Winter Festival Story

The "Winter Festival Story" was a short story released in 6 parts on the Bella Sara Website. The story was released to celebrate the release of "Winter Festival".

Summary
The story of Winter Festival follows a various cast of characters preparing for Winter Festival celebrations in North of North.

Story
This story is directly copied from the Bella Sara classic website.

The winter holidays were approaching and Marta Thomas was off to visit Iceking, Nyx and their foals Toboggan, Starfrost and Iceprince.

But when she arrived, only Iceking, Nyx and Toboggan were there to meet her. Starfrost and Iceprince were nowhere to be seen. Where could they be, Marta wondered. Toboggan loved sledding so they went out to play in the fresh snow. Giggling, Marta leapt down a snow covered slope and slid to the bottom. Toboggan raced after her, whinnying with delight. Even Nyx followed suit, sitting on her haunches and sliding down the hill. Iceking was clearly distracted. He kept looking west into the forest.

"Now it was Toboggan’s turn, he flicked snow at Marta with his horn. Marta threw snow at Nyx. Nyx nickered and shook her mane, spraying Marta and Toboggan with ice crystals. Iceking out did them all, though. He beat his powerful wings, raising up a storm of snow. Marta and Toboggan were blown over and fell laughing into a snow drift.

Iceking approached Nyx and nuzzled her. He had business in the forest. Nyx nodded and hooked her husband's neck under her own. Iceking nuzzled Toboggan, whinnied and then took flight, and disappeared into the west.

"I know," said Marta, "let's play a storytelling game to pass the time until Iceking comes back."

After playing their game, Nyx led Toboggan and Marta to a hot spring.

The snow around the spring was heavier and wetter than the other snow that they'd gone sledding in. Marta rolled up a snowball and thumped Toboggan on the flank. “Tag you’re it!” she cried. The young foal, jumped, startled, but then laughed and chased Marta. Marta laughed and sputtered.

After playing snowball tag for a while, Toboggan grew restless. Where was the rest of the family? This was a holiday and they should be together.

Reluctantly, Nyx agreed to go searching. She pointed to the forest and the trio set out for a long walk.

Marta, Nyx and Toboggan walked into the forest. Sound was muffled by the thick white blanket of snow on the ground and in the treebranches.

Suddenly, the foal's ears shot up, alert. Was it his father? Or something else? Toboggan pushed gently between the snowy folds of a pine tree.

He whickered with surprise. A grove of trees, hung with icicles of beautiful uncommon shapes, spread out before him. All of the icicles were horses, magical horses. Some with wings, some with horns, some with fins.

Who had created these magical decorations? What were they for? Toboggan gave his mother a searching look, but Nyx shook her head. She had no answer for her son.

They were staring at the beautiful icicles when they smelled something delicious and sweet on the wind. Following his nose, Toboggan lead Marta through the grove to the other side and into a clearing teeming with shedderpups hard at work baking cookies.

"Let's help!" said Marta. Toboggan nodded vigorously in agreement. One furry blue Shedderpup, covered in flour, butter and sugar, stood over a cookbook. It gave Marta and Toboggan a sheepish look and shrugged helplessly. Marta said, "Here, let me."

The young pair helped the little magical creatures. But, despite their good deed, Nyx stood guard to make sure Marta and Toboggan didn't eat any cookies.

It was late in the day. Almost sunset. Toboggan's ears perked. He heard sounds. Nyx nudged the foal toward lights on the far side of the clearing. Together, Marta and Toboggan pushed through the snow-mantled trees.

They both let out cries of joy when they reached the other side. Iceking was there, with Iceprince and Starfrost. A warm bonfire was lit, the firelight played off the horse-shaped icicles. Shedderpups raced around serving the guests delicious cookies. It was a party!

Iceking nickered deeply, a mischievous gleam in his eye. He trotted up to his family and folded his wings around them -- giving them a feathery hug. He then sent Toboggan to play with his friends and eat delicious cookies. He had been busy—busy setting up a winter festival!

Characters

 * Marta Thomas
 * Iceking
 * Nyx
 * Toboggan
 * Starfrost
 * Iceprince
 * Shedderpup

Trivia
This story was accompanied by the release of the Whitemantle Cookie Recipe and the online exclusive horse Ronnie.