[Aster]
Somewhere far to the north, where the pine forests were as ancient as the very earth they grew from, and the snow covered the ground a good half of the year, among those dark, creaking trunks, a small family of three was running for their lives. A girl, a bit taller boy, and their mother, all dressed in tatters that did nothing to shield their delicate elven skin from the biting cold, all ran through the snowy forest, leaving a trail of footprints in the white behind them.
They had been at it for what felt like forever, weaving between tall, wide-trunked pines, hopping over rocks and exposed roots, crouching under low branches. They moved without a direction, without a plan, driven only by the need to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the hilltop somewhere far behind them.
Though they no longer saw or heard any sign of the swarm, they didn't dare slow down their pace. Not even when the sun sank below the horizon and the darkness of the night swallowed everything around them, did they stop. The trees groaned and moaned around them, the wind's howling and their ragged breathing the only sounds that broke the cold silence of the night.
But the exhaustion was a beast they couldn't outrun, no matter how hard they tried. "I-I ca...an't... run... anymore..." Silvia eventually croaked, her words no more than a hoarse whisper in the darkness, raw and strained. Each word struggled its way past her chapped lips as she forced one numb foot in front of the other, the snow swallowing her legs up to her wobbly knees.
The little girl clung to her mother's hand with all the might her prepubescent body had left in it, her young face a mess of dried tears and snot, her silver hair plastered to her forehead and cheeks, frozen in place. Her dirty cloak fluttered around her bare, trembling body like a rag, making her ribs and delicate collar bones stick out beneath it, white puffs of steam blowing from her mouth and pink, wet nostrils.
Trembling herself, Nivalis slowed her pace, for once allowing herself to take a look at her two children who had been running beside her this entire time. She could see their silhouettes in the darkness —hunched shoulders, heaving breaths—and she knew they were at their limits. "Alright... I-I think w-we should be safe for now," she spoke in a shaky voice, her teeth chattering from the cold. She wanted to ask if the girl could make them something out of ice to hide in for the night, but feeling those intense shivers against her side told her that Silvia was in no state to do anything at all, let alone cast a spell.
Picking the little girl up, Nivalis held her tight against her chest, with one hand cupping the little butt that peeked out of her torn cloak, her pale legs dangling above the snow to the sides of her mother's body. Silvia mumbled something into the crook of her neck that she didn't quite catch, but other than that, the girl didn't protest being picked up, too tired even to lift her head.
"Asty... let's f-find somewhere t-to... r-rest," Nivalis managed to mutter, biting cold and her own fatigue weighing on every word. She scanned the swirling snow around them, desperate for anything that could give her babies even a little bit of shelter for the night. "L-Let me know if you s-see anything, al-alright?" she added, her tone anything but confident.
Aster could only nod his head in response, his eyes barely open as he leaned against her hip, his legs on the brink of giving out beneath him. The moment the monotony of putting one foot in front of the other had come to a stop, all the aches and pains of the day came rushing back to him like an avalanche.
He was beyond tired, so much so that at some point, he couldn't help but feel like he was already dead, a ghost wandering the woods in search of peace that would never come. He wasn't as cold as the girls were, but he needed a break more than anything and was immensely grateful to his sister for speaking up first; he was about to suggest they rest himself, had she not.
They dared not risk a flame or the shine of Silvia's broken necklace to light their way—here in the open, the light could travel far and would make them easy targets. So they pressed on through the darkness, the snow, and the wind's cruel bite, eyes squinting in search of anything that could shelter them.
Then, barely thirty steps later, a stroke of luck. A massive, truly ancient dead pine that had fallen against its healthier neighbor, the perfect place for them to hide under. "There..." the boy croaked when he spotted it in his blurry vision, his scarred finger rising to point weakly in the direction of the fallen tree.
Nivalis nodded and led the way, almost dragging her son behind her. Once there, she sat the kids down in the snow beneath the thick trunk, then took the rusty knife from the cloth bag on her shoulder and turned away to cut branches from nearby trees and bushes. Her entire body shook under those torn rags she called clothes, her teeth chattering loudly.
But before she could do a single step away, Aster grabbed her by the wrist and stopped her, then quite forcefully pulled her down onto the snowy ground and sat her next to her equally shivering daughter. "Here... sit. Fire is my thing, I'll take care of it. I'm not as cold as you two," he whispered, pressing a kiss to her frost-covered, dirt-streaked cheek before taking the knife from her shaking hands.
