Do you ever feel like the world has changed during the night? Everything looks exactly the same as it did yesterday. That yellow house you walk past, those old people laughing and enjoying coffee at the farmers market, those kids screaming of joy because it's finally almost winter. And yet something feels different. It feels like someone wants you to know that everything has changed. Who is that person and are they even a person?

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An author walked down the street with his pencil and a paper. He was always on the lookout for new stories. He lived in an old abandoned bookstore and barely had anything to eat but the fire within him kept him warm and safe. He used to sell people little segments of his stories but lately the cold and hunger had gotten into him and it felt more and more difficult to write. People didn't really buy stories anymore either. Everyone walked around with phones and computers as their entertainment. The light of the screen had made all adults forget the magic and all children worried that their parents wouldn't notice them. In other words there didn't seem to be room for fairytales even if the author knew that it was exactly what people needed. The author watched the kids run around and tried to dream himself back to his own childhood, a time when the only light people had was the light of a good fairytale. Suddenly something moved under his feet. The author was standing on ice, reflecting like a mirror, shining almost perfectly. And when he looked closley the ice was covered in tiny white footsteps, just like they were made from snow. The author started to follow the tiny footsteps wondering if those could lead him towards a story.

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When children sleep a little white being is working her magic. She dances around in circles creating piles of white snow for children to play in, she sits on a cloud and talks to it gently "please please please let it snow tomorrow morning so that the kids can build a snowman or a castle or anything they like!". For the dreamers she draws beautiful shapes with frost on the ground and roses on the windows for them to enjoy. She also covers every adults cars with snow so that they would spend more time with their children before going to work. For older people she tries to be as kind as possible, trying not to bother them too much. But by the morning light she has to go back, fly high into the sky because only there can she survive when the sun begins to shine.

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The little footsteps are melting and the author sees how the warmth of the sun is creating piles of water all over the ice. He rushes back to a pile of snow as fast as he can. He looks up towards the sky and cries "Oh dear sky, why did you do this to me, couldn't you lead me towards a story? I am nothing but a poor man, no food or drink do I have and my home is too cold to be in alone, can I get my medicine towards this loneliness, can I get my story? Oh how I long to write! Seing those swirls of pencil flow so beautifully on a paper almost makes all of my human needs go away for one moment! A how wonderful it is to see people glance at something else than a computer screen, they are in fact when I start to tell.. looking at their dreams". Behind the large pile of snow a little white being is listening. The author walks away but not until darkness falls will the being emerge. She fixes the ice as good as she can, she blows away snow from trees gives them her helping hand. She helps animals to build their wintery homes, she gives nature a chance to glow. But this night she has to fly, fly until she reaches a new place to hide.

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When the author wakes up in his old bookstore he can hear a gentle knock on his door. He opens his door and glances on the ground and there a clue can be found! He pics up a little sculpture of ice. It looks like a little girl with tiny wings made of frost, hair made of snow, a dress made of ice and slippers made of soft white clouds. He lifts her on his palms but she doesn't melt, he puts her on a table and starts to wait. Nothing happens. Another day goes by and another night is about to begin. The author sleeps with his notebook, hoping that the little girl would fly, perhaps he could write about it but then again that would be a lie.

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A large castle of snow stands in the middle of the city. It is carefully constructed with two large towers, round rose windows made of ice, a shiny door that looks like stardust and small white clouds all around it filled with more snow. Everyone is standing outside its doors. Adults have long ago forgotten their screens, old people are debating if someone is trying to attack their city and the kids are filled with happiness knocking on the castle door. Two women mumble to themselves; 'Sarah, who do you think could have made something like this, do you think we should call the police?' 'Why do something like that Alice? The kids are finally doing something else than bothering us adults as we work!'

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The author wakes up to screams and mumble outside his door. He rushes towards it in order to see what's going on. He barely opens his eyes when he opens his door. In front of him stands a woman who turns towards the rest of the crowd and screams with joy "Of course Larry you were right! It was our very own storyteller who built this castle, we should have known! Now sir would you be so kind to tell us how you built it? It must have taken you ages to designed it! I'm sure the kids would like to hear!"

