Work Text:
You were cold.
Snow crunched under your tired feet, the ones you were dragging forward as you squinted through the fog. A hand, shaking and stiff from the temperature, brushed against the bark of a tree, and you stumbled out of its path as you pressed onwards.
You had to go home, the voice in your mind whispered, the one of which you were focusing on. You had to find someone to help you get home.
As you walked, you tried to recall how you got here. Despite the faces being fuzzy, the ones who you were so used to seeing, you could recall the events that led you to stumble cluelessly around this huge forest.
You and some other cookies, names and faces you couldn’t recall due to exhaustion, had been in the forest. While you don’t remember what you had been doing, you do recall you and another cookie, one who you think is about your height, scurrying off, giggling and yelling promises to satisfy the others.
As the two of you wandered away, in hushed whispers, you decided on a game to play, one to keep the two of you busy. You had decided on Hide and Seek. A simple game.
You always won. You always had a knack for hiding in the strangest places, moving so quietly yet swiftly, something that’d always make you giggle when you’d see their surprised faces.
It was with shock, at this point, that you learned that you would be on the seeking side for once. Although you had complained, eventually, you complied with your friend’s wishes, hearing them wish you luck as you brought your hands to your eyes and closed them.
With each second that went by, you counted up. With each sound, whether it be the snapping of a stick or birds chirping above you, you could feel yourself strain to hear them, resisting the urge of removing your hands from your eyes as curiosity drove you to ponder what was causing some of these noises, ponder what they meant.
(As you stood there, it felt like you were getting colder. You pushed away this feeling, deciding that you were just getting nervous.)
(You should’ve known that your nerves of seeking for another cookie rather than hiding was not the cause of this cold.)
(You should’ve fled when you had the chance.)
Finally, your hands flew off your eyes, and with eyes open, you began to move around. At first, you checked the obvious places. You moved around, deliberately ignoring the cold that picked up.
After you failed to find your friend, you began to climb up trees. You struggled with it a little bit, almost falling at some point, but as you shifted your weight on the branch, triumph rushed through you.
You almost hollered for them to look at you, to watch you stand on the branch that was shaking as you moved. You paused, remembering why you had climbed up, and instead began to maneuver around the tree, using this new perspective to your advantage.
It surely helped that many branches were barren, leaves having fallen as the seasons changed. You didn’t quite understand why the leaves would fall, but as you walk now, trudging through the storm, you can’t help but wonder if it was a good or bad thing that they fell during this time.
You couldn’t find your friend. There was nothing giving away their position, not even a giggle! Your joy at the game had slowly ebbed away into frustration, and you cautiously worked your way down the branches, about to admit your defeat, when, right when you opened your mouth, something cold landed on your dough.
You paused. You blinked, thinking you imagined the sudden feeling. As it repeated again, you looked up, mouth dropping in shock as you saw it falling from the sky, white and pristine, delicate and untouched.
Snow.
It was snowing.
A childish happiness replaced your frustration, one of which caused you to want to dart around, hands outstretched as your hands cupped around these unique snowflakes.
That joy gave way to nervousness, and then to fear as you recalled the promise you and your friend had made.
You blinked, staring at the trees that marked your surroundings. You squinted, your young mind racing as you searched for anything to help you remember the path you had taken to this point. Something on the ground, a tree colored strangely, anything.
The more you spun, the more you felt a dread you’ve never felt flood through you, threatening to suffocate you. Tears sprouted in your eyes, but you blinked them away, a newfound determination settling through you.
You had to get out.
No matter what.
Your tiny legs began to carry you in a random direction. You tried to think, but you were scared of your future, and you decided not to think much anymore.
It was getting colder.
So were you.
You were also getting colder.
A shiver traveled through your dough. You wanted to get out of here. You wanted to be warm and dry, not traversing through this weather. You wanted other cookies, not to be left alone in the middle of a forest you didn’t know how to navigate.
(Except, at the time, you didn’t realize that you weren’t alone. The trees were with you the whole time, doing their best to use their barren branches to keep the snow off you. Perhaps if they had leaves, it would’ve been easier to keep your fragile body sheltered from the falling snow.)
(But they couldn’t do much, and the trees could only keep their branches still for so long as the snow fell harder and harsher.)
Now, you don’t know how much time has passed since then. All you know is that you’ve been walking for a lot of time, everything around you was numb yet freezing, and despite everything within you begging for you to close your eyes for just a few minutes, you refused to give into it.
Everything felt like a blur. The fog in front of you seemed to thicken by the second, and it threatened to consume your vision.
You could feel the way it seemed to press around you, threatening to still the legs you were barely dragging in the cold. Your arms wrapped around your shivering body, trying to ignore the way you could feel yourself shake.
You had to go.
You had to get out of here.
You stumbled, yelping as you fell face-first into the snow. You could feel it clinging to your dough, and as you moved numb hands to try to lift yourself, you could feel the rest of the warmth belonging to your face being drained away, replaced by the sudden chill that made you try to wipe it off.
Your hands were cold too.
They were dusted in snow.
You didn’t like this. You wanted this to be a nightmare, a sick nightmare that, when you woke up, you’d be safe and warm, surrounded by the faces that you love but couldn’t remember right now.
You stopped trying to get up, feeling the strength you’ve been trying to carry for so long depleting.
You’re young. You know this. Part of you wonders if you were any older, if you would’ve been able to make it further, if not get out of here completely.
Part of you wonders, if you were any younger, if you wouldn’t have made it this far after all.
You decide to not dwell on that part.
As you lay, you could see two glowing circles cut through the fog as if it were the weakest material to ever exist. You could see them close, almost as if blinking.
Blinking?
Was there someone else?
“H-Hello?” You ask, barely hearing your own words as you stared at the glowing circles. They approached, and, though you couldn’t see anything about this creature, you could tell they were huge. Their footsteps, although quiet, seemed to cause a gentle shake to start in the ground.
You shiver more, averting your gaze to the ground. You didn’t want to look at whatever this thing was, refused to give it a glance.
The movement stops, and slowly, you lift your head, the bottom of a tree entering your vision.
A tree?
You don’t remember falling with a tree this close to you.
As you dwell on that, you’re caught off guard when two arms pick you up, holding you delicately, as if you were a baby creature it had found.
It cradled you close, a warmth quickly spreading through you. It felt nice, a relief from the cold that had plagued you for so long.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to fall asleep within the care of this tree, the one that felt like the trees you had seen not too long ago.
(The last thing you hear before submitting yourself to this nice, warm feeling, was the increase in pace of whatever was carrying you, and strange creaks getting more and more panicked as you shook in this creature’s arms more and more.)