Coz why not

Freshly fallen snow

Don't even question why I wrote this. I just found some stuff I wrote ages ago and decided, "you know what? Stuff it" and yeah.......
//
She stepped out into the freezing cold, pulling her gloved hands into the sleeves of her three layers of coats. Wood, she thought, looking around. Fire wood. I need to find some fire wood for mother. She continued looking and stepped further out into the icy algidity.

She looked out into the frosted woods up on the hill. She sighed and slowly headed towards it. Her teeth started to chatter uncontrollably. She heard a bang behind her, back at the small cottage and turned to see her pale mother hitting repeatedly on the window, trying to gain her attention.

"Yes, mother!?," she called. Her voice was a little rough.

"Come on, we've not got all day, Blythe! Hurry up!," her mother yelled, the sound slightly muffled by the window.

The girl proceeded to approach the protective branches of the ice covered forest. But faster. As Blythe made her way up the iced hill, she clenched her teeth together in an attempt to stop her teeth smashing into their neighbours.

She'd never done this before, gone out to get the wood for the fire. But her brothers weren't home and her sister was only four years of age. Her mother had only given her a few brief instructions beforehand. Such as "you should only get any pieces of wood that are good enough to burn or I'll use your body to fuel the fire" and "always know which way you're going, girl, don't get lost or I'll keep being frozen to the core and you'll have to sleep outside, you hear me?".

Blythe's mother wasn't very kind. And the girl was afraid that she'd end up like her mother one day. Cold like freshly fallen snow, she thought. Fresh........ Snow. She was slightly distracted by how beautiful the frosty forest was. She'd just reached the edge of the towering trees. She wondered how long they had taken to grow. Probably hundreds of years.

The forest was beautiful from far away, but up close...... They were the prettiest thing that Blythe had ever seen. Of course, they were beautiful in a very natural way, but that's what she loved about them.

She concluded admiring the forest and walked in, carefully making sure she didn't lose her way. Prior to coming outside, she had put a bag of bread crumbs in her pocket. She sprinkled some on the ground every few meters. Blythe knew that the snow would most likely not cover them, as the dense forest floor was only dusted with snow, not covered in it, as the rest of the outside was.

As Blythe walked deeper into the forest, she began to notice how quiet it was. No animals made calls in this bleak cold. Nothing said anything. Wow. Do any animals even live here?, she wondered.

She kept admiring her surroundings as she unconsciously picked up bits of fallen wood and placing them on a sled that she had been dragging along, through the cold forest.

Her teeth started to chatter again. She didn't care anymore, she just wanted to get back to the warm - compared to this freeze at least - cottage.

She turned around and decided she had enough wood on the sled. She began to follow the path of bread crumbs back home.

Blythe realised how far she's really come. She walked for longer than she thought. She still hadn't reached the verge of the forest when she heard a peculiar sound. One she did not often hear.

Whistling.

She slowed and turned a little to her right, where the sound was coming from, and sure enough, through the massive spruce trees, there was a boy.

He was dark haired and pale except for his cheeks and nose which were flaming with pink from the cold. He was average height and he hadn't noticed the staring girl yet. He was practically the male embodiment of Snow White. He appeared to be doing the same thing as Blythe, collecting fire wood. He towed his own sled along, carrying quite a lot of choppy pieces of wood, more than Blythe had. He was whistling and smiling and Blythe didn't understand why. A smile, again, was not something she usually saw.

"Hey," she said quietly. The boy didn't realise so she shouted, "Hey! Hey, boy!"

He turned realising her this time, the smile vanishing, a surprised look taking over his features. He stared back at her with his eyes squinted, making his nose crinkle. A few freckles were spread across his nose bridge.

"And who might you be?," he said. His tone was surprised but his expression was relatively contained. The boy version of Snow White took two measured steps forward to better see Blythe.

"Ah, my name is Blythe Johnson. I apologise, I don't usually see others around these parts."

"Neither do I. I'm Carter Adams," he replied. He held out his hand and took a few more steps toward her. She shook his hand like she'd been taught to do by her brother within some brief lessons on etiquette.

"Well, I should get going," he said, already starting to slowly back away. "Nice meeting you, Blythe Johnson."

"You, too," she said quietly, and continued back to the protective walls of the cottage.