Where Winter Meets Summer (Rusame Countryhumans)

Frozen in Time: Roses in the Snow

It was the first time I saw myself and I began to register my surroundings too. Above me was a heavy but flexible material. A coat, I realized . Under me, there was something cold. So cold it began to sting my skin and dark shards lay everywhere. But that was all I could see because the cloth covering was blocking me. I shuffled around with my hands and arms, pushing the folds out of my way until an exit appeared where the light rushed in. At this point I could also hear footsteps and voices coming towards me.

"Look over there! That's dad's coat," one exclaimed, "and it's moving!"

I cautiously peeked my head out from the coat and after letting my eyes adjust to the brightness, I could see a group of faces staring back at me. They were all children and I could see that there were a few older ones in the group. One of them, who wore strange gold beads in his hair, was the first to step forward.

"Hello there," he said politely, "Have you seen our dad?"

I blinked a few times and shook my head. He looked at me with a blank stare in return.

"Really? So why are you in dad's coat?"

"And why are you naked?" a younger boy piped.

I decided to ignore their questions and looked around instead. We were in the middle of a frozen plain with no life in sight other than us. The dead land ran on and on, meeting the dull grey sky in the distance. We were in the middle of nowhere.

Finally, I turned back to the children who had been patiently waiting for me. I looked up at them and this time, an older girl stepped up.

"So who are you? Where did you come from?" she asked as she knelt down to my crouched level. I was about to answer when it hit me; I didn't know. Who was I? Where did I come from? How did I get here? My distress probably began to show because the girl stepped back with a worried expression.

"I- I don't know," I whispered and my voice began to crackle as warm tears rolled down my face, "I don't know... I don't know..."

"Hey, don't cry," she pleaded as she tried to comfort me, "It's ok, I'm sure you'll remember eventually."

Now, the other children gathered around to comfort me but I just continued to stare at the ground. I felt so lost and with no direction to follow, there was nothing I could do.

"You can come with us, if you want."

The final girl who stood above the others offered. "We are basically like you now. We have nowhere to go-"

"Well, we just need to find father and-"

"Father is gone," she roared with a hint of anger mixed in her voice, "We have no one to rely on anymore except each other and I think having one more brother won't be too bad. You look old enough to work."

She then pointed to herself, "Call me Raine. That's Kaz and Bela. And then there's Bekistan, Georgie, Baija, Kyrgey, Taji, Menia, and Menistan. Those four are Lithy, Tonia, Via and Dova. We picked them up on the way, like you."