Edelweiss was not an idiot. She knew precisely the situation she was in. Every moment, the weather deteriorated at an ever quickening pace and alone, she knew her chances of escaping it were slim. She could see it now; she’d stumbled onward until her body gave up, and the cold would snatch the life from her body. Snow would continue to fall on her lifeless corpse, hiding it from view until the snowfall melted and some unfortunate individual stumbled across her body. The picture was a vivid one, and acid churned in her stomach.

The snow, the cold – it all brought back memories she’d rather forget. She had no need to imagine her fate when she’d seen it first hand before.

She’d been little more than a pup, too young to be alone in the world. Her only company had been her brother, Ash, and he had been no older than her, and smaller as well. Until winter, they’d struggled along on their own, scavenging scraps from abandoned kills and eating whatever else they could find. Then snow had begun to fall. While it was a milder winter than some she had experienced since, it had been deadly nevertheless. Edelweiss had struggled along on the meagre scrapings they could find, but Ash – small and weaker than her, had not. She watched as he grew thinner, until he was little more than a walking skeleton. She told him to hang on, that spring was almost there, that he only had to keep going a little longer…

But when she watched the snow thaw that spring, she’d watched it alone.

So despite her age, she was far from naïve – she knew that by going on alone, she would be signing a death warrant. Looking at Kaplan, she could see he knew that as well. The male spoke, imploring her to trust him, to let him help her and there was no way she could deny the sincerity of his words. For all her inherent wariness, her gut told her that he was worth of her trust. Besides, her pride was not worth her life.

Edelweiss swallowed, taking a long, shuddering breath. The air burned at her throat, so cold it seemed hot. Standing here, she could feel the cold seeping deep into her flesh, burrowing into her bones. In her exhaustion, she could imagine her body turning to ice, stiffening her muscles and freezing her blood until she simply stopped. It was a terrifying idea – idiotic, but disturbing nonetheless.

Finally, she met her companion’s gaze, resolution finally breaking in the face of her inexpressible desire for life. Though she might miss her family, she would not hurtle blindly onward to meet them, not yet.

“It seems I have no choice but to accompany you,” she said tiredly, “so I must hope that my trust in you will not be misplaced.” Battling exhaustion, she stepped towards him, determination alone keeping her going at this point. “Since it seems we are to be companions, I best introduce myself before we set off. My name is Edelweiss.”

By this point, the mist was churning around them, distorting all sense of perspective. It was disorientating, and left the teen unable to maintain even the slightest sense of direction beyond the mountain’s slope.

“Out of interest, where exactly will be heading?”