Winter Sound

Chapter 1: Connection of Fate

Have you ever held a connection with someone, a connection that could neither be broken nor damaged? Have you ever risked your life for a complete stranger because you felt some sort of coincidental yet strong connection to them? Or, have you loved someone so much that you would do anything, even die for them, to keep them out of harm's way? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you can understand how one particular couple met and how their bond became unbreakable, against all odds and all foes that dared to tear them apart...
It started out as any normal, sunny day in a snowy, cold forest in Moscow, Russia. Technically, this was a very average, typical morning for an average young woman, who just happened to be traveling in the woods at this particular time. Her features were innocent yet strong and beautifully defined for a woman in her prime, and this woman was not 'tooth-pick' skinny because she had some meat on her bones. However, she was still lady-like, elegant, physically-fit, and sexy in an 'gentle' sort of way.
Her long hair was now messy even though it was still able to form a braided bun while the knee-length skirts of her dark blue and black plaid, long-sleeved dress swayed in the chilly breeze and her black combat boots created crunching noises in the snow despite the fact that the woman walked with light steps like a feline ninja. Her skin was also fair in color and free of blemishes but it was never freckled. Her eyes darted around the forest, as if she were patrolling for danger, before she came across a heavy pile of snow. Then, the woman brushed the snow from her stocking-like leggings and black wool socks with her hand as she trekked on through the forest. By her side, keeping sharp vigil, was a small red fox with copper red fur and brown, beady eyes.
Everything seemed like it was the norm to the beautiful young woman until her fox saw something floating in the icy river near its path. The fox gave a small cry to alert the woman as it tilted its head towards the glittering object before it took off running. That's when the girl clutched her army green winter jacket and gray scarf closer to her fair-skinned, petite body before she followed after her companion. Once she reached the river's edge, her bright blue zircon eyes noticed something that had sunk to the bottom of the water. It looked like a handsome young man, but the woman couldn't tell from her angle. Then, the woman stripped off her scarf, gray gloves, and jacket before she instructed her fox to 'stay back' as she leaped like an Olympic diver into the icy water.
The water felt like a million, white-hot needles as they pricked the woman's delicate skin with its frigid cruelty, but she pressed on as she swam with the speed and endurance of a marine creature. As soon as she got up close to the object, or young man, she tried to help him get to shore. She yanked on him as hard as she could, trying not to lose her own breath as well, but she noticed that he had a metal, bionic arm that was causing him to sink faster. Mustering as much strength and courage as she could as well as determination not to let the man drown, the woman was able to get herself and the man to shore before either one or both of them died of hypothermia or drowning. The event happened so quickly, it seemed like no time had passed at all since the woman jumped into the water. However, this scenario wasn't over yet. The woman still had to revive the man or take him to a doctor with advanced medical knowledge. The woman first stopped to catch her breath and gain some focus before she started performing CPR on the man, pumping hard on his chest thirty times and giving him two mouth-to-mouth breaths before repeating the cycle five times or more until he woke up. The woman pressed down so hard on the man's breastbone that she could've easily broken this man's ribs or knocked the life out of him. Finally, after what seemed like two or three minutes, the CPR worked as the man sprung awake and turned onto his side as he literally vomited icy water from his lungs and throat.
The woman scooted back to give the man some air as he tried to breathe normally before she attempted to converse with him. At once, the man regained his composure and his breath as he laid prostrate on the ground before the woman questioned sweetly while reaching out for the man's shoulder, "Sir, are you all right? Do you need some help?"
Without warning, the man snapped his head and death-glared the woman like a hungry predator with a eerie snarl before he pounced on her and grabbed her roughly around the neck with his metal hand. The woman shrieked like a frightened animal as the man grabbed her and climbed on top of her, glaring down at her with icy blue eyes filled with malevolence. The woman thought to herself as she was being death-glared by the stranger, 'This man must be a mercenary for a military force or secret police. He must be trained to attack anything on sight if they're suspicious...I just hope he's not here to kill or capture me...' The woman looked up at the man with a combination of fear and empathy as the man snarled at her viciously, his eyes bulging out while his teeth clenched together tightly. He hissed at her in Russian first, then in a strange accent, "Who are you and who do you work for?"
The girl tried to remove the man's hand with both of her tiny, gloved ones as she strangled out in a trembling voice, "...W-What do you...mean?!"
"ARE YOU DEAF?! I SAID, WHO ARE YOU AND WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?"
The girl's answer about who she was was almost inaudible because the man was slightly strangling her to death and she couldn't breathe to have enough air or voice to answer. But, the second part to the question was easy to hear, even while she was being choked, as she answered, "I...work for no...one."
