The Maid and Her Princess [On Hiatus]

Hall of the Frost Queen (HotFQ 1)

I.

She got used to a lot of things this Winter and Fall.
She got used to people losing their homes.
She even got used to people losing their lives.
Crying is useless, the red haired girl thinks to herself.

We are useless, Madoka punches a tree down.
When the soft hands wrap around her,
she turns to see her friend's worried eyes.
And then she cannot stop the flow of tears once again.

Victory was hollow.

The two faded from exuberance to silence fairly quickly and got to work without a word. Madoka pushed the bear in the storage portal effortlessly and the two vacated the battlefield quickly. She must have lost track of time thinking of the fight with the bear. On how she was so weak that even the princess was in danger. Elise, or Audrey, had magic that was capable of being called miracles. Her control over water, even if they were just numerous bubbles, had a solemn weight that testified in favor of their wielder's power. She did not know it but the maid simply did not want to dwell on it any longer.

Madoka caught a rodent with her bare hand to test whether living animals could be stored in the storage. To both of the girls' surprise, Madoka's hand phased right through the hexagonal portal with the squirming rodent still in her grip, undeposited into the swirling void. She sighed and let it slip away into the snowy paths.

The next morning, Madoka followed Audrey quietly. She appeared to know where she was going. But Madoka did not and could not help but ponder if Audrey did not as well. Secretly, or perhaps obviously, Madoka felt like she was going mad. She knew she was in way too far over her head by promising the princess to serve her forever. It was a difficult task to do each new day. The journey was an onslaught of being burdened and trying not to be a burden. It was an endless balancing act on a scale of noble and slave.

Yet the two silently carried onwards, from one rugged mountain path to another. They all seemed to spiral to the heavens and now a crossing stood between steep cliffs and treacherous switchbacks that threatened them with eternal winter below should they slip. She held out her hand and took the lead, wiping her nervousness and snow off her robe. Audrey, surprisingly, took it without a worry shattering her beautiful face.

You could waste your life searching for safety in the country, Madoka thought grimly. Yet, the princess was the country. Surely they could have found survivors living faraway from the Palace, but for whatever reason Audrey chose these mountains instead. Was it cowardice? Her prophecies told her survival was not an option if she chose to find resistance in the surrounding towns? She recalled the burned village they came across, the others they passed by. Each were like withered candles whose smoke could not even reach the sky from their mountain view. Perhaps safety was a memory and one she had to keep for the girl's sake.

One she could never let go for others, she gritted her teeth and pressed on through her doubts. If they find others and don't die up in this forsaken place, that is.

Madoka found herself holding the former princess's hand more often as they traversed the snow covered mountain paths. She would lead Audrey and would go wherever she pointed. An eternal staircase of snow and cold awaited her on this path, once again. It winded into a blank and steep incline of snow, really, for the two girls' boots crunched into the snow leaving prints under threadbare boughs of trees scorned by the weather. The sky is grey, gauzed with foglight and the fairy-like powdery tendrils of ice that resembled tinsel. Madoka heard from the thoughts of hidden creatures that night was descending like her heart felt looking at the cliffsides below.