Crack, crack, crack.

The snow creaks under your feet covered by thick boots, your breathing creates small white clouds above where the (f/c) scarf is tied to your neck. Your body, at this moment covered by approximately three different layers of clothes, manages to maintain a medium temperature that, in some way, seems to compensate the difficulty of movement in most of your joints because of the clothes.

You walk slowly, your look focuses on the huge white landscape that stretches before you; large fields completely covered in white, only differentiated by the occasional hills of snowy pines, and the small trail of fine footprints on the snow, of which you are guilty.

Everything was so cold, so equal and yet so different... so beautiful.

Thinking that way would not be so strange that someone would want to build a hotel in that place, well, at least it would not if it was not for the weather.

Speaking about the weather, you raised your head to observe the sky covered by white and light gray clouds. You really were not sure how long this could last and, without any computer or reliable source of information to check the duration of the good weather, you preferred not to risk yourself and stay close to your 'refuge'. It was not exactly normal for such a strong snowstorm to stop so suddenly, and you were not very positive about the possibility that it would stay this way for a long time.

You sighed, beginning to think that it would be better for you to come back already; your fingers protected by gloves were beginning to stiffen, and you suspected that this was not exactly good news for you. Although you could not blame anyone but yourself for that, and the various snowmans and different snow figures on the path were proof of that. Well, maybe you just got a little too excited...

You started to turn around, towards the house, when suddenly you were interrupted by something.

Crack.

Shit. Okay, you were sure that it was not you: you did not even take a single step! So that could only mean one thing...

There was someone else there.

Feeling how the panic filled your body, you began to turn around very slowly, trying with all your strength to avoid making noise. Good God, who the hell could be here?! You were literally IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, and that without counting the snowstorm that just happened a few hours ago. So... you only came up with three options:

1) Some kind of robber who (somehow) was trying to steal in a property in the middle of nowhere?

2) It could be a wild animal that got lost and accidentally ended up near your house, and you heard it stumbling over a branch... or something like that.

3) The loneliness was really starting to affect you and you were hallucinating, to the point when you thought you were hearing strange noises.

Be that as it may, you slowly began to walk towards the place where you heard the noise, fearful that (even though the possibility was minimal) the first option would happen. You walk for a few meters and...

Oh shit, it really happened.

Right in front of you, and half hidden in the snow was a... young girl? You were not sure... Her black curly black hair was loose and fell down her back even in her unconscious state. Her clothes were short and torn, what you would definitely not recommend, especially considering that practically half of her body was sunk in the snow. However, that was not the strangest thing; the weird girl seemed to have some kind of orange ram's horns coming out of her head, and her skin was an unnatural pearl gray.

You jumped instinctively back as soon as your brain managed to assimilate what you were seeing. Shit! Was she even an animal? What the hell...?

Wait. Oh god, she was waking up.

Slowly the strange creature with human likeness began to open her eyes, showing how the two were yellow with only a small black pupil: almost the same as a cat's. Her body was trembling violently, although it was not really hard to know why. The female-looking creature raised her head obviously confused and disoriented.

"s0llux?"

...

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!"

Panic and confusion spread among the six trolls gathered in front of the big hollow pine. Yes, you heard correctly: of the 12 companions who had started this trip only six were together at this time, and that was the main reason for the alarm among the trolls that formed the small group.

"ii already told you ii do not know" the irritated voice belonging to Sollux Captor answered,just slightly lower than that of the cancer. The self-appointed team leader (Karkat Vantas) proceeded to shout a series of curses at the yellow-blood troll, who seemed to ignore him while he was hurriedly checking data on a small electronic device.

"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME, YOU FUCKING ASSHOL-"

"Alright, Let's All Calm Down" the jadeblood troll we previously introduced as Kanaya Maryam quickly interposed between the two trolls. She tried to calm the troll of mutant blood, while Sollux continued to check the screen of the small machine, apparently without noticing or worrying enough about the situation.

A few meters away the three remaining trolls tried to put their thoughts in order. Feferi Peixes, the already named fuchsia-blood, could hardly believe the situation she was in. Half of her friends were lost on an unknown planet! The pisces could feel the guilt stirring her belly, while the rest of her body began to tremble because of the cold.

Beside her, and suffering a similar physical reaction, although slightly milder, was a highblood of indigo blood known by the name of Equius Zahhak. The strong troll had been watching the whole situation since the beginning from behind his broken sunglasses.

