Pearls hands were never really the same after double life. What people never talk about with frostbite is the long term effects if you DO manage to keep your digits. The way a crisp winter morning can feel twenty below zero against once blackened skin. The ever present static around the edges of sensation where once every minute detail was available at your fingertips - literally. The pain. Stiff swollen joints. More pain.
Pearl never thought she would be dealing with a loss of dexterity at such a young age, and yet the chisel gripped within her desperate and slightly shaking fist refuses to cooperate. The block of wood marred with ugly gashes and a crude attempt at her once effortless style of carving is proof enough of that. She doesn’t need a doctors diagnosis of ‘frostbite arthritis’ to know her extremities will never quite be the same again.
Heat packs and cold presses and physical therapy can only do so much. Pearl can only yearn for warm, soft fur to bury her shaking hands into. To cry into.
