#xiphiawrites

Of course it's freezing, hardly anything is growing besides the towering spruce trees, and the only living things you've seen on your trip have been fluffy White rabbits and hopefully docile wolves.

Your best bet is to keep moving, bundled up in yer giant coat until you decide to turn back, but a splotch of orange against the white snow catches your attention.

So you make a detour, carefully making your way down the snowy hill until you reach what you can now see is a pumpkin sticking out of the snow.

That has you scratching your head, you didn’t know pumpkins could grow in weather like this, learn something new everyday huh.

its turned over in the ice, and you can see that it has two eyeholes and a mouth cut out of one side of it, like a jack-o-lantern, something so very familiar to life before you showed up here. 

Further proof that there were other humans somewhere here, and a small semblance of comfort, a symbol of hope that there was civilization out here afterall.

you couldn’t not take it.

You rub your hands as you bend down to grab the pumpkin, expecting it to be an easy enough lift. Its a surprise when the pumpkin barely budges from its spot on the ground.

You tug at it, huffing in confusion when it doesn't come out of the snow. Perhaps it's frozen to the ground, or maybe there’s ice and snow inside of weighing it down.

so you get down on all fours, putting your hands into the holes of the jack-o-lantern and shoveling the snow out of the pumpkin, instantly stopping when the pumpkin moves on its own accord.

You curse under your breath, standing up straight and backing up from what you thought was an innocent reminder of your life back home.

last time you checked, pumpkins are mostly stationary, so either you’re hallucinating, or this is not a pumpkin. 

It shifts again, slowly but surely lifting itself out of the snow with all the swiftness of a cold wet sock.

It stands on its feet, and you have to crane your neck to look at the thing, it's pitch black eyes not focusing on you as it sways back and forth on its limbs of ice and snow.

One of it's dark eyes brighten slightly, a dim red light slowly coming more and more into view, and at first it's staring somewhere into space, before it lands on you.

"ah. Shit"

You immediately turn and bolt back up the hill, your speed heavily hindered by the ice and snow under your hands and feet.

The thing stares at you blankly as it watches your form try to scramble up the hill, blinking slowly before approaching you with a lazed pace.

The ground crunches beneath it's weight, and it has no issues reaching you, you can see the shadow of it's hand cast over you before it snatches you up by the hood of your coat.

It turns you to face him, despite the flailing of your limbs as you try to get yourself loose from his impossible grip.

He doesn't seem bothered by it, just staring at you with that one lazy light for an uncomfortable amount of time. So long in fact that you believed him to fall asleep with his eye open.

But he proves you wrong when he grumbles something, trekking up the hill with you still clutched in his hand, dragging you on the ground as he turns and takes you farther in the opposite direction of your house.

You plead with him to release you, unsure of wherever it was he was taking you and what awaited you there. Better safe than sorry though.

He hardly looks at you, just grumbles at you in that strange warped language all the other skeletons spoke, wispy and clippy words that seemed to jump around and travel with the wind.

You give up after about ten minutes of struggling, his grip never budging, his demeanor never changing.

You've resigned to your fate, though there's some part of you that knows you'd be fine, even if you were thrown into some vat of lava or some pit, for whatever reason you'd be fine.

His steps slow, and you can hear the faint sound of laughter, of conversation over the sound of his footsteps in your ears.

You perk up, trying to twist to look behind you enough to see where it's coming from, to see the people you've been looking for since you got here.

Thankfully for you he took you straight to them, dropping you on your ass before making a low sound, like that of a foghorn, but not quite as deafening.

You stand, patting yourself down as you look around yourself with wide eyes.

The snowy plain is covered with little ice covered homes, strangers wandering around the small village, talking amongst themselves. A fire rages in the center of town, snow evading that particular spot, and you can see people gathered there. There are animals meandering around, tamed and trained, and for the first time since you've been here you feel the familiarity of civilization.

You hear the pitter patter of little feet and the high pitched sound of child like laughter, and you look over to see children running towards you, some of them pulling a massive form behind them who's barely managing to keep up with them.

There are kids all up and down it, on its shoulders, hanging from it's arms, on its legs, and yet it stills seems to be smiling as if they are no hindrance.

They stop in front of you, the children in the lead running around you and pulling at your clothes, speaking a language you unfortunately dont understand.

They circle the pumpkin head behind you as well, and you can hear him chuckle lowly, but your brain barely registers it due to your preoccupation with the giant skeleton made out of metal towering above you.

it looks down at you with welcoming eyes, a wide smile, vines are growing up and down its body, but not in a way that makes it feel ancient. It almost looks like a style choice. 

It says something to you, something you cant decipher, and judging by the bewildered look on your face you can guess that he assumes youre not from around here. 

He looks at the creature behind you and asks him something, and all the pumpkin does is grunt. The iron giant utters something again, and you turn to see the snowman walking away from you, back into the forest from which it came.