A/N: This is why I should not listen to classical Christmas music at work; I end up getting inspired and writing instead of working. This was loosely inspired by the pagan festival of Yule.

She was cold – cold, lost, and alone.

The icy winds of winter caressed her pale skin and the dark shadows of shortened days embraced her frozen heart.

The woman draped in black walked between the hibernating trees. Waking on the longest night of the year she had been pulled from her bed by a force unknown and led out of her hovel and deep into the Darkling Forest.

The pull was not so persistent that she could not overcome it, but something deep in her womb told her to continue on. A sense of peace overcame her normally volatile state the deeper she traveled into the wild. So she continued on hoping she was not walking to her death.

Just as the sun began to make its way over the distant mountains she collapsed at the edge of a clearing unable to travel further.

A figured came from the other side of the clearing then, slowly, cautiously making its way to the fallen lady.

The world stopped and waited with pregnant breath as the willowy slip of a man bent and plucked his lady from the frozen forest floor bringing her into the light of a new day.

She opened her eyes and gasped as warmth filled her frozen limbs and light filled her sight. Her heart thawed like the ground in spring after a long winter.

"The cycle has begun anew, My Lady." The slight man whispered into her ear as he held her close – turning towards the sun that had begun to take hold over the longest of winter's nights.

"Darkness must bow before dawn may break." She whispered back.

"And does it bow, My Lady?"

"The darkness must always bow to the light of dawn just as the sun must bow to the moon when night once again falls." Calm filled the woman's soul as she contented herself to be held in the arms of a man she once called enemy.

He placed her back down upon the frozen earth, but she did not pull away, merely grasped his hand in hers and turned towards the frozen sunrise.

The earth once again began its journey around the sun as the Lord and Lady stood side by side and watched the dawning of a new day.

Morgana stood and observed the world below her. The reflection of the dawn's light on the snow making everything glimmer and shine. She glanced at her companion and saw in Merlin the fire that would melt her ice, the light to hold back her darkness, and smiled a true smile.

She was home.