Tales of maro: a collection of short stories

[marorda]

Most stories in this thread are at least partially fantasy. That's my favorite genre to write xD


Please tell me what you think!


Looking forward to constructive criticism.


List of stories in this thread:


Shiron'na (my first short story ever!)


More coming soon! (I'm still translating some stories)

 

[marorda]

Shiron'na


The first to report was the local loony, so nobody believed him when he told us.


But even if he hadn't been the loony, we wouldn't have believed him.


The person he had seen he could only describe as "mysterious".


No person who was in the right mind would be out in the woods in the middle of the winter. Well, not that we called it winter.


Yes, it froze, but to us, winter isn't winter until snow had fallen.


Something which had not happened yet. Tarel, the name of the loony, claimed it was Shiron'na. But that was impossible.


Shiron'na, the White Woman, did not exist, Shiron'na, the Spirit of Winter, was just a legend, a story. The only explanation was that either Tarel had imagined it, or if he really had seen a person, she was a loony herself.


Without being properly protected against the cold, one would die within hours, and even when properly protected one would not make it out there very long.


The strange thing however was, that about a week after Tarel said he had seen Shiron'na, snow suddenly started to fall. And the snow quickly changed into a blizzard.


Three days after the first snow, we spoke of the coldest, most troublesome winter in ages. And what might have been even stranger, after the first snowfall, more people claimed they had seen her. Walking around, always seeming to search for something.


And no matter how cold it was, she never entered our village to search for a place to stay.


I noticed I was staring to run out of wood, and I really needed wood to stay warm. Ironically, I had to go into the freezing blizzard if I didn't want to freeze to death in my own house. I had to go into the forest to gather wood.


I grabbed the thickest, most warm cloak I could find and went outside.


As soon as I stepped outside, I shivered. Not just because of the cold, there was something about the atmosphere in the village. A mysterious aura surrounded everything. As I came closer to the forest, I saw a movement in the corner of my eye.


That was the first time I saw her, heading to the forest as well.


She moved faster than I thought it was possible, and she reached the edge long before me. I shouted at her, the snow muffled my voice. She turned around and quickly glanced at me. After that one short look, she turned her back on me again and disappeared into the wood. When I reached the edge too, the first thing I noticed was that there were no footsteps. Was it because of the snow, that kept on falling from the sky?


No, because when I looked behind me, I could still see my footsteps. Even inside the woods there was no sign another person had been in there.


No footsteps, no cracked branch, and even to my shouting there came no response. I decided to just go back home with the wood I had found.


About a week later, it still hadn't stopped snowing yet, I started to run out of food, so I had to go hunting in the woods. Again I grabbed the thick, warm cloak, and I took my bow and arrows. I went to the woods again, this time without encountering anyone.


In the forest I found it hard to find animals. Rabbits where hidden deep inside their holes, and there were no foxes or birds to be seen.


I kept walking around and around for hours in an empty forest, with no sounds other than my footsteps in the snow. I stumbled upon some roots I had not seen and fell forward with a loud scream. I barely stood again when I heard something moving through the forest at full speed, and suddenly I saw a huge, black bear coming out of nowhere.


I started to run at full speed, the bear closely following me. Without looking at my surroundings, I kept on running. I barged out of the forest and fell again.


This time, I landed on the frozen lake. I stood up and turned around. The bear was gone. As I had made a few steps towards the land, I heard the ice creaking, and it broke below my feet. I fell into the ice cold water. Darkness and cold consumed me, and I thought I felt my body sink to the bottom of the lake. Then I felt something.


I was pulled out of the water and put back on the ice again. I looked at the person who pulled me out. Her white hair shone in the sun, her white boots didn't seem to touch the snow under our feet and her ice blue eyes looked at me. The eyes seemed sad.


She softly smiled at me and pointed at the ice. I looked, and saw my body under the ice, slowly sinking away in the dark waters.