Nutcracker [Discontinued]

6 Snow Melts

My cheek burns as my eyes start to open and close. My nose twitches at the smell of the frozen air. I lift my head up. The snow has stopped falling but it still covers the ground. I close my eyes and drop my head, falling back asleep.

"S--stop--p."

Someone tries to wake me up by having the brilliant idea to shake me. I'm already shaking enough.

I reluctantly open my eye to see a blue face with eyes like snowflakes staring at me.

I yelp and jump back.

"Fritz, you're alive," I hear Maria say.

"It's alright. I'm not going to hurt you." The flurry offers me her hand, and as the memories of running with her from the other flurries come back, I allow her to pull me to her feet. "He's too cold. His body is starting to shut down." She steps away from me and allows Maria to wrap her arms around me. "Is there a place we can take him?"

The Nutcracker nods. "There's a town to the North."

_______________________

"He's coming around."

I see green not white. "Where am I?"

"We're on our way to the town," Maria says. "You had us worried when you fell asleep."

"Us?"

At that moment the flurry steps into my vision. I stumble. apparently she has been helping to carry me as well. She gives me a shy wave.

"Oh right..."

"Wow. You really are out of it." Maria frowns.

"Yeah..."

We don't get far once we resume walking, because the flurry stops and looks at her hands, her face mournful.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

She responds with her hands by holding them out so we can see. We watch as small beads of water appear on top of her blue hands. They shake as they connect with new droplets. Eventually they make their way to the ground and slowly the blue of her skin disappears leaving white underneath.

"You're melting?" I can tell Maria has a hard time saying those words.

But that's before we look up and see no traces of blue left on her.

"When a flurry is away from the cold, the top layer of our skin melts."

"Does it hurt?" I ask.

She shakes her head as the town is coming into view. There's a tall wooden fence that wraps around it, and as we get closer people begin shouting.