"S-sweetie..." was all she managed to mutter, her voice quiet and weak, before the boy was gone, lost to the swirling snow and darkness of the night. With a worried sigh, Nivalis scooped her shivering daughter back into her lap and pressed her tight against her bosom to share whatever meager warmth she had left in her body. Her hands moved up and down the girl's back and butt, rubbing her in an attempt to warm her up a little bit. She kissed the top of her head several times, and all she got in return was a faint whimper and the relentless chatter of her teeth, similar to her own. "Soon, b-baby... soon. Your b-brother is g-getting us a f-few br-branches, and th-then you'll be w-arm. Alright?" she cooed into the girl's silver hair, and Silvia gave her a weak nod against her neck.
If there were a war crime for committing genocide against bushes and small trees, Aster would have been found guilty that night. The boy hacked, snapped, and tore at anything that would burn, his naked torso whipped by snow and wind, his cloak fluttering around his hips as he worked. No matter how wet and rotten the wood was, he grabbed it, bent and snapped it, then added it to the armful of branches he had in his arm. Everything will burn in his fire, no matter what.
Once had enough, Aster made his way back to the girls and quickly cleared the ground of snow before dumping all the branches and twigs onto the cold, frozen dirt. With a flick of his wrist, Aster lit it all in flames. In just a moment, the branches and twigs began to snap and pop pleasantly, smoke rising to the underside of the fallen tree above.
Nivalis and Silvia both sighed in relief as the warmth washed over their cold figures, their faces lit by the flickering flames, the icy droplets melting from their long eyelashes. "Oh my goodness, that feels g-good," Nivalis murmured as her body jerked with shivers, almost in sync with her daughter's.
"Mhm," the girl mumbled from her mother's hair, peeking out at her little brother, who had literal icicles all over his torso and face, but didn't seem to care one bit. "Thank you, Asty."
The boy nodded but didn't stop working, rushing off into the night again, only to come back a minute later with a few more branches and twigs, then another time, and another, and another. Like a bee in a flower field, he buzzed back and forth from the fire, his hands and feet never still while his mother and sister warmed themselves, their tired eyes following him wherever he went. The fire went out a few times, but he relit it without saying a word, bringing smiles back to his mother's and sister's lips.
They tried to help him every few minutes with anything, but no matter how tired Aster was, he simply pushed them back to the fire and told them to stay there. And tired he truly was. His body ached in places he didn't know could ache, but he kept going, doing what he had to do—taking care of his family, as always.
When there was finally enough wood stacked to last them a while, Aster dropped to the ground and began moving the snow around them, shaping it into a wall to shield the flames from the wind, forming a crude but incredibly cozy shelter beneath the fallen tree. And quite spacious too; the tree had to be hundreds of years old at the very least, its trunk so thick that even three of them wouldn't be able to wrap their arms around it.
To make their little shelter even better, he once again went into the night and, a few minutes later, came back with a huge pine branch that had a thick layer of green needles on it. After some maneuvering and kicking, he pushed the branch into their makeshift hut—careful not to burn it in the process—and had the girls move their soft butts from the cold ground and onto it. They sighed in pleasure once again, the only reward he ever needed.
"Alright, Asty, that's—" Nivalis tried to say, but Aster wasn't done yet, rushing back into the night without a word spoken back, his skinny silhouette blurring in the snowfall that only got worse by the minute. The wind was so strong that she seriously began to worry it might blow him away and into the sky.
But the boy didn't get blown away, and soon returned with more branches. A few more were added to the ground to make an even softer bed for the girls to lie on and around the fire, so they won't have to walk on dirt. But most were propped against the fallen tree to keep their light hidden from the outside world, leaving just a small opening to crawl through. It took him quite a few trips to make it happen, and by the end of it, the boy looked like some kind of ice monster, his cloak and body covered in frost.
Yet in the end, they had a sturdy and, most importantly, safe shelter that could fit all three of them. Aster even took a peek from outside to make sure no light was coming through the gaps, and other than the place where the trunks connected, from where the smoke was coming out, there was nothing. 'Perfect,' he thought to himself with a small smile of pride.
