Baby It's Cold Outside ✔️

Five Golden Rings

"I can't remember my life before the squad found me laying unconscious across the snow, frost-bitten and on the verge of death. They took me in, and made me a scout. Now i patrol the mountains, help out any lost traveller like yourself, and i live a simple life. It's just me and the snow." Leo explained the following night. And a set of twin daughters you left behind Kaylee wanted to add, but instead she just nodded submissively as she swallowed her words with the rest of her soup.

"It's funny when i try to think back to, let's say, five years ago, my mind just draws up a blank. But i'm happy with the life i live now, and i wouldn't trade that for anything else in the whole world."

Half of Kaylee's heart leapt in joy as she witnessed pure happiness emanating from Leo's eyes, but the other half plunged deep into the abyss of despair, knowing that an unfortunate incident had erased her existence from his mind. All night long, as her father snored into the land of daydreams, her gears twisted and turned in thought.

She had five days to get her father back.

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The Tree watched in the distance, as a frazzled middle-aged man ran out of the house and slammed the door behind him, nearly taking it off its hinges. The man strode out into the snow with brisk impulsive steps, as a woman and her two children yelled after him in vain.

The Tree saw the red-headed daughter try to run after him, but their mother was faster, and firmly gripped the collar of the girl. The other daughter stood unmoved next to her mother, clutching a storybook in one hand, and her mother's thumb in another.

As her fair-hair danced with the wind, the girl's feet twitched as if it were about to break off in a sprint as well, but her eyes kept flickering worriedly to her mom, who was busy trying to control the other daughter. The fair-haired girl could chase after the man if she wanted to.

The Tree sensed the ten-year-old caught in an internal conflict and it's wooden heart ached. Ten-year-olds were supposed to be worried about broken toys and dolls, not broken families.

The fair-haired girl didn't have to make the decision between chasing after one parent or staying with the other, as her father had disappeared into the abyss of white, and she was pulled back inside the house, her sister's cries resonating through the chilly air.

The Tree did not know why the man left; It was not powerful enough to know that. Nevertheless, it decided now was the right time to sprout an apple; it appeared out of thin air and perched precariously on The Tree's branch. But alas! The Tree was still young and unable to control such vast amounts of magic coursing through its bark. There was too much power and not enough responsibility.

The apple wobbled and dropped off The Tree. It watched in horror as the scarlet fruit plunged towards the Earth, and connected with the scalp of an angry, confused man. A faint cloud of sparkle hovered above him, before it dissolved into the frosty air, and with it went the memories of the man's past life.

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