The valley was gripped in the fierce claws of frost for the past six months. The chills were enough to bite and even take off an arm provided they got inside the body first. She looked around for a while, her heart-shaped face turning and watching the snow-covered village, its wooden huts deeply buried. Had it not been for the red flags, marking the way, the village was a lost sight the moment one left its premises. Trying to breathe deeply, she let the deep chill settle in her lungs, coughing the next moment. Forcing herself to relax, she glanced at the line of straight white birches, forming the boundary of the woods she was about to enter. Her obsidian eyes were fixated on that deer’s corpse, the pale red settling into the white resembling the same shade as her cloak. A wolf had come this way…ventured too near the village it seemed. They had been quite bold for the past couple of days…especially since the last full moon…could the legends be true? No! She wouldn’t let omin

She casted a stern glance at him, getting absorbed into his pose. He looked so stoic, so serious…and so loveable! When half the village girls were after him, it was her who had somehow won his heart, and it was her whom he always paid attention to. Even now, when he was focused on bringing a shape out of that wooden branch in his hands, she could notice the muscles, the clenched jaw and the eyes with a concern she was unaware of. No wonder the village girls were mad for him. With every strike of the knife, he whipped that wooden branch into shape, and she could notice his bare arms, muscled to a maiden’s fantasy.“Hi sweetheart!” he spoke, his polite tone dying out in the sounds of laughter in the background. Letting his eyes meet hers, he slowly lifted the head, putting the knife away. There was someone else now, someone…who he could engage his mind to.“Hello, my love!” she let the elder sister behind hear her. And especial