TeenTale
Tree branches rustled and creaked as the cool air passed through their budding leaves. The shadows beneath the green branches danced with fallen limbs and leaves between the trunks. Vines wrapped up the trees growing a colorful display of purple and blue buds. The sky was filled with a light blue dotted by white clouds. The ground was both soft and crunchy with clovers and fallen leaves from autumn. The sound of birdsong pervaded the whistling of leaves in the forest.
The sound of heavy foot falls suddenly broke through the trees. Birds stopped their song whenever they grew near, even flying away if the figure making the noise grew too close. The figure in question breathed in deep before slowly exhaling. Their breath almost visible from the cold wind striking them. They looked around and tried to decide the best direction to head up towards the peak of the mountain. The sun was sinking lower in the sky and they decided to make camp for the night before they couldn't move from cold.
There was a long, beaten path, overgrown with vines that lead towards a large opening in the mountainside off in the distance. They started on the path and hoped to make it to the opening before nightfall for shelter. They set a brisk jog with a slight limp and shivered whenever a cold wind hit them. Every few minutes they tripped over a creeping vine on the path and fell, but they turned it into a roll and back into a jog as if their life depended on it. They had started to feel winded not long after starting but with every step it seemed a little easier because it didn't feel as cold anymore. The sun had gone down a little more and the shadows had grown longer with every minute that passed. Every step through the shadows felt cool on their skin, a brief relief to the heat coursing through their veins. They had made it most of the way, but the sun was halfway hidden behind the horizon and the air had become colder than before. They were panting and could see their breath with each exhale into the cold.
They had been running jogging for so long and were getting fatigued from it. They never had the greatest stamina and it was catching up with them. Their posture was weakening and each breath came in like hot fire despite the frigid air. Every step they took felt like a knife was being driven into their side.
The sun just sat beneath the horizon by the time they reached the opening, their lungs burning and sides feeling like they had been stabbed hundreds of time. They walked in a bit and sat down against the interior rock wall of the cave. The rock face was cold and covered in moisture. Everything was some mixture of wet and cold and they wouldn't last much longer without heat. They hadn't thought to bring a decent Firestarter and couldn't see rocks to make a spark, let alone dry tinder. They felt their breathing slow and closed their eyes. They supposed if they died in the cold, their body would be preserved and maybe be found by someone later in the future.
A warm feeling covered them after a moment and they opened an eye to see their hair moving slightly. They looked around a felt a stronger current of warm air coming from further down the cave. They leaned forward and stood up, stretching as they did so. They had regained some feeling in their limbs again but were still numb a little. They turned and started walking further into the cave, their joints no longer fighting against movement from cold.
They walked for several minutes as warm kept getting warmer until it felt like spring air. There was also the smell of flowers in the air somehow. It was too dark to actually see anything but, just being near a source of warmth should help them get through the night. They had taken maybe a dozen steps when they felt a something tough with each fall of their foot. The floor of the cave became uneven and warm, a stark contrast to the flat and cold rock before. They tried to pull their foot up to take another step only to be caught on something and start to tilt forward. They tried to steady themselves on their other foot, but it slipped off the edge of the floor and into it. They twisted and fell even faster but they didn't meet the floor, only empty air.
They immediately figured it must have been a fissure in the cave. Time seemed to slow for them as their life flashed before their eyes. Imagine, to almost die of frostbite or hypothermia and die by falling a freaking hole. It felt like such a stupid thing to die by, literally slowing down their walking pace could have saved them. At least it would be less painful a death compared to hypothermia and frostbite. It felt like an eternity passed in the span of a few seconds by the time they slammed into the ground on their back and felt the air leave their lungs. Their vision faded to black.