Shun

All of us were literally moths to a flame. The way we were all hurrying to the fires, made us look like we had never seen heat in our lives. I found a fire that had nobody else around it yet, and darted for it. I dropped to my knees a few feet from the flame, and I ended up sliding a little bit. Immediately, I could feel the heat coming from the fire, and let out a sigh of relief. Alice and the rest of her friends joined around the same fire, all doing as I had done.

Even with the heat, we were all still shivering. But it was much more tolerable that the horrible weather we just came from. Unable to hold my tired body up any more, I laid down in the snow next to the fire. I didn't care that the ground was cold; I was getting enough warmth from the fire.

The people on the sleds pulled by dogs, were going around from fire to fire, tending to people who were on the verge of death due to the cold. They wore thick layers of clothes that were lined with fur on the inside, and had handmade goggles on their eyes to protect them from the snow.

In our group, I was still the only one laying down in the snow; the others looked like they wanted to, but weren't up to laying down on the cold ground. They were as close as they could get to the fire without getting burned. When we all first saw those fires, I was sure that some people would lay down in the fire in order to get warm. That was probably a bit of an exaggeration.

My eyes started to grow heavy, and I could feel myself falling into sleep. Before I had the chance, somebody lightly poked me in the back with their foot. I looked up and saw one of the heavily clothed people. They were staring down at me, then removed the fabric that was covering their mouth.

I discovered it was a woman when she said, "Don't fall asleep until completely warmed up. You can still freeze." She pulled the fabric back up over her mouth, and went on to another fire. Most likely to tell somebody else the same thing. Despite how tired I was, I didn't want to freeze in my sleep.

So, to keep myself awake, I sat back up and moved closer to the fire. Laying down would only make me sleepier and hopefully the fire would help keep me awake. My attention turned to all the other fires. From what I could tell, about half of the people we had brought with us from the lake, were still with us.

We had lost half of our numbers, just by going through that snow storm. And we're not even a quarter of the way on the map. How many of these people would we lose when we took them from this frozen place? Around us, the natives that had saved us from the snow storm, were handing out blankets to us.

When they passed them out to Alice and the others, I saw that they were made out of some kind of animal fur and skin. They were warm though, and I wasn't complaining about that. The sky and everything else around us, was still pitch black. Was it like this all the time here?

If it was, I didn't see how these people had survived in this kind of climate. I noticed that our refuges were moving into the domes of ice. The woman who kicked me awake, was walking towards us. She had removed the mask on her mouth and said, "Sorry about the wait. We had to start making room for all of you so you wouldn't have to sleep out in the storm. Come with me and I'll take you to the one your group will be staying in."

Her voice was thick with some sort of accent. I could understand what she was saying, but the way she spoke was much different from how we did. All of us were sluggish and slow when we got up; a true sign that we hadn't quite thawed out yet.

Luckily, we didn't have to walk very far to reach our new shelter. There was a small tunnel leading into the dome, and it was the only way to get into the structure. At first glance, it looked like none of us would be able to fit inside. But it was a lot more spacious than it looked.

Inside the dome, there was a small fire, and plenty of room for the six of us, plus three others; Brunswick, Marquis, and Val. It was nice to know we hadn't lost any of them during the storm. They weren't talking much, but were more focused on the fire, staring at it to make sure it didn't run away.

You would have thought that a house made of ice, would have been cold. But it was way warmer than it was outside. Somebody else was crawling into our dome; it was one of the people that dwelled out in this insane place. Only when she removed the hood on her jacket, and the goggles from her eyes, did I recognize her.

Well, the part of her mouth was what I really remember. It was the same woman who had woken me up, and brought us to this dome. She shook her hair loose, and allowed it to fall halfway down her back. The color and texture of it, reminded me a lot of how Christina's was.

In fact, almost everything about this woman reminded me of my old friend. Even they shape and color of the eyes. It was almost like looking back at Christina, but I knew I wasn't. Maybe my mind was tricking me, an effect of missing home. She was pulling her gloves off when she asked us, "By the size of your group, I take it that the Officials are chasing you?"

We nodded our heads slowly, either from being tired or just being so cold. The woman warmed her hands by the small fire and said, "Well, there's going to be no travel till this storm passes….You all picked a hell of a time to show up." She didn't sound too enthusiastic about our arrival.

If we didn't run the risk of freezing to death, I would have suggested we just kept on going. They were told, just like the lake people, that we would one day show up. They should have been ready for that day, whenever it would come. Despite weather or whatever obstacles they were facing.

She sighed and said, "Oh, well. Beggars can't be choosers….I'm Feliciana." She held out her hand for us to shake. Compared to hers, our hands were like the ice we were taking shelter under. We told her our names, she nodded in acknowledgement.

