Disclaimer: Minekura-sama owns all.

Notes: 25 minutes in all. My apologies for its shortness and crappy-ness. Goku thinks back to when he was imprisoned in the mountain. . For tm challenge: Snow. Comments and criticism welcome.

Sunlit

You could have been anywhere you wished. But you're standing on packed earth with iron shackles on your feet too heavy to move, their dull metal lacklustre like the glassy orbs that have become your eyes.

It comes with a shock, that you still remember; this place that was once your home and imprisonment. You reach out to move forward, and it comes as no surprise that your hand collides with something painfully cold. You can't see it, but you know that beyond the rock pillars is a place you'll never set foot on.

For there lies your boundary.

Everything around you is so blindingly pure; like the virgin feathers on some dying swan, and you've gone past knowing if you'll someday you'll ever be let out to touch this delicate, beautiful world of yours. It is yours, for there isn't anyone else you could have shared it with.

You don't know it, but you're weeping, and what you haven't learnt yet to call tears are streaming down your cheeks and something deep within has begun its anguished sobs.

You look up, and through the misty haze you see a brittle, waning light, consumed by the abyss of silence that engulfs you in its unfathomable depths. But you see it, and you reach out.

For if you don't hold it now, it'll be gone forever.

The snowflakes continue falling, floating, wandering by—but never getting in. And you can't help but think the sun is the only companion you have.

With a jolt the image vanishes and you wake up to a room shrouded in darkness. The snores on the bed are a steady, monotonous rhythm you've long grown accustomed to and are now but a gentle lullaby.

Throwing open the curtains you look out. You can't remember what the dream was, or what it meant, but its memory like a bitter aftertaste lingers still.

The chill that envelopes you seems fresh from a recent past, but now you know its name, and you call out, softly, just once, "Snow."

There is awe in your voice.

The sun is shining.

The End
07/12/2004