The Snow Queen

The Woman

Jack's dreams continued to muddle him as he found himself deep in a frozen cavern. Everything was white. His family was nowhere to be found, but he wasn't afraid. At least not until he realized was being followed. Stumbling and sliding, he tried to reach the end of the cave and evade his pursuer—one he couldn't identify as either human or animal. He was getting colder. He went to breathe into his hands but found that they were turning to solid ice. Reaching a downward spiral that took him to the deepest center of the labyrinth, he saw a shape; a figure made of ice that glowed a blue deeper than the sky itself. Somehow, he knew to go to it, as it called for him. He reached for it and, with hands as delicate as snowflakes, it took his.

And when it did, he wasn't cold anymore.

Right as his hands began to thaw did Jack wake up with a start, heart racing, and gasping for air. Tree branches thumping against his window were what woke him. He checked his hands to find not a single drop of water from the ice that had melted off of him; the dream had felt so real. He had no idea what brought this one upon him, but he was a tad disappointed to find himself only in his bed. He partly wanted to know what had been following him.

There was already some light outside, so Jack sat up out of bed and found some warm clothes. He didn't mind the cold, and it'd get his parents off his back if he got a head start on whatever work he had. His mind kept going back to the dream even though he normally forgot them by now—had the thing that was chasing him meant to hurt him, or was it pleading for him to wait? And the creature he'd met towards the end, where the Hell did his mind come up with such fantasies?

A gale howled across the hamlet that made the air even colder than it already was. It had snowed overnight, which meant he had some shoveling to do before he got started with the animal's pens. His breath danced across the air as he made his way to the stables to clean the animal droppings. He hung the lantern on the sconce inside and got to work, shushing the startled sheep. "I know, I know, good morning." He mumbled and grabbed his tools. "All right little shits, time to clean your beds." An early start to his morning—life as usual.

It was typical for the sheep to want to go outside, but in this cold, none were tempted to leave their warm pens just yet, not even as Jack swept everything out the doors. Their behavior was what was unusual, they were acting like something had spooked them, perhaps a wolf. It still wasn't bright enough to see into the woods, but Jack did spot a four-legged creature lurking close by. Finding strays trying to eat their sheep was common, so Jack was doing what he always would when he lunged the broom at it and hissed, "Go on! Get lost!" Instead, the poor mutt came running out of the trees and off somewhere in the village, far more fearful of what was behind it than Jack.

That's when he felt it—the strange cool of the air that came from somewhere unnatural. It wasn't the weather, for this felt as brisk as the air only high up in the mountains... like the cold from his dream. Jack put the broom down and went a little farther into the trees, there was not another shift in the temperature as he looked around for something out of the ordinary.

He was going to call out, but then the quiet morning cracked in half. Such noise was familiar to the young man; he'd be expecting a dog stealing one of their animals or a wolf breaking the neck of a wailing deer, but the sounds that followed—a crackling and squish of the skin—was what was most astonishing. Jack froze as if the air took him captive. He should go back inside, perhaps warn his father, but for some reason, he stayed there in the grove. And then a smell he knew anywhere drew him closer, just as a shark would be. Blood. He'd hunted and skinned enough animals to know the scent as well as his mother's.

But this was no work of a hunter, there wasn't the sound of gunshots or a struggle; just the quick, clean death of some poor elk. Jack told himself not to get closer; there was no point. He knew what he'd find. No reason to investigate. No, no need. Go finish with the stables... but Jack couldn't stay away.