Winter Wonderland

[The Writing Owl]

It was around 9 that morning that the sky started to turn gray, warning of a storm. It was a bit disheartening, but Bridgett didn't mind. The light brunette girl simply took a blue umbrella, having heard on the radio that it was only going to rain that day. No more no less. So, when getting ready to go out to get some groceries, she put on her favorite torn pair of jeans, sneakers, and a tank top. It couldn't be too cold out, it was barely the end of fall. Winter still had a while to come with it's white powder. At least, the brown eyed girl thought so. Grabbing her jacket and favorite scarf, she headed out with umbrella and brown messenger bag in tow.

The day had been boringly simple. Get up. Eat breakfast. Check the weather. Get dressed. Go do daily errands. It was the same every day for Bridgett, only changing slightly depending on whether she had school or not. As she entered the convenience store not six blocks away from her dingy apartment, she thought she saw a flash of white. Blinking, she passed it off as a coincidence. Of course it was nothing, right? She was just fine...

The dull brown store gave her a sense of comfort after the slight scare before settling into unending boredom. She grabbed her food dutifully, but almost robotically. The fluid movements of her walk soon turned into a practiced routine, worn and tired. As Bridgett's routine wore on, the weather outside grew harsher.

The brown eyed 19 year-old paid for her groceries and was off, only to be surprised by the snow that was quickly beginning to fall at a faster pace. She cursed, wishing she had brought warmer clothes as she opened up her umbrella to try and protect her from the freezing blasts.

Stronger and stronger the wind started to blow. It became increasingly harder for Bridgett to walk toward her apartment building. She could barely see five feet in front of her as she pressed against the harsh winds. She wouldn't be stuck out in the middle of the road during a storm this bad. Not in a longshot. However, it seemed the wind had other plans for her.

A strong upward gust caught the brunette by surprise as the wind lifted her up off of the ground and toward the clouds. She dropped her groceries after a certain point, hanging onto the umbrella with all of her might. Her legs dangled like the long sticks they were, hanging uselessly in the air as she was carried away from her home and into the white storm. Her hair whipped around her as by some kind of magic she was whisked into the clouds before finally losing her grip.

With a scream, the girl fell to the ground, the world a blur of white as she hit a few branches on the way down. Scratch. Rip. The sharp needles of the white pine trees tore at the girl, taking a few strands of her hair but leaving her clothes largely intact. She fell to the ground with a grunt, blinking before checking her surroundings. White. It was the first thing she noticed about the strange place. The second thing she noticed was that she was in some forest. Impossible, her mind screamed. She lived in the middle of the city. There were no forests for miles. Finally, she noticed the strange gleam to everything. It was almost as if everything was made of... ice.

Where was she?

 

[Dip]

In the warming house, children lace their skates,
bending, choked, over their thick jackets.
A Franklin stove keeps the place so cozy
it's hard to imagine why anyone would leave,
clumping across the frozen beach to the river.
December's always the same at Ware's Cove
the first sheer ice, black, then white
and deep until the city sends trucks of men
with wooden barriers to put up the boys'
hockey rink. An hour of skating after school,
of trying wobbly figure-8's, an hour
of distances moved backwards without falling,
then—twilight, the warming house steamy
with girls pulling on boots, their chafed legs
aching. Outside, the hockey players keep
playing, slamming the round black puck
until it's dark, until supper. At night,
a shy girl comes to the cove with her father.
Although there isn't music, they glide
arm in arm onto the blurred surface together,
braced like dancers. She thinks she'll never
be so happy, for who else will find her graceful,
find her perfect, skate with her
in circles outside the emptied rink forever?
​

Ice. Ice everywhere. For miles and miles on end, it was just ice. And snow! We can't forget that. Yep. Ice and snow. It was enough to make someone insane. It was enough to drive someone up the wall! It was enough, for even a humble Ice Demon. Well, not entirely humble at that, but an Ice Demon at most. The Ice Demon was, currently, trenching and trekking through the forest, and the Ice Demon wasn't all too happy about it. The Ice Demon, dispite his title, was cold. And tired. Mostly of the ice.

