.

Terra had woken up with fog curling around her fingers. Not just her fingers, in fact, her entire body. The strange mist left cold drops of dew all over her. Shivering, Terra wound the shawl she was wearing tighter around herself and continued walking through the mist. With no recollection of how she had gotten there or even how to get out, She had decided it was better to try and find life. Ants would work, even - just anything living she could talk to. 

"Hello?"

Her voice, raspy from waking up, echoed eerily. 

But there was no reply. 

Terra, who was barefoot, stopped walking, and simply stood, shivering, in the middle of the white. She could barely see in front of her, and below her was only cold, dewy grass. Not a single form of life. She couldn't talk to planets, of course, but why was it that there were no animals at all? She would have welcomed a worm with open arms at this point. 

Still standing in the abyss, Terra tried again. What else was there to do? 

"Hello?"

Her own voice called back to her. 

No one else was there. Terra was truly at a loss now - what exactly was going on? Where was she? Deciding that she should continue walking again, she decided to take off her shawl and wrap it around her frostbitten feet instead. It helped in walking, but Terra, with nothing to wrap around her shoulders and arms, was left shivering even harder than before. The dew was now slightly crystalizing - her eyelashes and dark green hair had small specks of ice studded into it. 

Still urging herself to walk, she rubbed off as much of the ice as she could and tugged her feet further. She kept calling out too, until the rasp was thrown out of her voice and it rang out across the frozen planes, loud and clear like the morning sun. 

"Hello!" 

There was still no answer. 

Terra kept walking, now thinking it was better to move and keep her blood going than freeze in the same spot. Her feet were now slightly frostbitten, but it was better since she no longer felt the sharp pain of stepping on rocks or twigs. Her arms were also numb, and so was her face. The only thing that remained was a dull, cold ache which seemed to be inescapable. It was deep in her bones, this chilling ache, and no matter how much she moved or rubbed her hands together, it stayed persistent.

So, she finally gave into it. She stopped rubbing her hands together, instead wrapping them around herself as tightly as she could, and closed her eyes, done with fighting. Instead she simply kept walking. 

The grass soon fell into mud, which was hidden under a layer of ice that cracked when she stepped on it. Soon, to Terra's surprise, she tripped on something that was not a rock or a twig - something much, much better. 

Terra couldn't help but let out a quiet yell of surprise when she tumbled into sharp bark, scraping her elbows and knees. There was no one to hear her anyway, so she supposed shouting was alright. 

Terra looked up when she felt a dull glow above her. 

It was a willow tree, but its leaves were… glowing? 

They fell from the tree gracefully in braided plaits, leaves glowing a faint, light pink that illuminated the grass on the ground but not much else. The tree itself was old, probably more than 30 at least - a large, winding column of bark and moss that stretched into the sky and in a graceful dome around Terra, who realized she was not shivering as much anymore. 

Curious, she laid a palm gently against the bark, to feel a slight warm coating underneath her fingers. Trying to keep her teeth from chattering, she desperately moved into a sitting position and scooted as close to the trunk of the tree as possible. By that, she meant throwing herself right next to the bark. As she had guessed, the bark itself was giving off a warmth, a fiery one, that complimented the glow of the leaves around her. Terra, grateful, took her shawl off from her feet and wrapped it around herself, encased by the warmth of the strange tree that chased away the dull ache in her bones. It was easy to fall asleep now, but then Terra took a decent look around again and realized the tree produced fruit as well - a small pink thing that blended in with the leaves and looked like an apple, but was about half the size of her palm. The closest one to her was dangling a foot away from her, so, a bit ruefully, she peeled herself off the warm spot of the bark, her hair falling gracefully behind her back, and reached out to the fruit. 

As soon as she took a careful bite, something crashed into her head. 

A memory. Was it hers? 

A memory of her sitting on… a golden throne? Surrounded by others? Who were the others? Terra tried to remember more, but as soon as she swallowed the bite, the memory vanished with it as well. 

This time, she took a larger bite of the fruit, and chewed slowly. The scene replayed in her head again, this tie slower, and she was able to glimpse a few people she knew - Moon and Venus - and a few she didn't - someone with yellow eyes and bright yellow twin buns, someone else with dark skin and blue eyes, and her father, with black hair that faded to purple tips. 

Then the memory stopped, and Terra realized she had eaten all of the small fruit. 

She reached for a new one, and now another unfamiliar memory flooded her head.