"LIAR! You are a spy sent to capture or kill me!...You try my patience, woman! Who do you work for?!" After a few moments, the woman started to lose consciousness as her eyes rolled to the back of her head and her pet red fox stood on its haunches, growling and snarling at the stranger, who snarled back evilly at the red-furred creature, "Shut your mouth, vermin, or I'll put a bullet in you!" That's when the fox continued to growl at the man as he snarled murderously at the young woman.
However, it took him a moment to realize that he was really choking the young woman to death with his bionic limb. Also, he began to notice that some of her clothes were sprawled out on the snow and that she was soaking wet, so the mercenary stranger inferred that the woman was only trying to help him and that she revived him before he drowned. With that, he let the girl go as she gasped and coughed loudly for air while she turned over to her side, clutching her throat and clawing the ground as she did so. The woman's fox also took to an attack position in front of the young woman as it snarled and barked at the soaking wet, cold-hearted man. But by watching this scene, the man finally realized the error of his ways as he inwardly gasped in shock, guilt, and fear of attacking the young woman for no reason and judging her before understanding her, and he let his emotions be known outwardly as he tried to apologize subtly, "Oh my God, I-I didn't know that you meant to help me. I'm-"
However, before the man could even get a word in, the woman's eyes filled with tears as she replied, "SAVE IT! Stay away from me, you sadistic monster!" Then, the woman looked towards her clothes as the man noticed where her gaze was directed at, his feet digging into the snow as he prepared to run. The woman grabbed her scattered clothes and took off running before the man followed her, shouting in a frantic panic, "WAIT! Stop! Come back!"
The woman's damp, copper-red hair came undone from its beautiful bun and braids as she ran, her natural waves flapping like bird wings in the chilly air, as she sprinted for her life to get away from this psychopathic mercenary. Although the woman knew the man was most likely trained by a military camp to attack or kill anything dangerous or suspicious on sight, the woman was still frightened by his reaction even though it wasn't his fault. But this also gave him NO excuse to hurt an innocent bystander. It was so obvious that she was just trying to help, but the man didn't mean to attack the woman because he just didn't know any better.
The woman never stopped running until the man pounced on her again and tackled her to the ground. He climbed on top of her again as the woman struggled underneath him like a violent mental patient with anger-management issues. Then, the young woman screamed like a banshee, not caring who heard her, as she struggled in the man's strong death grip, "NO! No, no, no! Get off!"
"I'm not gonna hurt you, you stupid woman! Just listen to me!"
"GET OFF ME!" The woman screamed again as she pounded on the man's chest and tried to reach for a switchblade attached to his belt. Noticing this, the man tried to calm the woman down by pinning her arms over her head, but this was only making the situation worse. Literally, this young woman was stronger and tougher than she looked because although she was short in height with a petite body, she still had a lot of strength and stamina to back up her fiery attitude when agitated or upset. She could've taken the man down single-handily if she wanted to, no matter the size or strengths of her opponent. The young Russian dame was no dainty damsel; she could definitely stand her ground in a violent quarrel.
Sensing its master's distress, the fox charged at the man and bit his hand. The teeth clamping down on his fleshy hand felt like two large knives the size of chainsaws puncturing his skin as the man winced. The man threw the fox against a tree, knocking the poor creature unconscious, as he shouted in Russian, "Glupyy nechist'! (Stupid vermin)"
The two individuals struggled, never letting their strength wane on either side, until the woman reared up and did a round-house kick, striking the man square in the jaw as the knife she grabbed from his belt sliced skin. Then, the woman took off running again but fell as she dropped the blade and looked down at her leg, which was covered in blood. The gash was too deep and it would make movement more difficult unless it got healed up quickly. In an instant, the man woke up shortly after, shaking his head quickly as his raven hair swung like a pendulum on fast forward before he regained his focus towards the woman. She was wincing in pain and trying to hold back tears as she gingerly tried to touch her wound with her fingers, which only made her wince and cry tears of excruciating pain once her fingers hit the blood-soaked wound.
Then, the man noticed his knife on the ivory snow and noticed crimson blood coating the metal. That's when he remembered the kick to the face and how the woman accidentally gashed her own outer, upper thigh when she kicked. As gently as possible, he neared closer to the woman as she looked up at the man with wide eyes. Her body language showed that she was ready to fight back if necessary, but her eyes showed great fear for this man as he came closer and closer. He tried to appear as gentle as possible as he soothed her in the softest voice possible, despite the fact that it went against his 'no-mercy, nonchalant' nature, "I wasn't going to harm you. If only you would have listened to me, then you wouldn't be hurt." The woman looked down at the ground in a mixture of guilt and shame upon hearing those words as the man continued, "But, I frightened you, so I understand your reaction."