Ooh, he swore, if he heard the word 'ice' once more, he was going to buck someone right in the chest.

Apasanael, the Humble 'Not-So-Humble' Ice Demon slowly made his way through the wood, with both of his arms covered over his chest, and a large fire in his stomach. The fire was from how very excited he was-- what about? He couldn't exactly pin-point, but he wasn't all too happy about it. Was it something bad? Something amazing? Was he going to be beaten-up? Was there someone behind that bush, ready to jump out at him and tackle him?

Probably not, but he was wary of any and all bushes from that walk forward. Apasanael sighed, and looked up at the sky. Yep. It was snowing. AGAIN. It wasn't like anything else happened in this world. Just snow. And ice. And occasional hot feelings that obviously meant NO GOOD. The Ice Demon sighed, and glared up at the sky. "Alright, alright, ALRIGHT!" He yelled at nothing. Mostly because he was sick and tired of nothing-- because that's all that happens! Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Nothing ever happens.

"God-- Well, if there IS one, atleast, SHOW YOURSELF!" Apasanael yelled at the sky. He waited a moment. And another. Nothing. But, the Demon wasn't going to give up that easily. "Okay, I know that was a little brash, but, now is the time to show to me that there is more to life than SNOW! And ICE!" Another moment. Another. Nada. Apasanael was getting more and more upset with each growing second, and he was sure that he was about to explode. Apasanael was known for his short fuse.

"GOD! SHOW YOURSELF--" Well, in that every moment, among the snow and the ice, God did show himself. In the form of a teenage human girl. Well, Apasanael was surprised, and he was impressed, and he was sure that this just didn't happen for anyone. So, he decided that he was the luckiest person in that given world, so inside his mind, he called himself King. King Apasanael. That worked.

But, wait... Was she even still alive? Apasanael stood behind a bush, and watched patiently.

 

[The Writing Owl]

Confusion swept through the girl as she wondered how the hell she got to wherever the hell she was. Slowly, she stood up, only to wince and gasp. She grabbed onto the nearest tree, shaking as she gingerly lifted up her right foot. "Damn it... It's just a sprain... It's just a sprain..." The girl told herself as she tried to put weight on her foot. Her ankle wouldn't have it. She grasped for the ice tree again, whimpering in pain.

"This has to be a dream..." Bridgett muttered, looking around at the frozen area. "There is no way this is real." She tried to move again, this time almost hopping over to another tree before she had to stop again. "I probably passed out on a bench again. That's it." She was trying to rationalize why she felt so cold and sore when this was all being made up in her head. She really was regretting not wearing warmer clothes as she glanced down at the holes in the knees of her jeans.

The dream didn't explain how the wind just swept her up. She distinctly remembered waking up that morning, taking a semi-warm shower, and walking to the store. Where would she have stopped at a bench? And why would she fall asleep when she had had a good night's sleep beforehand? This wasn't making any sense and Bridgett didn't want any of it!

A rustle came from the bushes. It made Bridgett freeze, getting ready for a rapist to come out and try to attack her. She took a shaky breath, getting ready to run. A small crystalline nose poked out of the bushes. A tiny rabbit, one of the few harmless creatures in the world of ice demons and snow, hopped in front of Bridgett. The brunette watched as the strange ice rabbit seemed to look around before nibbling on a tree then hopping away. The tree then proceeded to wilt, the ice spiking and becoming deadly. Maybe the rabbit wasn't harmless after all.

 

[Dip]

Okay, the two things that the Ice Demon could make from this situation was that; 1) This human was really stupid and really weak, and wouldn't survive the winter, and it was a MIRACLE that she even made it this far, and 2) She was really stupid and really lost. He decided to emphasize how very unintelligent this being was, just incase he forgets later. Apasanael wrote it in the snow, even, and underlined it twice.

