Dedicated to: KECrane
"How nice -- to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive."
-Kurt Vonnegut
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Chester couldn't run fast enough. The avalanche nipped at his hooves as Simon urged him on, begging him to go faster as if his life depended on it, which it did.
He could see the castle in the distance, practically glowing. No, that wasn't the castle, it was something red... Adelaide's hair. She was watching.
He had to get to her. They just had to get close enough to avoid being crushed. He could feel Chester's heart beating almost as fast as Simon's own. The snow crept closer, slowly. They reached the base of the hill and up they went, still not clear of the sheet of ice chasing them. Chester slowed down on the slope, bringing them closer and closer to doom. Suddenly, Simon found himself slipping right off Chester's back. The snow hit him like a cannonball, like the one that hit Xander. The force of the snow knocked the air out of Simon's lungs, and the speed of the avalanche sucked the air out of the space around his body. Simon found himself in a frozen moment in time, never to be discovered. Slowly, the world went from nothing but white, to nothing but black...
Death wasn't what Simon thought it would be. It was just darkness, no tunnel with light at the end, but there was something pure, something that brought him peace in the blackness; a beautiful, feminine voice.
Sometimes the voice sang to him, other times it read tall tales, but most of the time the voice simply talked.
It told Simon jokes, and Simon thought some were a little crude for an angel, but found them funny regardless.
The voice told Simon he was handsome, despite his big nose, and that his choppy blonde locks were charming. He heard its problems, and its dreams. Meagre, everyday things that anyone else would take for granted. Simon liked the sound of the voice. It was soft but powerful, and it lulled him into states of peaceful bliss.
"I went down to the fish market today," the voice explained.
"The merchant asked if I was the crazy lady who lived up in the mountains by herself. Of course, I told him I most certainly was not crazy, that I resented the fact he accused me of being crazy, and that I had no interest in purchasing any of his overpriced fish."
Simon suddenly found the darkness which had obscured his vision for what felt like decades lifting. Slowly, light filtered into his tired eyes through his eyelids. He opened them slightly, finding them almost glued shut. Ever so slowly, Simon blinked his eyes open. Directly in front of him was the blurry figure of a woman.
"Adelaide," he croaked hoarsely, vision still clearing. The woman was coming further into focus.
"Adelaide? Who's Adelaide?" Simon blinked what was left of the darkness from his eyes and saw the figure that looked over him. She was tall, and strongly built, with muscles on her tanned arms, but this did not take away from her striking beauty. She wore a sea green dress, and had long, dark brown hair. Her eyes were as mysterious and blue as the midnight sky.
"Where am I?" Simon asked.
"Where's Adelaide? Where's Chester? What...happened to me?"
His words escaped groggily, like day old porridge being poured out into the drain.
"Stay calm, you're in no state to be putting any unnecessary stress on your body. My name is Delilah, and I brought you here when I found you in a riverbed. I've been nursing you back to health as slowly as I could. You've broken so many bones..." She shook her head, trying to give him the news as delicately as possible.
"You've been with me for a few weeks now." Simon took a moment to process this information.
YOU ARE READING
A Thorn In The Ice
Historical Fiction"I fully expected you to say that I was the sort of Prince whose story would involve going into cahoots with the dragon, rather than slaying it." Iolas smiled, but their was a level of seriousness to his statement. "That is where you are wrong, de...