After hearing the kindness of the man's tone, the young woman looked up at her former opponent in shock, realizing that he was taking the blame for a wound she caused herself, as she became surprised from the confusion. She sniffled from the pain, despite the fact that she was one who could handle great deals of pain since she was a child, as the man knelt at her feet, "You're wounded...Let me see your leg." This caused the girl to stare at him in stupefied fear as he commanded in an annoyed tone, "If you don't let me look at it, you'll die of infection. Give me your leg and quit being stubborn." That's when the red-haired dame swallowed up all her fear and gave her leg to the man, wincing as she stretched it out completely before he warned, "If you jerk your leg, then you'll make it worse. Be more gentle." With a nod, the young woman desperately tried not to make direct eye contact with the man as she complied fully while he inspected her bleeding wound.
The woman did manage to get a good look at him and although he seemed handsome, he also seemed very cruel and bloodthirsty. From her observation, the young woman could see that the young man had shoulder-length, shaggy dark brown hair (that definitely looked unkempt and looked like it needed a good washing) and blue eyes that seemed to sparkle when it was framed by his 'dark portrait.' The man also wore a strange black mask, made of cloth, that covered his nose and the lower regions of his face like a muzzle. He was also muscular and well-built, but his personality made him seem evil to the woman...At least at first. Once she got to know the man, then he wasn't so bad after all.
Meanwhile, the girl's fox came to full consciousness and snarled before it charged the man again, causing the girl to grab the fox by the scruff of its scrawny neck as she chastised the creature, "Vixie, step down! He's a friend now!" After hearing the commands of her master, the fox stopped showing its teeth and laid down next to the young woman as she pet the creature to give herself solace while the man looked at her wounds. It was a wound that he caused with his own switchblade because he had been so cold and sadistic, and he felt terrible because of it. After a couple minutes of inspection, the woman realized what the man was. She looked at him carefully as she asked, "You are an assassin, right?"
The man looked up as he titled his head in puzzlement. He was confused by the woman's question because that was not the term he used to call himself and people like him nor was it a term people called him directly. After a few minutes of careful thought, the man shook his head and answered the woman's question, almost sounding like a monotone robot, "I prefer the term 'country cleanser,' but if that's what you call people like me, then yes. I'm an assassin."
"So, that's it?"
"What's it?"
"You're not gonna kill me or capture me after what I just did to you?"
"My master didn't send me out here to kill you, therefore, I'm not gonna waste my bullets on a naïve, delicate woman like you. You've got nothing to worry about unless you're next on my hit list."
"Oh..." The girl sighed while slightly shaking before the man explained, "Your wound's not serious, but it will be if I don't heal it or clean it." The man dug around through the many pockets of his black leather, 'seat-belt' embroidered uniform until he pulled out a silver bottle and undid the cap. He held the bottle as he explained to the girl, "This will help stop the bleeding and clean your wounds, but it will sting for a few moments. If you need to bite on something to prevent screaming, I suggest you find it now...And don't try to squirm because I'll be holding your leg down, understand?"
The woman nodded in agreement as the man nodded back, lowering the bottle towards the wound and holding the woman's leg down so tightly that it could form bruises as he poured some of the liquid onto the gash and applied moderate pressure to it. Right then and there, that's when the woman bit down on her scarf and covered her mouth with one hand as she clutched the skirt of her dress with her other free hand. She whimpered and muffled screams as tears streamed down her face, the pain of this wound almost being too much for the woman. That's when the strange man tried his best to offer the girl solace, patting her leg tenderly as he replied awkwardly in a whisper, "It has to be done, so just bear with it for a few more minutes..." The girl held on and tried to remain strong until the pain subsided. Shortly afterwards, the man applied a guacamole-looking paste to her leg, waiting a moment, before asking, "Do you have any gauze to wrap the wound with?" The woman nodded as she dried her frigid, dried tears with the back of her hand before reaching into a satchel by her side, pulling out a roll of gauze and handing it to the man as he bandaged up the gash tenderly and returned the gauze to its owner.
That's when the red-haired woman looked towards the dark brown-haired man, ivory gauze still in hand, as she looked down at the man's hand and pointed to add emphasis, "You're hurt." However, the 'country cleanser' just shrugged his shoulders without any interest for his wound as he grabbed his flesh-covered hand, "It's no big deal. The fox just bit me." The man glared down at the animal with a deadly gaze, causing the creature to slightly growl again, before bowing its head in shame as the woman petted the red canine. The woman then shook her head like a mother who didn't believe the lies of her child as she said, "I'm so sorry, Sir. Please give me your hand."
"Why? It's just an animal bite. It'll go away soon."
"If you don't give it to me, it'll get infected. You helped heal me so please let me heal you."
