Abandoned Page 12 at Ragne Marketboard
- Lithoterria
- Dec 31, 2025
- 1 min read
I wasn’t going to say anything, because I don’t want people thinking I’m drunk or grieving or soft in the head.
But the ice is wrong.
It crept up the alley behind the tannery last night.
It did not happen overnight, as I watched it do it. It slid along the stones like creeping breath across a mirror.
No sound.
No wind.
Just there, and then stretching further yet, as if reaching to snuff out the warmth from the fire.
I thought I saw someone standing at the end of the lane. Tall. Wrapped in grey.
When I called out, the frost thickened around my boots so fast I couldn’t move.
It didn’t chase me.
It didn’t need to.
The cold wasn’t the worst part.
It was the feeling that it was waiting for me to notice it.
People say the shepherd is exaggerating.
I say he hasn’t seen how close it came to the doors.