After Wendy's visit, it seemed to Rio's friends that she descended into an even deeper depression. She no longer did anything except work, and she threw herself into that with a passion that bordered on obsession. Soseki confided to Tina that several times, while strolling around the village and its environs well past midnight, he'd even heard her still working around her farm or spotted her foraging for mushrooms and other wild foods in the mountains. Felicity and Iroha concluded that she wasn't eating properly anymore, either—while not quite skin and bones, her lithe, curvy figure had become gaunt and angular in an alarmingly short space of time. Allen, of course, bemoaned the way she neglected her appearance, but beneath his flippant remarks, he, too, was deeply concerned.

Her friends tried their best to snap her out of her grief. But she declined all invitations to go out, preferring instead to work in solitude. She was half-dead with exhaustion, working all day and most of the night, sleeping only two or three hours at most. Still, it beat lying in bed, reliving that day over and over in her head and thinking of all the things she might have done differently, everything she might have said or not said, so that Neil wouldn't have gone away. She realized now how Vaughn must have felt all those years, after she just up and left him without so much as a goodbye.

The crimson leaves of autumn fell one by one until the trees were barren, followed by the arrival of the winter snows, and soon it was nearly spring again. One day as the year's end was approaching, Rio woke up earlier than usual—a little after 5:00—even though she hadn't gotten to bed until nearly 3:00 that morning. The past few weeks, she'd taken to walking in the woods at night when she didn't have any work left to do on the farm, sometimes foraging and other times just walking—mechanically going through the motions of placing one foot before the other, step after step, mile after mile. The only villagers that she ever saw so late at night were Soseki and the reclusive hermit known only as the Witch Princess, both of whom were night owls. But while they slept in until late morning, she did not.

She skipped breakfast that morning, as she often did those days, opting to have only coffee. Then she pulled on her work clothes and boots, poured another mug of coffee and headed to the barn, her boots marring the perfection of the newly-fallen snow. She tended to her animals on the main part of her farm, then walked to the west farm, stopping for a fresh cup of coffee on the way.

Once she'd finished caring for all her animals, she stopped by the house to fill a thermos of coffee before heading to the east part of her farm, to work on her orchards and her fields of winter crops. She went through all the motions, tending her crops with efficiency and meticulous care, but automatically, as if she were no more than an automaton. Finally, her work done for the day, she resorted to cutting grass for hay—she didn't need it, but it helped to pass the hours until she could no longer fend off sleep and the dreams it brought to her.

While she was slashing the tall grass with her sickle, her three closest friends stopped by the farm. After they tracked her down in her field, they stood waiting, watching their friend at work. Iroha and Felicity leaned against a nearby fence while Tina climbed up to sit on the top rail, the concern in each face mirrored in the others. After a few minutes, Tina said, "Hey, Rio, why don't you knock off early and come shopping with us? You haven't been out for weeks. New Year's Eve is in just a few days, and we all need to find something to wear. You know there's going to be a huge party this year, right?"

Rio shook her head as she severed another bundle of grass, dropping it to the ground beside her to gather later. "I'm not going. Thanks anyway."

The three girls looked at each other, their eyes troubled. Felicity whispered loudly, "See? I told you."

Iroha walked over and put a hand on Rio's shoulder. "Listen, Rio. I know it hurts, but he's... he's just gone. And... it really doesn't look like he's coming back, does it? I mean... it's been almost half a year now since he left, and no one's heard anything from him, not since Wendy came to town. Sooner or later you're going to have to come to terms with it. You're young, you're beautiful, you're smart, and you're a fun person. You need to...," she paused and took a deep breath, "to just let go and move on with your life."

Rio turned sharply away, her back to her friends. Then her shoulders slumped and she turned back, looking down at the ground. "Look, I know you all mean well, but...."

"Oh, please, Rio—it just won't be the same ringing in the New Year without you!" Felicity pleaded.

Rio stood there for a minute, then said slowly, "If I do this... if I go shopping with you and go to the party... will you please just let me be after that? I only want to be left alone, for now anyway."

The girls looked at each other, then nodded their heads. "If coming to the party doesn't change your mind, and you still don't want to be sociable after that, then yes—we'll leave you alone. Well, kind of. I mean, we'll still come to see you, of course. But we'll stop asking you to go out with us or to join us for the festivals."

