A Tale of Ice

The broken little girl who no longer had an innocent, pure heart would stay collapsed right next to her friend. But the snow saw everything and took up her offering.

“Their red eyes glowered at me and I found myself backing up until I found another back against me. Completely surrounded and hopeless, I awaited my punishment.” 

Long before the mirror shard tainted Kai’s eyes, the Snow Queen was just a little girl who loved her best friend more than anything. Farrah was kind, but also incredibly shy. Never straying far from her little cottage, the villagers claim she was meddling with witchcraft, all except one. The land had just recovered from a great war many years ago, although it was taboo to speak a word of it. The few village elders are the only ones who still remember those terrible times. The pages would eventually be lost to history, but its effects haunted the land to this day. 

I stare outside the window, to the raging blizzard outside. It seems that’s all the weather is these days, snow, more snow, and hail. Nobody here will admit it, but I know for a fact it didn’t used to be like this. The days keep getting colder, plants starting to die off. Why does nobody but me seem to question this?

My gaze lands on a bird, bravely fighting against the wind. Her wings were flapping furiously, carrying food. I want to rush out the door and do… do something. Her body hits a stray branch and she’s pummeling to the ground in a blink of an eye. She could have had a long life of soaring through the skies. She would have little birdlings. 

That’s it. The poor bird was a mother. Why else would she have decided to rebel against nature instead of staying put?

I shut my eyes and mourn for her children. As soon as the clouds have stopped weeping, I bolt outside and dig a grave. The ice is so, so cold but her story is even more so. It's been so long since I’ve seen this view, cabins upon cabins with cold air against my cheeks. But nothing nice lasts for long. The stones come for my back. 

“The witch is out! The witch is out! I bet she has another evil plan!” Her hair looks even whiter and bewitched than the last time! The children screamed. 

“Stop that! She’s done nothing wrong!”

“I don’t get it, Yuna. How can someone like you protect someone like her? You’re friendly and outgoing and all she does is stay cooped up, plotting who knows what.”

“Let’s go, Farrah. Children don’t know what they’re talking about. All they do is make stuff up. I’m sure everyone else doesn’t feel the same way about you,” Yuna said, dragging me away. 

I want to believe her words. I want to believe the villagers love and cherish me. But, deep down, I know she’s just trying to make me feel better. Parents guide their children away when I walk past. Everyone starts whispering and staring at me with those judgemental eyes.    

Curiosity didn’t take its time getting to the two girls. It wasn’t before long that they started digging into what the village fought so hard to hide. But naturally, things wouldn’t go as planned. 

“GET THEM!” The patrol yelled. 

Swerving through the trees, the two of us had one goal in mind, to tell the truth to everyone. Almost running into the bench, we tumbled right into the village’s center with absolutely no need to capture everyone’s attention.

With the adults inching closer by the second from the peripheral of my eye, I screamed, “We’ve made a terrible mistake! You know why the land gets colder by the day? It’s because this region needs life force to function properly. By rebelling against the priest family, you’ve doomed all of us! But out of pride, you’ve-”

“She’s officially gone crazy!”

“I knew the witch was never in the right mind, but this is just madness.”

“We should imprison, no, kill her!”

Their red eyes glowered at me and I found myself backing up until I found another back against me. Completely surrounded and hopeless, I awaited my punishment. 

Farrah was sent into exile until she could cure the coldness. How exactly she would do that, she didn’t know. The villagers clung to their fear and not a single person said against this improbable mission. Naturally, they didn’t want Yuna to also carry that burden even though she also played the part. But knowing how bias can completely alter a human and her undying loyalty, Farrah’s best friend sought out after her. 

I huddle with Yuna on the cold snow floor. It’s been days since the great lake has vanished from view. The snow is so deep and we only have so much energy. Part of me thinks that I should just move somewhere else and leave the wretched place to die out. What did they ever do for me anyway? It was their own actions that will lead to their undoing. Even as they suffer the consequences, the people still haven’t changed a bit. But at the same time Yuna deserves to return to somewhere of peace and acceptance, somewhere where summer and warmth still exists.

We trek through the snow and ice so much that everywhere’s starting to look the same, a frost covered slope surrounded with trees and mountains. The two of us were desperately trying to survive with only each other to depend on.

The stone of this heirloom necklace must lead to the right place, I can feel it. They told me that I had been found with it as a baby with no sign of any parents. I was recognized as a foreigner with uncertainty. There was only one person in the world who actually cared. 

“Hey, what are you doing out here in the woods? You should come to my place. We can roast around the fire and eat fish together.”

“How many days do you think a frog could survive here? I’ve heard from my grandma that they have webbed fingers and eat flies for breakfa-” 

“BEAR!”

“RUN!”

Ditching everything I had, I grabbed her arm and ran for my life so fast that the trees were blobs of gray. I dared to turn back and saw the bone breaking jaws and claws scurrying behind. When I felt I could’ve gone around the whole world twice, I collapsed panting so hard I tasted blood. Only then did I ask, where is my brunette, freckled partner in crime?

