***
Graupel showed up at dinner hungry as he made his way inside the palace walls. It wasn't that he didn't like eating dinner with his folks and family, it was the simple fact that there was so much work to be dealt with that he didn't have any time for anything else. And it constantly seemed that his beloved mother was on a warpath of matchmaking. All of his siblings seemed to stay out of her way as often as they could.
He remembered the younger years when things were simple. When the palace didn't look so soft he thought, taking in the white crystals that were forming at the tips of the castle towers. It had appeared less blue in the last few years and today it seemed to be drooping.
He wondered briefly if the palace was fine, but reasoned that here in the winter realm it was impossible for anything to melt. With that reassuring thought in mind, he made his way to the dining room to be greeted by his dear mother Blitz.
“By the moon and stars,” she stated dramatically as she opened up her arms and embraced him. “It’s my youngest. How long has it been?” she inquired, drawing away with mischief in her eyes. “Three hundred years? No,” she stated, answering herself. “That can't be correct. Perhaps a thousand.”
Graupel let out an amused snort. “Correct me if I'm wrong, Mother, but it can't be that long. A thousand years ago, I was practically a toddler then.”
“I believe we're still at that end,” she returned as she patted his arm. “Well, no matter. You’re here, so let's sit down and eat.”
He had merely been a few minutes late and all of his brothers and father were already sitting down. Inhaling slowly to get a grip, he took his usual place across from his twin Firn and greeted everyone.
“I'm glad you could make it son,” his father greeted. “Let's eat and then later we can talk.” It wasn’t a question. Graupel nodded, his mind going a mile a minute on what his father was wanting to discuss. The dinner he usually enjoyed settled heavy in his stomach. During supper, the soft conversation flowed around the table, but he remained quiet.
When he was through, Graupel dutifully followed his father out from the dining room and into his office, shutting the door behind him as his dad proceeded over to his Liquor Cabinet for a tumbler.
Son,” he began, holding out the tumbler with the auburn liquid inside. Graupel took it and waited, wondering what was on his father's mind. “I'm concerned about you. About how withdrawn you’ve become and this obsession over the Dashes. I believe you need some guidance.” He finished, filling his own tumbler.
“Guidance? I don't need guidance.” he argued, walking over to his desk and setting down his tumbler. “What I require is more time. More time to figure out the best course and where we should go and-”
His mouth snapped shut when his father put up a hand, stopping him in his tracks and explanation.
“Son, you do not need more time. You do not require more courses.” Frost took a sip of his amber liquor and set his glass on his desk beside his sons before shifting back to him. He clenched one of his hands into a fist and brought it up to his stomach. “You need to know it here.” Then he brought it to his chest. “And here.”
Graupel’s expression hardened and Frost noticed.
With tightening fists at his sides, he declared in a harsh tone. “I have father.”
Frost heart clenched with the fear that the blue ice might have already caught him. Sounds of a tortured soul.
“I have made every effort, and it appears to not work for me. It is simpler to do it with my calculations and measuring,” he insisted. “I can do Dashes. I have been doing them.” he gestured around the place. “We still have snow this season. It hasn’t changed. The only part that has changed is-”
His father interrupted him once more. “-is that Summer is taking over. I need you to be on top of things. I know you're trying son but it's not enough. Can't you see our walls our softening?”
“Just give me some more time. I know I can do this. Don't take this one thing away from me. The one thing that I can do.”
His father sighed. “One chance and this is what I require of you. I expect you to try, once more, to find the instinct that you need to be able to chart the Dashes. To reach inside your soul and let instinct take over which path that we must take to be in sync opposite with Summer-not against. Fall and Spring have even noticed our plight. Let's prove them wrong.”
Shoulders slumped and Graupel replied, “And what is it that you need me to do, father?”
“I need you to go to Glacier Temple and walk the many paths within the walls, as you have done as a child, and see if you can find yourself once again. Not this hard unforgiving and calculated man that you are today. Find your instinct and possibly…”
Graupel’s eyes narrowed. “And what?”
A ghost of a smile appeared on his father's face “And possibly something unexpected.”
“Is that all?” His dad gave a nod and his son spinned away storming out of his office. “Oh, and also take a Zen class.”
Frost sat down in his chair relieved and worried. A Zen class? He hoped he was doing the right thing and briefly wondered how his dear old friend Colder was doing with his own offspring.
Chapter Two
Colder watched his daughter focus all her attention on the tablet in front of her. It was dinner and there should be a limit where when enough was enough. Surely she could spare a half hour for dinner, engaging in social conversations with her siblings and her parents. No matter how much his wife tried to draw her into the conversation Diamond resorted to one word comments that were often clipped and straightforward.
"Daughter, why do you bury your head in those books? Surely there is enough conversation about to gain your interest."
Diamond raised her head from the tablet she had been focused on and picked up a red apple from the centerpiece bowl in the middle of the table. "One who reads will gain knowledge over one who does not. I’d rather be knowledgeable than a conversationalist."
"Oh dear sister," her eldest and only sister pouted. "It is you who seems to lack the knowledge of words to have a conversation and not the other way around."
"Penitent, that was uncalled for!”
Her sister turned her wry expression towards their father and innocently replied, “I was only stating the truth."
Not preferring to deal with confrontation, Diamond took the apple and shined it on her shirt as she stood. “I think the voices have tired me today and I am going to take my little non-conversationalist body-” she glared at her sister. “-to my room. If any of you want to seek me out for any other reason be my guest, but for now, I'll be there.” then she bit into the red fruit and picked up her black tablet and started to leave.
“Come now,” her mother soothed, catching a hold of Diamonds arm before she ran off. “Let's not act like children. You two are over seventeen hundred years old now. You should act as such.”
Even though her mother’s voice was soft, it held an edge that Diamond believed she shouldn't ignore. “Sit down, child of mine. Put down the tablet for a moment and finish your food.”
Pursing her lips, Diamond sat down hard into her chair and turned and glared at her sister across the way. “I hope you're happy,” she stated as she tucked her tablet between her thigh and the chair. It was the only place she could set it without it being a temptation.