"It's fine." The man replied before the woman cut his sentence short as she snapped at the larger man in her own hiss, "I don't care!" At once, the man looked at the woman, his dark eyebrows perking up, after she snapped at HIM. Him, a trained mercenary who could easily snap her pretty little neck in two seconds flat without a moment's hesitation. And yet, there was something about this woman that made her irresistible, and it wasn't just her outer beauty. It was more of her personality and her great courage, even while under fire, that made him like and respect her.
With a slight sigh and roll of his eyes, the man extended his hand to the woman as she gingerly cradled the soldier's right hand in her tinier palm. She then asked for the bottle with the stinging liquid as the man handed it to the woman before she carefully undid the cap and poured some of the liquid on the man's hand as he tried to stifle a small wince of pain. The woman patted the man's hand as she soothed him with her voice and motherly gestures before she placed the paste on his hand and meticulously wrapped his hand with the ivory gauze like a woman carefully threading a needle while the man watched. Finally, she patted the man's hand with a gentle grin plastering itself on her pretty face.
After putting away his supplies, the man stood up quickly and brushed the snow from his ebony clothing as he readjusted his uniform, which caught the woman's eye as she stared up at him in wonder, almost getting lost in her own little world, while the man replied, "Can you walk?"
"I...I don't know, but I can try..." The woman nodded as she tried to stand, only to collapse until the man caught her, "You obviously need help...Just hang onto me until you can stand on your own." The woman nodded again and dried more of her tears from before as she allowed the man to help her stand up straight. Once the woman could stand, the man nodded before he nonchalantly thanked her, "Thanks...for saving me back there. Sorry about before..."
The woman was taken aback at this response from such a cold man, a stranger whom she had never met before, but she accepted his gratitude nonetheless as she smiled, "You're welcome and it was my fault. I kicked you in the face and inflicted harm onto myself because I thought you were gonna hurt or kill me."
"If my master didn't tell me to hurt or kill you, then I won't until he gives me the orders to do so..."
"Why did you help me, after all I did?"
"You were obviously wounded and you needed my help. You were innocent and foolish, nothing more."
"Well, thanks..." The woman replied with a nod as the man began to leave, causing her to call out for him, "Wait!...I never got your name. I want to properly thank my rescuer."
"I'm The Winter Soldier." The man replied as the young woman stared at him in awe. This was no ordinary man; this was THE Winter Soldier from the stories and rumors in all areas of Russia and even the world. The Winter Soldier was a name and man to be feared. He was a ghost that killed without leaving a trace, and you'd never find him, even if you tried with every resource known to man. Everyone feared him, even the people that created him (not that they would ever admit that).
That's why The Winter Soldier expected the Russian dame to run away from him and be afraid of him, just like everyone else did before getting to know him. His body language, voice, and face told the woman that he didn't care about what he was. However, his eyes told a different story. His blue orbs were filled with pain and shame; he literally 'spoke' with his eyes. The Winter Soldier looked at the young woman silently as if he were saying to her, 'Look at me. Look at the monster I've been turned into. You wanna hit me, kill me, run away? Go ahead and run! I won't get upset! Everyone runs from me. Everyone hates me.' But he was wrong.
Things are not always as they appear, and the same held true to the young woman. Even though she knew who and what he was, the young woman did not run; she stayed because she knew what it was like to be judged before being fully understood. The man was not a blood-thirsty killer as the rumors said. He was actually very caring, confused and curious about certain things, but still caring. Heck, he even healed her wound and spared her life even though he could've just let her die right there in the snow. Therefore, the woman remained gentle to the man as she giggled before replying, "That's a bit long, ain't it? How about I shorten it to make it easier on me?...Hmm, how about...Winter?"
"Whatever floats your boat." The Winter Soldier, or Winter, shrugged gently with a nonchalant tone under his mask as the woman and her fox began to walk off. However, this only caused him to snap his head like a snake and call out to her too as he admitted, "It's my turn to ask you something...I gave you my name, but you never gave me yours."
"Well, this companion of mine right here is 'Vixie.'"
"I didn't ask you what the vermin's name was."
"She's not vermin! Don't you know a domesticated red fox when you see one?"
"Whatever...I asked for YOUR name." The man retorted, almost in an irritated tone, as the woman replied, "Why would you want to know? Why do you care?"
"I...I just want to be sure I know your name just in case we cross paths again, which I doubt we will..."
"...Well, since we just met, I can't give you my full or real name yet, but I will tell you that I go by 'Anya.'"
"Okay, that'll suffice for now..." The assassin rolled his eyes in annoyance with his back turned to Anya as she called out, "Oh, Winter!"
"...Yes, Anya?"
"If you ever wanna find me again, remember this rhyme: When you stop to smell the raspberries and hear a voice in your ear, that's when you'll know that I am truly here...Remember it well because I have a feeling we'll cross paths again. Take care."
"...Right, you too." Winter nodded as he made his way back to headquarters while Anya and Vixie made it back to their own 'headquarters.'