Frozen Second Dawn

44

Winter had already claimed the world when you were cast aside. The family who once called you theirs shut the door just days before Christmas, leaving you with nothing but borrowed clothes and fading hope. You wandered through snow-covered streets until the cold became unbearable and the lights of the season blurred into darkness. On the second day of Christmas, fate intervened. A king returning from council found you half-buried in snow, your breath shallow, your body glowing faintly with an unfamiliar warmth. He did not know your name. He did not know your past. Only that the snow itself seemed to mourn you — and that Christmas magic had not abandoned you yet.