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The author opens his eyes and nothing is there, he steps away from the door and glances at his house. It looks exactly the same as it did before and nobody is standing in front of it anymore. It must have been a dream he laughs but at least he found a story, no need to worry. The entire day he writes. Page after page after page. He falls asleep on top of his notebook but when he sleeps his notebook flies away. A little white being the one sitting on his table that he had forgot was taking his stories to the skies without saying any goodbyes. So when it snows and it doesn't feel the same you know who to blame. It's snowing fairytales and dreams your way.

Good night ❄🌬

7 am. Some wake up to work, some to survive, some in order to love. Mr. Higgings didn't wake up for any of these reasons. Mr. Higgins woke up in order to smile. By 8 am a butterfly flew around his bike. By 8.15 he stopped to hear the sounds of the highway. At 9 am he started to smile. Mr. Higgings sat at a bench. It was the same bench that he sat on every single morning for the past 4 years or so. When most people rushed by, only seeing a list of groceries in front of them, Higgins saw within. Nobody had noticed the white bench he sat on either. It was there, among everything like a little reminder for people to sit down and breathe, yet it was easier to keep walking than to stop. What if you stop once and suddenly you can't move forwards anymore? Higgings knew that once you stop, your world slows down and then you first begin to understand life. The speed of life distracts us from reaching understanding, sometimes even happiness. Of course Higgings understood what running felt like. Running in the rain in order to kiss Dorothy goodbye. Running away from the mean kids in the neighbourhood. Running on the beach with his dog. Running was wonderful, but running was so often away to not think. Once Higgings first sat on that bench he understood something important. Some people can't run. They lack that one thing you need in order to keep moving forward: love.

So Higgings started to smile. He smiled to everyone who walked by. He smiled to those who did not notice, those who noticed but looked surprised, those who noticed but looked judgemental, those who smiled first. Hours went by. Higgings got up at 6 pm. Now he had completed his day of work he thought. That was until he saw a stranger approach the bench. A young man sat down on Mr. Higgings bench. He drank dark roasted coffee and smoked one cigarette each day. He wore red converse and dark shades. He pretended to read The New York Times while he probably listened to The Smiths. But Mr. Higgings only saw a person who had noticed the bench, nothing else.

-  Hello there young man! I see that you've noticed the bench. Mr. Higgings said proudly.
The young man pretended not to hear.
- So you read! That's good, that is excellent. You know my wife Dorothy got me into reading. Before her I never noticed the importance of words, I only saw what was in front of me. The young man continued to stare into The New York Times. But inside his shades, a tear was falling down.
- You know I'm happy that you found my bench. It means you see things. I like people who see in feelings. The young man looked up and started laughing.
- Hey old man, you know I get that you have some stories inside you that you wish to share, but this is just a bench. We give it its meaning, other than that it's just a bench. Today I saw it and I thought that I should sit on it and that is it, just another bench.
Mr. Higgings took a deep breath.

-Young man. I'll tell you something. Not because I wish to share my experience but because you need to hear it. I used to run through my entire life. Everything just happened because I did everything in my power to have the kind of life we all strive to have. But maintaining it was a struggle. I had to pay the price. The price was to keep moving no matter what. If I would start to think or care I could not live the so called dream life. I didn't notice people. People didn't notice me. We just kept running. Until one day when I was searching for a smile. I was walking slowly among all those who ran. My world was slowing down. I felt how old I was getting. It's like I aged 20 years during that one day. I stopped running. My wife had just left me. In the world of runners she was a walker and she could not stand us runners. Running towards success. So I had to stop. I stopped so much that I quit my job. I stopped so much that I stopped pleasing other people or prentending to like something I didn't. I stopped so much that I had difficulty getting up in the morning.

