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Deeply he inhaled the fresh scent of the evergreen coniferous forest a few meters below him, a mixture of smells that reminded him of his favorite tea. His breath formed small clouds in front of his face, but they dissipated as quickly as they had appeared, and the snow became entangled in his hair, which, however, hardly differed incolor from it.
Looking at him like this, there was no mistaking why he was called 'The Winter King'; even his long black eyelashes sparkled from the frost that had formed on them, and his skin was so pale that it could hardly be distinguished from the snow in which he was already sinking. Completely cloaked in white, the young man barely stood out against the landscape that loomed beyond the palace's thick walls.
The gaze from his stormy gray eyes was on the mountain peaks in the far distance, which remained almost completely hidden behind a veil of mist. They rose high into the sky, and it was certain that the blanket of white powder was even thicker up there than it was here, where it already reached the back of hisknees. It soaked through his shoes and white pants, and although the young man was soaked to the bone, he didn't freeze in the freezing temperatures.
A beautiful picture emerged. Peaceful. And almost unnaturally quiet.
The rustling of the wind, which made the falling snowflakes dance through the air, made the only sound that could be heard in the vast landscape. No animal scurried through the woods. No bird drew its circles in the sky. No, there was only him, surrounded by silence and falling flakes.
A movement flitted across the face, of the man, barely noticeable, no more than a brief frown and so sudden that it could have destroyed the entire picture. "I was wondering when you'd show up here. I was beginning to think you'd fallen into the snowdrifts on the way and never come out." His voice was soft, contradicting the words he spoke.
Slowly, he turned and looked into the deep black eyes of a woman, more regal than he would ever be - and that could definitely mean something. She made a distracting blot on the landscape, with her raven black dress and equally black hair fallingin her face despite an elaborate up do. But that was a small price to pay for the fact that she had just spent hours flying through the icy desert.
So she shrugged her shoulders casually and gave him a challenging look. "You know why I'm here, Winter King." She spat out the word king like a poisonous mushroom, the deeploathing she harbored for him impossible to hide.
Her counterpart eyed her briefly. The arrogance and unnerving self-confidence that was probably his most striking trait could literally be read from his eyes, and he raised a snow-white eyebrow in amusement. "I hope you realize that I am still the king and you have not yet ascended to the throne. Never forget that I can change the rules of this game at any time. You can't win, so why can't you see that?"
Another shrug of her shoulders made the black-haired woman's point. She would find a way, it meant. Because she was determined to reach her goal and he was just a small obstacle on an arduous path.
"Challenge accepted."
"All right, raven girl. I warned you." A grin crept onto her face, her first emotion, and she winked pointedly seductively to tease him.
"Then I guess that means war. Good luck, little snowflake. You're going to need it."
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