I felt someone's dark shadow looming over me and so I swiftly turned around to meet the very grey mischievous eyes of Norah Fitcherburt. I was too busy being shocked to actually breathe.

Norah didn't show up the next day like she promised, and not the day after the next day. So I assumed that she had decided to have nothing to do with a weird Winter sprite, like she preferred to describe.

"Wha-What are you doing here?" I asked, sucking in a deep breath. I never pegged myself to be this jumpy.

"What do you mean by what I'm doing here. Obviously I'm here because I said so, right? And your face looks like some still-faced pale bill board poster." She raised her amused brows quite perfectly.

"(Sigh)Don't jump out on me like that. You could even scare ghosts away if you do that." I huffed.

"Really?" She rather asked in sheer excitement and it finally donned to me that Norah Fitcherburt was not a normal human being. I just sighed in silence. So much for a quite cold snowy afternoon.

"I thought you didn't want to see me, since you didn't come the next day as promised." I inquired nonchalantly, even though I wasn't feeling as such. "That's not it. I was caught up with chores and work and I wanted to give you something today, so decided against my will. That, I would see you only after it's done. On Christmas eve, which is today." She shrugged in an uncaring manner.

"Really?" I raised my brows, my voice unusually excited. "What?"

"This!" She took out a beautiful scarf out of her bag and held it out in her hands. I slowly reached out to accept it, and when I held it in my hands I realized it wasn't like the one she presented me before. It was intricately designed. Bejewelled with an array of different stitches. I could tell it was very carefully woven. The glint of the wool indicated the tinge of a newly woven scarf. But then again, it was woven in pure blood-red. Norah, by my side was fidgeting restlessly, which was unusual. As far as I've gotten to know her, she wasn't the shy type. I would rather depict her to be the bold-to-the-face kind of girl. Hence, I concluded she was acting weird.

"Erm... is this for me?" I raised my brows.

"Of course it is. Do you think I do charity work by handing over handmade scarfs to everyone I cross paths with?" She rolled her eyes.

I took another look at the scarf and then asked, "Do I look that good in red that you'd weave me a red scarf, yet again?"

"What? No! Didn't you pay attention to any of my words just now? The scarf I gave you before wasn't hand-woven. I spent the whole weekend on this thing, so don't just go and compare it to that cheap ol' thing from the flea market. And FYI, red suits your pale complexion, as I've already told you before." She frowned, a little crossed. Maybe offended by the fact that I compared her great artwork to some shoddy commodity from the market.

I smiled at her pouting face and said, "You know, you are pretty hot tempered for a lady. Proper women are suppose to swallow their pride and be nice to everyone."

"What! Are you mocking me Rhiam?" She glowered a thousand daggers towards my skull. And I didn't know why, but I found a strange twisted pleasure from making Norah pissed and pout. She looked almost adorable. But I wasn't keen on risking my life by admitting such a fact to her.

So, I decided to quit playing around and take the safe route out, "Erm...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to deride your beautiful art. It's really beautiful. Thank you. But...I don't have anything prepared for you in return." I hung my head low, a little embarrassed because of my insensibility.

"Oh shush! Don't worry about such worthless stuff." She showed me a kind smile, her mood suddenly distorted. Yes! I shall state this, Norah Fitcherburt was a scary human being capable of uninform, too abrupt and certainly scary skills of temper tantrums. I doubt if anyone was able to read her frame of mind.

"Erm...so...where do you think we should look for answers for the mystery of my vanished glamour?" I asked.

"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn about your vanished glamour today." She deadpanned and I frowned. "We're going shopping." She said, rather a proclamation than an inquisitive phrase. I guess that leaves no room for any argument.

She animatedly took my hand into her warm ones and dragged me into the cold streets, away from the park.

*******

"Do I...have to wear this?" I sighed for the nth time and she subsequently rolled her eyes. "Duh! Thats the whole reason we are here."

"It is not statutory for me to wear these just because we came to this place." I sighed again.

"Yes you do," She retaliated.

"And why is that?"

"Because I said so! Now shu! Go and get dressed before I choose to dress you myself." She dismissed me with the wave of her hand and I huffed, tired and went to get into another pair of the uncomfortable modern trousers called jeans.

"Perfect! You look so good in that shirt." Norah gushed with twinkling eyes and I turned around to look at myself. A navy-blue checked shirt with the so-called faded jeans.What was so wrong with my previous attire? I looked exactly the same as usual, didn't I? I frowned to myself in the mirror.

And why the hell do they call these jeans faded when it's absolutely new? I shall never get used to the terms of this twenty first century. I sighed, dejected.

"Well? What do you think?" I realized that Norah was waiting for a response, apparently a positive one, from me. Now what was I suppose to say.

