A bitter, destructive wind wrapped itself around the mountain, enveloping the landscape in an endless torrent of snow. The storm howled around the frozen peaks while malevolent clouds covered the sky. Across the mountain all signs of life had been destroyed: swept away by the force of the raging storm. Nothing stirred on the face of the mountain, except for one thing: a girl.
The girl moved slowly up the mountain as the storm intensified around her. Her hair whipped her face, hitting her eyes with all the viciousness of the storm. A threadbare shawl clung loosely to her shoulders over the straps of her dress. She paused for a moment, turning to look back at the frigid base of the mountain below. Only hours before it had been alive with a meadow of flowers and laughter from her village. Now, there was nothing left but her. She closed her eyes against the storm that flew in a frenzy around, casting her mind back to the village. The smell of the bakery, the adults chatting and the children that spun around her. All gone. It was then that she realized, she had never felt so… free.
She thought about the children of the village. They spun in a tormenting ring as they pushed her and called her a freak. She fell in a heap as they jeered and laughed at the orphan girl. Looking to the adults for help, she felt humiliation and pain rise within her as they turned away. With tears threatening to fall from her eyes, she stood and faced the children who had caused her misery for the eleven years she had lived here. Her eyes flickered to the towering heights of the mountain and its snowcapped peaks. She felt hatred blossom inside her as she willed the mountains to crumble, to release its might upon the village below. That was when a deep rumble emerged from the mountain and an endless, frozen blanket cascaded its way down the mountain, into the village below. Terrified screams echoed around her as the white beast descended on the village. She waited for the cold to sweep her up with the others, but instead the snow deviated around her, leaving her on a perfect circle of green in an otherwise frozen world. Within minutes the village was still: all cries silenced forever by the snow. She began her ascent of the mountain.
Back in the heart of the storm, the girl opened her eyes, bringing herself back to her present reality. Since she had first called upon the mountain she had felt something awaken within her. Never again would she allow herself to be ridiculed or feel weak as the children of the village had done for so many years. She smiled at the power and strength that emerged within her as she commanded the frozen elements around her. She was the might of the wind, the blizzard of snow. She was and forever will be… the Snow Queen.
Submitted by: Katie McGee