A Yule Night
Looking through the window at the snowy evening Denver started his tea. He was a small arctic fox and lived with his mate and cub. His mate was a red fox named Herald and their cub was an adopted red fox and the name they gave her was Karma. Denver stirred the tea he had made from dried herbs and reminisced about the day they received young Karma. She was 5 years of age now and very well behaved for such a young age. Stirring the tea he closed his eyes and focused the energy to renewal. Renewal of time and energy, of love and caring, of their connection to the world and all it holds. He focused the energy toward life and the healing that comes with the rejoice that this night has brought. For tonight was Yule, the beginning of the year, a time to be reborn.
He finished the tea and said a quick thank you to the gods for the sacrifice the herbs had made to sustain him before he carried it in to his mate and daughter. They were both sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, which remained unlit. On top of the fire sat his alter, nothing much was there, just an athame that he had crafted himself from a dear bone and stone, a candle, a pentacle he carved, and a statue of his lord and lady, Arawn and Athena. He pored the tea into the waiting cups of his family and kissed his mate gently staring into his eyes. His mate may have not shared his religious beliefs but knew how important they were to Denver. His attention was drawn away from him when he saw Karma dragging the log they had set out to the fire. The log from last Yule was going to be the first burned. Denver smiled at her and her young hearted eagerness.
Herald got up to help her but Denver stopped him, he wanted to thank the gods in this way and he wanted to do it with Karma. Herald just nodded, understanding his mates desire to do things according to the tradition he was taught. He took the Yule log in one paw and the excited cub in the other. He showed her how to set the paper and kindling so that the fire could start easily. It took Karma a few tries to get it like her father bet eventually she did and he could only smile at her excited yips. Denver took her paw in his and guided her with the match to light the fire. It lit on the first try and Denver stared into the small flames thanking fire for his cooperation on this night. Standing up with Karma clinging to his hip he lit the candle on his alter asking his lord and lady in silence that they would guide him so that he may open his mind to accept what the new year had to offer.
Flicking his long bushy tail, he signaled for his mate to join him and their daughter. All three of them placed the Yule log on the fire and watched it as it slowly caught. Denver watched as the energy around him began to grow. The fire gave its energy as it blazed to life, feeding on the last year's death. The wind was beating against the window outside, water was frozen to the earth. The elements were one inside him and he sat with his eyes closed to humble himself to their essence. He asked for his lord and lady to come and join him and meditated for a time with all of the energies on how to start over with the year, and what lessons he had learned from the last.
When he came out of his meditation he did so with the renewed energy of the world, tonight was the longest night and the sun, the energy itself, was to be reborn. He looked from his cub who was staring at him questioningly to his mate who had grabbed his tea from the fireplace and handed it back to Denver. He drank the tea slowly, feeling everything that had been put into making it running through his body. His mate and cub were already done with their second cup by the time he had finished his first.
Denver finished his tea and got up to go to the bedroom, coming back with a box which he then gave to Karma. He would have gotten something for his mate but they were short on supplies money so they had agreed to pile in their money to give something special to their daughter. She took the box excitedly but at a look from Herald she opened it very slowly. It was cute watching her carefully peal the box open, only to peer inside and find tissue paper. Denver pored himself another cup of the tea and sat himself down on his mates lap, kissing the side of his jaw. Karma, who was still being careful with the paper finally got to the center and immediately got up to hug her two dads. It was a carving that Denver had done in marble of a young red fox sitting in a maple tree. When they had traveled Karma loved to play in maple trees, she had some sort of connection with them that none of the family could, or want to try and explain.
The three of them dragged out their mattresses on the floor by the fire, which they had put the rest of the logs that they cut in, but one which would serve at the start of the next year. They all curled up by the fire welcoming the new year in their own way, by sleeping next to the old year dying. He kissed the top of Karma's sleeping head and leaned into his mate, thanking the gods for bringing them all through the only year and into this one before he drifted into a deep, dreamless, sleep.
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I own this story and all the charictors in it.