The Bloodshed of Winter

I would rather steal bread

I woke up to birds chirping, Ace was still in the spot he was the night before but woke up not long after me. I then realized we had no extra meat, so we were going to have to hunt. We walked about ten feet from the hut, I trailed behind Ace, careful not to let him go too far ahead. He took a step onto a frozen lake, I tried to stop him before he fell in, but he kept going.

He fell in. I yelped, I didn't know what to do, but I did remember seeing something on T.V before on how to get someone out of the ice. Ace splashed helplessly, making it pretty clear he wasn't a good swimmer. I stepped onto the ice, very glad that I didn't weigh much, and got on my stomach, slowly sliding towards him. I reached for him, knowing it was only a matter of time before he wouldn't stay afloat.

"Ace, you idiot," I muttered as I squirmed on the ice.

He made a sound, but I couldn't tell what it was supposed to be.

I reached him and grabbed his hand and tried to pull him out, but that only caused him to slip in further, I didn't know if I would be able to get him out now.

I had read a book on how to tie knots, which seemed to be the only way I could get to him without falling in myself.

Of course, my body chose that time to take a half-hour to tie a knot. Somehow Ace was still splashing around, but he would drown soon if I didn't help him. I tied it to a nearby tree and threw the rope into the water. Obviously, I would have to help him, he wouldn't be able to get out himself, but between the fact I only had one arm and a broken leg, I wouldn't do much, but I had to try.

I got him out of the water eventually, but he definitely had hypothermia. I got him back to his hut and scowled at him. "You're an idiot." Somehow he was still awake. He smiled as if proud of himself. "I know." He said. I felt his hand shaking when I took them into my hand. "You know you could've drowned?" I said. He nodded, which almost annoyed me, but of course, I didn't have time to get mad. I noticed blood seeping through his jacket and pants, there were holes in his jacket, he must've cut himself on the sharp ice. I grunted in frustration, I didn't know how to help him, much less I didn't know what to do. All I could do was start a fire and stay here.

That's exactly what I did. The fire wasn't hard to start, but getting Ace to stay sitting down was a problem. I had never experienced hypothermia before, but I was pretty sure I shouldn't let him run around. Eventually, I got him to sit down and stay down.

"You can't run around, you have to sit down," I said.

"Okay, then Miss Peach-O." He said.

"Never call me that again." I scowled.

"Kay' Skittle." He said.

I almost objected, but he was just going to keep saying things until I bashed him over the head with a tree branch. Of course, I didn't plan on actually hitting him, but I had an urge to strangle him.

"Shut up," I said, trying to hide my embarrassment.

He smiled, his lips were tinted blue because of the cold. I admired his sense of humor.

"Anyways, how was your night?" I asked, obviously he was with me all night, but I wanted to make some sort of conversation.

"I fell asleep." He said.

"No, really?" I asked I knew he was being sarcastic, so I decided to play along.

"Yeah, but you'll never guess what, I woke up."

"No, this is too much, really?"

"Yeah."

"You know, I usually wake up without falling asleep," I said, it was a joke, but Ace looked almost as if he believed it, which he probably didn't.

"Yeah, you know how to put cereal in a bowl?"

"No, tell me."

"Milk, then cereal." He said.

"You monster."

"I wasn't done, it goes, milk, cereal, then the bowl."

I hesitated. "That's almost as good as eating the banana straight through the middle!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, or eating a chocolate bar by biting it, no breaking off a piece."

"I do that!" I said.

"Genius."

I laughed, I didn't want to stop. Not until I heard a scream, and it sounded a lot like Lazari.