Winter's Coldest Night [a cookie run oneshot]

Snow's Calm

  As hours passed, the next day would roll over. Cotton would already be herding her sheep, honestly wuite glad that the blizzard from last light had calmed down, it was making her herding job rather easy - she could see where the sheep were walking.
  Sighing, all she could think about was her frirnd Sherbet and what they could do that day.
- "Maybe if he's better we could finally go outside..It has been a while!" she thought, and all she could fo while working was hope.

  As more hours passed, it started to slowly get darker outside, the one source of light around town being some candles in the houses and some lanterns out near the paths of the village. Cotton, being done with the work for today, started to head to her friends house, this time just bringing some leftover buns that she had warmed up. Today she couldn't think of anything to bring Sherbet. The crunching of the snow beneath just made her feel more eager to move faster, to see her friend!
  Though she couldn't shake off this feeling that something was odd, that today was...too different from the usual schedule. And it would only slowly prove more true as she approached his house. Even from afar it was easy to tell that the curtains were over the window, and no light seemed to be peaking through, either.... witnessing that made her feel uneasy, so her pace slowed down to a more of a curious one rather than a cheerful one.
- "Maybe he didn't want to open the curtains today...too busy outside, perhaps..?" she'd both ask and try to convince herself. It was probably fine! It..it should be fine.
  Before going up the small hill where Sherbet's house was, Cotton walked over to one of the neighbouring villagers, just needing one question answered before proceeding.
- "Ah, hello Cotton! Is something the matter?"
- "Well, not exactly, ehe..! Just curious if there has been any movement from Sherbet's house. I'm going for the usual visit!"
- "Ah, I'm afraid I haven't seen much happen from his house, dear. I wasn't here all day so perhaps I missed it."
- "Oh..okay! Thank you anyways, I'll be going now!"
- "You two enjoy your time!"

  After the small chat, she now returned to her intended path of destination. Once approaching the house, the aura just felt more and more uneasy, all the curtains over the windows were closed, and the lantern over the door wasn't lit, either....but the most apparent thing was the frost around and inside the frames of the windows, there was more of it than usual..even more than yesterday, even! Had it been that badly cold overnight...?
  Oddly hesitant, she paused at the door and just stared at it, trying to think of antthing else that could be the cause of this. Out of firewood..? Possibly..Cold night- no she already guessed that... With a huff, Cotton shook her head and finally went to open the door, the creaking soon being followed by a sort of cracking sound...specifically one of  when something that's frosted over gets opened.

- "Sherbet?"