed to learn a whole new language in one evening? Besides, I’m sure it just says ‘Valley of Seasons, that way’ or something,” she defended herself.
   “But what if it says ‘alligators, this way’ and the real valley is still a little bit further down the road?” Felix asked.
   “I-I… I’m sorry!” Aria shouted as she fluttered down to the ground. Her sulk mode had activated.
   Felix fell quiet then. He didn’t mean to make her feel bad. “Sorry I shouted,” he just muttered as he sat down on his knees in front of her.
   Aria frowned and the warrior wasn’t certain whether she frowned at him or at herself. “We have to go left, right, left here.” she just said. She then fluttered up and went to look for a pathway without a word.
   This just made Felix feel even worse. He didn’t mean to make her feel like that! He sighed dejectedly before looking around as well. Seeing as this old shrine was abandoned over a thousand years ago, the overgrowth must be insane, much like the moss on the sign. Sure enough, there was no apparent path anywhere. Perhaps the sign said that the the road would be just up ahead, and not here? Perhaps the sign was a warning sign for something? Just then, Aria shouted out.
   “I found it!” she cheered. Felix came on over to see and sure enough, behind a particular thornbush, there was an old, dirt pathway leading off through the woods into some nearby hills.
   “I guess you were right about the sign pointing to the valley,” Felix smiled.
   “Yeah… I guess I was!” Aria nodded. Of course, it wasn’t certain yet but this did look like a good sign!

The path winded through the woods and into the rolling hills. Eventually, they came upon the first crossing. They went to the right here but they were quite curious about what there could be on the other ends of the paths. Perhaps that was something that they could explore later, once their mission was over. The path proceeded to spiral down a hill until they found their second split in the road. As they remembered, they had to go left here. Again, the other paths seemed quite enticing, but they were ignored in favour of the mission at hand.
   Aria no longer seemed to get distracted by everything around her. She appeared to be very determined to make up for the fact she didn’t remember what the sign said. Felix himself was happy to just follow Aria for now, as he had started feeling very cold. For some reason, the temperature just started dropping as they continued on the path. They even started encountering patches of snow everywhere. Felix had to excuse himself and put on an extra layer of clothing. Further down the pathway however, when they arrived at a river, the temperature drop was getting ridiculous. There once appeared to be a bridge here, but it had since collapsed. It wasn’t a problem to cross the river though, as it had completely frozen over.
   “Good grief,” Felix muttered.
   “I wonder why it’s so cold?” Aria pondered. She didn’t seem fazed at all, but that was probably because she was made out of silver.
   “D-did Ysera not e-explain that?” Felix stuttered, his shivering making it a bit hard to say anything.
   “She did say that the temperatures could fluctuate but only inside of the valley… perhaps this is caused by the absence of the keeper of seasons?” Aria pondered as she flew over the river.
   “P-perhaps,” the warrior nodded. The following minutes, he did his very best to try and cross the river, but the ice was so slippery. Aria was doing her very best not to burst out laughing after the fourth time he fell. Eventually though, he finally did manage to cross over, and the cold here was almost unbearable! There was barely any plant life and there was an insanely high blanket of snow here.
   “I got this,” Aria said as she clapped her hands together. When she opened them again, she made a small flame appear between them. A flame that she made bigger and bigger. When it stopped growing, it was a raging fire that was engulfing the tiny fae. Even though she was only so small, the fire was hot enough to warm Felix up again, and the snow around her started melting.
   “Whoah… not bad for one as small as you,” Felix said.
   “Thanks! But we have to keep moving. I can’t keep this up for too long,” Aria said.
   The duo then had to climb a particularly high hill. After that, though, they were greeted by a marvelous sight. The valley that stretched before them was completely snowed in, and even now, there was a snowstorm going on. There was one thing that stood out though. In the middle of the area, there was a gigantic tree with a large treehouse resting in its branches. It had lost all of its leaves, and yet it still stood there.
   “The Valley of Seasons…” Felix and Aria said simultaneously.
   “How are we going to get through here? I can feel my wings starting to freeze…” Aria said.
   “Aria… you stay here. I’ll move on ahead alone,” Felix said, thinking of an idea.