"Erm...good? I guess!" I muttered, unsure and her lips bloomed into a beautiful full smile as she nodded to me, but I was very certain that she was nodding mostly to herself in satisfaction. "Okay then, let's roll." She grinned as she grabbed me and walked out of the big-house market called 'The Mall'.

"Erm...don't you have to pay for them?" I asked, uncertain.

"Yeah! I do, and I already did." She shrugged in nonchalance as she dragged me towards some unknown direction. "But Norah, you know you don't have to do that for me. I'm not..."

"Yeah yeah, I've heard you enough. You're not human. You don't need to change clothes or attires. But that's not the point here. What about you hygiene huh? And you are visible to the humans now, so to mingle well with us, you've gotta look normal. Not draw any unnecessary attention to yourself and such. And for that, you have to dress like us." She explained and hence I nodded in silent comprehension.

*******

"So, what will you have? The hotdogs here are really a treat to relish in." She commented and I frowned at the choice of name of the weird dish called 'hotdog'. "Do they...really sell roasted dog meat here?"

She burst out into loud peals of laughter and shook her head, "No! I told you not to take everything so literally right. It's just the name of the dish. It doesn't have dog meat in it." See what I mean?

"Oh!" I exclaimed rather irritated. "I don't eat human food." I mumbled.

"What! Then what do you eat?" She scowled at me curiously.

"We don't have to eat to survive, Norah." I said.

"So...you don't...eat? at all?" She frowned oddly and I nodded in response. "So, you can't eat." She mused and I amended her, "We don't need to, I said."

"So you mean you can eat?" She suddenly looked all fascinated and probably excited for some odd reason. "I don't know. I've never tried eating before." I shrugged.

"Then let's try it now. I'm so sure that you're gonna lick your fingers clean when you taste the hotdogs here." She squawked, thrilled. Maybe because she just found a guinea pig to experiment her fascinations on.

"Norah!No! I'm not gonna act as your test subject here." I said in adamance.

"Of course not. I just want you to have a taste of heaven. You think I'm doing it for my own amusement?" She frowned and I frowned back, "Aren't you?"

"(Sigh)Why is it so hard for you to believe that I want you to try something new and exciting?" She huffed and I groaned heavily and said, "I cannot eat anything remotely hot. Since I'm a winter sprite. But maybe something chilly will do."

"Got it!" She grinned happily, "I'll get you a double- whipped ice-cream sundae." I smiled at her child-like grin, wondering how could such a kind human exist. I always sought humans out to be timid cruel creatures by nature, but after meeting Norah, I wasn't sure anymore. Maybe like us, they differ from one another in behaviour as well as reaction to things alien to them.

A smile such as that had not a single evil bone to it. On the contrary, Norah was the kindest soul I'd ever had the fortune of stumbling upon.

"Here you are, Sir!" The girl placed the ice-cream sundae dish on the table and weirdly batted her eyelashes. I must say, she had pretty long lashes. Looked good on her.

"Erm...thank you very much." I gave her a polite smile and she walked away giggling to herself. What a strange girl.

I looked away from the girl to a scowling Norah! And I raised my eyebrows inquisitively. But she simply chose to ignore me.

What now? Did I do something wrong now? Because I don't remember doing anything besides sitting down across Norah and tell her tales about my many journeys."The girl who brought us our food, her eyes lashes were pretty long, right?" I managed to say, having no other topic to break the actively building ice.

She suddenly whipped her head sharply in my direction and glared like she wanted to choke me to death. Okay! This girl had serious issues with her mood swings.

Scary!(Shudder)

"You know what, you're fascinated by very non-fascinating things. Like the flirting waitress's fake-lashes!" She sneered and I visibly gulped.

"What! Those were her fake eye lashes?" I frowned, confused.

"Yes! News flash! Many kinds of non-fascinating merchandise have been invented in the twenty first century to make women look beautiful in the outside. Though they failed miserably to work out on the insides." She spat out venomously. "So do not be fooled by such ugly-beauties."

"Erm...wait! You think that lashes girl is ensnared to me?" I asked, astounded.

"Please, try and use normal choice of words, would you? But I kind of got what you meant and the answer is yes, she is. Didn't you see the way she was batting her fake lashes at you and smiling like she wanted to gobble you up?" She said, distressed. I wonder why.

"Did she really wanted to eat me?" I asked, horrified. And she suddenly slapped a hand onto her forehead. That one got me off-guarded. "I can't believe you'd even think that. How many times do I have to tell you that you shouldn't take everything so literally?" She sighed.

"Well could you blame me? Your words are the ones that confuse me." I retorted.

"That was the whole point of telling you to stop taking everything so literally." She pointed out and I grimaced. "Well, what I really meant was that she seemed very interested in you. As in, wanting to make out with you."

