In the pure white snow, a clump of thorny bushes bearing red fruits was revealed. A little bird with brown feathers landed on a branch of the thorn bush, pecked at the red fruit, chirped twice, then spread its wings and flew away again.
As its wings fluttered, the snow on the thorn bushes rustled down, revealing more red hidden beneath the snow.
Several little people, only the size of a few fingers, ran over from afar. They rode on the cold wind, clutching the snowflakes that occasionally drifted down. Seeing this cluster of thorny red fruits, they stopped, calling for their companions to gather around.
In the winter here, people were accustomed to using thorn fruits and evergreen fir branches to make bouquets, hanging them in front of their doors and windows.
Those non-human fairies also liked these rare bright colors.
Several tiny fairies were hugging the thorny red fruits and pulling hard, when suddenly, they let out short cries of alarm.
“Ah—”
“It’s coming!”
“It’s the swamp monster!”
“Hate it, why did it come here again—”
This winter, all the fairies living near the forest had learned some news — that swamp monster who lived in the wilderness would often suddenly run over to the forest.
According to his former habits, he rarely left the wilderness. In winter, he would not move at all — in past years, one would never see the swamp monster for the entire winter. Only when the spring rain fell continuously would the swamp monster wander around. But now, they could see him every two days.
“Hurry, hurry…”
“Don’t let him notice us! We’ll get entangled!”
“So scary—”
The little fairies, clutching the red fruits, fled in a hurry from that tall, thin figure who was getting closer and closer, as if avoiding a plague.
The swamp monster, draped in a checkered shawl, slowly walked to the thorn bushes. He looked at the bright red for a while, then reached out and broke off a few branches bearing fruit.
Then, he walked toward a familiar path — the place he often visited this winter.
There were no swamps or mud pits there, but going there made him feel happy.
Meili had cut some soft fir branches from the forest and brought them back, carefully cleaning them one by one, while thinking about where to find some thorn fruits.
Last night, the fairies who hid in the house enjoying the fireplace mentioned bouquets made with soft fir and thorn fruits. She had nothing better to do anyway, so she decided to try making one, adding a bit of new decoration to the house.
After winter arrived, the garden slept, wildflowers withered, and the world looked much more monotonous.
“Crack—” She was trimming the soft fir branches when she lifted her head and saw the swamp monster standing outside the yard, half his body leaning in.
“Hi, come to see me again?” Meili smiled as soon as she saw him, already used to this cute gentleman frequently showing up on his own.
As if it was because that time she went to find him and brought him back from the wilderness — afterward, even without her going to look for him, he would come by himself.
However, not every time he came did he bring a gift.
Meili looked at the red thorn fruits in his hand, then at the green fir branches in her own hand. According to the saying from her world, this should be called “a tacit understanding between hearts.”
She twisted the soft fir branches into a circle, paired them with the red fruits, and tied them together, making a wreath.
Meili held the finished wreath in front of the swamp monster and shook it lightly, “See this wreath? It’s for you.”
As she spoke, she lifted her skirt and stepped onto a large stone beside her, stretching out her hand to place the wreath over the swamp monster’s head.
She had originally planned to make a wreath to wear around the neck, but since she made it too small, it could only be worn on the head.
Feeling that this was still not enough, Meili made two soft fir and thorn fruit bracelets, one for the swamp monster’s wrist, and one for her own.
He glanced at the bracelet on his wrist, then at the one on Meili’s. The swamp monster reached his hand out toward her, and Meili naturally stretched out her hand to hold his — a hand much larger than that of an ordinary person.
“Come on, let’s go for a walk in the forest.”
Compared to other seasons, the winter forest had many more traces of fairies. All kinds of footprints scattered across the snow — invisible to ordinary people, but Meili could see them clearly.
In winter, many fairies would leave the deeper, colder parts of the forest and move closer to where humans gathered. Now, every night when she lit the fireplace, many fairies would drop by uninvited.
Each time she looked at the snow outside the window, she would think of the swamp monster.
In such cold weather, couldn’t he leave the marshes in the wilderness and just live nearby?
When she asked him this question, he was silly as always. Every time he came to see her, if she didn’t ask him to stay, he would quickly return to the wilderness by the same path.
If she did ask him to stay, then he would wait until she walked into her garden, and then go back to the marsh in the wilderness.
…Headache.
So during this time, she had quietly done a bit of small work.
Meili pulled him to the lakeside where he used to like staying the most.
“Look.”
By the lakeside, leaning toward the water, there was a large tree. On its branches, a wooden shelter had been added.
The shelter was built on the trunk of the big tree, covering a corner above the water. A frame made of the tree trunk, a roof formed by intertwining branches, and layered with dried thatch and twigs.
Now, a thick layer of snow had already fallen on top of it.
“Ahem, I made that. If you can only live in a swamp, you can actually stay here for a while too. The wind isn’t strong here, and it can block the snow…”
“Otherwise, how about you move over here?”