Yuna was taken by a band of robbers unconsciously. It seems the duo weren’t the only ones that caught on to what was going on. With a map that led to the same cave, they knew just a little more than Farrah. 

Oh gosh, what do I do now? I wanted to run all the way back and make sure she was alive and breathing and safe, and did I mention alive? But with me out of the picture, surely she’d give up and just go back home to where she belongs, right? I’ll do this myself so she can be safe again. 

I clenched my fists and forced myself to take a step forward. I told myself it’s for the better. With even greater wind, I pushed up the path. Each day was just hike, eat, sleep, and repeat. The days went by and I eventually lost track of time. 

Farrah moved forward with only one ambition in her head, to protect her bestest person in the world. She didn’t care what she had to do to accomplish it, even if it meant hunting the animals she loved too much. 

I just mercilessly murdered another deer in cold blood but I no longer felt the sympathy and regret I once did. Sacrifices are necessary to achieve a goal. Is this what growing up means? I’m so, so close. It’s just a little further. I little more and I’ll see Yuna again. I might even be accepted as a hero. 

 I hear a bunch of murmurs just a little off to the side. It’s been so long since I heard a voice that wasn’t mine. A voice that didn’t come from me, myself, or I. 

“Who’s there?” Someone asks. 

“I’m Farrah. I was exil- sent by my village to find a cure to the colder days.” My voice was so clear and full of confidence that I hardly even recognized it. 

“And how exactly are you planning to do that?”

“I, uhh, don’t have that part planned out yet.”

“Let us tell you one thing. That village by the lake used to have a family with a connection to the snow. They fully understood that this land needed a life force to function properly. Every year they would take rations of the food and offer it to the snow so that the people wouldn’t go through endless numbing and cold. But the villagers soon turned on them out of greed and fear. They didn’t like their food taken away for some make believe myth and killed every last one.”

“Now this entire region is suffering because of it. No amount of food or animals would be enough anymore. This cursed cave needs an innocent human heart to suffice. Don’t you understand?”

I just can’t kill someone and rip out their heart. But then what have I been doing this past year? I’ve come so far and I’m just an inch away. It’s so, so close. But time was running out. The land would soon become an icy wasteland. 

But what Farrah didn’t know was that the robbers already had a plan in motion, one including Yuna. 

Either a stroke of luck or misfortune came to me. Travelers. And there just so happened to be a child running astray, lost. Am I really ready for this? It would just be one more life, just one. With a make craft dagger in hand, I sought out after her. 

But there was still one last person in her way. One that had followed her since exile, Estrel. 

“Stop this madness! Are you really going to kill an innocent child who has nothing to do with this?”

“Yes. Whatever it takes.” And I plunged the blade right into her side. 

Estrel. She never particularly hated or liked me. But that doesn’t matter. She’s just another stepping stone. Her blood is so, so warm on my hands and I want to wash them a dozen times but there are still things to be done. 

“Greda…”

 “If you wanted your child to live with a happy family, you never should have followed me.”

You have someone special but so do I. And because I actually care, I’ll do whatever it takes. To see her smile while running through flowers in the spring, that is my dream. 

I acquire my next target and run towards it with a numb feeling inside.

Farrah, don’t do this. Can’t you see? She’s just like you and me. Open your eyes. 

No, Yuna. You’re the one who needs to see. Everything I’m doing is for you. There is no way out. I must do what has to be done. 

I see the fear in the child’s eyes. I see the panic and longing to live. But for everythings sake, I slash open her throat with no remorse. It stains the white snow crimson red, a sea of blood. 

I don’t feel regret. I don’t feel sadness. I don’t feel pain. I feel calm and prepared for what’s to come. The child in me wants to cry but I shut her away a long time ago. 

 Farrah takes the heart to the cave and wearily walks to the very core. But she’s too late. 

  “YUNAAA!!!”

The dagger and heart both tumble to the ground, clanking echoing throughout the walls. I follow the trail of blood with my ears ringing, ready to burst. 

There it lay, a cold body with such lifeless eyes, a shadow of who it once was. 

Yuna. My best friend.

My legs gave out. I was late. The blood on my hands was all for nothing. It was all for nothing.

The broken little girl who no longer had an innocent, pure heart would stay collapsed right next to her friend. But the snow saw everything and took up her offering. It granted her the power of winter in exchange to fill up the hole inside her with ice. Farrah would drag herself out and eventually set her eyes upon a new dream. To right what was wrong and bring true peace. A world where human greed and pride didn’t exist. A world where no one would have to go through what she did. A world ruled by her. It would be perfect.

“It’s the Snow Queen!”

“Run!”

“Eat your vegetables or the Snow Queen will come after you in your sleep.”

“Murderer!”

“Look out for the Snow Queen.”

“Killer!”

The land would eventually return to the way it used to be. Flowers bloomed in fields of grass and sunlight. After seven years of collecting the necessary mirror shards, Farrah returned to that very village with her polar bear made from magic. It was the only one she could trust. There she would find the last piece of the puzzle in a boy known as Kai.