#iakylma

"Haukkuva koira ei pure" (A barking dog does not bite) - DogSledding

"Kaveria ei jätetä!" (Never Leave a Friend Behind) - The Wild Vampires?

World Wonder - The Northern Lights

“Monsieur, I didn’t know you were here.”

The girl in front of him almost blended into the snowy woods, a picture from a fairy tale: starched white dress, black hair curling around her shoulders, the only thing that broke from the monochrome of the world the red ribbon she had tied into her hair. A small smile danced on her lips, spinning in a circle, flinging her arms out to catch the breeze. He hasn’t seen this Emi in a long time; she was rarely so carefree as she was now. For a moment, it almost strike him as odd; how did she get here? Did she know that he was in Kylmä? How? Did this mean that she had woken up—“That makes it so much better, you see. I was getting lonely. You haven’t come to visit me in a long time.” Those words were tinged with reproach; Yoseob bowed forward, shaking his head slightly.

“My apologies, miss. I was detained by business.”

“It’s alright. I found my way here on my own. I’ve never even imagined a place like this before. Isn’t it strange that I’m here now?” Emi laughed, turning back to face him again. “Come on, come on, let’s play a game. Do you want to play hide-and-seek with me?”

The words of fearful protest that rose up in his throat were quenched with a simple smile. No, you’ll get hurt. You always get hurt. I can’t keep you safe—“Of course. Whatever you like. Shall I count?”

“Yes!”

“One, two, three—”

He could hear her laughter, the patter of her footsteps against the snow, though when he opens his eyes, they’ve vanished. Things are always just as Emi wishes in her worlds; it would seem more strange for it to be otherwise. Moving forward, Yoseob glanced between the trunks of the trees, looking for that flash of red, looking for the sign that she’s hidden somewhere. He saw it after a few steps, the one spot of color in the woods. “Miss, you’ll have to find a better spot than—” The sentence began playfully, freezing on his tongue only a moment later. The red isn’t from the ribbon that’s now mangled; it’s spatters of blood on the snow, spilling from her battered body. He reached out, trying to shake her awake, hands pulling away incarnadine—

Yoseob’s eyes snapped open once again to the dizzying perpetual daylight of this world. The scream stayed silent, caught in his throat as he stared around him, unsure why the world had tilted to a strange angle, where Emi had gone. “Did I fall asleep?” The question was mumbled to the silent world around him, given no answer by the silent woods. It was impossible to even tell if time had passed, really, if the shadows had moved since he had closed his eyes. It had to have been—the child being here was just a dream. There was no way that she could have really been here at all, was there?  It was just a nightmare. Just another twist of his subconscious to make his heart hurt when he woke again.

Drawing in a shaky breath, Yoseob pushed himself to his feet, turning to look back the way that he thought he had come from. Before he could begin to walk, though, his eyes dropped back down to the snowy ground, and widened in horror. What was—

Turning his hands up, he felt his breath stop. If it had been a dream, then