schneefink

I would probably have donated a little anyway but I really wanted the stickers.

Y E S

Look. All the children know about the secret, of course. All the children know that once a month the adults pack a cart with pottery and books and art, and they come back with fresh fruit and vegetables and grains. All the children know never to tell an outsider about it.

Children aren't stupid. They know it must be magic or gods, to give fresh fruit in eternal winter. Clearly there are mysterious rituals involved.

But when Korinna's mother gets sick, she doesn't care about the rituals. Her mother isn't getting better, and none of the adults seem willing to do something, so Korinna takes her mother's entire poetry collection and walks in the direction the adults always leave in.

It takes her a while, and she almost falls down freezing several times until she stumbles upon the cottage. And suddenly it's spring. Korinna passes out.

When she comes to she meets a woman who must be a dryad. Korinna immediately tries to sit up, pushes the bag with the poetry in the dryad's direction, and begs her to help her mother.

The dryad thinks about it and says she's not a healer, but she can give something with a blessing of vitality. Korinna gladly accepts. The dryad gives her two blessed pomegranates, "the other one is so you don't freeze on your way home," she adds.

Korinna goes home and gives her mother the pomegranate, and her mother recovers. Once asked, Korinna immediately confesses where she got the blessing from. The adults are angry that she went, but it didn't seem to have done any harm. The next time the adults go to visit the dryad they apologize for Korinna's visit, but the dryad waves them off and asks if Korinna is okay and seems to have fond memories of the girl. So, reluctantly, the adults allow Korinna to visit the dryad.

Korinna is delighted. She can't go too often - bothering the dryad would be disrespectful, after all, and she does have chores etc. - but she visits regularly. She tells the dryad about her days, and any new stories she's heard, and the dryad teaches her gardening (something Korinna will never be able to use because there are no gardens outside of the dryad's spring, but she enjoys it nevertheless.)

Korinna grows older, and naturally the dryad doesn't. Korinna becomes lead liaison and trader of her village with the dryad (which conveniently gives her a position with an excuse to avoid unwanted marriages.) The dryad never talks much about herself, but she does begin to open up eventually. When Korinna talks about her overbearing mother, the dryad says she can empathize. When Korinna talks about feeling unsure what her goal is in life, the dryad says she knows the feeling. Eventually, Korinna dares to think they are friends.

So when Korinna's best friend, who married outside the village, dies, Korinna tells the dryad about it. The dryad asks why she died.
She starved, says Korinna. It happens. It's tragic, but not uncommon.
Why?, asks the dryad.
Because of the eternal winter, says Korinna.
The what, says the dryad.

Turns out she didn't know. People had mentioned the hard winter, or food being scarce, or the cold, but the dryad had always assumed that those were seasonal and/or regional. She hadn't known about the Lady Demeter's revenge for her daughter.

I'm so sorry, says the dryad.
It's okay, says Korinna, slightly confused. It's not your fault.
But it is, cries the dryad, it is! If I'd gone back...
Oh, says Korinna, stunned.
I'm so sorry, says Kore.
It's okay, Korinna doesn't say. What do you say to the person whose disappearance caused thousands to die and who wasn't even aware of that? She tries to keep her face free from accusations but isn't sure how well she manages.
I'll make it right, Kore promises. I swear I will.
Thank you, my lady, Korinna says to the goddess and bows.
Kore almost flinches and retreats into her cottage. Korinna leaves.

(Korinna doesn't see Kore - Persephone - pack her things and walk around her garden one for more, to remember it all. Then she leaves the gates of the refuge Nyx granted her and calls upon Hermes, to guide her back to Olympus.
Korinna doesn't see Persephone take a deep breath before entering Olympus. She doesn't hear the Lady Demeter's shout of shock and joy that makes Olympus tremble. She doesn't see Persephone fight not to react as everyone fusses over her and questions her and calls her Kore and treats her like a little lost girl.
Korinna doesn't see Persephone close her eyes, take a deep breath, and bear it, because she can't be the cause of so many dying any more.)

Korinna notices when spring comes. She hears the tales of the priests of Demeter, that the Lady Demeter has found her daughter and the punishment is lifted. She hears about the new cults of Kore that have sprung up, to show the Lady Demeter that they worship her daughter and to curry favor. She hears about how much fewer people die in the coming months.
She's glad for that.

Korinna also misses her friend. She hopes she's doing well. Korinna hasn't told anyone who the dryad was; she only tells her village that she left a while later, so as not to give anyone a clue. Her friend is gone, but Korinna tends to her garden using the knowledge and skills her friend the dryad - the goddess - taught her. She tends to the gardens that can now exist in her village too. Every time she tends to her garden, she spares a thought for her friend the dryad, the goddess Kore. Those are her prayers.

It's more than a year later when Korinna is working in her friend's garden again that her friend visits her. Korinna isn't sure how to react. Part of her feels like she should bow, but this is also her good friend, and she came looking much more human than divine.
So Korinna greets her as she always did, and her friend looks relieved. Korinna dares to call her by her name, and her friend winces and tells her she always preferred Persephone. Korinna agrees. She says she hopes Persephone is satisfied with how she's looked after her garden. Persephone says she is.
There's an awkward pause.
Thank you, says Korinna. I don't know why you left, or what happened - and I don't need to - but I know you didn't want to go back. Thank you.
I had to, Persephone says. And... it's not as bad as I feared it would be. A few of my cousins helped me make my mother understand that I need a little more space sometimes. That's how I'm here now, for a visit.
I'm glad, Korinna says. I missed you.
I missed you too, the goddess Persephone says.
Let me show you your garden, Korinna says, and Persephone agrees.

Glad you enjoyed it :) Persephone needs more friends.