Sabrinachka

On an snow covered mountain top, the Siberian winds sliced through the air like blades in battle, whistling as they darted and cut through ice canyons.  On a sheltered plateau stood a woman, adorned in a ball gown of white, towering above crystalline ice statues of mythical creatures.  She touched the frozen unicorn`s horn as her thin, pale lips curled up into a sneer at her own cunning.  These were hers, all hers, she owned them.  Hunched over below her was a boy, not more that twelve with jet black hair and practical school-shoes with his eyes downward into the thick opaque ice.  He was walking carefully with his hands clasped holding a silver empty trinket-box.  His eyes searched and penetrated deeply into the frozen prison beneath his feet.  

"I can`t see it".  His voice came out in desperation.  

"Oh you will" came the queen`s voice in icy, quiet conviction, sliding on the wind and whipping chillingly around his cheeks, biting bitterness to the core of his being.  

He shivered and continued searching, carefully stepping so as not to slip, grasping the trinket harder so it`s sharp contours pierced into his soft, young skin. 

"But it`s too thick, I can`t see it anywhere" He protested his voice taking a higher pitch than his normal strong tones. 

 "Find It"!  She screamed with a strength so beyond his control that his foot lost his grip and slipped.  

He balanced himself just in time before he fell.  He looked up with a resilience that seemed to arise from the depths of his being and his voice deepened once more. 

"I can`t find your heart....your highness" his voice tailing off in a sarcastic tone, that surprised even himself. She raised a thorny eyebrow at him, and he courageously let his eyes meet her stern look. 

"Of course not" she said laughing a little nervously.  

She glided across the icy plateau towards him and lifted off her white fur cape from around her boney shoulders and let it fall around him.  He shivered as it landed on his small but sturdy frame. 

"You must be cold"! Her voice was high-pitched and shrill feigning concern.  

Beneath the thick fur, tiny white lights like minature fireflies arose from  his thin, drab, school clothes and between the polar-bear skin of the ice queen`s cloak.  They glowed and shone ebbing out warmth to his delicate yet powerful frame.  He looked to her greyish blue face and she quickly flashed a mock smile towards him before it vanished as quickly as it came; in place her severe eyes penetrated into him like icicles about to fall sharply from their precipice. He looked away and continued stepping carefully, searching into the depths of the ice.  Gradually, an unknown spirit curled up from inside him, bringing a fortitude he had not felt before.  His mind cleared from the fearful freezing fog that had rested there before, thawing to reveal a path out of captivity.


©  Jessica White