[血の雪] Snow of Blood (The Twelve Kingdoms Backstory)

I

The sky was a constant pale gray, holding in more snow. Lacie stared up at it as she walked, eyes watering at the brightness and hands clutching at the blood still flowing from her nose. It dripped down on the blinding white snow beneath her feet, marking her path. The bustle of the town was far behind her, and up here in the mountains the air was still and quiet. This was the farthest she'd ever went from her house.

Nothing too extraordinary happened today, but she was just fed up. Her stepmother slaved her and beat her almost every day, and she was used to that. Her two stepsisters tried everything they could to mess her up because of their own insecurities, their own greed. She was used to that, too. She was used to all the bruises and the cuts and the yelling. Her stepmother even brought up her father again.

Lacie hated her father. He became a useless drunkard after her real mother died when she was six. He remarried so they wouldn't lose their tiny apartment and then died a year later in a ditch somewhere from severe alcohol poisoning.

The next eight years were spent working nonstop for her stepmother's small gardening shop, and sometimes going days without food. She never went to school, but that was normal among the poor here. Lacie never complained, everyone in their neighborhood lived like that. She wasn't the only poor starving abused little girl. Complaining wouldn't get her anywhere.

Their village was on the very border of the Frost Kingdom and the Teleportation Kingdom, and by now she was most likely already on the Frost Kingdom's side. The pain was numbed by the cold and she could no longer feel her toes. She looked away from the sky as she reached the top of the hill. Her white-spotted vision adjusted, bringing a small cabin into focus. Lacie wasn't aware anyone was living out here and this dark anomaly in the sheet of white pulled her out of her apathy, even if it was just for a minute.

Curiosity sparked the closer she got to it. There was a blue glow coming through the windows. The cottage itself was tiny, even tinier than Lacie's family cottage.

When she knocked the first time, no one answered. She was about to try the handle, but the wooden door cracked open and a boy peeked out.

"Who are you?"

Lacie shrugged, fully aware of her ragged appearance. "Whoever you want me to be. Can I come in?"

She didn't wait for his reply and pushed past him into the warmness of the cabin, rubbing her hands together. When she looked up at him, his innocent face was scrunched up in confusion as he stared at her, pushing the door closed behind him.

Lacie unabashedly stared right back. He was so pretty. She wanted to punch his perfect face. Break his innocence in half. Skin whiter than snow, almost translucent, in a stark contrast against the scarlet of his lips. Her hand, as if pulled by a magnet, found the charcoal of his hair just as soft as it looked. The widening of his eyes was almost comical.

Her fingers slid to his cheek, leaving a mark of dirty red against the spotlessness of his skin, and at that she jerked her hand away. "What's your name?" Her voice was sing-song.

His mouth seemed to move on reflex. "Prince Yuki of the Frost Ki-" he caught himself too late. "...ngdom."

She tilted her head at him in amusement. "Lacie." Breaking the eye contact, her gaze found the kitchen. "Do you have food?"

Yuki trailed after her with a puzzled expression on his face. "Yes? I think..."

No longer distracted by his appearance, her cheeks and the tips of her fingers burned from the sudden change of temperature and the dull ache in her nose increased. She took off her ratty wool coat and dropped it on the chair by the small round oak table. Everything was wood and chrome and cozy. A sourceless faint blue light simmered all around.

She turned to find Yuki still staring at her, that faint blue light outlining his hair like a halo. He looked so fragile, and a sudden biting desire to break all his bones rose up at the back of her mind.

~*~*~

Prince Yuki wasn't sure what to make of the girl that barged into his secret hideout, manners be damned. He couldn't quite figure her out. She ate most of his food and didn't blink twice when he accidentally mentioned that he was the crown prince of a kingdom. Her clothes were worn and dirty, her nose had dried blood crusted around it, her wrists were bruised, yet there was an almost hysterical sparkle in her doe eyes. That sparkle is what drew him in, what kept his eyes glued on her. She was pretty in that twisted fascinating kind of way.

But somehow, somehow they became inseparable, a strange attraction pulling them together. After that day, Lacie came over almost every day, mostly at night, but Yuki would only be there a few times a week, whenever he could escape the nightmare of being the crown prince.