nonagarret (nonagarret) wrote in horror_story, @ 2013-03-31 21:46:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | alternate universe, ben, holiday: st. patrick, mike, nona |
Fairy Tale AU Prompt
WHO: Nona and Mike, then later Nona, Mike, and Ben
WHEN: After the End of the World (or Western Society, anyway)
WHERE: The Wilds
WHAT: Post-Apocalyptic Little Red Riding Hood
WARNING: High. This ain't gonna be pretty.
It was cold.
It was always cold, but that was the way Nona always knew it. With summers that barely sprouted pathetic, weakling leaves on otherwise skeletal trees, the Dead Seasons were long and harsh, and bred equally harsh creatures, dedicated only to survival.
Mid-October, and the first snow was already a month behind them. It's remains barely blanketed the grey wood, a layer of unforgiving white on the corpses of leaves, with more floating down from the ever-grey sky; too light and too tiny to simply fall, they drifted aimless in the air, and caught on lashes in the shadow of a bright Red Hood.
Not a cloak, but a long layer of scarf draped loose over her head to keep the blonde warm beneath, shadowing her blue eyes and looped at thin shoulders, tucked up to the bridge of a thin and freckled nose. Layers of clothing, many of them though none fully complete protected a frail-looking form from the elements; a coat of rugged leather, thinned by age, cut at the thighs, front and back; good for riding and running. Thick leggings, thick boots.
Steam from her breath cut through the thick crimson wool and disappeared in the still air, lingering like a frozen cloud. Dirty fingers in frayed, fingerless gloves dug through the snow, into the powdered dirt beneath and the ultimate prize; tiny hibernating mammals curled up against the winter. She had four in the rag-bag draped across her chest. She was the only thing that moved in the woods; the only source of sound in a smothered and slowly dying world. Her heartbeat was her company... until the stillness rippled, cracked by something in the distance.
Nona's steam-breath stopped abruptly - her eyes snapped up to scan the gloom.