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A FROZEN DREAM CRACK! A colossal sound echoes throughout the river valley surrounding Valdev as the thin wintry river ice cracks, spiderwebbing from the pressure of the forms bundled down and shivering on the ice. As the sheet of ice begins to splinter, miniature icebergs becoming embroiled in water and beginning to float away, the increasingly large hole created in the centre of the cracking ice sheet is conspicuously absent of its prior occupant… Quiet. The child feels … Cold. An immense feeling of pressure and intense frigidity fills their bones; it had been all at once, and their limbs were frozen. They cannot move. Weakly, they open their pale eyes and peer upwards towards the light emanating from the hole in the ice. They feel weightless suspended in water, sinking down towards the riverbed all the same. They can hear the panicking shouts of their companions crying out, but nothing can spur them to fight it; fight against the growing chill biting their flesh. Their lungs were compounding under the pressure; they couldn’t possibly breath, but yet they needed air. As their mouth gapes open to gasp, begging for the sweet release of air, their throat only fills with cool rushing water as bubbles rise to the surface. Several bubbles break the surface of the open pool with a quiet, understated popping sound. The other children fighting for their lives scrabble, scratching against the ice, onto the sheet breaking apart. One among them, however, soaked and sodden as his hands become covered in dirt from grasping the grassy riverbank, peers out over the ice hole with terrified reddened eyes. “SESTRA!” He cries out in fear. Although their mind fills with recollections of their lifetime and an all-consuming terror as they face their death in the eyes, there is a strange peace found in the stillness and silence. Their mouth and throat feels numb from the effects of the ice water filling them, and they gasp frightfully for air. They peer up at the light from above and for a moment their lids make out the unmistakable piercing gaze of another set of eyes bathed and glowing with light. It is only the eyes’ evocation of wonder that fills their mind in their final moments as tiredness overtakes, and their eyes begin to close. However, a crashing sound arrives in their ears, spurring them to gaze upwards once more. Bubbles float upwards as their frozen skin feels the warmth of another’s hands grasping at them. The form of a familiar boy swims down to the child with fitful determination. The brother grabs them by the elbow, dragging them up from their resting place on the riverbed. Unable to move as the coldness of the river water implants weakness into their muscles, they are passively pulled towards the surface of the water and the ice hole – landing upon the brother’s back. The siblings rocket towards the surface of the water under the brother’s tremendous power, their heads about to breach and supply the child with the air they so craved– Elena Viorica Kortrevich awakes with a gasp for air in a pool of sweat. She looks about the room in worry, before relaxing somewhat as she realizes that she finds herself in the Clinic of Valdev. “It was just a dream …” She whispers to herself, wiping her brow that is sopping with sweat. “Just a bad dream,” She murmurs breathlessly, recalling the events of the day prior. As the fleeting memories of her nightmare begin to fade away, her tired eyes find rest on her exhausted brother, Dimitri, sleeping in a chair at the bedside. Having noticed that one of her cousins had awoken, Marian wanders over towards Elena to check her over. “Ah, vy are too hot, petite,” She whispers in an effort to not wake the other sleeping children, her hand on the girl’s forehead as she removes one or two of the young Kortrevich’s blankets and supplies her with a cup of water. "Ea had a very bad dream …" She whispers to her caring cousin, who nods dotingly. Marian strokes some of the girl’s hair, brushing it out of her face. “Ea see that,” She remarks gently, “Donniet fash; just go back to sleep, da?” In response to which the child nods her head obediently, attempting to settle back down and close her eyes. As her mind reflects on the events of the past 12 hours, she begins to drift off into the endless bob and dip of a slumbering suspension… A few weeks later, the following piece of poetry is published: “A FROZEN DREAM” BY ELENA VIORICA KORTREVICH 495 E.S. As I sleep in the depths I think, Of the weightlessness of water, How my body sways with the tide; There can no more peace be tried. Yet my heart it feels burdened, As each gasp buries me further, The anchor of my grief binds me, To these watery depths for eternity. I lament those sorry sailors, Tears synonymous with sea, Their daughters knew their fate not; Woe ‘placed for fear they’d been forgot. Shall I surface once again, Naught but my debris remaining, The carrion feast themselves while I, Rejuvenate with kin and God on high.
