"Oh," Chricrin said, again, completely at a loss for anything more to say. As a wizard, he was, of course, familiar with the concept of 'elves'; those magical, faery creatures of legend, but he had never before encountered any of them. He actually thought of them as a myth.

With a deep sigh, he leaned back against the pillow and closed his eyes, finally deciding that he had lived quite a sheltered life, all those years he spent cooped up in the king's castle. Perhaps he was hallucinating. After all, he had been out in a freezing blizzard for several days, possibly near death. He opened one eye and peeked out to see if the little people--er, elves--were still there.

He snapped his eye shut. Yep, they were still there. He heard muted laughter coming from the group around the bed.

"It's okay, mister," Chricrin heard a voice say. "You're not seeing things. We're real enough."

"Ohhh," he muttered.

It was several days before Chricrin was restored to full health and during his recuperation in the elves's cottage, he came to better know and understand his small benefactors and began to consider them as 'friends'. The elves, in turn, were fascinated and amused by the small feats of magic that the wizard performed for them from his bed and by the time Chricrin was back on his feet, it had been decided by mutual agreement that the wizard should stay on with them, at least until spring, when he could be on his way again, if he then wanted to leave.

Now a number of weeks into the winter season, the elves were preparing to visit the nearest town for much needed supplies. Chricrin decided to go with them, as he wished to see as much of this land as possible and visit people along the way.

Among the supplies they sought were food stuffs and such else as was needed for the upcoming Winter Solstice celebration, which both the elves and Chricrin were looking forward to. As they picked up their supplies, the wizard was surprised to discover that he local townspeople did not celebrate this festival.

Loading the food and presents into the sleigh for the return trip, Chricrin commented on how sad it was that these people did not look forward to the coming Solstice.