-What happened then? The young man asked. I mean you're here now. Something must have helped you.
-Hmm..helped me? Like you did today young man I sat on this very bench filled with feelings I could not share. And on this bench beside me sat an older man than myself. He was just smiling openly and so I asked him why he was smiling, and he told me that it was his job. He told me what an awful person he had been when he was younger, and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing real work. Real work I wondered. Then he told me that a smile is worth more than any money or success in ones career. A smile can save lives, a smile can heal those who feel broken inside. He called it the happiness company this very bench that we are sitting on right now. The happiness company only had one owner and worker and it was that one old man. 4 years ago he left the city for some wonderful reason I guess, but I felt like I needed to take over the company. So this is my workplace.
-Then what do you do? The young man wondered.
- I just smile.
The old man walked away and young man felt warmth inside him and suddenly he started to smile and he could not stop smiling after that.

Have you ever seen shadow people? Shadow people are low vibrational beings. They often appear to people when they are sleeping or very tired. In other words when your own energy levels are low you are more connected to shadow people. Shadow who lives in the forest above Grey Skies belongs to the shadow people. Shadow often hides behind trees and is reported by the locals as "feeling like a cold wind and very slender and tall". A cold wind blew past the cabin and a slender figure could have been seen if someone would have stood by the window. But just like shadow people do, Shadow also only appears at night. For a moment it stood by the window looking at Lottie and Aidan who slept side by side leaning against a wall near the fireplace. But a shadow cannot stand light and the power of friendship. Deep down Shadow wished that he could.

"I wonder what takes him so long? Maybe I shall start to invent jokes about how many shadow people it takes to do a certain task, the witch laughed in her cave." Every shelf was covered with colorful little bottles made of glass. Each bottle contained a certain magical ingredient the witch could use to make spells, every single bottle except one. It was a teal colored beautiful bottle and the plan was to fill it with the flowers of Eternal Bloom, the only magical element the witch never knew how to use. "When I get hold of that flower every single little piece of happiness in the village of Grey Skies will be gone and since it will be gone nobody will find a caring friend and I shall remain the most powerful witch of the 21st Century!" Little did the evil witch know, thankfully, for their had already been a friendship established.

For 4 long hours the entire forest was dark. Shadow tried to pick the flower of Eternal Bloom but it had shown to be a pretty impossible task. There was no care or love inside Shadow so he couldn't understand why he wasn't able to just take the flower and leave. "Meow! I see that it is Shadow how makes it so dark here at noon. First the fish are frozen and now this! Cats are royal you know! We should not be treated this way! And furthermore don't you know it's impossible for a shadow person to get hold of that flower? It's only the food givers who can." A black cat with eyes bright as little rhinestones approached Shadow. Shadow just tilted his head because he couldn't speak and pointed at the flower. "Yes yes, meow! You are asking me for help" the little cat meowed. Shadow tilted his head. "Again I cannot give it to you and I really need my beauty sleep now so I would appreciate if you wouldn't disturb me." Then and there the cat fell asleep on the ground. Instead of getting hold of the flower Shadow decided to bring the witch a cat.

In the little pond the beautiful fairy and her fish friends had gotten an idea on how to break the ice above them. "So this is not really magic but it kind of is" the fairy whispered softly. "What do you mean?" the first fish asked. "We have to work together in order to make it happen and if we try very hard it might work." "What is it exactly that you have planned for us to do?" the fourth fish asked. "We are going to hug eachother and stay very close to eachother. The warmth of friendship will melt the ice" the fairy said with a cute little smile on her face. "It's worth a try" the second fish said and the third one agreed.

"Are you awake?" Lottie asked Aidan with her most gentle and soft voice. "No! And you should not be either! It's in the middle of the night" Aidan yelled. "Calm down, I know that it's actually 2 pm already, I woke up a few minutes ago and took a look at the clock" "Then why on Earth is it so freaking dark outside?" Aidan wondered. "Because shadow was here" Lottie whispered quietly and looked around the room as if to see that Shadow wasn't anywhere to be found. Suddenly Lottie spotted a glittery light in one corner of the room. Slowly the entire wall was glowing with a golden bright light. "That is definitely not Shadow that I do know" Aidan said with his besserwisser voice. Maybe it could finally be the morning sun?" "No it couldn't be.."  Lottie mumbled. Slowly the entire cabin was filled with that bright golden light just like spring it had taken over their world for one moment. They heard a few soft knocks on the door. "What's that?" Aidan said feeling very creeped out. "The fairy, Lottie smiled".