Chapter 9 - Snow

Tlen and Serenity had been walking quickly for several hours when a light dusting of snow could be made out. There weren't quite as many trees as lower on the mountainside so the snow fell easily onto the grass. As the two continued on, the temperature dropped considerably and finally had to put on their fur coats.

All the energy Serenity once had had been drained from every cell in her freezing body. Her legs gave way and she collapsed in a heap to the frozen grown. An inch or so of snow broke her fall.

“Wait!” she gasped. “I can't go on any more. I need to rest,” she said in between pants. Tlen stopped and trudged back to her.

He sat down next her leaning his back against a near by tree and she noticed his face was red and his bottom lip was quivering from the cold.

“I guess I didn't realize it, but I need a break, too,” Tlen managed to wheeze.

So they sat there until Serenity said she thought she could walk again. And for the third time that day, they started walking. But the next thing to get in their way was the weather.

A few hours later, snow flew at them with the strength of a lion. It pulled at their hair, ripping Serenity's raven black hair from the tie behind her head and making Tlen's gray hat to flop around, revealing a short ponytail at the back of his neck. The snow froze their hands-even with the gloves- and stung their faces. The pure whiteness blinded their eyes until…

THWACK!

Tlen ran into a tree and fell on top of Serenity. They tumbled backwards into the snow that was now level with their knees.

Tlen rolled off of Serenity as she lay there moaning.

“Ouch. I might've had a lot of snow to break my fall, but you're still heavy.”

But he wasn't listening. Tlen was furiously digging a hole in the snow. “We're going to have to stay underneath the snow where the wind can't get us.” He almost had to yell to be heard over the roaring winds.

Serenity understood and helped him burrow deeper into the snow. Finally some grass could be seen poking through and they started digging sideways. After a while, they had a fairly large hole in the snow with an entrance and a hollow inside.

Underneath their fur coats, Tlen and Serenity were roasting but their faces still stung from the biting, icy snow. They both crawled into the hole, Tlen letting Serenity go first. Once they were inside Serenity noticed Tlen had a large bump forming on his forehead from where he hit the tree.

There wasn't enough room to do more than kneel, so the two lay down and pulled out their supplies. They ate just enough to satisfy their starving stomachs, but Serenity could've eaten more. She would've, too if she hadn't noticed that most of their supplies were missing. And by the look on Tlen's face, she knew he'd noticed, too.

She wasn't sure what they would do. They hadn't gotten halfway over he mountains yet, or even to the peaks. As she laid there, with her back to Tlen, Serenity felt anger growing inside of her. She was mad that she had to be the Earth Keeper. She was mad that her friends and teacher had lied to her. And she was especially mad that Tlen had to bring her here. But not just that he'd brought her here. She was mad at him. There were things he wasn't telling her and she knew it. Some of the most important things were being kept secret from her. But she was stuck here. With him. And there was nothing she could do about it.

…



Serenity…

The voice was small but it interrupted Serenity's dreams. She wasn't awake, but conscious.

Serenity…

Now she could here it clearly.

SERENITY!!!

Finally she pried her eyes open to see Tlen kneeling next to her on one knee with worry in his eyes.

“What?” Her voice came out more of a mumble than a word.

“Your face, your skin, it's turning blue!”

Now that he'd mentioned it, she was beginning to feel it. She pulled her hand out of her glove and touched her face. Her cheeks almost burned they were so cold. She could practically feel her blood beginning to freeze.

Panic swept through her. “How come you're not so cold?” she croaked.

“I can only guess, but I think it's because you're an Earth Keeper. You mentally feel the ground around you and it's frozen, do you start to freeze too.”

“What? Then how do I `let go'?” Panic could be heard in her voice and her skin was only getting colder.

“I'm no expert, but I'd say concentrate on the ground somewhere else, where it's warmer.”

Nodding Serenity pictured the only other ground she'd really seen that was completely thawed, back at Minnin. Then her thoughts went deeper. She began to feel she soft grass on her face. The richness of the soil on her bare feet. The warm sun embracing her as it gently touched the ground. She felt like she was actually there.

And suddenly, she began to feel warm. It started in her toes and spread all the way to the roots of the hair on her head. Serenity could feel her blood begin to rush, turning her cheeks to a rosy red.

She looked over at Tlen who was looking at her in amazement. “I have to be honest, I didn't think you would be able to do it. Earth Keeper children have to be scholared for years before they can actually do anything,” he said, his jaw dropping.

Serenity wasn't sure if she had just been insulted or complemented. But she couldn't help but smile. “How did you know?”

“I didn't. It was just a guess. Besides, you'd be surprised about how much People know about Earth Keepers.”

Then she lifted her gaze from Tlen to look around. The entrance they'd dug was completely covered. Now they were in a bubble of snow underneath who knows how much snow. It made Serenity feel kind of chlosterfobic. So she sat up and said, “Well, shall we begin digging again?”

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