Snow on the shore
Winter has befallen us. Midveilers all over the country enjoy the season by taking long walks along snow covered plains, staying inside under safe covers, reading, knitting or making friends! One thimblet usually stands out in all of this, the one and only Andromeda, well, Andy for short. The small midveiler was strutting around the frozen beach enveloped in zeir beach towel. The beach zey knew to call home was close to inhabitable in the winter, the sea was cold and the sand covered in a deep layer of snow. Andy didn’t know where to go, it seemed as though zey would have to rely on…………..someone. Truly this is where the problem lied, THE andromeda? Asking for help? Now that would be quite a sight. But they were not in the mood to spend the last of the season bedridden in a sad case of hypothermia, therefor they treated themselves to a walk, maybe wasting some time looking around the bay its seen a thousand times already could benefit the utter boredom and cold it was facing.
As they went around the ruins of a once standing village, they heard something. “Hello stranger.” Andy’s automatic response was first, sheer fear. “Who the hell could be on this beach so late ?” zey thought. And second, they screamed aloud “Who are you and what ar- WELL ACTUALLY I DONT EVEN WANT TO KNOW!” the small thimblet crossed zeir arms and sat to rest zeir back on an eroded stone wall. Coming towards them was a white coated druidic arborling wearing a black tank top and a banana leaf skirt. It was lydia, an acquaintance, she lived on the shore where Andy resided and theyd interact from time to time, usually, in arguments. “I was around to collect a few branches in order to start my oven, what are you doing here? Its so cold, and you’re not covered one bit!”
Andromeda deep down, definitely wanted to ask for help and yet, they couldn’t, showing themselves so vulnerable to Lydia would be fruitless! And also extremely embarrassing, the latter, mostly. “Well i was actually going out on this wonderful walk, as for not being covered, well, its this new thing called….” Andy looked around in distress and spotted an hermit crab scuttling off into the wilderness. “... CRABBING! Its called crabbing, you know like, when.. When hermit crabs cant find a seashell theyre not covered, its really good for the skin, yes… WHATEVER! You wouldnt understand anyways i bet.” Andy scuffed and looked away, as to say to leave them alone, and Lydia did just that, she squinted and nodded her head to exemplify that she definitely knew what crabbing was and left the thimblet in their world. Andromeda slowly opened their eyes to see Lydia walk away. At this sight, zey stood right back up to catch the arborlings attention. “I just got done with my crabbing session!!! See, im just so tired from all that… crabbing. Won’t you help a thimblet out? Give them a drink of water maybe? Its just so hard out there for us!”
Though it was not Andy’s intention, Lydia understood the tight spot they were in. “Huh-uh, i get it, come on over already.” she responded. Andy followed suit and rushed to the arborling’s side. A few minutes later the two midveilers stopped at a small hut. “There we go. Get in.” The humble abode was makeshift yet still very functional. Andromeda entered through a bead curtain, the inside of the house had a warm, rustic style to it and frankly, it was quite comforting. Lydia went ahead and layed the branches at the bottom of a small clay oven and started a fire, she was prepping for a stew. Andy walked up to the table, it’s legs too short to get onto a chair it repeatedly attempted to hop onto the seat until proving successful and laying it’s head on the colorful rug dressing the table. It felt refreshing, ironically, to be in such a comfy looking environment. The thimblet’s head drifted to the side of the room where a potted palm tree layed,decorated in all types of colors reminiscent of midwinter. one small present was at the bottom of the festive display, a nametag was tightly hanged on the ribbon wrapping the box together, it said “for: Mel”. Mel was the name of the annoying grunt who waddled around the beach from time to time, Oh, it was also the name of Lydia’s son.
Andy let itself drift off to a well deserved nap, and gripped its towel a little close to its chest.
An hour or so later, the smell of vegetables woke them up. A wooden bowl full of warm soup was at their front, and sitting next to them was Lydia, sipping off a spoon. She looked at andy and lifted her eyebrows to invite them to dig in. Andy felt the need to assert themselves once more “A mere soup huh, I’ll take it…. But only because ive been starving today!” they let out a small sigh in an haughty tone as they looked away from the arborling, arms crossed. After a few moments of silence, Andromeda furiously grabbed the bowl to chug down the carefully concocted stew, and wiped off some of the residue on their cheek with a rug.
“Thank you for……everything” the thimblet let out shyly as the night went along on the cold beach.