Meili wasn’t sure whether he could understand her meaning.
The swamp monster only glanced once at the shelter, then kept looking at her.
Meili felt a little troubled. She stretched out both arms, and when he bent down, she held his face and rubbed it hard.
“You don’t want to live here because the swamp here is too small, right?”
The swamp monster slowly bent forward toward her. Meili sensed something off about his posture — it seemed like he was going to hug her.
She froze, and the next moment, she was lifted up completely.
Meili: “Ah!”
She was lifted by the swamp monster! Her entire field of view rose instantly.
The swamp monster, holding her, stepped into the water.
The winter water was covered by a thin layer of ice, a shallow stretch of perfectly still water reflecting the white snow and trees on both sides.
She clung to the swamp monster’s shoulder, watching the wooden shelter she had made grow closer and closer.
When she built it, she had reached the base of the tree from the other side, even chopping open a path through the thorny bramble just for that.
Considering the swamp monster’s height, this wooden shelter was also very tall, so it actually wasn’t very warm inside, and was extremely simple. When Meili was building it, she never really thought the swamp monster would truly be willing to enter it.
Standing beneath the shelter’s roof, Meili cupped the swamp monster’s bewildered face and asked him, “You agree to live here now?”
“Right?”
Of course, the swamp monster wouldn’t answer, but Meili held his head and forced him to nod once, then declared on her own, “Alright, you agreed.”
“From now on, I’ll come every day and properly fix up this shabby little house. You must wait for me here, okay?”
Sometimes Meili felt the swamp monster couldn’t understand her words. Sometimes she felt he actually could understand her meaning.
The next day, anxious, she came to the lakeside, prepared to see the empty shelter — yet she saw the swamp monster obediently staying inside. Although his posture was still very withdrawn, he did not bury his head into the mud — perhaps because the wreath was on his head, and if he bent over it would fall.
Meili called him cute with a smile. When she saw the swamp monster lift his head, she didn’t wait for him to come out to meet her — she lifted her skirt and squeezed into the little path she had chopped open before, walking around to the back of the shelter.
She was carrying many tools, here to fix up the swamp monster’s house.
She brought more branches, tied and fastened them one by one around the shelter. It was a job that required patience. Having lived alone for a long time, Meili was skillful with her hands and could figure out how to do anything by herself.
She wasn’t in a hurry. There wasn’t much to do in winter. She could think about this little shelter all day. She even drew blueprints, coming here every day to work a little bit.
Gradually, thick “wind-blocking walls” covered both sides of the shelter. As for the back leaning against the big tree, Meili built a new small shelter there, connected with the main one.
The small shelter was built by the shore — the place she stayed every day. By the time the not-very-pretty but warm and practical little house was finished, she spent most of each day here, even placing a small stove for burning fire, a little table for placing things, a lantern, and a small blanket she could wrap herself in, and so on.
More and more little daily necessities gathered. Unknowingly, this had become another place she lived.
Staying in this simple house, Meili felt very at ease. Sitting by the shore with a stove burning in the corner behind her, she didn’t feel very cold at all.
It was snowing outside. The side facing the water wasn’t tightly sealed, but she had stuck fresh fir branches into the lakeside to block the occasional wind. Through the green fir branches, she could see the quiet snowfall outside.
The swamp monster never made a sound. No matter what she did, he stayed quietly beside her.
Meili kept busy with her tasks and often forgot he was there. Occasionally, she would turn back and meet a pair of grey eyes — he often looked at her like that without blinking.
Meili would get startled unexpectedly, but once she came back to her senses, she would find him very cute.
She felt a simple happiness like when she was a child hiding alone in a little world that belonged only to herself, with no one else knowing.
The house she lived in now was nice, but she always felt it wasn’t her home. Mrs. Pegg’s lingering ghost reminded her that she was just a visitor from another world.
And that mysterious basement had once caused her to have strange nightmares, making it impossible to sleep peacefully in that house.
But here, it was different. She had built this with her own hands. Wrapped in a little blanket, sitting on a mat of grass by the water, she would fall asleep without realizing it, completely relaxed.
Sleeping and sleeping, she felt a chill on her feet. When she opened her eyes, she saw the swamp monster’s head resting on her calf.
Drowsily, Meili reached out and touched that cool, grey head, thinking in her heart: When I’m old, I might get arthritis.
Being willing to risk arthritis rather than push him away — that must be true love.
Some curious fairies from nearby had come to visit this little house, but upon seeing the swamp monster, they were frightened away and no longer dared to come close. So only some birds would land on the shelter, tilting their heads in curiosity as they watched them.
In places Meili did not know, rumors about her had already spread throughout the nearby forest.
The fairies gathered together, whispering about the swamp monster who was still lingering at the forest’s edge this winter, and about that strange girl who lived in the house left behind by the witch and stayed together with the swamp monster.
