Grant My Wish, White Star

Chapter 4: Cold Storm

It could mean anything, really. Fear or angst. I couldn't tell if I was trying to escape or not. The blizzard was just a signal from the mighty Thor saying, "Your time here is done. You must move on now."

And that is what we did; we left the Haven Woods behind. I could have gotten frost bite on my fingers but I wouldn't be able to tell. My fingers felt completely numb. Ava held on to the sleeve of my coat, like a prickly burr, while I would hold on to Iris's. It was like this the entire time and no one said a single word.

We huddled together and just walked. The wind blew in all directions and it was really hard to see. A flurry of white snow against the still dark night. Is this how Ava feels? I wonder. Is this what it's like to see nothing at all?

Walking out of the forest was like being blindfolded. I think that I bumped into a tree a couple times or tripped over a rock. I think about the stones that my spear was wedged between when I was fishing and think that the river has already frozen over. Or at least a part of it. I remember that this was all because of me. Me and no one else. Nothing else.

We must've walked between a waist-high mound of snow because the next thing I know, I felt like I was freezing from the waist down. My fur boots have flooded with snow and now my toes feel numb too. I could catch a cold and end up with a burning fever.

I remember talking with Ava. I think that I will never misjudge or underestimate her again. Not just because I have learned my lesson with her when she pinned me down, but because I think that we are friends now. I wouldn't admit it and I wouldn't ask for her approval. It doesn't matter, I want to keep this friendship and help her. accepting her as a friend is like a responsibility. I can't just throw it away or treat it like a golden crown. I should be careful. I will be careful.

I don't remember it taking this long to get back home. Wether it's from the cold storm slowing us down or not, this doesn't feel like the way home. I could be wrong though. Even though I can't see the path in front of me, I still can't help but think that we are indeed hopelessly lost.

I want to just stop and holler at Iris to make sure she really knows where she is going but I don't think I can. My trembling lips and chattering teeth will just make me stutter uncontrollably. If she really is just walking in an unknown direction, it will probably get us somewhere.

Even if we don't get home, some one will have to find us and let us stay the night. Then from there we will get home. I close my eyes for a moment, blinking away the snow that has encrusted my eyelashes. Only now do I realize that I'm hungry and thirsty.

Iris stops and drops to her knees. At first I'm startled and even a little confused at the sudden drop, but then I realize that she has snow on her hand and proceeds on to putting it in her mouth, drinking the snow. The only things a can see, it seems, are the things right in front of me. It seems that is our only source of water so I gently pull Ava down with me to drink the snow too and she does the same. Even after our "drink", we just sat there, kneeling down and huddling together, trembling and sniffling like the scared little children that we are.

People at our village would always say that huddling together can make us feel warmer. A laugh escaped my throat after thinking that. I really shouldn't have but I laughed because they were all wrong. I couldn't help it. Our bodies were too frozen to even emit any heat. After a while of sitting, someone gets up. I have closed my eyes so I can't tell who it is until I hear the voice shouting something.

She shouts it over and over again but I still can't hear her well enough. Its too incoherent so I guess I just don't care. Soon it is loud enough for me to hear and I realize that it is Iris's voice and it's not directed to me.

I finally gather up my strength to get up and there it is. A light. A signal meaning help was on its way. The light could not have been from a fire or something like that, no. It looked like magic from a wand. The light that will save us from this cold storm.