With the last of his strength, he crawled back inside and closed the hole behind him with a well-placed branch. Then flopped down onto his back and let out a tired sigh, "Done. Now we're safe," he muttered, looking up at the roof made of the fallen tree that hovered above his head, the orange light of the fire dancing on the pale brown wood.
It smelled of wet dirt and old, a bit rotten wood, but he didn't care one bit. It was still a million times better than the cave they had lived in for a year and a half. 'Off to sleep, finally. There is literally nothing in this world that could make me move a single muscle right now. Nothing,' he thought to himself, listening to the howls of the wind as they rocked the branches of their shelter and the fire crackling away at the wood. 'What a crazy day.'
"Are you coming, sweetie?" came his mother's gentle voice from across their little campfire, sounding even warmer than the flames themselves. It took a moment for Aster to find the strength to make his eyes flutter open and turn his head slightly to the side.
There, on the soft bed of pine needles, sat his naked mother, the orange flames flickering against her pale, like snow skin, as she patted the place beside her on the bedding, a sleepy but loving smile on her lips. Her long hair flowed over her shoulders and all the way to her wide hips, hiding angry scratches and bruises beneath its silver curtain. Her heavy breasts rose and fell with each breath, pressing into the delicate shoulders of the girl who sat on her lap.
And like her mother, Silvia was completely naked, her small body of the exact same pale hue shivering despite the heat of the nearby flames. Her mother's strong arms were wrapped tightly around her to keep her warm, their clothes lying nearby, drying in the heat. Their naked, soft legs were stretched out in front of them, almost touching the fire with their toes in an attempt to bring back the feeling into them, goosebumps everywhere his blurry eyes landed upon.
'Okay, maybe there are a few things that could make me move, after all...' Aster realized as he rolled onto his side and groaned his exhausted, aching body up on all fours, crawling to his family in the corner of the hut. His little bum wiggled left and right as he moved, making the girls chuckle at the sight.
Though the closer Aster got, still covered in frost from head to toe, the more their faces scrunched up in adorable, worried ways, and even began to squirm further into the corner, away from him. But the boy kept crawling with a playful grin on his lips, and before they could stop him, he lunged into their embrace and hugged them both. "AAAAAHH! ASTEEEEEER!" Their squeals and shrieks of protest rang out in the night, his sister's voice several tones higher than their mother's. The three of them flopped onto the bed of branches and needles in a pile of tangled, wiggling limbs, the fire crackling in the background.
"S-sweetie, no! You're f-freezing! Gh-ghods..." Nivalis managed to squeal out as she squirmed and jerked in her son's embrace, her naked skin rubbing against the frost that covered the boy's body. After a moment, she managed to untangle herself from his clutches and, with a quick move, pushed him off and onto his legs. "Stay still," she said sternly, giving him a glare that was supposed to be angry, but looked nothing of the sort in Aster's eyes, her blue gaze never leaving his cheeky expression as she began to brush the ice off his body with her hands. Silvia's face was also frozen in a cute, angry pout as she watched the boy from her mother's lap, protected by her pillowy breasts and strong arms from any more frost attacks.
Aster muttered a quiet, "Sorry," with a silly smile on his frost-covered lips, and stood obediently still, letting Nivalis do her thing. Bits of ice kept falling to the bedding under his feet as her strong yet delicate hands brushed across his bony chest and belly, his arms, his neck, and face. Then her fingers moved down to his totally-not-skirt, untied it from around his hips, and let it fall to his ankles.
When the warm light of the flames fell on Aster's small manhood, Nivalis let out a sharp breath upon seeing it all shriveled up and covered in frost, a little icicle even hanging from his tip. "Oh my goodness... sweetie!" she gasped, a deep frown of worry creasing her beautiful brows. Without hesitation, she gently cupped the boy's package with her soft palm, trying to help it warm up, while her other hand continued to brush the ice from his butt. "Asty, you need to be more careful with your... thingy. Does it hurt?" she asked worriedly, looking up at him with those wide, sapphire-blue eyes of hers. Silvia was also watching, her golden eyes locked on her brother's bits, a guilty look in them.
— "No? I didn't even notice," was all Aster managed to say before she finished and pulled him to her, making him sit next to his sister on her lap, his naked bum pressing into the softness of her thighs. Her left hand kept gently cupping his bits, while her other arm snaked around his and Silvia's shoulders and pulled them close against her bosom, the three of them sitting together by the fire. "It's fine, really... It was just a bit windy, and some snow clung to me there, that's all," he muttered shyly, watching her rub slow circles with her wrist. Nivalis simply shushed him, her gaze fixed on the little thing in her hand, a concerned frown never leaving her face.
