My Willful flame

Chapter Seven

The tracks got harder to trace the further I got. With every territory lay a new terrain, but it was incredible how fast the weather changed as I crossed their borders.

The piercing wind, laden with shards of ice, clawed at my skin, leaving trails of numbing cold in its wake, and quickly covered the tracks. I buried my chin under the coat that now became a pleasant embrace.

I kicked the steel, buried under the cold, with my boots just to make sure I was still on the right path.

Shaking, I curled up my fists, shielding them inside the deep pockets of my coat. It was almost white, the tint of blue looked like the sky, and on the sleeves, though repaired almost perfectly, were the sewn-up cuts. The hem was nearly perfect. 

Out here, where the white carpet of ice was all anyone could see for miles, its light colour was the best cover. The white hunters roamed here looking for their lost bounties, and if they didn't, they would travel through to the capital to collect their coins.

The ice hunters were mostly women, no one knew why. Many said it was because women were more cunning and quick-thinking and gods knew in this place those skills could mean the difference between life and death.

Even when no one lived in ice territory, a few small settlers camped around in the forest areas, hunting wildlife with their knives and bows. It was also the most convenient territory to hide in if you had any bounties on your head. Normal hunters, like the independent or slaved, would never dare to hunt here. They were not trained for the snow-covered terrain and many who had died were great examples of that.

In the distance, I saw the bodies of mountains stacked on top of each other. I sped up, knowing that I'd have to reach them before the night fell. When darkness settled, the ice would light up and still make it possible to see. But in the shadows, the outer corners where the eye couldn't reach, a ravine could be your one step into death. Nothing was clear in the grey of night.

I walked until the sun had travelled over me and was settling to the west. The day was almost dead and if I didn't find shelter soon, I would be too. I shivered in my coat trying to think about Xander. About the times his arms were around me, or when I had looked into his eyes.

Happy memories, think of them. The few that I had. 

My teeth started chattering. I wrapped my arms around myself as the wind started picking up, stirring up the fallen snow. I felt the ice on my eyes, hanging onto my lashes. I had long since pulled the hood over my head, but unfortunately, it didn't cover my whole face. My nose had gone numb miles back and I had also stopped fearing the frostbite I would suffer if I didn't shield myself soon.

The gods are good. The shy voice in my head prayed.

Thinning shadows rose ahead, becoming darker with every step. Trees. 

I tried picking up my pace even though battling against the wind was useless, and with the snow almost reaching my ankles it was merely impossible. And as I trudged through the snow, my mind echoed with fragments of conversations—Xander's voice offering comfort, Mayra's laughter in the midst of chaos. Their presence lingered, a lifeline in the desolation.

The first of the pines stood within my reach. They stood like sentinels, their skeletal branches weighed down by blankets of frost, each leaf encapsulated in a delicate veil of ice. 

I almost fell into them for support before I tumbled to the next. They were spread out, like a thinning patch but I kept going. Struggling from one to the other, the wind hauled, screaming at me to give up, scratching my cheeks with its light daggers.

The thin bodies of bark thickened around me but I had no more room to move. My feet were forced into a cold sleep that felt like I was walking on nothing. I fell back, feeling the air knocked from my lungs as I hit a tree. Sliding to the ground I let my head fall back. I wouldn't die here. The bullet wouldn't let me. He didn't let me. The hunters, the poison, even that sweet voice of the woman in my head, had all permitted me to keep on, by their will or someone else's. I wouldn't die here, I knew that. I would complete what my birth had declared. I would feel free and share that privilege. I wanted to live and for the first time, I wasn't scared that I might not.

The weather wasn't strong enough to claim me, no one was.

The snow around me fell fast as if racing to land first. Would it ever stop? Would I stop? The howling weakened and I closed my eyes, knowing the sun would wake me again. I still had air to breathe and quests to conquer. As darkness encroached, my heart pounded in fear, the unknown shadows stretching like monstrous claws across the snow-covered ground. I closed my eyes. 

A stiff pain in my neck suddenly made me wince and I woke to realise it was hours later. I had slid down further during the night and was lying uncomfortably on the ground with only my head upright.

I slid a hand inside the hood grabbing the skin of my neck, squeezing as if it would linger the pain. A warmth kissed my face and I looked up, seeing the sun peak through the ice-covered crowns of pines.

A smirk couldn't be suppressed as I sat up, stretching my back. At this moment I was filled with pure arrogance. 

I was alive. 

I almost laughed. Sleeping through the deadly cold of the night I had woken as if it was just any morning. This arrogance could kill me if I allowed it to become me. But this morning, I would let it fill me up.

Nothing had yet to kill me.