"Ready?"
As soon as Letty nodded, Shizuha stepped back to give herself a running start. She dashed forward and rammed her foot against the final autumn tree of the year with all her might.
She didn't know exactly what kind of a gesture she had expected Letty to make. Something quick, obviously, likely with an upward trajectory. What she saw instead was the tail end of a horizontal sweep, followed by a sudden explosion of cold air so violent it burned her face. She leapt back to observe the results just in time to see the spire of ice reach the level of treetops.
She swept her gaze downwards. A swirl of leaves had been caught in midair, forming a red vortex immobilised within the sparkling spire. In other words, their experiment had been a success. On their first try, even. She had expected this to take years.
She glanced at Letty. "You're fast."
Letty slowly lowered her hand. "I infused the leaves with ice while they were still in the tree."
"I see." Now Shizuha was even more impressed Letty had managed to preserve the colour of the leaves, leaving them looking as vibrant as if Shizuha had painted them only moments ago. The end result really did look like a monument to the transition from autumn to winter.
She stepped closer to the spire. The surface of the ice wasn't as smooth as she had anticipated: in fact, it more resembled a miniature mountain, complete with clear ledges. As soon as the thought occurred to her, she leapt onto the nearest foothold, and upon finding the ice as sturdy as stone, held out her hand towards Letty. Letty frowned, but she took Shizuha's hand and followed her onto the spire.
They inched their way upwards, making a silent game of climbing without flight. The top of the spire tapered into a spike, with a convenient ledge large enough for two people staying snugly together below it. Shizuha shuffled around to find an ideal spot to stand in, careful to keep her back from touching the ice. Not that leaning into Letty was a much warmer prospect, but it had other advantages.
There was enough daylight remaining to clearly make out the remnants of the dying autumn all around the woods. It was still fairly warm, so much so it was likely only Letty's presence which kept the light dusting of snowfall glittering on the fallen leaves from melting. Still, even without the weariness spreading through Shizuha's limbs, there would have been no mistaking the grey cast of the sky and the taste of metal in the air for anything but what they were: the heralds of a long, cold winter.
Letty shifted next to her, her breath like ice against Shizuha's ear. "How much longer can you stay?"
"A few hours." Shizuha wished it had been more, but she was already pushing it: while nothing truly stopped her from lingering beyond her season, she was beginning to feel like a lone leaf bandied about by winter winds. Besides, Minoriko got worried if she stayed outside too deep past autumn, even if she showed it by complaining about Shizuha's supposed flightiness.
As cold as it was, Letty's hand was a comforting anchor as it landed on Shizuha's shoulder. Shizuha leaned into the touch, feeling it distance her from the death of autumn. The realisation that the sorrow she felt at the onset of winter didn't disappear entirely no matter how fond she was of one of its residents was a regretful one.
When Letty spoke, it was in a voice little more than a whisper. "I don't think I can preserve this monument until next autumn."
Shizuha smiled. Sometimes Letty seemed to forget just what she was the goddess of. "That's fine. We'll have our memories of it."
Even though Letty's lips were always as cold as the snow she brought forth, the kiss she bestowed upon Shizuha was as warm as summer.