Hidden in the Snow

When I pull away, her smile disappears as she stares over my shoulder. "Woah..." She mutters.

I turn around following her eye line, and see an army of men a little way in the distance. They're heading towards the snowy forest, some with shotguns slung over their shoulder. "What's going on there?" I say, half to myself.

"Apparently someone saw something out there," says a strangers voice with a strong German accent.

Sophia and I turn to him. "Like what?" I ask the skier.

"People are saying it was something like a large bear, earlier I even came across a very shaken up young woman claiming she'd seen a yeti. Quite a lot of deer carcases have been found in that forest too."

"There's a bear out there?" Sophia says softly.

"Don't worry," I say, gently nudging her. "Those guys are probably sorting it out. And I bet it's just a rumour."

The man shrugs. "I don't know. Bears aren't uncommon around here. That lady was screaming."

Sophia and I share a glance.

"Sorry, I'm not trying to scare you," the man chuckles. "She'd probably lost it. One thing I can reassure you is that whatever's out there isn't the abominable snowman."

"Yeah," I chuckle nervously back. "Are you from around here?"

He nods. "Lived here for about a year now. I assume you folks aren't?"

"We're from England, we're here on holiday," Sophia says.

"Mm, well you definitely picked the right spot to come. Beautiful here isn't it? And don't worry about the whole bear thing, you two just enjoy yourselves, ay?"

"We will, thank you."

From the sheer size of the slope we ski down, I don't expect to pick up speed quite so fast.

Sophia glides effortlessly beside me and cheers with delight, and I grip my ski poles as I devote too much of my attention to simply staying on my feet. The cold air bites at the skin on my face as our skis cut effortlessly through the powdery snow, flying with our feet on the ground.

"This is amazing!" She cries.

"Yeah," I call back, trying to contain the fear in my voice. Perhaps I should have listened a little closer to the instructor. I'm going too fast and I don't know how to slow down, eventually causing Sophia to disappear from my peripheral vision. She shouts at me from behind, but I can't make out what she said over the wind whistling in my ears. And now I'm going so fast I can barely control the direction I'm going in, and my panic isn't helping. I end up veering off to my left, plummeting at great speed towards the forest on one side of the slope, admittedly screaming in terror the whole way. I miss a tree by inches but feel a branch cut my face, and several more trees whiz past me in a blur. Before I know it I've come ploughing directly into a hard, white object.

I press a hand to my forehead and groan. My head throbs and the wind has been knocked straight out of me. I open my eyes, disoriented as I blink at the bright sunlight and watch snowy treetops spin in circles. My hands feel for the ground, and my trembling arms just about manage to sit me upright. There's a large, peculiar shaped mound of snow in front of me. I rub my eyes to adjust my hazy vision and look again. The mound of snow is not snow. It has legs. And arms. And a face. And it is definitely not a damn bear. I yelp, clawing at the ground as I scramble to my feet, but the skis still strapped to my boots cause me to trip and quickly fall back down after a desperate attempt of an escape. Lying sprawled across the snow and breathing heavily, I take a quick glimpse up at the large thing. The creature that stands before me is blanketed in thick, white fur, the only parts of its body without hair and bearing greyish skin being its ape-like hands and feet which brandish long claws. Its face, resembling that of an ape also, holds two beady blue specs for eyes that gleam and fixate down onto mine. I take a quick breath before I get up and run as fast as I can, which isn't very. Electricity courses through my veins, and I don't even bother to look back at my ski poles still abandoned at the feet of the monster. I hear it let out a growl from behind me, and I sound crazy to say that it almost sounded as if it said something. I hear it again, uttering in a gruff, low voice, this time with more distinction. "Please." I shoot a glance over my shoulder. It isn't chasing after me. It hasn't even moved from where I'd left it. My eyes incapable of leaving its own, gleaming in the distance, I find myself slowing until I come to a stop. I turn to face it. My breath escapes my lips in forms of swirling white clouds as I stand there panting, my heart pounding violently threatening to break through my ribs. The creature speaks again in a voice I have to strain to understand. "Please. Do not... tell man."