The Stars Beyond

Memory < 1 > Cold Awakening

The frost bit a bit of my skin. Snow? All of the sudden, a chill went down my spine. Literally. What had happened to me out of the blue and where could I possibly be that is this painful to lay down upon. The void?

It burns. Funny thing when talking about the frigid location I'm in. And speaking of that, here I am, within a cage of condensed snow. A semi-transparent ice prison that seemed to be made for over many decades, it almost made me forget who I am. My gut feeling knew too well how many years passed. And if that caused me to wake up as well, one thing to assume...

The blizzard I could see ahead of me throughout the glacier tunnel brought to me a sudden yet somewhat expected projectile toward my direction. An arrow of gleaming steel tip and beautiful pattern wood struck into the outer shell of my jail, with it going deep until it nearly touched in between both eyes.

TERRIFYING!!!

An echo of crackling sound occurred, my senses heightened to my heart's excitement to escape. My body is in dire need of movement. Perhaps it's so stiff that I won't be able to do anything even if I did escape!

Continued shattering happened. The fissure of the ice grew larger each second until the arrow immediately SNAP, and so does the rest of my permafrost prison. I'm finally free!

Or so I assumed...

THUNT! Another arrow shot quickly into the wall of the tunnel from the blizzard.

"T-t-the—what!? C'mon, can't I have some peace in this new world?" My body laid flat onto the ground, leisurely crawling up to the outside. Hopefully, this will help my survival chance double from this. I could take mental damage if I die. Or when I'm still gasping to live!

As I reached the edge of the tunnel, my body became colder as the border of this furious snowstorm clouded my view and senses. My body, especially my limbs, is already numb, to begin with. Going out into an even more painful environment would hurt so badly!

Wait! If there's a battle going on, maybe a village or town is being raided. Something like that. I mean, a gorgeous arrow from nowhere, so it must be some sort of conflict. My first communication to the outside, here I—

THUNK! ARROW! Right in front of my face again!

"Stupid arrow!" I whacked the arrow implanted into the edge with my skinny arms. "That should do it—?"

A feeling you get when your stomach starts to grumble... Or was that the mountain itself? It sounded louder than usual...

AH REALLY!? One massive crack from the arrow caused a reaction to the edge. An itsy bitsy mountain chip fell off. Weeee! I'M FALLING! THIS HAS BEEN THE WORST MORNING EVER!

Oh, wait!? IS IT EVEN MORNING!?

The pressure of the wind felt like a surge of electricity shocking every atom of myself. The chunk of ice I kneel upon slid down the narrow slope at top speed, almost reminding me of a waterfall without water. That wasn't a great experience—AHHHHHH—!!!

A brightness flashed against my eyes. I couldn't see at all! Was it a shard of frost that got into my eyes? One thing for sure, I've sensed a bump down the slide, right into the ice I stood upon tilting forward. S-slipping! I guess this is it. Whatever happens, happens.

CLICK! SPLASH!..... How long has it been? A minute of falling before the chunk broke through the sound of glass and water? With a quick instinct, I held onto something despite—

You get the point. It's a nightmare.

My head popped out from the icy lake which surrounded the massive mountain behind me. I crawled onto the fluffy cotton. I didn't really care at this moment if I wanted to freeze... To death... Mind as well makes a snow angel. Hands out and POOF!