No-one truly knew what to make of the Sleeping Sisters (called such by those enthusiastic about alliteration) or the Sleeping Autumn Goddesses (the term used by those who valued precision above all).
The facts were these: Shizuha and Minoriko Aki, minor goddesses of autumn who were rarely sighted during other seasons, had been lying beneath the branches of an ancient maple tree close to the edge of the Forest of Magic for at least the past seven months. Neither appeared to be injured or otherwise harmed: they were simply asleep, hand in hand and smiling at some pleasant dream. The tree above them flourished in full autumn leaf.
The passing fairies and youkai and the rare human each had their own theory. Some suggested the Aki sisters had simply chosen a strange spot for their annual hibernation. Others guessed they had somehow transferred their souls into the tree, leaving their bodies behind. A few believed they weren't Shizuha and Minoriko at all but merely illusions bearing their resemblance, left there in plain sight as part of some bizarre scheme by a powerful youkai.
One thing was for certain: some cared less about why they were there and more about what kinds of pranks to pull on them.
"Watch it!" Luna Child tottered to the side as Sunny Milk pushed past her to run gleefully to the tree. "You almost made me drop the brushes."
Sunny ignored her and placed the ink pots on the ground. "We made it! I told you we would if we came back as soon as possible."
Luna and Star Sapphire joined her, Luna with her burden of brushes and Star with her hands clasped behind her back. They moved to circle the sleeping goddesses, all three of them grinning.
Sunny giggled. "So, what should we write?"
"I dunno." Luna placed all but one of the brushes next to the ink pots. She stroked the bristles of the remaining one against her palm. "Their names, maybe. Or we could just draw pictures."
"I know!" Sunny's eyes sparkled. "Let's write their names on their foreheads, but the wrong way around! They'll be so confused when they wake up!"
"That sounds like fun." Star looked at Sunny, then at Luna, then at Sunny again. "Do either of you remember what their names are?"
Sunny and Luna exchanged glances. "Um..."
Star's smile widened. "Aren't you glad to have me along? I even know how they're written."
"That's our Star!"
"That's just their foreheads, though." Luna held her brush towards their makeshift canvases and squinted. "What else should we draw?"
Star hummed to herself as Sunny and Luna began to argue over what to doodle on the goddesses' faces, Sunny loudly and vehemently demanding flowers and Luna quietly defending snowflakes. She was happy to let her friends come close to resolving their differences before chiming in with her own suggestions to rekindle the argument. Before that came to pass, however, a sudden thought crossed her mind. "By the way, isn't this a bit weird?"
"What is?" asked Sunny, slightly snappish.
"I mean, we only found this place yesterday. But we found it because we overheard other fairies talking about it."
Luna frowned. "So?"
"If they've really been here through winter and spring and the rainy season, how come they look like they just came from indoors after months of lying in the snow and the rain?" To emphasise her point, Star pointed at the hem of Shizuha's skirt, made out of autumn leaves so vibrant they could have been painted the day before. "And besides, if they've been here for so long... how come no-one else got to them first? Hundreds of fairies must've seen them. I sense someone in the tree right now."
Sunny and Luna turned to frown up at the branches. Finally, Sunny shrugged. "Maybe none of them thought of it."
"Or perhaps," said a voice behind the Three Fairies of Light, unhurried and faintly amused as its owner's shadow fell upon the trio, "they thought it advantageous to their continuing health to not meddle with the passage of seasons."
All three snapped around. Yuuka Kazami stood before them, parasol in hand, giving them a smile as tender as a freshly sprouting shoot.
"All seasons have their flowers," Yuuka continued as though they were having a pleasant chat over tea. "And all flowers bloom when it's their time to do so. Without autumn, we wouldn't have a season for carnations and chrysanthemums, just like without winter we wouldn't have a season for amaryllis and plum blossoms. While you may prefer the flowers of spring or summer to the flowers of autumn, I would appreciate it if you showed due respect to them regardless and would therefore not harass the ambassadors of autumn."
"We would never!" Sunny gathered the ink pots into her skirt so quickly it was a miracle none of them broke. "We were just... on our way to Miss Alice's house!"
"She's teaching us calligraphy!" Star chimed in. Luna nodded vigorously to support her claim, gathering up the brushes and holding them up in a parody of a bouquet.
"How charming." Yuuka smiled warmly. "Best of luck in your studies."
After the three fairies had scurried away, leaving behind two brushes and an upturned red ink pot, Yuuka took her time admiring the nearby flowers before focusing her attention on Shizuha and Minoriko. She straightened Shizuha's skirt and brushed a lone red leaf from Minoriko's hair. She peered at them to see if there was anything else amiss, then finally looked up. "How close were you to attacking them before I arrived?"
The first thing to appear from within the rustling autumn leaves were the edges of colourful butterfly wings. As the rest of Eternity Larva emerged, she alighted to a lower branch and sat there, smiling. She held out the spell card in her hand. "I was just about to declare this."
Yuuka nodded at her. "Thank you for your part in ensuring the integrity of the seasons."
"I dunno what that's about. This is all just a part of a game between me and those three."
"Naturally." Yuuka smiled. "I will see you when you return to the garden."
After a moment's consideration, she crouched down. Reaching for the shy sprouts overshadowed by the massive tree, she pushed enough power into them to allow them to rise overground. Within days, they would bloom. She looked forward to seeing the Aki sister once again sleeping on a bed of flowers as she had first found them in springtime.
She walked deeper into the forest, looking for azaleas and hydrangeas. She glanced back twice; first at the sleeping sisters, and then at Larva, framed by fire-like leaves, swinging one leg from the branch and staring directly at the sun without flinching.
In other words, it was a day like any other. Yuuka walked on, flooding the forest with flowers.