"How so?" I couldn't help ask.

"How so! You can freaking give life to snowballs, and you ask me how so? I have never imagined that I'd be as lucky as to stumble upon a winter sprite and to actually receive a real life snow-man as a present from him." She gushed happily while stroking the squabbling snow-man in her hands.

"Erm...wait a second. I never said that I was giving that thing to you?" I frowned and she glowered back, "Come again?" Her whole face bitter with distaste. She was pouting in irritation. Upset, I assumed. And if my hunch was accurate, it was because she thought she couldn't take the little frantic snowman hugged tightly to her chest, home. And a sudden strong rush of giddiness attacked me, shaking my entire frame in the process. And I erupted into an abrupt strange roar. The evening air tremored with my quivering voice, and for the first time in my life, I felt free. My own voice echoed in my ears and I could feel, actually feel the mirth hidden in that deep laughter of mine. Laughter! Something I was experiencing for the very first time in my life. Laughter, that was making my stomach hurt like someone kicked me in the gut.

What was this?

Norah stared at me, in awe at first. But then slowly she concluded my outburst to be an insult and consequently glared at me. "What's so funny, Rhiam?" She asked, annoyed. I was hardly able to swallow up my laughter as I breathed out, "Owww! My...My stomach hurts...Why does my stomach hurt?" She scowled at me, astounded."That's because you were laughing your ass back for...le' me guess, ten minutes maybe, though I don't recall having said anything funny to that extent." She deadpanned.

"Sorry, sorry! I...I didn't mean to anger you. It's just that the fact that you want the snow-man so very badly is kind of obvious and when I said that I didn't mean to give it to you, you looked rather crossed. Your face was kind of hilarious, so...I couldn't help myself." I shrugged sheepishly and she glowered into my skull.

"So you aren't so off-keyed after all, Ha! Since you can so easily poke fun at my face." She huffed in anger.

"I... I didn't mean to." I tried to defend myself. "I mean, it's not that you're ugly or anything. In fact, you're very pretty if you're worried about your looks, that is. It's just that, your angry expression was very hilarious at that moment, not that it's always hilarious or anything." I amended quickly, and for some strange twisted reason she reddened up, yet again. "Erm...did I...did I say something wrong?" I asked timidly and suddenly she burst out laughing out of the blue. I'm telling you, this girl changed moods quicker than clothes. She was amused now.

I watched her with sheer curiosity for about a minute or two then asked, "Am I that entertaining to you?"

"Hell yes! Where do you find a winter sprite nowadays blabbering in nervousness? That was what I call funny, or hilarious in your ancient language." She gushed.

"I was nervous? Who said so?" I frowned. She chuckled while shaking her head and said, "You, you've been around humans for how long exactly?"

"Errr...200 years or so, maybe give or take a year?" I mused to myself.

"Right! And you know nothing about human emotions?" She raised a brow and I shook my head in denial. "NO! I might have been living among them for centuries but I was never involved with them, ever. Not after I turned of age. We are creatures of Nature. We do not feel like humans do. We're different; we're created and taught to be that way." I said.

"What way?" She asked inquisitively.

"To be emotionless. It is easier that way to carry on our responsibilities."

"The arrival and end of winter?" She asked and I nodded in response. "Yes! We were born to dye the world in white. This is our legacy."

"Are all the others sprites as pale as you?" She asked, quite interested if I might add.

"Do I look really that pale to you?" I raised my brows and she nodded quietly.

"As pale as the snow,yup!"

"No there isn't any other." I said and she grimaced in confusion. "I mean, there are other sprites, of summer, of spring and fall. But there isn't another winter sprite aside from me at the moment. One won't be born for the next 300 years or so."

"Why?"She looked almost as curious as me.

I smiled at her and explicated, "We never get old, but we are not immoral. We have a lifespan just like humans. Every 500 hundred years, a winter sprite demise and a new is born to continue his legacy. This is a cycle of nature, that is why we are so exotic, so precious. To kill a winter sprite is a great sin, because with it, millions of lives are allied."

She looked thoughtful for a moment, "Suppose an accident occurs, what then?"

"We are not like mundane mortals. We don't die of accidents." I said, "But still, if some accident do befall us, then our successor will be born sooner than expected."

All the while she looked at me in awe, like I was the core of her enthrallment, which I seemed to be. "Erm...so...you're very important to the man upstairs?" She mulled over, and I did the thing she did before. I mean I chuckled.

"Yes. You can say that. In a way. But I'm more of the type to be important to nature than to God. But I am a necessity to restore balance around the land." I said.

"Wow! This is...this is great. This is really cool." She cooed in excitement. "I can't believe that I'm actually talking to such an important guy."

I shook my head while still chuckling slightly and said, "Shouldn't you be terrified that you're talking to something inhuman?" And she frowned, "Inhuman? No. Non-human? Yes, and I'm not. Should I be terrified?"

"I don't know. Shouldn't you?" I questioned in turn, still wondering what was the difference between inhuman and a non-human. Why the exaggeration?

She just rolled her eyes and sighed, "You know what, I hate your habit of answering a question with a question. It really gets on my nerves."

"Nerves? Is something wrong with your nerves?" I asked, worried and her scowling expression turned into one of amusement. "No you idiot. I told you to not take everything so literally. It's simply a term used nowadays to mean I'm angry with you. You should be named King dimwit!" She laughed.

"Well, then they should invent something a bit literal in your age. How does 'gets on my nerves' relate to being angry? It's ridiculous." I exclaimed, huffing.

"Tell that to the inventor who thinks that nerves pop up everywhere when one gets angry." She shrugged and I shook my head at the irony of the present age. "And for the record, I was not named after an imbecile, if that is what you mean. My name, Rhiam originates from 'Rime', meaning ice. I understand the depth of the important words that are meant to be understood." I mouthed with pride.

"Wow! Really? Your world really is a literal one." She snickered, and I did what she did to show her distaste. I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, good! You're learning our ways with things way too quickly." She smirked, nodding mostly to herself.

"Well, what can I say; you're very clearly rubbing off on me." I shrugged and she considerably scoffed.

"It's getting late. You should leave." It was getting dark and there was no need for Norah to continue hanging around me for the entire time. She was a human, and she had a family. I understood that perfectly. I might be an unfeeling winter sprite but I did have a conscience of my own.

Never get in the way of humans if ever you happen to encounter one. The very hard and fast rule of the sprites.

"But, what about you? You can't be here. Alone. Homeless." She sounded concerned. Skeptical even.

Something moved inside me just then. She was concerned for someone who she was not obliged to care about in the slightest. A swirl of foreign emotion attacked me and I could hardly hold back the feeling of holding her in my arms. Try to soothe the sadness that she was trying so hard to hide. "Norah! Don't make me sound so pathetic now." I chuckled. "Do not forget that I'm not a human. I'm a snow sprite. The snow is my home. Where there is snow is where I reside. But thank you so much for worrying about me. You must go home now. Take the little snow-man with you as a token of thanks for worrying about me. But remember, magic does not last forever. The snow will melt eventually and so will the snowman parish."

She looked at me with glassy eyes and smiled the most dazzling smile I had ever seen a girl wear. "Thank you," she said. "I will treasure it. And I will help you find your glamour back. So you can count on me. I'll see you tomorrow Rhiam. Goodbye." With those fleeting words, Norah walked off towards her home with the snow-man in hand, leaving trails of fading footsteps on the snow beds behind her.

But the promise of Norah remained behind, dug in the deepest core of my mind. Could she really help me find my glamour back? If yes, could I really trust a human after what happened decades ago? Could I let history repeat itself?

Should I?