   “What?! But you’ll freeze!” the fairy gasped.
   “I can walk over the snow and reach the shrine fast. I can warm myself up again in there. If your wings freeze, you won’t be able to escape.” He was determined this time. Aria had done so much to get them as far as they did. Now it was his turn to do what he had come for. He was going to see this through until the end.
   “I… okay, but hurry!” Aria said, her flames weakening slightly.
   “If I’m not back soon… let’s not think about that,” Felix said. He didn’t really know why he decided to be the hero now, but here he was. There was no time to waste now. He had to do this! As he dashed forwards, the cold smacked Felix like an iron fist. He had to reach the shrine fast but the deep snow was quite hard to trudge through. The cold was unbearable, but he had to keep going. The keeper of seasons had to be inside of the shrine. She would know how to solve all of this. He just had to find her, and wake her up!
   “Fe-lix!” he heard Aria’s soft voice somewhere behind him, but it sounded so weak, lost in the howling winds of the snowstorm. He came closer and closer to the shrine, but the snow was only getting hard to to navigate through. Not to mention the storm that only grew stronger and stronger closer towards the middle. It was so cold… it was far too cold!
Regret started to sink in. He should not have done this at all. They should have returned and called for help. What was he thinking, just charging in here?
   No! He had to do this! He was almost there! Just a few more steps…

*CRACK*

As Felix took his next step forward, something audibly cracked below him. Whether it was wood or ice, he couldn’t tell, for he was more focused on what happened next. The snow beneath him started giving way rapidly and before long, he felt himself falling rapidly. He screamed for help, but there was no way Aria would be able to hear him under the thundering sound of the blizzard. As he slid down along with the snow, he was sure that this would be the end of him. He’d freeze here…
   … and then he stopped falling. “Huh?” he pondered out loud. He felt… warm again? Opening his eyes, he saw that he had reached his destination. It appeared that he had fallen through a hole in the ground and he was now among the roots of the tree. It was strangely warm and spacious here. Is this how the tree managed to survive, even through this seemingly eternal blizzard?
   “Well… didn’t expect this,” Felix muttered to himself as he got up. He tried to find some way out of this place, but the snow had seemingly covered his path of entry. Then… how was he still able to see? Looking around, he could see a faint glow coming from somewhere near the middle of the roots.
   “Look what we have here,” the warrior gasped as he found what was emitting this glow. There was some sort of scepter with a glowing disk at its tip here that was divided into quarters. Each of the four quarters held a different, druidic symbol and one of them was emitting an icy blue glow. It was a DLC. Of course, this must be what was keeping the tree alive! Was this, perhaps, the DLC that belonged to the keeper of seasons? But then… where was she? Was she even deeper below the ground? Or up in the shrine? Or perhaps she was in a completely different place, without her DLC for some reason? Whatever the case, she would need it! Thus he reached forward to grab the scepter.

That’s when everything started changing.

The moment he touched the DLC, he could feel something zap into his fingers. Immediately, he pulled his hand back, but he could see that it was already too late. Right before of his eyes, his fingers began to turn a greenish hue. He should have known that the DLC was booby trapped somehow! If only Aria was here. Perhaps she would know how to revert the changes that were coming.
   As the rest of his hand turned green, he noticed that it also became quite slender. Well, this was definitely not good! He tried moving away from the DLC, but as he looked behind him, he could see no way out. Had the roots trapped him?
   The changes were spreading quite fast up his arm, turning it completely green and plantlike. As this happened, his clothes started morphing as well. Instead of his cloth coat, there appeared to be leaves wrapped around his arm. Why was this happening?! There had to be a way to stop it! Yet, it kept going, now spreading into his upper chest. It, too, turned from flesh into green, floral material while his clothes became white leaves. At the same time, some of his veins started to become more pronounced somehow, giving off an icy blue glow in the dark, not unlike that of fireflies. That’s when he noticed something appear on his chest that he did not expect: breasts.
   “... oh…” Felix just said as the realization struck him. There was no Keeper of Seasons here. He was to become the Keeper of Seasons. Did Aria know this? Did Ysera know this? There had to be an explanation, as the changes made his entire upper torso slim down and curve more. While his other arm started changing as well now, he could feel the changes spread down his body and up his neck.