Sheathing her sickle, Rio sighed and said, "Then let's get this over with."

Tina squealed and jumped down from her perch, grabbed Rio by the wrist, and dragged her back to her house. She pushed her towards the bathroom with instructions to wash up, while Iroha started tea and Felicity looked through her wardrobe for something suitable for her to wear, shaking her head at the untidy piles of dirty clothes she'd allowed to accumulate.

After she had showered and dressed and they'd all had a cup of tea, her friends pulled her out the door and into the village, straight to Allen's salon. Tina called out to Allen as she propelled Rio into the waiting area, "Hey, Allen! Guess who we dragged out from under her rock?!"

Rio cringed as Allen and his current client, a sleek blonde from out of town, both turned to stare at them. The client immediately turned back to her reflection, utterly uninterested in disheveled farmer girls, but Allen grinned broadly at Rio. "It's high time, too! I have been dying to get my hands on you, love!"

Tina pushed her down into a chair and handed her a magazine full of hairstyles. She flipped through it dutifully, but she didn't really see any of them. Soon, Allen had finished up with the blonde lady and was leading her back to wash her hair. She started to protest that she'd only just washed it, but Allen overrode her protests. "It might be clean," he said, sternly, "but, sweetheart, you really need some conditioning! Just look at those split ends!"

Lacking the will to argue, she just leaned back and let him do as he liked with her hair. Finally he wrapped her head with a soft, fluffy towel and led her over to a chair. He sat her down in front of the mirror, removed the towel, and gently but quickly combed it out. "Now," he said, rubbing his hands eagerly, "What will it be today? Color? Cut? Curls? The works?"

"Just a trim, I guess," she mumbled, keeping her gaze fixed on her hands nervously fidgeting on her lap.

He put a hand on his hip and just stared at her in disbelief for a full minute. Then he said, "A trim. You have got to be kidding me."

Tina called out from the waiting area, "Ignore her, Allen! Just work your magic on her—make her beautiful! We're all getting ready for the New Year's Eve party, and we need to look our best! Especially Rio!"

He laughed lightly, saying, "Oh, honey, she already is beautiful! That's why I love her so much—she's perfection!"

He pulled out his scissors and began to work, snipping a little here, a little there. "Just a new style, I think. Your color already exactly suits you." He paused, squinting in concentration for a moment, then resumed snipping, moving nimbly as he spoke. "It's such a pity your friend Vaughn never came to see me. That long, silver hair! Oh, would I have loved to have gotten my hands on him!"

"Him, or his hair?" Felicity called out, looking confused.

"Both!" Allen replied with a grin.

"You know, I never can make up my mind about you," Tina laughed, shaking her head. "I mean, one minute I think you're straight, the next I'm sure you're gay, and then I decide you really have to be bi!"

"Tsk," Allen scolded without taking his eyes off Rio's hair. "Don't be so pedantic! I'm none of the above, love."

"None?" Iroha and Rio asked in unison, their interest piqued. How could you be none of those? Rio wondered to herself.

Grinning at her reflection as he worked, Allen replied, "I'm a philocalist—a lover of beauty. It doesn't matter to me whether male or female. The beauty's the thing, for me. And sweetheart, there's plenty to love about you."

Soon he finished, and he waited, smugly confident, while Rio examined his handiwork. He knew she'd been suffering keenly since Neil's sudden departure, so he was delighted to see her doing something for herself for a change. And she really was a gorgeous woman, even if she was virtually unaware of her appeal. All he'd done was highlight that natural beauty of hers.

He hadn't expected much of a reaction from her, given her present state of mind. But even if she didn't say much, he saw a sparkle in her eye—a momentary flicker of the old Rio that hadn't been there when she'd walked in an hour ago. That, he felt, was payment in itself, and he grinned as the group of friends bustled her out the door, waving goodbye to them as he greeted his next client.

Next, they all went to Yuri's shop to look for outfits to wear. Though usually she didn't have much in the way of formal wear, she'd stocked a small but carefully selected collection of cocktail dresses especially for the holiday season. Felicity immediately pounced on a fluffy, aqua-blue dress with a plunging neckline, encrusted with crystals and silver beads around the waist. Tina spotted a gold mini dress covered in row after row of long gold fringe—rather like a flapper's dress—and shrieked with delight as she snatched it up and ran straight back to the dressing room.