"Make out with me?" I frowned yet again. This frowning thing seemed to be glued to my forehead these days. "Whatever in Heaven's name does that mean?"

She simply sighed and shook her head. "Nothing really. Never mind."

I kept staring at her curiously, she still seemed somewhat angry. Like she wanted to yell at me, maybe? I didn't really recognize her vibes. But she didn't seem to be smiling anymore. "You seem annoyed." I quietly stated and she rolled her eyes and said, "No shit Sherlock."

Now I don't even wanna know whatever that phrase meant. But I was sure that she was merely mocking me. "So you are annoyed then?" She decided to play it quietly and didn't utter a word. So I tried again, "Might it is related to the girl who served us our meals?" Now she just silently glared at me. Maybe it was a bull's eye!

She ate her roasted dog in silence, or was it a hot dog? I too slowly took the silver spoon and dug out a spoon full of frosty cream. After examining for a while, I slowly but cautiously placed it in my mouth and I melted into the taste, literally.

Norah seemed to have noticed me moaning, because a tiny ghost of a smile decorated her slightly parted pink lips. I knew a question was at the tip of her tongue but she was desperately trying to resist it.

After a while, when I couldn't take it anymore I spoke to break the awkward atmosphere, "Is this anger is what people call jealousy?" And quite suddenly her head snapped up to glare a thousand daggers at me. If looks could kill, well...I don't think that even a winter sprite could survive it. Her cheeks considerably coloured themselves into a darker shade of red. "Sorry? Come again?" She literally hissed. A-oh! Did I get her angrier again?

Lovely Rhiam! You just managed to sign your own death certificate.

"Erm...well...I... Never mind." I put the spoon full of iced cream into my mouth to stop blabbering any more nonsense that could be life threatening to me.

She still kept glaring at me, crimson faced. When I couldn't take the glares anymore I huffed and asked, "What now?" She suddenly scoffed and said, "You know, there are some things that you should learn to keep to yourself if you don't mean to anger the second party. For example, try not to be so blunt all the time. If you knew why I was irritated then it'd do some good to my ego if you just kept you mouth shut and not candidly point it out. How's that sound?"

"What? Whatever do you mean Norah?" I questioned in sheer bewilderment.

"Nothing." She muttered angrily.

"Norah!" But she cut me off short with a piercing glare.

Another long moment of uncomfortable silence loomed over us, until something clicked my mind. "Norah! Did by any chance...I may have got the bull's eye?" I questioned in uncertainty and no sooner had I spoken, her once red fuming face turned the colour of pure deep pink.

She was embarrassed. Does that mean that she was jealous? But was there any reason for her to get jealous if a stranger might have been interested in me? I did not understand the concept of jealousy then.

"You just don't understand the meaning of bluntness, do you?" Norah pouted with a pink face. She looked kind of adorable whenever she pouted. Maybe I had mentioned it before. But oh well.

"You look endearing when you pout." I stated frankly and now her face, along with her ears were a colour of bright scotching pink. "See what I mean? Why can't you keep your thoughts to yourself?" She shrieked.

"Erm...I was just complementing you." I tried to explain.

"I know that." She yelped.

"Then shouldn't you be expressing gratitude to me instead of yelling?" I scowled at her weird behaviour and she subsequently sighed. "There's no point in trying to teach you normal human ways."

'What is her problem?' I thought. She was angry at me for reasons unknown to me.

"Norah! I know that you want me to blend in with your crowd and I'm very grateful for your help and effort, but it'd be foolish to forget that I'm not a human being and hence I won't need to spend quality time with other humans once we find a way of restoring my glamour." I said.

Suddenly her annoyed look was replaced by a strange longing one, almost a nostalgic gaze. "Yeah! You're right." She muttered, but I doubt she meant it for me. Now, how the hell did I manage to make her sad?

Finding nothing else to say to lighten the mood, I blurted out the only thing that popped up in my head that moment, "This whipped cream is very delicious, whatever it is called."

Her terse sad look turned into a warm sunny smile all of a sudden and she said, "See? I told you. Isn't it just mouth-watering? This is my all time favorite flavor." She gushed happily and once again I was stuck speechless by her bizarre mood swings.

I shall have to remember never to lose my cool because of her concise mood swings.

"Erm...yeah! I guess so." I chuckled, a bit rueful.

"Want another?" She suddenly asked and I was about to fervently decline when someone called out to Norah from behind.

"Is that you Norah?" I didn't know who they were but Norah's face suddenly paled when she saw them. She abruptly grabbed my hand and muttered 'run' before dashing off towards the back door of the inn, or restaurant maybe.

I wondered what was going on with her.