A/N: Written as a possible fair entry, since the limit is 500 words. I'd like to run it over with the public first to brush up some of the mistakes my beta and I didn't see. So please enjoy and review!~
You're finally here.
That's all you can think and it comes with a bundle of feelings as well. Fear, desperation, pain, worry. The harsh wind that shrieks in your ear only urges on those feelings of despair.
But you're here.
You, the boy with short blond hair who has lived on this farm your entire life. You, who had always enjoyed dancing and playing in the deep forests alone. You, who had always neglected others to fend and fare for yourself.
You're here, once in your life, for someone else.
You walked two thousand footsteps to get here. You walked through the hail and snow that beat against your face like little needles.
And now you stand here at this massive tree. Its roots are sprawled about the ground and its branches stretching above all of the others, so one could almost see it from a mile away.
You stand, staring down at the roots that used to cradle leaves like mothers would a child. Though this time, the roots bare no leaves. In those roots, something small and brown peeks from under the snow.
You race forward, falling upon the roots, wind crying in your ears and hail biting at your skin. You shove your cold hands into the snow, pulling the clumps of the slush from in and out of corners.
Horror runs through your veins as you uncover the small body. Ice is crusted all over him, which makes you choke on guilt and lean forward.
Though you know it's too late, you still grasp his small wrist in your hand. You want to feel something, anything, but all you can feel is how stony and frozen it is. You clutch the wrist tighter, your teeth clenched as you hope to feel warmth. Only to come to the awareness that it is hopeless. There is nothing. Nothing but ice left in him.
You finally let go, slowly at first. You stare into the blurred landscape, snow and ice whistling past you, before you collapse. As you fall into his thick brown coat, your nose is pressed deep into his fur rimmed collar. Your tears come out tiny, like small, frozen raindrops.
The wind doesn't cease to blow as you sob. Snow batters against your body and it would chill you but right now you can't feel a thing.
Everything's numb.
All you can do is think of that small voice once saying, "Arter, why don't we come to this twee evwe Saturday and you can pway with me like you did today?"
To which you had smiled knowing you couldn't deny the persistent little boy who had forced himself into your life.
To which you had said yes, not knowing you were supposed to keep true to that promise rain or shine, every day, until the very end. Until the end of you both.
