Flute music could be heard quite clearly in the Frozen Mountains. Its gentle melody rolled over the frozen peaks, a mournful tune of loss. Some sections of the music rang on the ice like falling icicles, while others flowed like rivers in the spring. One minute the flute was a fierce blizzard; the next, the gentlest snowfall. Everything seemed to move on tiptoe as the flute continued.
The Frozen Mountains were filled with strange creatures. The sweet Ice Kittens and their big, protective, leopard-like parents leapt from ledge to ledge, navigating each mountain as easily as a bird the sky. The fierce Snow Wolves prowled the Frost-Bitten Forest, chasing away any creature that tried to penetrate its way into their domain. Gentle but powerful Snow Golems walked around on the Snowy Fields, looking on placidly at everything else. By far the strangest was the single human boy who lived in the tallest mountain of all.
The boy looked about fourteen, with immensely long yellow-white hair that he kept hidden in a white hat that covered all of his head but his face. He wore a long-sleeved blue shirt that had its right sleeve torn off because of the metal pincher that replaced his right arm. He had long blue pants, the ends of which were torn and destroyed, and he was barefoot, despite the cold.
The boy was playing the flute, the tune filling his mind to the brim with thoughts, and memories he couldn't reach. He continued to play, thinking something was missing, but what? Without realizing it, the golden crown that had been resting next to him on the chair slipped and crashed to the floor. The boy jumped, and stopped playing to look at it. The crown was made of solid gold, and had three extraordinarily shiny jewels resting on its front. The jewels seemed to shine brightly, as though the fall had angered it, and the boy seemed unsure as to whether he should pick it up. Finally, he relaxed, and smiled slightly. He shook his head, and his bright blue eyes seemed to clear of the faint haze that had covered them just a moment before, and he stood up and walked to the window he had made out of a thin sheet of ice, and began to play another song, enjoying the rare moment of lucidity. Though he could not sing while playing, the words played in his head, and they went like this;
"Wake up
And feel the sun
The world seems dark
Since you put it on
Just tell yourself
It'll be well
It'll a-all be well soon."
He stopped. Where had he heard this song before? The words clearly fit his current situation, but… he hadn't heard any music but his own since…
He played one part again.
"The world seems dark
Since you put it on"
The boy set his flute down on the windowsill and, sighing, rested his head in his hands, with his elbows on the windowsill. Suddenly, he noticed something. Just a short distance away from the blanket of snow at the foot of the mountains, two figures were coming closer. He quickly grabbed a telescope from his Pile of Lost Things and used it to look more closely at the figures. It was a boy and a little girl, clearly siblings, or just very similar looking, coming slowly but surely towards the Frozen Mountains. The boy lowered his telescope, his mind racing. Judging by their clothing, if the two people were to even set foot in the snow surrounding the Frozen Mountains, they would freeze to death, if Snow Wolves didn't catch them first. The boy glanced at the crown and hoped, if he left it behind, there would only be those two dangers for the boy and girl he saw. The boy grabbed a sword attachment for his right arm from his Pile of Lost Things, along with a green backpack he used to collect Lost Things, and decided to help the boy and girl.