A Frigid Dance

...It‘s perfect.

She stared out over the frozen pond, watching the reflection of the stars in the ice as the distant sounds of crumbling rock echoed through the mountains around her. Breathing in the crisp night air, she felt the biting wind against her skin as a thick fog drifted overhead, enshrouding the stars with impenetrable grey; a stark canvas for her imagination to paint with. Silhouettes of mountains became colossal monsters bearing down on her. The wind howled through the mountains, chilling her bones as it rushed past her, ripping through her hair.

Cautiously, she stepped out onto the ice; it crackled under her boots as she tread softly, one foot, then the other - one, then the other. She should have felt scared to be so alone, to walk on crumbling ground that could swallow her at any moment. But she didn't even feel the cold - she felt safe; safe in the feeling that nothing could reach her in the fog. She continued walking, ice crunched under her boots as she wandered deeper and deeper and deeper into the endless grey. She stopped walking and brushed her hair back with her fingers, reordering the tussled strands as she looked down at the ice. Everything was still, silent, cold and completely, utterly still.

Perfect.

With a deep breath, she eased into a low stance. She held it for some time, breathing, feeling the frigid air bite into her as it flooded through her lungs. Listening as the ice crunched and cracked under her weight. Minutes could have passed but she just kept holding the stance, just kept breathing, feeling the stillness of the world settle around her, hanging onto her like a heavy blanket. The longer she waited, the more she thought she could hear something calling to her; a low, soft warbling sound rising steadily from the ice, like whalesong seeping from the fog as the ice itself began singing to her.

Slowly… very slowly, she raised one leg and extended her arms out, perfectly balanced, perfectly steady. Poised on her toes, she held the pose for ten… twenty… thirty seconds before she let out a long, steady breath and began twirling around, easing into a fluid, balletic dance routine. She spun and spiralled on the frozen pond as the fog gathered and swirled around her and a sensation of warmth roiled inside her as her heart soared. This had always been her favourite form and she lamented how long it had been since she had just danced.

Finally alone…

Finally free...

There was a deep rumble in the ice as the wind rushed by again, swirling around as if the world was dancing with her. Drifts of snow and broken ice flew away and scattered to the grey as she spun and spun and spun and leapt. For a moment, everything seemed to hang in the air with comforting stillness.

Nothing could touch her

Nothing could take this moment from her.

She was free.

She landed softly on the frozen pond, holding the pose as she felt the ice crack under her boots. Rising slowly on her toes, she held her arms up to the sky, letting the breath escape her lungs as the moment faded into memory. The freezing wind slowly died around her while the fog dissipated, opening the sky to her as an audience of stars silently watched from above. She waited, listening for the low warbling sound, listening for the ice to sing again. Nothing. Her vision blurred as tears welled in her eyes, cold and jagged like shards of ice. Blinking, she wiped them away and gazed up at the stars.

...Perfect...