The snow fell without end. The gelid wind of the new year whistled through the roofs and trees dragging giant clouds that covered the kingdom with thick and cold shadows. The evening was falling early as it was usual on winter and the light quickly escaped the jaws of day ceding its reign to the gray darkness of the silent night.

The palace was covered with a white frosty mantle and the tall towers with lit windows gleamed through the snow and blizzard. The young prince looking to the giant crystal window garnished with a golden frame and fancy red velvet curtains, had been long sunk in thought, contemplating the glittering little figures that sparkled in the darkness and danced with the wind as hordes of phantoms. Such were winters in the great palace: this was not a prince who loved the pompous celebrations the royal residence ostentated to greet the upcoming year. He preferred not to take part in the sumptuous feasts that announced the arrival of the spring when the giant ball room of the main floor was filled with the most illustrious characters, dukes, counts, princes and kings; some bringing slaves and escort, many of them coming from a distant land with the purpose of staying many weeks. Most of them bringing their daughters with; beautiful maidens that beamed with youthful grace, whose extreme beauty expected to be rewarded with the gallant proposal of a noble lad worthy of such a lovely and delicate hand.

More than one of this noble characters -including the prince's august parents -which proud themselves in having the richest kingdom, the bravest army, the fanciest palace and finest son of all the continents- expected that the handsome heir to their throne to be one of the lucky lads which seized by the irresistible charm of one of those dazzling princesses would celebrate at spring the happy union of two kingdoms in holly matrimony.

To speak with truth, this "celebrating the spring" feast was nothing but a clever excuse the king and queen made up to organize all sort of parties to give their son the chance of meeting all the richest prettiest ladies around as they worried realizing that the time passed and their son still didn't chose a wife. But none of these beauties succeeded in capturing his heart, which for so many years now was haunted by the charm of a delicious creature beyond all the princesses in the world.

For him it was no cause of joy at all the coming of the spring.

Frostie... she was no princess, noble or lady. She wasn't commoner or peasant. She was nothing but a fairy, invisible, intangible, inaccessible, yet the only one that filled his heart and dreams. Frostie, the snow fairy... She might be a fairy, perhaps a nymph or maybe a specter. Nobody was sure... nobody cared either. She was the only one for him, his deathless love, his unattainable dream.

The winter brought her to him and he could feel her presence so real that it seemed he could have just reached out his hand and touch her. He could feel her breath each time the gelid breeze blew, he felt her voice when the wind whistled through the trees, he felt her silky hair in the snow that fell gently above the kingdom... In the freezing nights, when the fire extingued and the moon peeked from behind the gray clouds, illuminating the sky like a giant pearl, he saw her lovely smile, traced on the window, her gleaming eyes twinkling at him high in the sky...

The winter meant for him the coming of his beloved Frostie. His old nurse had told him so many nights during his childhood:

"Frostie is the snow fairy... She might be a fairy, perhaps a nymph, or even a specter... nobody's sure; nobody cares either. When the wintertime is coming she awakes from her prolonged slumber and descends to the earth to cover the world with snow and frost. Blows around the trees to let their leaves fall down and sings to bring the clouds around her. The sun bows to her and knows it's time to rest when she lulls him with her lovely voice. The king of the stars cuddles in the clouds and sleeps his long nap leaving the world to Frostie and her will. Sometimes he wakes up sleepy and lazy, without any mood of warming and he just peeks through the clouds to see the pretty fairy dancing in the air; but he'll always go to sleep early to leave her alone with the moon. Because they're sisters and tell each other secrets -that's why the moon looks bigger and smiles often: she comes closer to the world to hear Frostie whisper in her ear, with her breeze voice, while she combs her silver hair.

"Every time she combs her hair thousands of little flowers fall from it, above the woods and mountains, houses and palaces; they fly in the air, dancing in the wind and when the moon touches them with her pale glow they turn into sparkling snow flakes. When the earth is finally covered all with white Frostie descends to the fields and meadows in her long winter dress, glittering as ice, fragile as the mist, so divinely ornated that mortal imagination even fails to describe it. The fairies sew it for her during spring. They make her a new one every year with the first flowers that blossom in the woods. They embroider exquisite designs with pink sunbeams they collect at sunset and decorate it with dew from the early morning like no seamstress in the world could ever do it. Frostie looks beautiful when she comes down -just like the queen she is. Her skin in so pale she can disguise in the snow that covers the hills, and her shining pale eyes gleam like the moon; all of her is glowing.

"The creatures of the wood withdraw back to their holes to let her play at ease in her new kingdom, leaping from hill to hill, flying in the wind and skating on the lakes and rivers, with the grace of a snow flake dancing in the breeze.

"The fairies follow her to comb her long hair when she's tired of her games and rests under the bare trees. They wake her up if any mortal comes around for no human being can see her... At the beginning of spring Frostie must go back to her ice castle in Winter Land where the snow never melts and the sun has no power at all. There she sleeps until the warm colorful seasons pass, when the sun feels tired again and she'll wake up to sing for him and make him sleep and return to our land bringing wind and snow and frost as she's done since the beginning of our time...

"If you look hard when you go around the woods in winter, at the end of the day when the sun is going to sleep and the fields and meadows blush, perhaps you'll see her... sleeping in the snow with her long silver hair scattered around her, in her long ice dress, with her sparkling jewels and lovely face...

"But should you ever encounter her beware, boy! Even the sun can't look at her without losing his strength. No mortal man should look into her eyes -remember: her glow will blind you and you shall never free your heart of her bewitching beauty. Never! You'll be sentenced to wonder through the meadows every winter trying to find her, languishing with love and you'll freeze until you die..."

Thus the old woman's hoarse voice spoke tenderly as her little eyes beneath her pale brow and white hair fixed on the little prince that laid peacefully in his golden cradle while her white wrinkled hand rocked it softly. As he closed his eyes faking a slumber he thought about the lovely ice maid envisioning the day when, turned into a handsome youth, he could look far and wide the frozen forest and finding her asleep under the trees he could take her to his castle and she would become his bride.

Time indeed turned him into a handsome lad, tall, strong, brave and charming. But hose qualities were useless in his trying to find the winter nymph that captivated his dreams.

Not a year went by when the young prince didn't ride along the kingdom searching every inch trying to find the mysterious winter girl. Not a year went by when he didn't witness seized by the deepest heartache the beginning of the spring knowing that his mission failed.

Each springtime his parents spoke of marriage but he insisted that his wife should be Frostie, the snow fairy, no one else! The king and queen tried to persuade him that such nonsense was a mere fantasy created by his nanny and insisted on his marrying a real girl, a human girl. But he stubbornly locked in his room and awaited the next snowfall.

Every year little Frostie followed him along his ride through the woods, hearing him calling her name repeated times, fascinated with his voice, tortured knowing she was so close and couldn't answer... Frostie loved the prince too. She too waited eagerly for the winter to arrive to descend to the world and see him and follow him through the frost in the lonely chilly nights.

She guided him along the roads when he lost his way through the labyrinths of trees, protected him from the snow and wind when he got weak and called him by his name with her sweet voice trying to make her presence known singing for him, blowing softly near his ear, kissing his cheeks with her glacial lips...

But she was a fairy and he was a man. And humans can't see supernatural creatures -unless they're just innocent children.

Every spring Frostie saw, just like the prince, how the winter ended and the sun once more would interpose between them. And, like the prince, she too returned to her castle, crumbling apart with despaired tears, tortured and tormented by this unrealisable love.

(This story was finished on May 1997)