A pale girl that couldn't be much older than eleven was stumbling through the endless white. Wind whipped at gorgeous brown hair, lashing at the red-blemished face, stinging like vipers. Frail fingers were being bitten by the fierce cold, and her body felt like icy claws were tearing at her. Her feet were numb and thin clothes were tattered.
She forced herself to open her eyes a little wider, blinking away the white specks gathering on her lashes. Even though it stung, she went on, despite her sore and cold muscles. 'Just a little further . . .' she thought, literally straining herself to take the next step. The burning was going on and on and on, and she couldn't help but fall to her knees and let out a piercing wail. She didn't want to have to go through this endless misery. She just wanted to die right then and there, to freeze to death in the merciless blizzard.
The cold was too much to bear. It tore through her, and her fingers were burning. Every atom of her body was screaming at her mind to shut itself down, to give up. She knew that she shouldn't cry, but she did. Tears were streaming down her frozen cheeks, but it only made the pain worse, with the wetness turning to ice in the matter of a minute or so.
Just when she was about to let go of the life she was clinging to . . . to give up and leave this miserable life . . . she thought she saw a pale light gleaming in the distance. She groaned and curled up, grasping her ragged clothes and bringing it close.
That small, frail little girl was barely conscious when the wrinkled lady approached her. The lady had a sorrowful, pitying look in her eyes as she scooped up the skinny little girl. Slowly and gently, the woman trudged back to the small cabin and laid the girl on a comfortable, squishy thing. The girl sniffed and shivered, still feeling the after-chills of being out in the blizzard, but soon she felt warm and cozy. There was a fire that was crackling, contained by a chimney and bricks. The warmth seeped into her skin, all the way to her very soul; or so it felt.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk . . ." the woman said. She bent down and felt the girl's forehead, which was burning hot from fever. The woman nearly flinched from how surprisingly hot it was, contemplating that the girl had just came in from a blizzard. But it was only logic, for she had a fever. The woman's hand drifted over to where the girl's hand was, and to the touch it was freezing. The woman winced this time, and didn't hold it back. She worried about how the little girl must be feeling right now . . . so much pain.
The woman glimpsed towards where the fingers actually were, and they were red and blue at the tips. "Frostbite," she murmured. Then the she blinked and continued to stare at the little girl, whose eyes were still closed. "What is your name?" the woman whispered.
The girl had been swallowed in darkness, and she hardly felt the woman's warm and soft hand. Though, when she continued to speak, the girl's eyes opened slightly. The words escaped her mouth. She hadn't meant to, because she truly did not trust this woman. Fear almost gripped her, and an empty thought said, 'What if they catch me?!' But she didn't care anymore. The thoughts were only natural, because of how long she had been in hiding, but that wasn't the point. She did not care because she was finally in from the storm, and she was drowsy. You might be puzzling over as to what those words were, and indeed they were her name. However, they were only an utter, and as we are not next to the girl like the woman was, we couldn't have heard her. But thankfully, the woman repeated the girl's name.
"Elody . . ." the woman muttered. She blinked again, her green eyes welling with tears. "Such a . . . a pretty name."
By now, however, Elody's head had nodded down. She had fallen asleep.
The woman sighed and smiled, her soft wrinkles beginning to show as she did this. "My name is Naomi," the woman, whose name was Naomi, said. Then she turned and silently walked up the stairs, which were just inside of the wall, in between the dining room and living room, where Elody was sitting by the crackling fire.