   The changes to his face were much of what he expected would happen. It softened up and puffed out at first before hardening somewhat again as it turned green and floral. At the same time, he could feel the inevitable change down at his groin where his manhood made way for a feminine slit instead. His overall figure became much more curvy while his clothes were becoming a sort of leafy dress.
   As the changes spread down his legs, his eyes turned the same shade of light blue as his glowing veins and his hair started to harden. While it was a bit long already, it now grew out to be quite a bit longer, and standing upright now instead. A bunch of hair bundled together in certain places, forming what looked like branches instead. The branches themselves were still very much empty though. As bald as the great tree above him. They were white from being covered in snow.
   As the rest of his legs and feet transformed, Felix suddenly felt something new overcome him. It wasn’t anything physical, but it still bulldozed over him. It was time. Time that spread through his entire body. Time that intertwined with his very soul. Time that flowed as if it had always been a part of him.
   And it had. Of course it had. She wasn’t supposed to become the Keeper of Seasons as she thought earlier. She WAS the Keeper of Seasons. As she realized this, old memories, long since hidden, started resurfacing. Memories of her childhood. Memories of her introduction into the church of time by Ysera and Hestia. Memories of her devotion to the goddess of time, Alinavious. Memories of her voluntary transformation into a time elemental all those years ago, brought upon by the goddess herself.
   Memories of the death of her goddess, the grief she felt and of course, her deep, deep slumber. She and the other keepers each went into this slumber at the exact same moment  in order to maintain the flow of time, until the day that their goddess would return. Had that time come now? There certainly seemed to be some strong presence nearby. A presence that felt… familiar somehow.
   First thing’s first though. There was something rather important to take care of. Without her guidance, the valley had been stuck in winter, since that was when she had gone into her slumber. The only reason her tree hadn’t died was because of her DLC. However, her tree could no longer grow because of the sheer winter cold. She had to do something about this!
   Grabbing her scepter, she kindly whispered to her tree to let her resurface. The tree answered, as she knew it would, by moving its roots and exposing her to the snow outside. This would not do! If she were to start spring now, her valley would flood due to all of the melting snow! As such, she stayed in her winter forme for just a bit longer, even though her inner sense of time was screaming against her. She knew though that this had to happen, for only in the winter would she be able to bend the ice, water and snow to her will.
   Thus, she started her incantation. “Ice and snow, bend to my will. Stop your relentless assault on the valley. Let your endless winter pass,” she sang in the language of the druids. When she finished, the snowstorm that was swirling around finally dissipated, while all of the ice and snow started swirling around her great tree. There was so much here, but that was to be expected. Time had effectively been standing still here for 1042 years. She kept on singing, causing the snow to spin faster. When she had lifted most of it off the ground, she started pushing it all away, outside of her valley. It cost her a lot of energy, but it had to happen.
   When this was finished, it was finally time for the season of winter to pass, and for the season of spring to begin. So, she turned her scepter one quarter. When she did so, the blue light extinguished and a different quarter lit up green. This caused her glowing veins, as well as her eyes to change colour as well, becoming the same shade of green. The snow in her ‘hair’ melted, turning the branches brown instead while blossom started growing. The leaves of her dress, meanwhile, turned pink. The colour of blossom.
   Meanwhile, she could feel the temperature rising around her. A good thing too because from what she could see around her, the valley looked like a disaster! Only the north-western quarter looked fine, its many pine trees still standing strong. That was to be expected, of course, as that was the quarter of winter. The rest, though, needed some help. Thus she took her first step on the soil within the north-eastern quarter of spring and as she did, she channeled her magic into the earth. As she was now in spring forme, the earth would bend to her will.
   “Earth and soil, I channel you. Let the plants grow and the slumbering animals awaken from their hibernation. Rise, for spring has come,” she sang as she continued her walk. With every step she took, the plants around her feet would start growing. Grass, flowers, trees, bushes. It all started growing again. She smiled as she let the season pass within merely a few minutes. She couldn’t have it stay spring, of course, for her inner sense of time still wasn’t satisfied.
