7. Moonlight

The moon was shining in pale silver-gold in the deep dark sky with a bright halo around it, almost outshining the stars nearby. The air was not moving, and the water of the lake only sloshed sleepily against the shore. It was far too cold for the frogs or crickets to sing their songs, but during the warmer months, this place was the perfect concert stage for them. Now, everything was silent, aside from a faint splashing sound echoing across the otherwise silent lake.

Kuutar was carefully walking through the shallow water, clenching her teeth to withstand the biting cold of the water. She was wearing an almost see-through dress in the same pale color of the moon, which began to float around her as she went deeper into the water. The cold water rose up her calves, her knees, her thighs. Just before it would reach her abdomen, Kuutar stopped. Her dress now formed an almost perfect circle around her.

She raised up her wet hands, focusing on preventing her body to shake despite the cold edge of the water mercilessly biting into her skin. With eyes closed and her palms outstretched towards the moon above, she began muttering an incantation. The air on her skin became colder, soon she could no longer tell what part of her was in the water and which was not. She focused solely on her words and her voice to ignore the icy sensation. 

With the last syllable spoken, she opened her eyes. She was standing on the water's surface, bathed in the cold golden light coming down from the moon. In her clasped hands, she held a vial made from ice, containing a shining liquid of pale silvery gold.