Snow. Always the snow. As far as the eye could see, it was white. Land met sky in pale divide, but telling one from the other at the horizon was difficult. The air left her lungs in a great cloud of white, billowing up above her head like a hazy halo that was clawed away by the bitter wind. The cold nipped at her cheeks and burrowed into her chest like an icy needle.
Her furred boots crunched softly over the frosted ground while she trekked through the tundra, a few yards from the banks of the iced over river. If she walked too closely to it, she'd wake what lurked beneath the thick layer of ice. She'd fallen in once; one of her first memories of the world.
She'd tried to run away. Before she understood how things worked. She was always cold, but the memory of the river's arctic sting had been etched into her bones.
A simple word for a not so simple action. But she'd followed it to the letter, each one traced over in her mind to the drum of her feet pounding over the castle's grey stones. She hadn't known which one of them had said it; if it had been Kana, or one of the others, or even her. Only that it had been said and they had all taken the chance that their leashes had been unclipped. Even if only long enough for them to make their escape.
She couldn't hear any of the others over the crunch of her footsteps over the snow, or the ragged steam of her breath hissing out through her teeth. It was the first time she'd been outside of the castle since... ever, that she could remember, and she didn't know which way led anywhere. But anywhere had to be better than there. So she had ran.
Looking back, she ought to have known better. Kael's eyes always had been everywhere, skulking in every corner, burning through every shadow and glinting in each gleam of light upon the snow. A surge of terror bubbled up in her stomach, sickening and heavy at the very thought that he could be right behind her, waiting. When she stumbled, she crawled across the ground, scraping knees and palms over ice. When she could run, she sprinted. Eventually, she couldn't even feel the heat of her breath, only see the plumes of steam trailing free of her panting mouth.
Time seemed to halt and stutter. Trailing on for long spans of time, then leaping forward where everything seemed to happen at once; or simply skipped things entirely. One minute she was on her feet, the next beat she was crawling, and the next she was limping, dim pain throbbing through her ankle with each step while she used the scraggly black trees for balance as she sought to put distance between herself, and Kael's eyes.
She knew she needed to be away from there.
Weariness wrapped itself around her bones and threatened to drag her down. It muddled her mind, dulled the shooting pain that tormented her leg. She just wanted to curl up in on herself, savor her warmth and keep it from dying out like a candle's flame snuffed. Each step was forced, staggering bit by bit while she gasped for air, feeling numb.
It would be simple to just lay down. The tree in front of her had lower branches and they would shelter her from the snow that was beginning to fall.
Back and forth, the thoughts swirled through her mind like a hornet's nest abuzz with insects. Flickering and snapping at one another. When she decided to do one thing, the next thought intruded and convinced her to do the opposite. But despite all of the thoughts that made her dizzy, she still moved forward mechanically, one foot down in front of the other.
Everywhere she looked, trees bounced in her tired vision. It never seemed to end, spanning a landscape that crept along in its perpetually white existence. With snow in the boughs of the forest, it became more of a dream than reality. Branches morphed into claws that clattered against each other and scratched at the sky. Occasionally they caught on her body as she trudged forward, heedless of the bruises and blood and cold.
She was numb. The sting of her wounds had faded until they were nothing and no longer registered. The creep of lethargy was growing stronger by the moment, like the caress of silk. Smooth and heady. It no longer mattered how long she had been walking. She needed sleep.
One more step. Just one more.
She stumbled her step, breaking through the tangled brambles of the undergrowth and fell to her knees on something more solid than the snow had been. Pain spiked up through her knees and into her hips as her joints groaned in protest. She very nearly relished the sensation, but the nauseous feeling in her stomach abruptly swamped her and she hunched over to heave. Bile dribbled out of her mouth, caustic against the split in her lip while the violent spasms wracked her frame until she felt like she might come apart at the seams.
When it finally died down, she found herself laying on the cold ground and weeping silently. Gasping for air, it was all she could do not to give into the stupor and drift away into sleep where she wasn't cold and she didn't hurt. Mangled fingers curled, her nails scraping against the ice as she tracked through the snow. Just below the surface, she could see the rushing water. Under her breathing, she could hear it. Her breath rustled the snow, sending a few flakes fluttering away while something a darker hue than the water rolled through the small window of ice.
Was she ever going to escape?
The vibrations filtered up through the ice, rumbling through her bones just as the ice began to splinter while something black and bristling bubbled up from the opening. Shards of ice shattered against her and adrenaline shot through her system with a sizzle. Clawing across the ice as it tipped and tilted, she felt something writhe around her middle and tighten with a squeeze that stole her breath. Before she could voice a scream, it was dragging her backward, down into the cold waters.
If she thought she had been cold before, she was wrong. Being in the water sucked all breath from her lungs, and thought from her mind.
But when she felt the arms hoisting her from the water, felt the hard ground under her back while water dribbled from her mouth. Coughing violently, a firm hand brushed away the hair slicked to her brow and cheeks and she found herself staring up into eyes nearly as white as the snow that surrounded them. Kael’s eyes.
If there was a word for something worse than cold, than frozen -- that was it. That was what she was.
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stormborns
theartofmadeline
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