Love is Cold

I Was Alone

"What's going on?!" I asked the captain of the guards, Meredith Bottom. "Although I have a pretty good idea."

"Prince Guthry Archer has been kidnapped and our only lead is this. It's not much to go on, but we've had less." She produced a crystal shard from the attendant next to her. I had seen these before. It was a quartz crystals only found in the frozen kingdom, Glacies. I had a piece on a pendant I had.

Glacies is ruled by Queen Isolde Rolfe. She is one of Guthry's 'admirers' that his father tried to set him up with, before his untimely demise. She felt scorned when Guthry told her that he had eyes for someone else. Me.

"I'm on it. Try and calm the citizens, I'll return with Guthry as soon as I can," I said as I left the scrambled city with the shard in my hand. It was time to pay her majesty a visit.

* * *

The first place I went was home. I wrote a small note on a scrap of paper. It told Darby where I was going and that I could handle it on my own. It said that she couldn't come after me. No matter what. I was a strong girl, capable of doing things on my own.

Next, I packed my rucksack with food, water, and a matress. Then, I left, in the warmest clothes I had, sword in my sheath, for Glacies. There, it is always bitter cold, snowy, and has strange weather patterns.

          I had been there many times before, but this was the storm season, when large whiteout storms overcome that realm of ice and snow. Often for many months. So, in the events of a cataclysmic blizzard, I hitched my horse, Jax, to my cart and filled it with wood.

* * *

When I got there, the storms were raging and I could barely see into Glacies. I entered anyways. The snow was piled up to my ankles, but I continued to trudge forward. It continued to rise during my journey. By the time I stopped, it was at my knees.

It was a hard days work and I only got about a mile before I had to make two snow dome shelters. I packed them tight, hollowed them out, and led Jax inside and sealed myself in my own. I ate some of my food and layed out on the matress.

It was a terrible night. The wind was howling. It was terribly frigid. The worst thing was... I was alone... and I knew that no one was coming. I still had far to go and foes to face. Some days, this job sucked.

That night, my thought was consumed with a nightmare that the cold made all that much worse. I was entering a chain of rooms. Each one tougher to survive than the last. In the final room, I was stabbed through the heart. By who, I do not know. Falling, I closed my eyes and then felt a sharp pain in my neck as I lay there.

I woke with a start and had trouble finding sleep again. I was awake for a long time, tossimg and turning, trying to find peace is the tundra.

* * *

I emerged from my temporary home, dug out Jax, and headed into the storm again. I kept marching through the gale, towards Queen Isolde's mountainous home. It was miles away and had barely made a dent in the distance I needed to cover. It put a damper on my mood. I was tired, cold, and lonely, most of all. Without Darby, I realized the I really did need her. She helped me and kept my spirits up.

I took some fruit out of my bag for some extra energy as I continued on. The cold had made the end of my nose numb and it started to do the same to my fingers and toes. Even through my thick gloves and boots, they started to lose feeling.

Hours of walking had passed and I could no long see where I going. I had most likely walked in a circle and was off course. I was completely lost in a maze without walls or doors. Except, this maze had no end or way out.

I fell to me knees, unable to continue. Then, my entire body lay on the ground and the snow quickly started to cover me imn a powdery white blanket. Soon, there would be nothing of me, but a frozen corpse, claimed by the ice, like a forgotten memory.

Just before I was completely covered, a figure stood over my body. It was nothing but a hazy shadow, to me. It said something. Then, shouted it, but I couldn't hear it clearly. My eyes began to waver. Then... everything went dark. One thing was for sure. I was not alone.