Thaw Oneshot

A slumbering town, with stars sprinkling the dark skies and silent streets where even crickets did not chirp. The snow on the roads was beaten and muddied, half thawed as the last winter days were soon to pass. Frozen cold stalactites hung from the edges of roof shingles, delicate rivulets trickling down and collecting in the miniature kettle lakes below.

Suddenly, the water surface broke. Meltwater burst outwards, liquid shrapnel splashing into the neighboring pools.

His bare feet were frozen stiff yet his throat dry as a desert, puffing short, hot breaths. With only a thin top and trousers, the sharp, cold night air pressed against his exposed skin as he ran, threatening to draw blood.

His arms were positioned in front of his scrawny torso, cradling something close to his heart. While he scampered forward, drops would propel back from his waterlogged clothes. Strangely, his eyes would repeatedly glance downwards to his cradle in frantic apprehension.

"I'm sorry, I'll definitely find a way to save you" He seemed to whisper to himself. However, his voice shook, he understood he was fighting a losing battle. Every moment he spent running through the darkness, the cold left their bodies and crept into his mind.

Ahead, was one of the many fire lanterns that crudely lit the main road. Even though his frostbitten limbs had lost most feeling, he was inexplicably avoidant of the comfort the lamps offered to him. He jumped in fright when the flame flickered and crackled.

Hurrying away, he decided to cut into a different road to evade the paper lights. It actually never mattered which road he took. With no set destination in mind. He was doomed at the start, simply grasping at straws, hoping for a light from deep within his hollow heart. Right now, it just felt easier to try harder in this bleak situation instead of sitting down and giving a mirthless laugh.

While it was definitely hard to keep striving in trying times, he found facing the bare inevitable truth the more difficult and painful task.

He was approaching a crossing, and surveyed the quiet houses that lined the streets to see if anyone was awake and aware. Anything caught sneaking around at this time of night would surely attract attention, the exact opposite of what people sneaking around at this time of night would want.

He obviously had no way of explaining himself, not that law enforcers would not care for any excuses made by someone like him. When have street urchins ever had a good reason?

Fortunately, probably only the second piece of good fortune his miserable life had ever been blessed with, his surroundings were soundless. There was only the splatter in each step and the sound of his lungs about to collapse.

He was in the midst of turning around the corner when his foot got caught behind him. Lurching forward, he lost all control of motion and crashed into something that stood around it. His emaciated figure rebounded backwards and fell to the icy snow behind. Simultaneously, a small white snowball flew out of his arms and plummeted not too far from him. Spilling from his grasp was another two white lumps, their surface slick with meltwater.

"Cloud!" he shouted, forgetting to keep his voice down.

The fallen balls of snow twitched, and upon close inspection, had features on their small bodies. The animated object struggled to stand, barely holding itself together. It was a bunny made entirely of snow, and like the two other snowbunnies in the kid's arms, it was losing it's form to the rising temperatures. He urgently needed to find a way to halt the process before there was nothing left to recover.

At that moment, goosebumps covered his arms, not from a chill in the night, but a chill that surfaced from the depths of his subconscious. His voice was caught in his burning throat, he would not dare reach towards the snowbunny for fear had set in, making its presence known. He could almost feel the judging gaze aimed on the back of his head, slicing him open to behold the cute little pointless efforts and adorable false hopes that pieced him together.

He swiveled his head to face the stranger. Not a relaxed, unrushed thriller pivot, it was the swift 'get it over with' jerk of the head scary situations actually called for.

In shimmering azure robes, a towering man stood in front of him. His iris glowed the colour of winter pine, and one eye was concealed behind the man's long, moonlit frost hair. A conical hat placed on his head shaded his features, yet wrapping around the left of his neck was a prominent scar gashing his skin. Over his shoulder, he held a sheathed sword, one so long it could reach the kid where he lay. The man's intimidating aura seemed to freeze the air surrounding him, his cold indifferent demeanor portrayed an homme sculpted from ice.

`How am I still alive?` The kid's brain slowed to a crawl as he pondered this mystifying, life or death situation.

Then he was thrusted back to reality, time and space seemed to resume. His thoughts whirred and he scrambled to pick up Cloud before making a run for it in the opposite direction. He didn't want to stick around to see what was going to happen to the orphan child that ran into an armed man in the middle of the night.

A large, callused hand shot out, wrapping around his thin upper arm. Terror stricken, it appeared that he wouldn't even be allowed to escape. "I don't have anything of worth!" he cried out, but being mugged was the least of his fears.

