Incomplete Stories

Tsumetai Kaze

How long now, has it been since I last opened my eyes to the blurry light of a winter dawn? When did I last truly feel this numbing cold, the cold that burns your nose and bites your toes? I can't remember. I've been in a deep sleep for so long. But today, something woke me up. If I'm being completely honest, I'm scared of what awoke me. A new thing, a new all powerful race that when I was truly living was scarcely heard of, a legend of sorts. Despite being stronger than these...humans...we are unable to truly defeat them. They breed nonstop, they burn entire forests, kill the animals that are trying to help them; like heartless beasts! Yet, they still know more emotion than my people. They scared us because of this. And that is probably why we didn't fight when they began to take over. We allowed them to drive us from our homes, and that was our downfall. I am not sure of my theory, but I think I was the only one to survive. You see, I live somewhere that humans can't, so wretchedly cold for them yet a perfect temperature for me. And me alone, not even the majority of my kin could live somewhere so cold. But the cold made me sleepy, and I guess that's why I have been sleeping for so long.

But today, on a warmer than normal morning, I was sleeping fitfully. I think my dreams were filled with nightmares, but I can't be sure. I can't remember a single dream that I have had. Now, on this particularly warm morning, I could feel lots of movement outside of my cave. I could hear multiple voices, yelling at each other in a language familiar yet unknown to I. A harsh, ugly language like tin. I don't understand why humans have chosen this language. I truly don't. But those voices and the particularly warm morning were beginning to wake me. Then the voices left, and I began to fall back into a deeper sleep despite the weather, when I began to hear a sound I have never heard before, chipping away at the hard packed ice in the front of the cave. Tap tap tap, the sound kept repeating itself, over and over again, and again my slumber was disturbed yet not completely shaken. Then, a huge crash sounded from where the tap tapping had been coming from. This isn't what awoke me though, but by then I was so close to being awake a mouse walking across the snow could have awoken me.

What woke me up were the heavy footsteps of a human, trampling through the snow. Immediately I awoke and quickly hid in the shadow of a large rock, but I think I might have been too late. The human probably had seen me by then. Probably. Yes, he definitely saw me. But ignored me. Instead, he went right for my two boxes, now, I have no idea how they survived this long, but I couldn't let a human have what was inside of them. That would spell trouble for me. Huge trouble. And I couldn't let that happen, but, because of my fear I reacted slowly. I stood slowly, then took a step towards him, or more like a leap seeing as I had to jump over the rock that was hiding me, but I was too late, he had already opened the first box. Inside of it was a crystalline mask, a flower made of ice that I infused with magic so that it would never melt, a kimono the color of snow, and the one thing he couldn't have under any circumstances, was an object that I cannot name. It had an oval shape, was a color of very light blue and white, and inscribed unto it was my name and the day I was brought into this world. Not exactly born, but created. You see, my people do not reproduce like humans, instead we make our children with magic. Because of this, no one is quite sure how the first of us came to be, but it didn't matter back then because we were the most powerful. "Stop!" I screamed at him, but again I was too late. He had already gone for the blue and white object. Though, I suppose even if I had reacted in time it wouldn't have made any difference. Humans don't understand us. And if they did, I doubt they would listen.

"No, no, no!" I screamed internally but was otherwise unable to do anything but stare at the man. Frozen in fear, I suppose. Lucky for me, he was wearing gloves. The effect wouldn't start until he touched it with his bare hands, and if everything had gone as planned I could have retrieved it well before that could have happened. But nothing goes as planned when it comes to me. The man turned to me, only his light brown eyes and a few locks of dark hair were visible beneath a large woolen scarf.