[center][h1] Winter [/h1][/center] [hr] She stoked the fire as the wind howled outside. The dim embers lit the face of Toffee and Tad in a red light that made their shadows long. It had been weeks since mother had gone and the grip of winter had set in, preventing them from searching further and further away from this place they slept in. It no longer felt like home, after all. The cold was something else entirely. They had to stay inside most of the days, only leaving for essentials. This would not have been a problem for they were family but with mother gone, there was a heaviness in the air. Things had not been the same since those first few days of searching. It was boredom, through and through and she could tell anger was growing. But not why. So it was like that, for weeks, as the air became more and more tense. Silence reigned and it ate at Teefee. Perhaps the worst gut punch of all- Teefee could not find her mother in the land of dreams. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how many dream guides she asked, there was nothing. And this could only mean one of two things- either their mother was dead or she had yet to go to sleep. Both were equally terrifying to grasp. What haunted Teefee more was that she felt like a failure because she couldn’t figure it out. Mother had to be sleeping at some point, why couldn’t she find her? Teefee refused to believe she was dead, though it gnawed at her deep in the pit with all her other failures and insecurities. She had let her siblings down in the end. And now there was no more happiness in them, in her. Had she made a mistake? This thought had always been there, suppressed by a reality she deemed acceptable but now it emerged from the surface of her mind like some foul creature from a swamp. No, no, she had to tell herself that there was no mistake. They would not have been happy, in the end. Right? This rampant spiralling thought was interrupted by Toffee, who said, “We should leave when spring comes.” Teefee’s eyes went wide. “No.” she replied quickly. “We can’t leave. What if mother returns and we aren’t here? She will be worried about us.” “Teefee,” Toffee rubbed the bridge of her nose, in a display reminiscent of their mother, “She wouldn’t want us to stay here another season, not when it gets warm enough to travel. She wanted us to find other people and not be secluded like this. As the oldest one here, it’s my responsibility to look after you two.” “Are we really bringing age into this?” Tad murmured. “Barely a few minutes older and you think you’re in charge?” Toffee glared at Tad but their brother only had eyes for the fire. “And do you think you should be in charge?” Toffee asked. Tad shrugged. “We may have had a chieftess but I think I’m just as capable as any woman when it comes to being in charge.” Toffee laughed darkly. Teefee opened her mouth to speak but her sister beat her, “That’s rich coming from a ‘man’ who only mopes around. I don’t see you taking any sort of charge.” Tad snapped his head to look at Toffee and narrowed his eyes. The air in the wikiup suddenly became hostile. “Low blow sister.” he hissed through his teeth. “At least I’m not bossing everyone around. At least I’m not pretending to be something I’m not.” “Oh and what am I pretending to be?” Toffee growled. “Mother.” There was a moment of silence before Toffee lashed out at Tad with a fist. He leaned back just enough that her arm went sailing in front of his eyes before he tackled her and they began to roll next to the fire, shouting and yelling about nonsense as they vied for leverage. Teefee’s eyes, still wide, became teary. Is this what she had wanted? For them to fight? For them to be miserable? Why couldn’t they just get along? She was paralyzed to action as her mind raced. They had been at each other’s throats ever since mother had vanished and she just couldn’t understand why. They had gotten so close when… when… Sirele and Jiva had been around. Laughing and talking, for once there was an interest they both shared. Her hands went to either side of her head, her ears pressed close to her hair. Eyes tightly shut. Why was it getting harder to breathe? She could see them with large smiles and hazy expressions, lost in blissful thought. Then she saw herself and she knew she should not have felt as she had but the dream! Abandoned. Alone. Oblivion…. She needed to keep them safe. She needed to keep them by her side. That was the only way. The only- “It was me!” she burst- unable to hold her crime in any longer. The weight of it all had become too much at that moment. She was a beaver dam that needed to break. Except Tad and Toffee were still fighting. Toffee now perched on her brother’s chest, holding the cuff of his furs and thrashing him as she screamed about responsibility. It would have been comical if not for the fact that she was serious. Teefee got up, walked over and shoved Toffee off of Tad. With a resounding oof, Toffee rolled over to her back and stared up at the ceiling. Both of her siblings breathed hard, their faces red and sweaty. Both had small cuts and bruises, at least they knew better than to seriously harm each other. But Teefee could no longer risk the notion that they wouldn’t come to more extreme blows, not with