Forest Sprite Fire Spirit

On the night of the Solstice, the forest changes. The trees grow taller, the shadows longer, and where there was just a clearing during the day, by midnight something red and golden begins to flicker.

The fern flower is blooming.

The Forest Sprite Fire Spirit is one of those who guard this wonder. Small, dark, with green eyes that mirror the bonfire's light. On its head, three fire spirits have made themselves at home — small, sharp-tipped, with their own tiny eyes. They do not sleep on Midsummer night. They watch everything that happens in the forest while people leap over bonfires and weave wreaths by the river.

In its paws the sprite holds the treasure: the fire fern flower. Red, with a golden heart, ringed in dark green. An old belief says this flower gives its keeper a rare gift: to see what is hidden, hear what is spoken in whispers, and find what has long been lost. But finding it in the night forest is no small task. The sprite does not give it up easily.

Its body is dark as old bark, threaded with golden veins — where the fire inside shines through the wood. It is itself a little like flame: alive, quiet, but warm.

Among the Wood Spirits there is one who embodies the Summer Solstice — the Wood Spirit Litha Flame. The great guardian of the Festival, he who lights the main bonfire, to whom the fire spirits entrust themselves, and whose antlers are woven into the shape of the summer sun.