Rushed steps echoed thought the forest, bushs hastily being moved, leaves flying in every direction. A shadow followed a small white fur ball, a rabbit desperately running away. The trees were starting to become more scarce give place to a snow plane, the creature quickly hid itself in a nearby hole.
The shadow then stopped, looking at the deep hole made in the snow from behind a tree. A silent sight could be heard, the boy walked towards the place the rabbit had disappeared with furred eyebrows. The wind carried a cold and chilling felling. He kneeled on the snow approaching the hole used by the rabbit. He tried reaching out using his hand, but he couldn't reach the trembling creature just a few centimetres away.
He then hastily layed down on the snow trying to catch his breath while brushing the blood of his nose. His eyes stared at the sky above him, longing for the warmth of the sun. The clouds devoid of color covered the cheerful sun completely, leaving but a trace of its rays of sunshine.
"Not today then"
He muttered smiling slightly hugging the big old cloak around himself tighter and tighter, slowly calming his breath. His clothes, red nose and fingertips were the only thing distinguishing the boy from the snow covering all the eye could see.
The light blue eyes stared aimlessly at the sky, his mind wandering through places far, far away.
After a while, his legs hardly stood up, sustaining his tired body, hands slowly removing the snow covering his clothes. The cornes of his lips raised a little.
"Let's go"
His eyes stared at the hole one more time.
"I'll return soon-"
Before starting to walk and stopping again.
"-By then you better stop eating my berries"
After his steps started to get lower and lower, a small furry head peaked out of the hole, ears slightly down, staring at the leaving back of the boy and at the berries on the ground.
***
He continued his path as he walked the familiar route, occasionally stopping to gather some berries and store then inside the pockets in the cloak obviously too big for his small self. In the path he found a nest alone and quickly took it too.
After some turns, hills, rivers and what seemed like an eternity a small cave entered his vision, some logs covering the small entrance. He removed the logs covering it and entered the cave.
The cave didn't went very deep, the end could easily be seen just by entering. In the middle of the cave, rests of burned sticks were seen with smoke still lefting from the small pile. Sticks and small logs were stored in the deepest side of the cave, together with a lot of berries and herbs. Next to the rests of burned sticks, leaves and animal skin covered a small portion of the hard ground.
The boy walked towards the berries, pilling up even more on the same place and gathering some sticks. He approached the place next to the burned sticks and sat down looking at it for some time.
He took the nest he had granned and put it on the same place as always, removing the old sticks. He grabbed the two rocks and started clashing against each other, soon a spark ignited the nest, with a small fire starting, he blew on the nest, the fire growing bigger each time.
The sticks started being placed on the small fire, igniting it further. The hot felling of the small fire warmed his cold heart, stealing a small happy smile from the kid. The flames reflecting in his eyes made it shine as bright as ever.
Time passed just like that, the same essential but boring ritual. The end of the winter was just around the corner and the little boy wasn't a scared kid anymore, he had grown a lot all this time.
His eyes stared at the fire melting the snow around it with a determined expression. He took something out of the pocket of his cloak, a shining small object in the shape of a crown.
"Soon"
A low voice engraved with emotion resonated in the small cave.
His hands full of bruises and old scars, tightly held onto the little emblem, with eyes locked on the golden crown meticulously decorated with vibrant lines of red, little dots of a more dark and less vibrant red were out of place in it.
'I will surely return.'