Toffee’s anger. She took a shaky breath and tried to calm her nerves but it was pointless. Her knees buckled and she fell on them. “I-I-I have to tell you something.” Teefee began to sob. “Teefee?” Both Tad and Toffee said at the same time as they got to their knees and came over to her. “I’m sorry Teefee, I shouldn’t have said what I said.” Toffee muttered. “We shouldn’t have fought.” Tad agreed. “And I shouldn’t have said things either.” Teefee shook her head, tears flying everywhere. “You don’t understand. I d-did this!” she cried, a deep sob wracked her chest as she tried to breath. Both Tad and Toffee placed a hand on her back and rubbed, a gesture she did not deserve. “What are you talking about, Teefs?” Tad asked. She looked up at him and saw his worried face and her heart broke a little more. “I didn’t want to be alone. I-I saw how you looked at them- I saw what was happening. You always think I’m oblivious, that I don’t see what others see but you’re wrong.” she sniffled. Looks of confusion plastered her sibling’s faces but neither said anything. “I asked them, you know, how old they were because I was curious. And do you know what they said? Sirele put it in simple terms. They had been born so long ago that their friends were now elders and that they had stopped aging. That they wouldn’t become elders for centuries to come. Do you know what a century is? It’s a very long time.” “What are you talking about?” Tad asked, his voice no longer so soft. She looked him straight in the eyes. “They were blessed with long life, Tad. By Saries. We will be dead long before they ever even dream of dying.” “So what’s that have to do with anything?” Tad asked, removing his hand from her back and crossing them against his chest. “I don’t understand.” “What did you do, Teefee?” Toffee’s voice was sharp and when she looked at her sister, she saw not just anger but fear. Toffee then grabbed her by the shoulders and asked again, ‘What did you do?” “I-I,” Teefee stammered. “I asked their dream guides to remind them of their family and home, of old age. Anything to stop them from dreaming about you two.” Oh by the ancestors, she had said it. It had come so easily, that ruination of her own doing. There was stunned silence. Toffee eye’s looked right through Teefee and Tad, poor Tad looked as if he was just now understanding what was going on. “I’m sorry!” Teefee followed up and then quickly added, “I-I didn’t want them to take you away, I didn’t want you to be sad when you grew older and they did not. But then you guys seemed so sad and then mom vanished and if she hadn’t… Maybe she’d still be here if… if…” she sniffled again and fresh tears fell down her space. Tad got up and backed away, looking at her in shock. Toffee began to squeeze her shoulders and Teefee squirmed. “How could you!” Toffee screamed at her. “How dare you make that decision for me! How could you be so selfish!” she shook her and then let go, a mix of disgust and rage across her face. “T-Toffee!” Teefee gasped, as her sister began to frantically gather up her furs and spear before she made her way to the Wikiup’s flap. “Please! I’m sorry! I know it was selfish! I know it was stupid! B-But I can’t lose you!” she cried, scrambling to her feet. Toffee marched outside into the wind and snow. The cold bit at Teefee as she followed. “Where are you going!” She yelled at Toffee. Toffee spun, her expression had gone dark and her fists were balled. She jabbed a finger into Teefee’s chest a moment later. “Anywhere but here! I can’t stand to look at you right now.” Teefee felt as if she had been punched in the gut. “Toffee.” she whimpered, pleading. “Don’t leave. Please.” Her sister squeezed her eyes shut, warring within herself. Before she snapped them open and said. “It’s one thing to protect your siblings, Teefee. It’s another to dictate their lives and steal from them choices.” She began to shake her head. “Mother would be ashamed of you.” She then turned and walked off into the snow. Teefee stood there before another figure brushed past her, a pack on his shoulder. He didn’t even look at her. “Tad…” She said, “Please stay with me.” He hesitated and turned. His eyes did not meet hers before he shook his head in somber reflection, turned and walked away, down a different path than Toffee. Teefee no longer felt cold. She was numb as she made her way back into her tent. She collapsed next to the fire and curled into a ball. Her nightmare had come true. [hr] Elsewhere in the forest, a hotblooded young woman wasn’t bothered by the cold as she marched away from all she had known. She was only doing so because she didn’t trust herself around Teefee without causing her harm. This was the only way to cool off. Yet, it wasn’t long before the snow was tinged with red, like a bloody haze. Her heartbeat quickened but strangely, she was not afraid. A new witch was born. [hr] Elsewhere in the forest, a man whose heart had been broken enough had finally decided to leave it all behind. The cold was nothing that he couldn’t handle. In fact, it made him feel more alive than he had felt in weeks. So he turned off his thoughts and let the wind guide him to wherever it blew. [hider=Summary] Uh oh, the trio has split apart. What will happen next? [/hider]