Ice Queen

Submitted By: Jerry D. White
Date: April 9, 2010
Genre: Horror/Suspense and maybe Fantasy
Word Count: 196
Title: Ice Queen

The Ice Queen stretches out her fingers and the valley becomes a crystal palace.
Where there had been the lush green of a dark forest only moments before, now bright yellow shafts of light, sifting through the heavy canopy, glints from hanging ice crystals and cast multiple rainbows through the motionless wood.
The cold sinks into Carl's body forcing him to pull his light jerkin tight about his neck and face.
He is only a few miles from home and the warmth therein.
The cold eats through the jerkin.
Exposed only a few minutes Carl no longer feels the tips of his bare fingers.
Bending stiffly forward he gathers broken branches and twigs for a fire.
Clearing a small area of ground Carl loosely piles his collection of dry wood and, taking a wad of cotton from the bag at his belt, he places it just inside the pile.
Scraping flint against knife steel, sparks jump toward the cotton.
Again and again the sparks hit the dry tinder. The cotton accepts the sparks and starts to glow.
The orange glow reflects in Carl's eyes and, in the eyes of the watcher in the cold wildwood.