Lindow woke up early this morning as a cold breeze found his way in the cave he was sleeping in. As he opened his eyes slowly a few snowflakes danced elegant through the air landing on his face.
Instictively he tried to catch the flakes with his tongue. There is nothing better on a winters day as waking up and playing around! After getting one he streched his arms and yawned "Such a surprise! Yesterday was a pretty warm day and now snow... weird." As he looked around he couldn't find Ai anywhere nearby "Ai?! Where are you? Are you awake? Do you want to go outside for a bit?" But he heard no response from anywhere. "Hm... if you have nothing against it i will go for a walk now! I will be back in the evening, so don't wait for me if you have to do something important!"
Lindow stood up, quickly washed his face and hair in the freezing cold cave river and took on his scarf. "And here we go!" Outside, everything was covered in a deep layer of pure white snow and at the sky dark grey clouds slowly passed their way. "It starts to snows again! There's already laying so much so on the ground! That's amazing!" Lindow smiled over his etire face and jumped into a pile of snow. "What the villagers will do if so much snow has fallen? Maybe i should take a look... just to make sure nobody is in danger " he told himself. But in reality he knew that no humand must see him - no matter what because dolls in this form doesn't exist in their world.
Lindow decided to take a walk throught the forest to reach the village. He loves the animals and plants, which crosses his path everytime he walked through. And now, with the snow, many animals and plants are asleep and causes the forest to be very silent. This silence is what Lindow sometimes seeks on purpose to escape the many influences, which surrounds him.
As his hands started to get cold he puts them in his pockets and walks a bit faster to heat his body up again. An owl watched out for the ground. Maybe a mouse or another prey animal will show up but today it has no luck.
Lindow walked for about an hour as he reached some kind of plateau.There were no trees, just huge rocks and, right in front of him, a cliff, that let him see faw-off distances. "There it is! With all that snow the town isn't so invisible anymore." Lindow made his way down the cliff. Jumping carefully from rock to rock until he found himself standing on the ground again. There he reminded somehing Ai told him once "Today is a special day for the human race... i think they called it... hmm... right! They called it 'the time of giving'! Let's see how they prepare for it. Ai said, they have lots of beautiful colourful lights... everywhere!" Again Lindow smiled and can not wait any longer until he reached the city.
As he reached the first house he only moved in the shadows. In the center of the town a large tree was decorated with thousand of lights. In many gardens blue glowing reindeer figures decorated the paths to their entrance, that was even more decorated with all kind of glowing things!
Lindow had luck and was abl to take a peek into a living room of a family. The kids decorated the tree. The dog rest near the fire, the mother baked or cooked in the kicthen and their father read the newspaper but also kept an eye on his children. Everything was harmonic and everyone had something to laugh when they were together.
In his heart started a warm feeling to spread in his body. It made him happy to see how other don't have any problems or fights. But also a deep feeling of sadness flew through his mind. They had loved ones around them and what about himself? He always had Ai with him but in his heart he felt he wanted another doll to talk to, share experience and being there for the other one. In deep thoughts, he decided to head back to their cave.
The way back wasn't as long as the way to the city. The sun started to set and covered everything in a orange light. "I hope Ai is back from whatever he has done the whole day..." As he finally reached the entrace an hour later, the stars already shown on the sky. The clouds disappeared and gave Lindow a clear view on the milky way. He turned around and looked at the stars. Without saying anything he took a deep breath in and out "One day i will find someone special to me too..." he whispered and closed his eyes for a short time. Then he turned around again and before he could set a foot in the cave Ai appeared right before him.
"I told you more than once that you shouldn't scare me like that... Ai." Ai's ears went down and he looked to the ground. "Forgive me but i need to show you something!" Lindow was surprised and couldn't think about anything. Ai walked into the cave and let Lindow understand that he shall follow him.
In the cave Ai jumped on flat rock, where many different crystal shards formed a pile. "Look!" He took out the shard with the feather in it and placed it in a specific direction.In that moment a ray of moon light brightend the cave and the crystalshards break and reflected the light in a specific direction. Lindow stepped aside and couldn't believe his eyes "It's... beautiful! Just like the northern lights..." he whispered to himself. "Happy time of giving!"Ai appeared on his shoulder and stroke his fluffy cheek on his. "Don't be sad anymore! If the times come you will find your other half too! Until then let me acompany you on your jouney!" Lindow looked at Ai, took him from his shoulder and pressed him gently on his chest. "Thank you so much Ai! Thank you so much...!"