Really Stupid.
=========

There. Now that his notes were out of the way, he decided to really see how dumb this creature was. He summoned the rabbit, that hopped along and killed the said tree. Well, she was aware of her surroundings. Maybe she wasn't really stupid after all! Apasanael proceeded to smudge out one of the lines, and he continued to watch from a distance, making sure that his horns didn't peak out from the bush. He noticed how her leg twisted in a very odd way, and silently thanked the Gods that he didn't have legs.

Apasanael decided to play around with his pray a little bit. Maybe the human would make a nice meal? Perhaps there would be some meat on those bones. The Ice Demon collected a small batch of snow and ice, and formed it into a snow-ball. A tight, very light snow ball. Being among the land of ice and snow, there was a lot of ways to make a snowball, and Apasanael was gifted in the arts of creating the perfect snowball.

The ice demon flung it right at the girls head, and ducked back down quick as a wink.

 

[The Writing Owl]

After staring at the dangerous looking tree for another minute, Bridgett noticed a white blob heading toward her. She dodged, the white ball hitting a tree. The girl hissed as she looking over at her ankle as she fell to the ground from dodging. "Okay... this is definitely real..." She looked over at the bushes, now knowing that someone, something was over there. She glared. The brunette started to make her own snowball. She had always loved snow ball fights as a kid, but her ankle was probably broken, and she was not in the mood.

"Alright." She growled. "Whoever the fuck decided it would be hilarious to send me to some fucking winter wasteland or whatever the hell this is, you are a fucking dick!" Bridgett threw the snowball with a decent accuracy at where the first one came. "And you behind the bush there! Show yourself before I drag your sorry ass out of there!" The brown eyed girl was pissed. She just wanted to go back home and get her groceries so she could eat before she had to get back to her boring life.

Though this was definitely not boring. It was painful, but it was something different. She liked the new experiences, seeing this new world. At least she wasn't back in the same routine going through the motions day after day after day. Her cycle was finally broken, and she was enjoying it immensely.

She waited for the person to come out of the bushes, slowly moving so that she was standing again. She was shaking from the cold, her breath forming small clouds in front of her. Bridgett looked down at her foot. Maybe she was used to the pain? She didn't know. All she knew was that if the person didn't come out of his or her fucking hiding place then she was going to go crazy.

 

[Dip]

Really Stupid.
---------------
Really Foul-Mouthed and Possibly Aggressive.
=============

Apasanael weighed his options, and thought it over. Well, the human was obviously injured, so she couldn't possibly hurt him, but she did sound very mean. And she had good aim. But Apansanael was an Ice Demon! Not very respected, sure, but he was one, none the less! And he wouldn't be scared off by some human with very strange clothing.

Apansanael slowly stood up, and inspected the human further. He didn't want to go unprotected, so he simply knelt down, with his eyes still on her, and created a type of staff out of ice and snow. He plucked it from the ground, and held it out in front of him, as if she knew that one more move she made, and he would attack. Once he got closer to her, it seemed that she was almost scared-- terrified, even. He found it funny how she tried to be brave.

 

[The Writing Owl]

Bridgett was surprised when she saw a boy with horns and goat legs walking toward her. This was just insane! Was she having an acid trip? It didn't seem like it. She looked up at the boy-she refused to call him a goat-with scared yet determined eyes. Brown met gray as the girl waited for him to do something, anything. He could kill her, maybe even rape her with her ankle messed up like this.

Finally, Bridgett spoke. "Who are you?" She asked, not daring to move. Not only would it hurt like a bitch, but she doubted she could take the strong looking boy down, especially considering that he looked about her age. "And... where are we? I'm sorry for yelling at you." She hoped seeming kind would help in her not being killed or raped. She also didn't honestly want to be mean to him. "I was just a bit... well, I'm having a bad day." She carefully pulled her jacket closer to her body, hoping to conserve some warmth.