A girl. Not particularly big, maybe 1.60 m, at most. Her skin is pale, no, she is white and her face has fine golden freckles. Her eyes are the color of an ice blue lake. She has white, curly hair that fell like a waterfall over her hips. She always wears a silver dress, not ostentatious, very simple. When you see her for the first time, you think she is a white angel. Yet it carries the mark of darkness within itself. Actually, it is not evil, it just pulls the darkness with it. Your home is the whole world. It never stays in one place for long. One to two weeks, at most. Because every place that she likes or where she lingers longer, the darkness devours and kills its inhabitants. She lives in constant fear, because word gets around that everything where she goes and stands will be destroyed. Everywhere they are called the white destruction. There are now bounties on them everywhere. It is therefore persecuted day and night. But nobody has managed to scratch it so far. The darkness takes care of that. No one who sets out to kill her will come back. The darkness devours them like a hungry animal its prey. She no longer knows what to do, where to go, how to get rid of this loneliness. Friends, she would love to have friends. But all who come too close to her die a cruel death. She hates this darkness, she curses it, she wishes every day she could let her out of her clutches, let her live a normal life. She didn't know why the darkness haunts her. She had asked, she had talked to the dark in lonely hours. She never answered. Nevertheless, the girl often had the feeling that she was understood.
The girl had no family, no name, nor did she know where she came from or how old she was. She only remembers running, running away, from people, from death, from the darkness. But she couldn't really leave any of this behind.
Once there she was in a village where she could have lived forever. They had given her a name there. Snow. She liked that name. It was also there that she had felt accepted and loved for the first time. She had friends there and something like a family. She had fun and for the first time felt feelings like happiness and security. But then it came again, the darkness. It destroyed the village and killed its residents. One after the other. The girl stood and screamed, begging the darkness to let her live, instead gain weight. But the darkness only stopped when the last child was dead and the last house burned down.
After that the girl didn't eat or drink anything for days, she didn't want to. But for some reason that she did not know herself, she pulled herself up again to go to a new village, a new city to eat and drink, probably in the knowledge of exposing people to death.That was a long time ago, how long exactly does the girl not know. She now called herself Snow, although no one would have asked her her name, she wanted one, if only for herself. Over the years she had also given a name to her companion, the darkness. She called him Shadow. Snow still didn't like him, but she accepted him as a companion and actually talked to him the whole time, even if he never answered. Shadow and Snow walked the world for years and Snow grew up to be a young woman. Every day she became more beautiful and more beautiful, but what was the use of that if Shadow wouldn't let anyone get near her. Snow didn't know where they were going and when they could finally stop running away. She had stopped worrying about it too. It didn't make any sense anyway, because the only one who could have given her an answer was probably Shadow and he couldn't or didn't want to talk to her. She didn't know that exactly either and there was no point in worrying about it.
Snow had completely different worries now. She stood in the forest. Under her feet felt the moss tickling between her toes. A light summer breeze made the trees lean to the left and about 100m away she could see two deer grazing. But that wasn't what worried her. It was the smoke that slowly climbed the sky from a distance on the horizon, because smoke meant that there were people. On the one hand it was good, because now Snow finally got something real to eat again and not just berries, mushrooms and any herbs or bugs. But on the other hand, that also meant that innocent people had to die again. She turned and looked the way she had come. Trees, bushes, ferns, mosses couldn't be seen anymore, but Snow knew that Shadow was there. He was always there, even if she didn't see him, she felt his presence. With a sigh, she turned back to the smoke. Should she really go there? She didn't want people to die again. But she was so hungry and needed real food again, and above all, drink.
After a moment's hesitation, she finally moved on. If she was lucky it wasn't a big village, so not many people would have to die. However, it could also be that they lived there with children. Snow shook his head. Do not think about this. She had reached the edge of the forest. Before her lay a valley dressed in the sunset. Not particularly big as she thought. She would be across it in a day or two. Huge mountains stretched around the valley. Crossing it would take a little longer and, above all, it would be more strenuous. Now she could see where the smoke was coming from. She couldn't see any village. The smoke must have come from a small fire. Probably only a few hikers camped there. She exhaled in relief.She wouldn't have to kill anyone. Snow looked up now. The last rays of the sun, which colored the sky red, disappeared and let the night come. She had to find a camp. She looked attentively in all directions, hoping to find something like a cave or a fallen tree. Her eyes had not yet adjusted to the sudden darkness, which is why she had problems finding shelter. She just couldn't find anything, at least not in the forest. So she looked down the slope and found something. About 30m away from her on the right side, she could see a hole. If you didn't fool your eyes it was big enough to spend the night in. She turned around: "Come on, there's a little cave down there.".
Actually, she knew that was totally stupid. He came whether she asked or not. For a moment she stood still, waiting for an answer, but the only sound she heard was the cry of an owl that had to crouch nearby. So she turned around again, ready to start the descent to the cave. It was steeper than she'd thought. It was difficult for her feet to find a hold on the stone wall. Again and again stones crumbled and fell down, only to come up after a long time. How she was going to do that tomorrow Snow didn't know yet and for that moment she really didn't care. She was still trying hard to get to the cave. She looked like a child monkey clinging to its mother's back.
"You could really help me!"
No Answer. In an irritated tone she plumed the air:
"Sorry, I forgot, the Lord isn't talking to me."
At such moments, Snow wished that Shadow was someone who could help her. But it wasn't and so she continued to cope with the descent. Barely five steps, if you could call what she was doing with her feet. Carefully she stretched her left foot on a small ledge and was shocked when it suddenly gave way and fell down. She clung to the rocks and pressed her body against the stone wall. Her breath came faster, sweat ran down her cheeks and her heart raced. Slowly she calmed down from the shock. Suddenly she started to laugh out loud and it sounded like a thousand small silver bells that started her song somewhere. She had been wandering all her life, crossing countless forests, valleys and swamps, but she still panicked on mountain slopes. Although it wasn't the first time she had done that either. Snow had to hurry now, because it was getting dark quickly, if she wasn't careful she would have to keep climbing in total darkness. She took a deep breath and continued the descent.
She had finally reached the cave. It wasn't particularly big, but it was okay for that night. It was warm in here and Snow suddenly noticed how tired she was.Slowly she lay down in the cave, crossed her arms under her head and closed her eyes.
"Good night, Shadow. See you tomorrow."
The moon rose and shone right into the cave, illuminated it and startled a few bats. which flew out of the cave as if struck by lightning. But Snow didn't notice any more.