Alive in the Snow

10. Into the Snow

The time was 4 am and the girls refused to sleep. Being competitive siblings, they created a challenge to stay awake throughout the night. As time elapses, this becomes increasingly difficult.

Before they knew it, the birds began to chirp loudly, which broke the silence in the room, and daylight started to creep in through the window. Curious about what was outside, Luna excitedly hopped out of her bed and hurried to the window.

She saw rows of trees, dusted with a fine layer of snow, as well as a line of bushes that stretched into the horizon.

Wanting some fresh air, she unlocked the window hatch and attempted to push it outwards. At first, it seemed as if the window was stuck in position, and needed extra force for it to budge. After pressing her shoulder against the window frame and twisting the hatch multiple times, the window flung open successfully. Luna got on her tiptoes and leaned against the window sill with her arms crossed.

She embraced the frosty breeze that blew across her face and watched the birds in the sky. Some snow stuck on the ledge was also blown into the room, hitting the floor with a thud and leaving a mess.

'Keep it down will ya? You'll get us both caught,' Velorra whispered as she lifted her head to glance at what Luna was doing. "Can you shut the window? It's cold."

Knowing that Velorra was wide awake, Luna ran to her sister with sparkles in her eyes.

"Let's make a snowman! I've seen pictures of them in Charlotte's storybooks, but we have never got to make one. I will go find some warm clothes, so we can go outside." - Luna explained joyfully as she made her way out of the room.

"Hey! come back here!" - Velorra whispered angrily, fearing that she would wake everyone from their slumber, but Luna did not listen.

Tiptoeing around, Luna spotted some coats that were hanging on the walls near the entrance of the cottage.

"These look too big, but a coat is a coat." - Luna told herself as she tried to lift one from the hanger. "Why is this so difficult!"

Taking a step back, she observed the room and noticed a stool placed conveniently beside a cabinet with miscellaneous papers inside. Dragging the stool created an unpleasant screeching sound, stunning her in the process. Taking a pause and letting go of it, Luna carefully lifted the stool and carried it staggeringly to where the coats were.

"Boom! Now let's get these guys to Vel" - Luna stood on top of the stool and raised two coats which hung on a single peg. "Now, carefully does it..."

After successfully taking the coats down, Luna dragged them along the wooden planks and returned to Velorra, who was waiting for her.

...

"Where did you get them?" - Velorra questioned, putting her finger on her lip.

"Who cares? Take this one and let's go outside." - Luna passed a brownish coat with a fuzzy interior to Velorra: she hesitantly accepted it. Velorra was aware that she couldn't let her sister go outside by herself in case anything happened. Getting up from the bed, she donned the coat and walked sluggishly to where Luna was.

"Ugh, can't we do this later? I'm sure Yuvan will let us play in another hour." - Velorra complained, putting her shoes on after the socks.

"Snow would have all been gone ya know!" - Luna warned, bending down to pull her socks up.

Velorra: "You got gloves?"

Luna: "What are those?"

Velorra: "Things on our hands to keep it warm dummy."