Out leaped Mochi, latching onto the man's palm by digging her frigid teeth into his flesh. Alarmed, the child was about to pull the reckless snowbunny back to safety when the man released his iron grip and lifted Mochi into the air. No matter how strong her bite was, he effortlessly plucked Mochi off him and held her, trapped, in one palm. Even though the kid was physically released, he still remained cornered as long as Mochi remained hostage.

The kid had been rushing against time to find some way to save his precious friends. However, his body heat clearly impacted theirs, yet it wasn't as if he could simply carry them at arm's length. He was not only concerned with the stranger of questionable intentions, he feared the prolonged discomfort they would experience in a stalemate like such.

In spite of the snowbunny sitting directly against the skin, he realized that Mochi mysteriously didn't melt. Her surface crystalized from bottom to top at an extremely small scale, preserving her current status. The fellow's center of the palm turned a cold blue, and vapour stopped appearing with each of the man's breaths.

The child could tell something else was going on, "Just like when the snowbunnies appeared." he faintly mumbled. There was a slight but perceivable drop in temperature, a weak outwardly sweeping wind and a faint glow, albeit in a subtly different hue. He gaped at the sight.

The light settled down and the mysterious man in the end unhanded the snowbunny, allowing her to hop back to the dumbfounded kid. Caught off guard, he flubbed the clutch as the man turned to leave.

"Wait!" the boy desperately called out, something he originally wouldn't have risked until he saw the man's feats. "Do you- do you have this magic too?" He was astonished at the chances of running into someone else like him, someone who also probably knew more of these powers.

The tall man halted and answered in a cool tone, "This isn't some magic."

The kid didn't linger over the unfriendly response. This was hope to him, a way to get out of the muddy swamp waters that were dragging him down. "Please! Can you help my snowbunnies?" he pleaded to the stranger, grabbing hold of their sleeve. He ignored the cold air that enveloped him as he got closer, like he had entered a completely different bubble in space.

The person pivoted to face the young boy, his hand toyed with the grip of his sword. "This world isn't a charitable one. Recklessly chasing a stranger through the dark is not a bright idea". In a creeping fashion, he partially unsheathed the blade so that moonlight danced on it's edge. The swordsman glanced down at the child, analyzing their reaction to his act.

The boy withdrew his hand, but bravely, perhaps ill-advisedly, stood his ground. "What do I have to lose?" he muttered pessimistically, "These rags? Wouldn't miss them at all."

He looked up, locking eyes with the unperturbed personage. "The snowbunnies are my friends, but for all they do for me, isn't it wrong that I can't stop their suffering one single bit?!" As fast as his anger flared up, it once again snowballed downwards. "Living is really hard, not just staying alive for another day, but actually wanting to see tomorrow. I'm not a hero, I can't keep myself afloat just to annoy others. No one cares if I'm here one day and gone the next. And if my one pillar of support crumbles, I'm pretty sure I won't care either."

Stopping to catch his breath, he let his head drop to face the wet dirt. The three white rabbits tried to comfort him, nuzzling his skin and leaving the surface damp with meltwater. Clear beads fell to water, undulating and distorting the reflection of the child mirrored in it.

"I don't want to be left behind again." he quietly anguished.

Messily wiping away at his face with the soaked fabric, the young child took a step back from the man so he would not have to crane his neck as far back to meet their eyes. He took a deep, wavering breath, let it out and asked anew. "Hey, mister. Do you want to be someone who cares?" His smile was twisted in resigned sorrow, just waiting for the answer that was sure to extinguish his light.

The frosty man frowned faintly at the corners of his mouth, and he let out a sigh of some unexpressed thoughts or emotions he didn't feel like elaborating to any extent. Clicking his sabre back into its scabbard, the delicate flowers of ice that blossomed on his skin withered while the temperature returned to normal.

Hope, a beautiful yet also terrifying force. Something that could bring salvation and also make people dive into the deep end without hesitation.

The man abruptly patted the kid on the shoulder, careful not to hit any of the living snow. "Loosen up. Spirits won't die so easily. If you create a new vessel, the spirit will naturally inhabit it."

Expecting something completely different, the kid was stupefied when given such a response. "W-wait, huh? What?" he stuttered, but the man did not give him any time to waste on the edge. "Do you not wish for my aid?" The man inquired, one eyebrow raised on his stoic visage. The kid held the three precious snowbunnies in his hands and resolved his will.