"You're such a dummy... What if it fell off or something?" Silvia eventually found her voice, leaning her head against the small of his shoulder, her eyes following their mother's fingers. After a long moment of silence, she added in a much quieter, shy voice, "Thanks for the... you know, everything. You did okay today." Her golden eyes glanced up at his face for a brief moment before turning back to his penis.
The boy nodded and leaned into her, resting his head on top of hers. "Mm-hmm. You're very welcome," he muttered, his words so quiet that he wasn't sure anyone heard him, and that was the end of that. The three of them sat in silence by the fire, while the blizzard outside tried and failed to blow their little hut away, the only sounds being those of the cracking wood and the howl of the wind. It was nice and peaceful, just the three of them.
Though soon enough, that silence was broken by light taps of Nivalis's fingers against his little, hairless testicles and flaccid shaft, an attempt to get more blood into the frozen parts. That part of him was always the hottest to the touch, sometimes even burning when he's especially horny, and it not being the case right now worried the woman deeply, so she kept going despite the boy's thighs wiggling weakly from each tap against his bits. "M-mom, please... stop. It's fiiine..." Aster whined, trying to cover himself with his hands, but his mother slapped them away and continued.
"Stay still, young man. It's not fine," she murmured sternly, giving him a no-nonsense look when he tilted his head back to look at her. Her fingers kept gently slapping at his balls and shaft, making his penis bounce and wiggle cutely in the firelight. His feet twitched with every tap, toes curling and uncurling in the pine needles, his face scrunched up in discomfort.
Silvia watched it all, giggling quietly into his shoulder and earning herself plenty of annoyed glances from her brother. She had even asked a tiny little, "Can I try as well?" that got a firm, "No," and a light smack on the forehead from her mother, with the same hand that kept tapping at his penis. Though that didn't seem to bother the little girl one bit, as she kept watching and giggling, her golden eyes following the bouncing and wiggling movements of his parts, and the shivers and twitches that her mother's slaps caused in his legs.
Slowly, but surely, blood began to flow back into the boy's little penis, and the pinkish hue of his shaft began to come back. When she noticed this, Nivalis let out a relieved sigh, and the tapping of her fingers slowed down into gentle rubbing, her fingertips running along his length, from his balls to his foreskin-protected tip. "That's it, sweetie, nice and warm," she cooed, kissing the top of his head. Aster could only groan softly at her words, eyes half-closed like they had been for a while now, his head resting on the soft pillows of her breasts.
Angry growls of Silvia's tummy suddenly filled the hut, reminding everyone that it's been quite a while since they had their last proper meal—in the morning, back in the cave. "Sorry," she shyly murmured, stretching her legs out and wiggling her little toes in the heat of the fire, the cold tremors still shaking her petite body every few seconds, but they were getting slowly weaker.
Nivalis sighed and gave the little girl quick tummy rubs and a kiss on her silver crown as well. "Right. We should probably eat something before we go to sleep." Her arm left their shoulders and reached for the ragged bag she had been carrying the whole day, pretty much all their belongings in there. The moment she picked it up from the ground, however, her brow creased in worry, as she finally noticed how light it was. She must've been too tired to notice earlier during their frantic running, but now, holding it in her hand? It was not how weeks' worth of food supplies should've felt like.
With a sinking heart, Nivalis opened it and peeked inside. There were only a few pitiful things: an old ring taken from two skeletons deep in the tunnels, a rusted coin of unknown worth from the same place, a bone needle and a half-used thread, some rags they had practiced embroidery on that also served as cum-cleaners when needed, and a few pebbles Aster and Silvia had found and kept because they thought them pretty. On top of it all, there was only a handful of worm meat—long strips of overboiled dark-red, leathery flesh—barely enough for a single meal.
"I'm such an idiot," the woman murmured, covering her blue, tired eyes with her palm and letting her head bump back against the tree. In all the excitement, then the panic and the running, they had forgotten to grab any of the stored meat. They had only taken what was left from breakfast, leaving the rest behind in the cave for the worms. Everything they had saved for months was now gone, just like that.
The siblings exchanged a silent, wincing glance, neither knowing what to say.
...