Day 30 - 1000 Word Challenge

The last day of the challenge - and yes, I won!

(Day 30- 1020 Words)

Inspired by a picture I found online. It is not my picture, so I won’t post it here. But, I’ll give the link. Inspiration can come from many places.
https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/7P3ZjLGPR6KebtmGIU9A

Minifred and the Snow Monster

Minifred Mouserin trudged down the steep mountain path. Her basket was full of the precious herbs and possets and potions that were needed for the village below. They were carefully packed and wrapped and the basket backpack was covered and tied to protect them during the long hike. But, that made it even heavier.

Minifred had started down the mountain at her usual time of the year. She stayed up on the mountain from spring to fall in her grandmother’s old cabin where generations of Mouserin had worked and prepared the recipes with the ingredients that grew mostly wild in the area around the valley cabin. After harvest and the drying and all the other work that went into the recipes, she would then come back down to the village by early fall and it would usually last all winter.

But this fall, winter had come early.

By the time she had headed out she could see that the snow was already deep in the pass. She wasn’t sure how she would get through. But, she packed with faith. Put on her tattered cloak and shouldered her heavy pack of remedies and started up the slippery path towards the pass, the only way to get back down to the village.

For one minute she had thought about staying the winter. She had enough wood, her nephew had come up and cut and re-stacked that for her. And she had enough food stored to last the winter for just her. But the thought of all the people who depended on her as the witte for the village drove her on.

If someone was sick, or injured, they came to the village witte. If a momma was having a baby, they came and got the witte. If the animals needed treating and the farmer couldn’t do it, they came and got the witte. It was a hard job, and never paid much, but it was worth it to her.

Minifred had inherited the witte mantle from her grandmother, along with the cabin. She had shown the aptitude as well as the curiosity that was necessary for the job. So, when she was old enough she went to live with her grandmother, who she was named after, to learn the witte-ways. And when grandmother passed away, she became the witte in turn.

It could be a lonely life. Minifred still wasn’t married. Many fellows were afraid of the witte magics. Some folks didn’t want the witte to leave the village, and discouraged suitors. Minifred knew that it could end up like her aunt who was a witte a village over, who never married or had children sadly. Or like her grandmother who had several children and loads of grandchildren like her, and even great-grandchildren. But, she also knew that her grandmother Mini, had sorely missed her grandpa when he passed years before her.

It took all morning and past noon to make it through the pass. Sometimes using her walking staff to test the snow and keep her on the path, and sometimes having to push on through little by little with snow nearly up to her waist. She was cold and exhausted but, it was closer to go on down to the village than it was to go back to the cabin. So, after a tiny rest, and sipping some still warm tea from her basket, she continued on, pulling her cloak tighter around her.

The snow was starting to come down heavier as the afternoon wore on, filling her tracks behind her. Luckily in some ways, there was a wind which kept the snow from piling up too high on this downward trek. But the wind also whipped her cloak around chilling her ears and nose and tail.

Minifred was having to stop more and more often as the cold, the weight of the basket and the rough travel sapped her normally abundant energy. Dark thoughts were starting to creep around the edges of her mind, brought by the ice dae.

The ice dae were the little malicious fairies that lived in the cold and ice in the distant mountains, but they would come down with the winter winds and find those who were lost or weak or injured in the cold and whisper to their minds how much better it would be if they just laid down and slept. Then they would take little bites of spirit out of the victim, leaving black marks where they had bitten. If they took enough bites the victim would die, never waking back up again.

Minifred certainly wasn’t going to let herself be seduced by the ice dae and their empty promises of warmth and dreams.

She took a moment on her next rest and retied her cloak with a special knot that her grandmother had taught her. It took a little more energy to put the witte magic in it, but it was worth it in the end. It kept the cloak from flapping as much, and it kept more warmth inside the cloak, even adding bits more of the warmth of the summer sun, as the knot was called the “Sun Knot”. She sipped a little more from the now cool tea and levered herself up with the staff. Only a few more miles to go.

She had gone another half mile when she saw a huge drift of snow covering the whole path ahead. She was thinking it must have been an avalanche or something. She was worried how she was going to get past it, it was so much bigger than her and there was a steep drop off on the one side.

She took a step backwards and nearly tripped over her tail in surprise when the big snowdrift stood up.

A snow monster! They were known to eat whole villages in a week or less!

She tried to make herself as small and unnoticeable as possible. But it was too late. Blue glowing eyes turned towards her as the head turned and seemed to pin her in place. Mini couldn’t breathe. She had never been so scared.