Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

Ah, so you've got my notice, dear reader. We will fast forward a century and see how Daniel copes with the passage of time. Be forewarned, you may not like what you read. The story, as I was told, was written on a few leaves blown about by Wind. It is short and we miss much of the events that has passed in between the last chapter and this one. Perhaps I will consult my building blocks and see if Kari is willing to part with another story of her flower child, though I am told by Clockwork that the beloved of the Princess of Saturn wishes his story to be told next. So I shall see you again anon when we shall draw the curtain upon "My Emerald Valentine".

Spring Forward

"Mind if I sit?" a girl with short, straw-colored hair asked, putting her tray down on the table next to him. Her gray eyes crinkled lightly in the corners.

"No," he replied, "Go ahead."

"Good," she stated. "I was gonna anyway. This place is really weird."

"You get used to it after a while," he answered. "I'm Daniel Spring."

"Margaret Angela Darling," she replied, taking a bite of her cheese sandwich. "For an insane school, the food's delish. Why are you looking at me like that? Do I have cheese on my face or something?"

"You're one of the Mothers," he whispered in awe.

"Yeah, I guess," the girl said around a mouth of cheese. "What is a Mother anyway?"

"One girl is chosen by the spirits to spend a week at the College of the North in order to teach others the Spells," Daniel recited verbatim the passage from the school's handbook.

"Sounds wonky," Margaret muttered, taking a loud slurp of the hot cocoa from her blue clay mug.

"You don't believe in spirits?" Daniel asked astonished.

"I'm really locked up in this top secret psychiatric ward of the government's," she whispered, touching her index finger to her lips. "Shh!"

Daniel back his head and laughed. "For the first 50 years, MiM suspended the rules of belief, but it didn't work too well. I see his point now. You are the strangest girl I ever met, not counting Sam."

He stood and picked up the copy of Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island he was currently reading. "Start believing. The school is not as empty as it appears."

"I still don't believe in spirits," she told him.

"You've just had a conversation with one," he retorted, a smirk on his face. She looked stricken. "You believe in something, or you wouldn't be able to hear or see me. See you around."

After leaving MiM's newest Mother, Daniel dumped his tray and floated up to the platform that housed the bibliotheque. He waved to Day, who was dancing in the cool breezes blowing through the large arches that counted as windows and doors in the Seasons' suites.

"What's up?!" she called out to him.

"Just tired," he called back.

"Daniel, you just woke up!"

"I know," he replied. "It doesn't get any easier no matter how many years have gone by."

"Mother has already spoken to you about...the corridor twisted again, didn't it?" Day looked at him in sympathy.

"It hurts," he lamely replied. "Just don't talk about it, Day."

"What about your companion?"

"Gone, like all the others," Daniel mournfully answered. "Palasha was killed in that skirmish between North and the King of the Void. Jack lost Steve too."

"Only Aditsan and India live on," Day said. "And quit moping about. Anybody see you?"

"Just Jamie and Sam. It was just before Sam disappeared into the mountains to find the Star Witch."

"Never seen Sanderson so scared," Day laughed, catching a hint of a smile from her little brother. "Knowing Jack, if we can catch him, we might be able to prank him and the Easter Kangaroo together."

"Classic," he told her, smiling his first real smile of the day.

"Ends are not bad things, they just mean that something else is about to begin. And there are many things that don't really end, anyway, they just begin again in a new way. Ends are not bad and many ends aren't really an ending; some things are never-ending."
― C. Joybell C.