FFfAW : The frostbitten heart

This week’s photo prompt is provided by loniangraphics. Thank you for our photo prompt!

 

Each time the snow fell, covering the land in gnawing cold and ankle deep crunch, she went out looking. And when ice turned the world to a hard snap … she searched then too.

Looked for the lamp post with its prism of glass, for dancing, gaseous shadows falling on hard packed earth. Looked for the faun and his presents clothed in paper and trussed with string.

Sitting under the fir trees, waiting for chattering beavers, for sleigh rides and Turkish Delight  – Always Winter, never Christmas – she was filled with so much yearning, such a need for magic, it was as if the frost had bitten her heart, as if it was in shards in her chest, cracked like a broken ice puddle. Beneath her feet there was never magic, only the parent of grey, gritty slush.

She’s old now, still searching. Still driven by that frostbitten heart. But sometimes, I swear her breath smells of rosewater and lemons and I wonder  …

 

Written for Priceless Joy’s Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers.  See here to join the fun.

And if – dear, bereft reader – you are ignorant of the land I am describing, then you merely need to step this way. Mind those moth balls, now.

 

 

 

25 thoughts on “FFfAW : The frostbitten heart”

  1. Ah, I recognized it right away. I can relate to being young and wanting so badly for that magic to be true, but how tragic that she let it take over her life like that. Unless, given that last line, there’s something to it… Oh my!

    I’m not seeing your post on the FFfAW page — maybe it’s just delayed, but you might want to check.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks, Joy – went on to the link up and sorted it out. When I schedule a post that uses that little blue , I often forget to go back and put my link in place. Glad you recognised this – I remember this kind of feeling, a yearning for the worlds I read about the feeling was a physical pain. I so wanted to disappear into some of those books when I was a kid. I’ve grown out of that of course. Probably 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. I keep going back to read it, first from Lucy’s POV, and then from the POV of the white witch…what if she’d been left in our world in The Magician’s Nephew…hmmm….

        Liked by 1 person

      2. They are such great stories of good versus evil and very empowering for children when they feel they are not in control of their own lives. And just good fantasy too of course

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Yes, you’re right. I know very little about his personal life to be honest – only what I learned from the film Shadowlands years ago. He was older when he married I think and his wife passed away quite young. I also think he was good friends with JRR Tolkien, so that must have been fascinating company to mix in 🙂

        Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.