"Is there really a way to save them?" he cautiously asked. This situation appeared too favorable, too convenient for him. ". . . yes." The extended silence between question and answer caused the boy to question the honesty of those words. The man explained, "They don't need your protection, your spirits know that."

"That-" he, hearing this, was not relieved at all. He could obviously tell that Cloud, Mochi and Pillow all weren't concerned about their impending doom. Nonetheless, he recognized that it was unpleasant having your body liquify at a leisurely stroll of a pace.

"So all I have to do is wait for them to turn to mush and just bring them back to life? I can't do anything to stop them from melting?" He balled his tiny, numb fists in frustration. "Is there really no other way? How can I not be able to help them at all!? I don't want to live by constantly making my snowbunnies experience their bodies thawing away."

"I never said that."

The child looked up to the swordsman.

"Howbeit, the necessary fine control required takes time and practice." The tall swordsman's left hand floated towards the scar on his neck, gently brushing against the scarred tissue with his fingers. "Or you may have an affinity towards it, yet that also comes with it's issues." Though the man privately did not believe the boy had such a talent within him.

The kid listened attentively, hoping this piece of information would be more useful to him than the last. However, hearing the words, he realized a big potential problem: time. He had no engagements himself, evidently. But the snowbunnies, they wouldn't last with each day becoming warmer and warmer. "How long will it take?" He was terrified to hear the man's reply, terrified of seeing the light slip through his fingers another time. And it did.

"Six months. Five months if you can sacrifice part of your sleep." the man stated. What little belief still left inside the boy was obliterated. The snowbunnies would transform into a puddle within days. The child staggered backwards, hitting a shop wall behind him, and sliding down to the damp floor. He was emotionally exhausted, weary of running around in the dark chasing the vain 'hope' that dangled in front of him, never in reach.

He stared at the scattered stars, taking in the bitter, piercingly frigid air. `Ha! Bitter. Kinda like me.` The three living spirits were placed on the icy snow mound beside him. He rested his head upon his bent knees, watching as they huddled around him like a campfire. Droplets fell to the ground like an early spring rain. His cold arms hugged his equally frozen legs and he let the slush underneath him seep into the pants' cloth.

"I give up. I'm sorry, looks like it was an empty promise in the end." he tapped each of their small foreheads affectionately. Since they clearly lacked tear ducts, none of them could shed a tear at this moment. Instead, beautiful arctic beads fell from the eyes' depressions.

"Get up." a frosty tone barked, "Are you truly going to lay down and let your small friends disappear?" The man's long ponytail blew in the wind, his eyes shining with a long suppressed intensity. "The solution has been placed right in front of you! Do you need someone to feed it to you when you have a completely capable body?" He swung his sword forward, drawing a wide, flamboyant arc. He readjusted his grip before impaling it into the muddy snow to his right, still sheathed. "Life does not simply hand things to one, one must work for it, fight for it!" The man stared straight into the boy's dimming irises, "Only minutes ago, you were pleading for assistance, yet when an opportunity is handed to you, you immediately declare that it cannot be done!"

"That's not it!" the kid protested, "They'll melt before I even get to learn the basics!" The swordsman coolly rebuked, "Spirits ordinarily don't die unless the individual does. By putting in the six months of effort, you can ensure that the next time you summon your rabbits, they won't have to suffer this again, and neither will you."

The boy didn't know how to respond. This stranger was lecturing him, reprimanding him for giving up. How would they know what it was like? It was truly unbelievable. Nonetheless, it did spark some determination in him. His words were right, well. . . mostly. So far, no matter how hard he fought for a change, the result were all the same, just varying degrees of disappointment.

But perhaps, just maybe, this would be the final harsh winter he would have to brave.

Pushing himself to his feet, the kid stood up and decided to give the thing a shot. "Have you organized your thoughts?" the stranger demanded, whirling the sword back over his shoulder.

". . .yeah."

With a sudden realization, he ran up to the man again and grabbed his blue robes. "Wait, didn't you refreeze Mochi before? Can't you do that again?" he interrogated, pulling on the fabric. "I-" the man's even voice was cut off by the child's excited rambling spiraling out of control. "If they can just always stay cold, they won't melt and I would have enough time to learn it!" His face was lit up with happiness and relief.

The man raised his hand, trying to calm him down. "That would be ill-advised." "Why-" the kid paused, considering he might have overstepped his boundaries. "But do they really have to melt? Is there no other way?"

