Blizzards and Blood

The snow fell all around us and – of course – all over us. Trudging onwards became harder and harder as the snow grew deeper. The world beyond was lost to us as the snowfall increased and the winds grew and turned the whole world white.

It became impossible to see any distance ahead and impossible to see the road we were meant to travel on, as the whole world became nothing but white. We knew that we would have to find shelter soon. There was no way we could carry on as the snow grew too deep to walk through, up beyond my knees and halfway up Maja’s thighs.

I could see little of her when I stopped, turning my back against the wind and letting her shelter in front of me. She was a mass of furs of all kinds with only her eyes, with those long eyelashes of hers frosted with snow, appearing from under her hood.

I lowered the scarf that covered my face and spoke to her, my words whipped away by the wind and the snow numbing my lips. She shook her head, leaning closer to me, looking up with eyes that still trusted me, despite all this I’d made her trudge through.

‘We need to find shelter,’ I repeated. This time she heard, at least, I assumed so. I looked around. What was not white was grey. I could see no further than a few strides around us.

Then the wind paused and the blizzard cleared for a moment and I saw what looked like a building of some form, just off what I assumed was the road.

I pointed and took Maja’s hand, dragging her – almost – through the snow until my gloved hand could reach out and touch the stone wall in front of me. We stumbled around the structure, my hand never leaving its surface whilst my other held tight to Maja, as I searched for a way in.

Eventually, I came to a broken down door and pushed it open… then wished I hadn’t.

The smell of death was strong, the bodies left where they’d fallen. I felt through my furs, for my own sword when I saw the cut, slashed and sliced bodies lying on the blood-stained straw in the barn. The fire they’d made was cold, but the bodies themselves were recent. Maja stumbled from one to the next, but even her powers cannot bring the dead back to life… not always.

Then, she looked at me and I looked at her. We knew we had to stay here amongst the death, for outside in the storm our deaths were all that awaited us. But we knew whoever had killed these people must still be nearby and would perhaps be coming back in need of some shelter themselves.