Terra Nivis

Chapter 5

When James awoke, there was a fresh layer of thin snow covering the ground and the tent. James had never seen snow before. While his father slept, James did his best to gather dry wood to replace the burned wood in the pit. 

He found the bag full of food and took out what he thought his dad would like. He took out a stack of homemade bread and jam and packaged meat. Thankfully, nothing had to have fire to prepare. James didn't know where the flint and steel was and even if he did, he had no idea how to use it. 

When he was done with everything, he thought he needed to do, he decided to feed the horses and then finally, the moment he was patiently waiting for, playing in the snow. He decided to see what the fuss over the cold powder was all about. His first impression of it was that it was unnecessarily cold and wet. His shoes were already soaked through, but his mother, being the smart woman she was, packed him and his father snowshoes that were waterproof. James quickly changed his shoes and started exploring the snow. 

He picked up a handful and crushed it, noting that it kept the crushed shape. He then began to draw in it with a twig he had picked up earlier that morning. He drew a sloppy picture of the two tethered horses. He showed the horses the portrait he made of them, and they grunted their disapproval. He looked back down at his drawing and agreed. "I'm a prince, not an artist." He told the two creatures. They seemed to nod all too eagerly in agreement. 

His next task was to see how soft it was to lay on, and if it held its shape, would it hold the shape of his body. He lowered himself to the ground and lay down. He shifted his body, but no amount of adjustment was enough to make it comfortable.

"Ugh!" He grunted and sat up looking behind him to see a blurry indent in the snow. If he hadn't moved, it would have been clearer. When James picked up his hand from the cold ground, he saw a perfect handprint. "Oh!" He exclaimed and started making several snowy handprints. Then he got another idea. He quickly undid the laces on his boot and then took off his sock and stood up. When he lifted his foot, sure enough, there was a footprint. Getting excited, James completely ignored the cold feeling engulfing his feet. He ran around their campsite and occasionally stopped to look at the track of footprints that littered the white ground. 
James then looked at the horses and got another idea! He ran to the smaller one, taking its hoof without permission and stomping it into the ground. The horse yanked its limb back in protest and in the snow was a perfect indent of the horseshoe.

He looked at the bigger horse but before James could take his hoof, the horse moved, showing his own prints in the snow.

"Cool!" James crouched down to investigate the two different prints. His horse hooves were surprisingly bigger than the other horses with wider shoes as well. James took his foot and made an indent in the middle of the two horse prints and looked at the three very different shapes. 

"James, what in the world are you doing barefoot in the snow?" His father had emerged from the tent in his own cold weather clothing. He then looked around noticing the hundreds of footprints in the snow leading away from the kid's shoes over to the horses. The man laughed and shook his head at the realization of his son exploring the properties of the snow. 

"It leaves a perfect mark from everything, dad! Even the horses!" James ran back over to his father excited.

"If this excites you, wait until tomorrow!" His father hid the secret of the final destination from him, but the snow that James had the pleasure of playing in this day, made the excitement for the next day almost too much to bear! "Now put your shoes on before you lose your feet to frostbite!" 

James tilted his head in confusion. "Frostbite?" 

"Go on! Shoes, now!" He ordered him. James ran to his shoes, shoving his socks on and then the boots. He hadn't realized how cold his feet were until the warmth of the boots made his feet tingle and hurt.