Despite the child's wishful desperation, the man explained in the same seemingly indifferent tone as before, the fiery emotions of his earlier torrent had thoroughly burned out. "If I preserved them for a prolonged amount of time, I would contaminate the spirits with my essence."

"If you want to save them as much suffering as currently plausible, I could shatter the snow vessels sooner, ergo saving them the tortuous thaw." His way of speech was formal and respectful, but rendered him helpless to reassure the kid. It undoubtedly made him sound austere and cold blooded.

The kid bit his quivering lower lip. `This is still a positive outcome.` he tried to convince himself. He picked up each snowbunny, their small pads no longer melted in his hands as his fingers were gelid. As spirits, they naturally understood the situation, and were happy that he had found a solution. They silently pranced around in bubbly joy that he would still depend on them in the future. He, watching the three, had nothing else he could really object to nor complain about.

"So, where to?" Finally accepting the man's proposal, he was prepared to take a step forward. The man surveyed the dark, cloudless skies, the moon illuminated his pale, flowing hair. "We should act outside of town. You don't want the people here to watch, do you?" he asked out of consideration for the boy. It was commonplace for people who accidentally awakened the skill, or 'magic' to conceal it when it wasn't a generally known thing.

The scrawny boy rapidly nodded in response and skipped on his feet, ready to bolt to the nearest edge of the town. The night was still young, but hurrying along came instinctually to the kid. Time was always moving, and in his experience, you had to constantly play catch up to survive.

On the contrary, the blue giant silently and steadily walked one foot after the other, at a laggard tempo. His pace forced the kid to skip circles around him with impatience. The man idly pondered where all that energy came from.

While the sky slowly began to lighten, the odd pair had trudged their way up a hill blanketed in crisp, frozen sleet that was some distance away from the township. The young child turned back to behold his hometown, many small red and yellow spots littered the streets, a splash of warm color on the cool blue-grays of the canvas.

The young man stood before the stump of what once was a colossal tree. Lifting the sword off his shoulder, he tucked the tip of the scabbard under the sheet of undisturbed ice and with one fell sweep of the arm, the layer of snow cleanly separated from the wood. He sat on the stump of the great tree, setting the sheathed weapon upon his lap and affirming that the hem of his skirt didn't touch the ground. He peacefully sat there, waiting.

The kid plopped down on the wet ice, lacking the meticulous form of his adult partner. He let Mochi and Pillow onto the snow, Cloud jumping out of his hair and landing beside them. "I'm sorry this-", he started, but Mochi fussily pawed at his ankles, showing annoyance towards the words of apology. "Oh, I'm sorry-Ack!" the boy covered his mouth and laughed. He talked with them for what would be the last time in a long while. "So this is goodbye." he sadly spoke, "I'll work hard to see you three again as soon as possible!" The snowbunnies adorably raised their paws above their heads in encouragement. Pillow lost balance in the action and tumbled backwards.

The child giggled, but when he tried to smile again, it was painful. His nose stung and a lump seemed to form in his throat. Tears welled up in the corner of his eyes and slowly, they trickled down his numb cheeks. He turned his head away, "I'll miss you guys.", he whispered, covering his face.

The three snowbunnies scurried to the boots of the gentleman, who carefully scooped them up with both arms. His skin turned a ghostly color and a startlingly low temperature. The meltwater chilled around the snowbunnies' tiny nubs. He glanced at the kid, "Ready?" The kid wiped his face one last time, his cheeks and nose already red from the wintry weather. "Ready." he confirmed.

The temperature then took a noticeable drop and crystals slowly formed on the melting snow, reflecting the warm colors of the brightening sky. "Hán Suāng", the man spoke out of nowhere. The boy was caught off guard, not expecting him to speak again, "Huh?" "My name. It does not seem proper to remain strangers when jointly experiencing situations as such." "I see. I don't have a name." The kid watched the frost completely incase the paralyzed rabbits, transforming them into elegant frozen sculptures.

Flawlessly timed, just whilst the sun peeked above the far horizon, the statues fractured into countless diamond shards that blew into the air, glittering in the morning beams. The ice shrapnel immediately defrosted in the infrared rays and rained down upon the pair like an early spring drizzle.

It was truly difficult to tell if it was simply the rain, or if more tears fell down the young boy's face.

As one door closes, another opens. Where one story ends, another is only just beginning . . .