In order to know who we were going to be traveling with, Feliciana told us about her, and as she called them, the Tribe. She was the leader of her people by bloodline, and also by the fact that she was the best hunter they had. I didn't know what all there was to hunt out in someplace like this, but there apparently was. Heck, I didn't even know where they had found all the wood for the fires.

Then again, I had seen nothing but darkness thanks to the storm. Brunswick and his companions went ahead and filled Feliciana in on who they were, and where they were from. She seemed impressed by them, most likely out of recognition at their adaptability.

Her impressed expression, faded when she got to us and learned that Alice and her friends were from the City; the source of all this trouble. She didn't bother to ask them anything else, apparently knowing all she wanted to. Then, she got to me and asked where I was from.

I told her, trying to hold down the sick feeling in my stomach. I was nowhere near healed yet, and I didn't like talking about what was wounding me. But, I was sure I would have to tell more people eventually, and now was the best time to toughen this wound up.

Feliciana stood up, her head almost touching the top of the dome, which she had called an igloo; a strange word in my opinion. "Well, it was nice getting to know who I, along with my people, will be traveling with. Now, if you excuse me, I have to make sure that everyone is getting ready to leave as soon as the land is clear to walk. Which should be sometime in the morning or early afternoon."

I couldn't stand looking at her and seeing the similarities in her and Christina, and I ended up stopping her before she left the igloo. "Wait. You wouldn't have happened to ever know a Christina, did you?" Feliciana stared at me for a moment and asked with half a breath, "How do you know my sister's name?"

I was taken aback. The resemblance between the two was uncanny, so it was possible that we were talking about the same Christina. Feliciana shook her head and said, "I don't have time to talk right now. Maybe tomorrow." She then hurried out of the igloo, leaving us in a silence.

Shun

After a while, all of us finally fell asleep in the dome of ice. I was sound asleep, enjoying every minute of the rest that I was obtaining while I could. But it was interrupted when somebody shook me out of my slumber. I looked around groggily in the igloo, which had gotten darker since the fire began to go out, and finally saw Feliciana staring down at me.

What was with her and waking me up? I sat up, rubbing my eyes. "Hey….What's going on?" I asked, starting to think that maybe the Officials had caught up with us. I was sure there would be more chaos than this, seeing how quiet it was. Feliciana looked at me with serious eyes that reminded me so much of Christina's.

"I want to know how you know my sister's name," she said, border lining the tone of demanding. If this was the same Christina that we were both thinking about, then she probably wanted to know what happened to her sister. Feliciana probably hadn't seen Christina since she left and joined me and the Outcasts.

The Tribe leader made me step outside the igloo to talk with her. To my surprise, the snow storm had stopped and left us with nothing more than a light flurry of snowflakes. "How do you know her?" she asked again, sounded slightly urgent. I told her, "She showed up at my home when she was about sixteen. She never said where she was from or anything…..Why did she leave here? Other than it being insanely cold?"

Feliciana ignored my comment about the cold weather and sighed. "Christina left because of our father. He wanted her to marry somebody and carry on the family line. She didn't want to and there was a big fight." I shuddered in the cold, wishing for the warmth of the igloo behind me.

But this conversation was strictly between me and Feliciana. Nobody else. She took a breath, and let it out as a smoky wisp of air. "Christina told us that she was going to leave the Tribe and never come back. Our father said she was bluffing, and that if she did go, she'd never make it anywhere. I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't listen and left. If I could have taken her place in that marriage, I would have. But I was already married to somebody. But since you know her, I take it that she did make it somewhere."

I nodded, thinking about how upset her family had to have been after they discovered she had run away from home. No matter where you were, the Wastelands were considered as a deathtrap, and to know that a member of your own family went out there, was something that had to be hard to deal with.

Relief was on Feliciana's face when she realized that her sister had survived the trek through the Wastelands. "Where is she now?" the Tribe leader asked me. Last time I saw my old friend, she was sending me out into the Wastelands, and was staying behind to face the Officials.

Did she not want to come with us because she still refused to go home, or did she really want to go down with the others? I was confused now, and decided not to think too much about it. I shook my head and told her, "I'm not sure, but I think the Officials got to her. I'm sorry. She was a close friend of mine."

Feliciana took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. I thought for a moment I saw a tear starting to form. The strong and harsh leader of the Tribe, actually did have feelings. "Now I know. I guess I don't have to go on with the rest of my life wondering what happened to her," she said and started to walk away.

I felt like I should have said something to her, but I couldn't find the words. So, I left it at that and returned back to the igloo. Besides, she would need the rest of the night to heal if she was to get ready for the morning, when we went on the move again.

chapter title based off the song World So Cold by Three Days Grace. thought this was a good chance to drop in that tidbit about Christina. a couple of announcements, there will be no upload friday due to a band banquet. and there will be none on May 3 (i think) because i have a state test and will be extremely tired from it. check out the poll if you havent and read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~