It was a very cold day in the winter. A boy was going down a mountain path holding an injured fawn in his arms. The deer was wrapped in a blanket carefully, but it was wilting.
The sky was horribly dark gray. The heavy snow was falling fast everywhere, howling like a wolf. Yet the boy kept walking in silence. His cheeks were red.
After a while he found a bus stop on the hill.
"Let’s take a bus." He walked toward the bus stop.
Reaching it, he stopped.
A white rabbit stood there. He couldn’t guess how long it had been there. The white snow lay thick between its ears. He watched the rabbit for a while, and slowly went to queue up behind it. The rabbit looked straight ahead without a word.
It was snowing silently. Because he cared about the deer, he pulled back the blanket cautiously. The deer opened its eyes and stared at him shuddering faintly.
Suddenly clouds of snow rose up without sound. The powder snow was so dazzling that he involuntarily clutched the deer to his breast and lowered his head.
As the dazzling powder snow fell down slowly, a small bus arrived. The color of the bus was like a bright dream. When a front entrance opened, the rabbit, which had motionlessly stared ahead until then jumped into the bus.
Fox, raccoon dog, squirrel, gray rabbit and black cat sat on seats looking outside. Somehow, all of their eyes were deep green like soot.
After a while the boy heard something clattering.
He looked back and saw the white rabbit slowly walking toward the seat. Approaching where something sounded, he was surprised a little. There was a small transparent box made of ice. A snowball had been put in it by the rabbit.
There was a big wall of ice as well behind the box. Something made sounds on the other side of the wall. Suddenly the sound was gone, and the boy felt a big black shadow reflected in the wall of ice turn on him slowly. He hastily made a snowball with the snow which was in his pocket, and put it into the box.
"Please stop by the hospital at the foot of the hill." he said and walked to the seat.
He glanced at the wall when he was walking. Then he saw a big black eye like a glass bead in a chink in the wall. There were grains of red, blue, yellow and green light in the black eye, and they shone iridescently when he passed by. He gasped and withdrew his gaze. His heart fluttered. He passed by the animals with deep green eyes and sat on the middle of the rear seat.
The front entrance closed, and the bus shook itself and took a deep breath. White clouds of snow rose and started to shine. When lots of light changed into a mass of the blaze, the bus started gently. The boy turned back. The silver light was whirling behind the bus.
He looked in front again, and closed eyes hugging the deer, which was getting weaker and weaker. The bus was running without sound.
After a while the bus started to slow down, little by little. The whirl of silver light changed into grains of light and floated away at the side of the bus.
The bus stopped soon afterwards. A view he had never seen unfolded before his eyes with snow. He opened the window. There continued only the night sky without stars and the snow sparkling like jewels.
Suddenly the animals stood up. The bus entrance opened. Then pink, pale blue and orange sugar plums came out of the box where the boy had put the snow ball. The animals approached the box and picked the one they liked. They threw them into their mouths, and got off the bus cheerfully one after another. They jumped on the snow covered ground and disappeared. The boy watched them in blank dejection.
Then the deer wilting until then jumped out of his arms. The boy stood up. In three bounds, the deer reached the box. Looking back, it stared at the boy with black eyes.
"Wait…"
He ran up to the deer in a hurry. Holding a green sugar plum between its teeth, it jumped out of the bus.
"Wait!"

He woke to find himself on the hill. The snow stopped and the silent night came.
He looked up the sky.
Innumerable stars twinkled in the sky.