Chapter Text
Fingers, fingers, hands, arms--all touching your numb skin. The snowflakes danced delicately in the air, fluttering so softly on your eyelids, cheeks, and lips, and you blinked unseeingly into the dark navy sky covered in dark white clouds, heavy with a snow storm. Figures of shadows covered your vision, warped mouths yelling silently to your rumbling ears. A hand reached to touch your neck, rubbing gently to feel a pulse. It was hard to breathe, but your chest rose every now and then, struggling to reel in any sort of oxygen to your choking lungs, and paralyzed, you could only gaze up at your saviors helplessly. Internally, you hoped the next breath would be your last. But You weren't cold anymore. If anything, you were hot; cozy in the soft blanket of snow covering you, and you fluttered your eyelids again.
You were lifted by two hands, wrapping a blanket then their arms around your body. They looked down at you for a brief moment before they began to jog, being careful to not jostle you around like if you were a flower. If you were a flower, you were a pitiful one; and like a flower, you wished to wither away with the seasons so maybe life wouldn't have been so hard.
However long it took for them to carry, undress, and lay you on a bed near a fire, it was hard to tell. It's as if you blinked, time would move forward without you wishing it to. Your vision eventually unclouded to see just a little bit and you gained enough strength to turn your head to look around the tiny cabin. It was wooden from top to bottom and there was soft light coming from the furnace in the middle of the room. There was a threaded carpet covering the floor near the cot on the floor you were laying on. There was another bed adjacent to yours, and sitting on it peeling the skin off an apple was a large man in a dark shirt and pants. His dark skin and orange eyes glowed in the fire's light. His hair was fiery red and in a low bun, and his large pointy ears stood out to you.
He set his knife down on the coffee table and glanced at you. "You're finally awake." His voice was terribly gruff, his grumbles rumbling in your chest. "We didn't think you would survive in this weather there," He said before taking a bite of the soft skin of his bare apple.
You could only stare at him in response, attempting to open your mouth to speak, but no noise came out. He waved you off and set the fruit down. "Save your breath, girl. There's no need to talk now, what you really need is rest." He stood and approached your still body, then leaned down to pull a thick blanket over you. "I'll find you some clothes soon, but for now, sleep," He repeated, making sure you were tucked in completely.
For a moment, he lingered over you, expression hard to read. Then he breathed and went back to his place on his bed, picked up his apple, and ate it. The crackles of the fire warmed you and your blinked your eyelids closed, the numbness from the frost ebbing away. A single thought ghosted your brain as the darkness of sleep consumed you:
Where Am I?