Iroha proved a little more difficult to please, as she really didn't care much to dress up. However, she had decided that if Rio could make the effort to dress up and go to the party, so could she. Yuri showed her gown after gown until finally, groaning in frustration, Tina dove into the racks and selected what she thought was the plainest dress in the shop. Made of a soft, drapey navy blue fabric, it fell from a gathered waist to just above her knees. A band of intricate navy beadwork surrounded the waist, and the neckline had a deep keyhole opening at the center, showing just the teeniest glimpse of her fair skin. She loved it.

Rio turned away all the short, sexy, strapless dresses that Tina and Felicity kept holding up to her, wincing as she recalled some of the comments Neil, Vaughn, and others had made about the way she used to dress. Finally she settled on a long-sleeved mini dress in a stretchy black knit with a gold thread worked in, making it sparkle in the light. The dress was shorter than she would have liked, but she selected a pair of high-heeled black boots to wear with it that reached well above her knee, leaving only a glimpse of leg showing.

As she rotated for the girls to critique the ensemble, Yuri suddenly exclaimed and vanished into her back room. Returning a few minutes later, she held up a wispy, lacy black shawl knit of the finest alpaca, accented with golden beads glittering like stars in the night sky. She draped it over Rio's shoulders, and everyone exclaimed in delight at the effect.

The girls paid for their purchases, then Felicity groaned that, after all that shopping, she was starving half to death. Having gotten Rio out of her house and into the village, it wasn't too difficult to persuade her to linger a little longer and go with them to Clement's for tea and a snack. They sat at one of the two large, family-style tables in the restaurant, and Clement himself happily waited on them, overjoyed to see Rio out in public again after so long.

Afterwards, Rio was glad—at least, a little bit glad—that she'd gone. While the afternoon hadn't done a thing to alleviate her heartbreak overall, it had at least offered her a distraction from it for a few hours. And even though at first she had been dreading the party, now she found the prospect slightly less intimidating.

**************

The New Year's party was a huge success—the first of its kind they'd held in the village, but certainly not to be the last. Steaming bowls of traditional soba noodles were showcased, but Clement outdid himself catering the fete, providing tables groaning with platters of hors-d'oeuvres and canapés and tiny bite-sized desserts, not to mention a wide selection of wines and cocktails, and, of course, sparkling wine to toast the New Year—or sparkling cider for those who preferred to abstain. Rio chose to be in the latter group, holding fast to her resolution to abstain from alcohol and the trouble it always seemed to bring to her.

There was music and dancing, lively conversation and story-telling, laughter and even a little romance. First, Olivia's fiancé appeared unexpectedly at the party, having traveled halfway around the world just to spend the holiday with her. It was a rapturous reunion, and everyone rejoiced in her delight.

Second, when the countdown ended and everyone cried out 'Happy New Year', Amir leaned down and kissed Iroha, much to her bewilderment . However, although she was flustered by his gesture and his suddenly open admiration of her, neither did she seem to object, nor did she refuse his offer to accompany her home in the crisp winter night.

Shortly after midnight, Rio bade everyone goodbye, and wrapping her shawl around her, she headed out alone into the darkness. Sighing as she glanced back at the couples preparing to walk slowly home together, she permitted one little tear of sorrow and regret to slip down her cheek before firmly wiping the rest away. It was a new year now, she thought to herself. Time for a fresh start—yet another new beginning.

As she walked down the long driveway to her house, the only light that guided her footsteps was from the moon, just past the first quarter, and from the stars glittering brilliantly in the clear sky above. In this dim light, she spotted a dark shape huddled on her doorstep, and she stopped, startled and apprehensive. She couldn't tell if the form was human or animal, though then she remembered Dunhill's prediction that the bears would be coming out of hibernation unusually early that year. She thought it looked large enough to be a black bear, and she knew that half-starved bears just coming out of hibernation were no joke. She wanted to scream, felt the scream rising in her, but it caught in her throat and no sound would come out.

Then the shape moved and rose up—and she breathed a sigh of relief, though her heart was still pounding. It was definitely not a bear. Then she gasped as, a moment later, she recognized the form before her: Neil. He just stood there on her doorstep, staring at her, neither of them speaking.

After several minutes, he said in a soft, low voice, "I'm home," and he held out his hand to her.

Hesitantly placing her hand in his, she discovered there a single, perfect, blue feather.