The Cold Ones

Darkness creeps over the icy tundra as hundreds of thousands of unique snowflakes fall onto a family of six trekking through the blizzard-covered ground. Squinting through the icy sheet of snow in front of her face, Gabrielle trudges through the inches of powder on the ground. Following closely behind her are her father, mother, brother and 2 cousins. Gabrielle fruitlessly shakes the freezing flakes off of her face as her father comes up beside her.

"How much further is it?" her father yells.

"It's not much further," Gabrielle shouts over the roar of the blizzard surrounding them.

Her father shakes his head in frustration and to try to clear some of the snow from his face. "We've been going for quite a while now."

"I know we have. I'm telling you that we're very close."

"I understand. But with the weather turning how it has..."

Gabrielle turns around and practically snarls in her father's face because of the snowflakes stinging the back of her neck. "We're not stopping! We're not going back! I asked you for this chance and I'm going to prove to you that I can get us through this!"

Most of the family stops in disbelief. Her father, however, gets closer and speaks through his teeth as quietly as he can, hiding his anger and his words from the rest of his family. "I know you asked for this chance. And if I didn't believe you were ready, I wouldn't have agreed. But one thing you need to learn as a leader is that you can't just think about yourself. You have to think about those you're leading as well." Her father motions back towards the rest of the family.

Gabrielle brushes the snow from her eyes to see her snow-covered family struggling to keep up with her. She looks back at her father and sighs. "Maybe we should..." Gabrielle's voice trails off as a flicker of light catches her eye. She turns towards the light and sees a large orange glow in the distance. "There it is! I told you!"

Her father smiles and motions for the rest of the family to hurry up. "Good job. I knew you had it in you." The family creeps towards the edge of the hill.

On the other side of the hill, another family curls up around the burdgeoning fire. The father throws 4 or 5 logs onto the pile of firewood to keep the fire from dying out as his wife and 2 children huddle closer for warmth. The eldest child shivers and practically chatters her teeth to yell to her father. "Daddy, do you think Gabrielle is ever coming back?!"

The father turns back to his daughter and rubs his hands together. "I'm not sure, sweetheart. I don't think she'd be able to find us in this storm."

"But she found us before!"

"I know, but it wasn't snowing this bad when she first found us. Besides, she had a family to get back to, like ours."

"That's right," said her mother. "That's why we helped her, remember? So she could get back to her family. Can you imagine how much her family missed her?"

Snow crunching from their left draws the parents attention. The family turns to see a snow-covered Arctic wolf coming out of the trees. The daughters smile and shout "Gabrielle!" The wolf shakes the snow from her white fur, lifts her head up and begins to snarl as her family sneaks out from the surrounding trees to flank them. The father grabs a log as Gabrielle's father howls.

Gabrielle licks her fangs, looks to her family and growls. "Now!"