   As she walked, she started feeling something she had felt before. That familiar presence… it was nearby. There didn’t seen to be anyone here though, yet it felt quite strong! What could it be? Only after a few more steps did she finally see what had caused it. There was a fairy lying on the ground! A fairy… made of silver. A fairy that… she vaguely recognized. Had she seen her before? That wasn’t the most important line of thought right now though. The fact that she wasn’t moving was much more troublesome! Her wings had frozen and she was barely breathing… she had to warm her up somehow…
   And of course, she knew how to. Gently holding the fairy in her hand, she walked south and entered the quarter of summer. While here, she turned her scepter again. This time, the green quarter extinguished and the yellow quarter lit up, her body changing accordingly. Her veins and eyes turned yellow and the branches on her head were now fully bloomed into bright green leaves. The warm rays of the sun shining through the leaves created quite a visual spectacle, looking almost like a raging inferno, the fires of summer and life. Her dress changed colour again as well, becoming green this time. The life she breathed into the earth during spring was still spreading, reclaiming the quarter of summer.
   Fire, the element of summer, was what she needed right now. As the valley warmed up and the quarter of summer bloomed, she started singing again. “Fires and flames, answer to me. Let your gift of life and warmth spread through. The season of summer is upon you.” Flames then erupted from her scepter. Warm flames that she held close to the fairy’s wings, carefully heating up her frozen wings.
   “... uh… hm… huh?” the fairy groaned after just a few moments. Her wings had started fluttering with every second and as she rouse she was looked around, quite bewildered.
“I’m alive??? And Whoah… what happened to the snow?” the fairy asked.
   “It has passed, along with the season of winter, little one,” the Keeper of Seasons said.
   “PLEASE DON’T HARM ME!” the fairy screamed in surprise as she turned around, looking up at the woman holding her.
   The Keeper chuckled. “I won’t,” she spoke kindly.
   “Wait… you… you’re the Keeper of Seasons, aren’t you?” the fairy asked with embarrassment coloring her cheeks.
   The Keeper nodded. “My name is Feline. What about you little one?”
   “A-ah… I’m Aria,” she answered.
   For a moment, everything stayed silent as Feline and Aria looked at each-other. To Feline, it felt as if she knew Aria, and the way the fairy was looking, it looked like she was feeling the same way. Perhaps from a different life…?
   “So… what brings a time fairy such as yourself to my valley?” Feline asked finally as she started heading west. Although summer was nice, it still wasn’t the right season for the current time.
   “Oh! Right! I was sent here to look for you by my… uh… our sisters! There’s a new church of time, and we are slowly working on uncovering the lost pieces of history while also spreading the teachings of our goddess!” Aria rambled on. She talked fast, but Feline was at least able to follow her.
   “A new church of time? Incredible…” Feline mused.
   “Uhuh! There’s the newer church members like me but there’s also the two ancient priestesses, Ysera and Hestia!”
   The Keeper of Seasons gasped. Two of the high priestesses of old had already awoken before her. “That is great news! I would very much like to see them again,” she said as she entered the south-western quarter. The quarter of autumn. She then turned her scepter once more, turning on the orange light of her scepter now. Her eyes and veins changed once again accordingly and the bright green leaves turned orange now. Her dress meanwhile coloured red.
   “Whoah… amazing,” Aria said in awe.
   “Wait until you see this then, little one,” Feline grinned as she started singing one final time. “Air and lightning, hear my words. The season of autumn is upon us. Let your winds reign supreme during this wondrous time of the year.” As she sang her druidic song, the wind started picking up, breathing life into the last of the four seasonal quarters.
   Aria just looked breathless. She simply did not have enough eyes to see everything there was to see. “Your valley is beautiful.” she finally said in awe.
   Feline looked around. Though she had restored the four seasons to their former glory, there was still much to be done. Her shrine was still a mess and there was still a distinct lack of animal life. It was a good start though. “Thank you, little one,” she mused.
   “A-ah, I uh… suppose we should head back to the church! The others will want to see you…” the fairy said.
   The Keeper of Seasons nodded. “Indeed… but first thing’s first. I would very much enjoy some time with you alone,” she said, winking.
   Aria gasped as she put on a very broad smile. “Yes… let’s.” she replied.