[b]For more of my posts, check out my [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/228191135/0/0]Master Post[/url].[/b] It was snowing when my Ghost found me. To be specific, we were caught in a blizzard. There was so much snow being blasted into my face. Even if I’d been able to keep my eyes open I wouldn’t have been able to see where I was. It was so terribly cold, but I had nothing to keep me warm. I hate blizzards. The wind was a nightmare that can’t be fully described. It cut through me and hit so hard I could barely stand without being hammered back down. Its bite was so frigid I felt like my body was being pierced by icicles. It tore snow up from the ground and threw it into my face like shrapnel. My Ghost tried explaining to me where I was, what I was, what was happening. I couldn’t hear anything she said over the howling in my ears. I hate the wind. I died many times before the storm finally passed. All I could do was lie in the snow, freezing to death over and over. The cold seeped so deep into my bones, sometimes I think I can still feel it. I hate the cold. When the blizzard finally subsided we began the long trek to the Last City. We were on the wrong landmass, an oversized island that was called Greenland in a time before. I can tell you there is nothing green there. I hate the color white. We had to get to the mainland, and our only plan to get there was…a bad idea at best. The first step was heading to the northwest corner of the island, to where there was less water between us and the mainland. That meant going deep into the Arctic Circle. Everything only got worse and worse the farther north we went. More wind, more cold, more ice and snow. I froze to death many more times along the way. I hate the Arctic. Then there was the snow. Drifts of snow that could be meters deep. From above it looked like flat ground. Then I took a wrong step and suddenly plunged down, surrounded by white, drowning in powder, sinking ever deeper. Clawing my way out could take countless hours. I died a few times in snow drifts. I hate snow. We got to the coast and followed it until we found a boat intact enough to survive the water. It did well enough, until we hit ice. The boat got nipped bad. I had to walk over shelves of ice between islands to get to the mainland; at some points I even had to swim. The worst part was when the ice would break under me and I’d go under. Currents would pull at me, layers of ice would trap me, I’d drown or die from shock. Sometimes my Ghost nearly lost me to the currents. Even when I managed to get out of the water I’d still be soaked and freeze to death many times in the open air. I hate ice. I hear people talk about animals they associate with winter. An oddly large assortment of birds, the mythical white bears, creatures that dwell in the coldest seas -though I never saw such animals. Reindeer are spoken of often. I think I saw some while passing through the mainland. Large deer with grand antlers. Once I got too close to one. It rammed me to the ground, crushing me and impaling me with its horns until I died. I hate animals. Except cats; cats are great. So, for reasons that I’ll assume are obvious to you by now, I hate winter. This was many years ago, and I eventually reached the Last City, but it was a long and hard journey. Naturally, I wasn’t thrilled when I heard the Last City had a holiday to celebrate winter. They called it the Dawning. I called it a horrible thing to celebrate. Someone called me a grinch -whatever that means. Inevitably I crossed paths with Eva Levante. Apparently someone had tipped her off that I wasn’t enjoying the festivities -I have yet to discover who was badmouthing me in front of her, but we’ll have words when I do. Anyway, Eva managed to pull me into a conversation then dropped the bomb: Why didn’t I like the Dawning? Eva is a sweet woman; I had no issue recounting my experiences with the trademarks of winter. And she laughed. No, she said, the Dawning isn’t really about winter. She explained to me the meaning of the Dawning. The Dawning, she told me, is to honor all that Humanity has built and all that it will create. It’s a celebration of friendship and hope and warmth, a season of thanks. We celebrate it through giving, spreading love and kindness to others. Needles to say, Eva is a very convincing woman, and she had turned me over to the festive side. She hadn’t changed my opinion of winter, but she had shown me that I didn’t have to let that affect my enjoyment of the holiday. I thanked her and -wanting to escape the cold air- gave a polite farewell before turning to leave. She stopped me then, and offered a gift. It was a blanket she had sewn herself and happened to be carrying with her. A gift of warmth, made with love and consideration. I took it, thanking her again, and fled to solitude -I’ll admit I’m not the best “people person” and may have been a little too curt in my departure. To be honest, I still don’t spend much time around the Tower when winter sets in. I don’t do much to celebrate the Dawning, other than the occasional season’s greetings to other Guardians. I still despise the cold. But I still have Eva’s blanket, my most cherished possession. It keeps me warm when the weather gets cold, and it reminds me that warm weather isn’t the only thing that can keep away the cold. I don’t hate the Dawning.