However, no type of sunglasses could hide the worry that inside made the highblood regret; Among the missing trolls was his moirail, Nepeta Leijon, probably lost and trying to find them at this time. Equius did not feel worried because she was weak or something like that, he knew his moirail enough to know that she was perfectly capable of surviving on her own, probably much better than all the trolls gathered at that moment. He had observed her during her long hunts under the moonlight of his old planet, and he had helped her pack herbs and prey (despite his disappointment because she still ate meat) to preserve them until the lean season.

But it was only the strange weather that was causing the troll of indigo blood to worry; he had never seen anything like this, the strange whitish substance that covered the floor in large heaps and that occasionally fell like tiny, thin pieces from the sky seemed to have an extremely low temperature, to the point of making a stiff feeling and a strange tingling spread through his fingers just by holding it for a few minutes. He of course knew that lowbloods had a higher body temperature than highbloods, but stil itl seemed worrying...

Last but not least, next to the two highbloods was the last troll of the group, a cobalt-blood named Vriska Serket. Although most people who knew her called her "bitch", the female troll seemed to be the calmest of the whole group. It might have seemed that she simply did not care, but on the contrary, the situation of the 12 trolls was clearly developing inside the head of the highblood troll, weaving plans and possible situations and escapes in the same way that a spider weaves its web.

But this did not look good at all.

...

"So... trolls?"

Aradia nodded slightly, the warmth of the small cup in her hands slowly extending all the way to her body. Gently she lifted the fine piece of antique china to her lips before letting the familiar, comforting taste of tea fill her mouth.

Since the beginning of the war, resources (which were already quite scarce) became even more difficult to obtain. The water was scarce, except for the unwary who dared to enter the territory of the sea dwellers, no self-respecting troll would do something as stupid as spend his little money on ingredients for drinks. Thus, the only types of 'teas' that the low bloods could afford were those made with the few wild plants (the few that were not poisonous) that could be found in nature. Which, to tell the truth, did not taste very different from normal water.

The burgundy-blood troll licked her lips, enjoying the strong taste of the drink that the strange alien called 'tea'. She raised her head to look at the young creature sitting in front of her, watching her with a look of curiosity and confusion on her face, no doubt it had been strange for the troll to see a creature of (s/c) skin and without horns when she woke up. Her body felt extremely cold and stiff then, and for a moment the fear of being alone with that creature in an unknown place ran down her back in the form of great chills.

However, most of the fear (though not the distrust) suddenly disappeared when the strange creature leaned on the ground near her and carefully helped her out of the mound of white earth in which she was trapped. Aradia tried to stay on her feet, unfortunately discovering at the same moment that her legs did not respond too well when she accidentally fell over the alien of strange clothes. She seemed to take it better than Aradia thought, picking her up and helping her to get to her hive, where she had given her some strangely soft blankets to help to warm her up.

Finally she had appeared with two cups filled with strange (color of tea) liquid, which she had presented as 'tea' and she had given her one of them, before beginning to interrogate her. "(y/n)" (as she had told her she was called) had asked her about her species, her name, her 'house', how she had got there... and she had answered her as well as she could.

(y/n) observed the strange girl "Aradia" while she slowly drink the content of her cup. Probably if someone had told the young human just a few hours before that she was going to meet an alien she would have answered him/her that he/she was crazy (and then she would have been surprised to find someone in the middle of nowhere with her) and yet: what other logical option was left? The gray skin and the horns seemed certainly real, and there were not many other options for her to have arrived here, much less after a snowstorm.

On the other hand if her story was real... wow, did that mean there were more aliens lost for the property? In the cold? For their own sake you expected them to have a better body temperature than Aradia's...

Well, luckily, you had made a decision at that time.

"How many more are there of you?"

Aradia seemed to hesitate before looking at the alien eyes, looking for any sign of greed or bad intentions, without results. Inside the troll struggled, she was still not completely sure about her, well, she had helped her and had taken her to her hive, which was probably much more than a unknown troll on her ancient planet could had done. On the other hand, the others were still outside... Sollux... and her friends.

At last the Aries seemed to make a decision, raising her head to look at the young girl, a new energy in her yellow alien eyes.

"we were twelve when we started... me included" she said.

You nodded and got up, leaving your empty cup on the table.

"Well, Aradia, let's find your friends".