Snow by NicoRavenPen

Trapped and Freed

    Today was supposed to be special, the most memorable of her life. Instead, it had become the worst; the most painful yet.

    The day had started as a perfect winter morning, the sun shining bright and the light snow upon the ground turning it into a winter wonderland. Excitement and joy thrummed through the air as the entire village readied for a celebration: a wedding.
    Their infamous protector and miko were getting married that afternoon, a union blessed by all and expected by many. After all, the evil one who’d threatened humanity was dead along with his minions, his terrifying menace no more.
    All was going as expected.
    The miko was readying in a separate hut, her sister-friend helping her. The hanyou was silently waiting on the outskirts of the village, his anticipation making him antsy and unsettled.
    All had been going so well.
    But then something drew his attention.
    A wisp of pale in the trees.
    Something he’d never thought to see again.
    Conflicted, thick brows knitting together, he looked behind him to the village for a moment as if he could see the one preparing to be his. He swallowed thickly.
    He knew the decision he made now could hurt her, destroy her. But his own heart was pushing him, urging him to follow its’ lead.
    It knew what it wanted, who it truly wanted.
    Without another thought he turned away from the village, away from her, and went into the trees, following a hope that bloomed in his chest for one he thought dead.




    In the village, the time had come for the ceremony to begin- but the groom was missing.
    Whispers began to spread and soon the sounds reached the ears of the bride‘s friends. The monk searched everywhere but came back empty-handed and expression dour. Even the young kitsune kit with his sensitive nose could not find him. He said only that his scent was missing from the village, at least an hour’s time earlier.
    Hoping that he was simply on a quick, unknown errand, they waited on bated breath. The minutes ticked by until they became an hour. And then two. Then three.  
    The miko became frantic, worried for him.
    Was he hurt somewhere? Was he injured somehow and waiting for help? Waiting for her?
    Ignoring the quickly spoiling weather as well as her friend’s cries to wait, she burst from the village and into the snow.
    They tried to follow her, but the blustering winds and escalating snow quickly divided them from her and they were forced to turn back and hope that she would as well.
    But she didn’t.
    She was too desperate, too worried.
    And she knew something they didn’t…
    There was a cave nearby. Somewhere that only she and the hanyou knew about, somewhere where he’d taken only her.
    She knew he was there, could feel his aura there as it pulsed strangely.
    This concerned her even more.
    Normally his aura was relatively calm and steady, even when in battle, so this strange fluctuating made her brows knit together tightly with anxiety.
    She strode ahead, pure white kimono fluttering in the harsh and biting winds, cheeks turning red with the cold.
    And then she was there, panting as she leaned against the inner wall of the entrance.
    Beneath the sounds of her own breathy, shivering gasps, were other gasps. Warm, heated ones that confused her.
    A flickering firelight shimmered in the cave ahead, down the tunnel, and slowly she followed.
    Her heart was hammering in her chest as if it already knew what it would find, even if her mind refused to believe it.
    The closer she got, the more uneven it beat.
    Gasps became intermingled with throaty moans- both feminine and masculine, and she clenched a hand to her twisting heart, chest squeezing painfully and causing her to stumble.
    The voices that drifted to her were agonizingly clear and familiar and she couldn’t force herself to continue any further. The seizing, stuttering organ in her chest wouldn’t allow it.
    Slowly, she used her free hand to grasp the wall so that she could shuffle back the way that she came, dragging herself away from the agony.
    The further away that she got, the quicker she moved.
    And then she was in the cold, unforgiving snow- a strangely welcome change from the agonizing heat of the cave.
    Her heart continued to beat unnaturally as she tumbled to her knees in the thick white purity, a sob escaping her constricting throat.
    Desperate to get away, she forced herself onward, away from the cave, away from the village. Away from them.
    Any tears that escaped her eyes froze in their paths down her cheeks but she did not take notice, her mind stuck on the betrayal of her heart. The thing squeezed pitifully with each reminder, excruciating pain lacing through her.
    As she stumbled against the lashing winds she came to an opening in the trees. The snow was thigh high then as she left the woods behind for what was once open, grassy plains. Now, it was a winter wasteland.
    She trekked through the snow with desperate movements but soon the cold was too much for her system. Her body finally began to freeze as she vaguely realized that she’d lost all feeling in her limbs.
    Breathing shakily, the small amount of air leaving blue lips in faint puffs, she bitterly accepted her fate.
    She was going to die. Because of him she would never have a home, a lover, a family. It was the only thought left in her mind as she tumbled backward, ebony hair billowing out like a halo about her head.
    Lashes fluttering as she stared blankly above her, limbs immobile, her vision began to swim before painful stabs like ice forced her eyes closed one last time.
    As her chest shallowly rose and fell, another figure came from the distance and stood above her, looking down.
    Similar black locks whipped in the wind as the pale, naked woman stared down in indifferent interest.
    Slowly, unaffected by the bitter winds or the snow, the figure knelt. A pale hand brushed fingertips across the miko’s forehead, along the apple of her cheek down to her chin. Seeing the frozen tears and the pure white wedding kimono, dark eyes widened and a smile bloomed across the fair face.
    Finally, one like her! Finally!
    With a singular thought in her mind, she straddled the miko’s waist and placed both hands above her dying heart.
    Yes, just there…
    She could feel the last weakened beats, the last that she herself would steal.
    Forming a needle of ice in her palm, long as her forearm and sharper than any blade, she gripped it before slowly pushing it into the flesh above the girl’s breast.
    Into her heart!
    Her feral smile showed a lack of sanity as she plundered the miko’s soul with her own, transferring her own horrible fate to her.
    She had been told, one horrible fateful day, by the kami of death that until she found one who had suffered a similar fate she would be alone in her suffering, alone to live a horrible existence of never-ending winter.
    She had been alone for so long, nothing but the deaths of others satisfying her endless pain, that she no longer remembered what normality felt like. Wasn’t sure that she even cared.
    Because now, now she could be free.
    Her grip on the shard tightened.
    As she stared down into the lovely face of the girl there was a small instance of regret for the poor creature she was about to condemn.
    Such a beautiful creature, only to be made even more beautiful…but for what purpose? To destroy others…
    Her pity was short lived however.
    She deserved peace after all of this time, after all of these years.
    These lifetimes.
    With one last lingering smile, she finished it. And as the other surged forward with a shriek, she fell backward with a final laugh before dissipating into a flurry of glistening ice flakes, drifting off into the wind.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O

A/N: Yes, I'm starting another one...lol...Don't worry, I haven't given up on any of my other ones, I just have had this one in my head for ages and HAD to get it out. It was getting impatient, I think...