They walked in silence, her behind him, for almost an hour, the silence only broken by the hushed whispers of the world around them. The whistle of the wind, the clicking of the branches, the creaking of the snow under their shoes and their sighing breaths.

      The whole time, Ava got to thinking. About the coat and whether she was in fact following a thief, and whether that was the case or not, where would he take her? And about the blood she'd seen, that she'd buried. It had played on her mind so often she'd finally given in and decided to play with it further. She'd come to the conclusion that she wanted to know why it had come to be there, and how. Her mind breathed curiosity and became more restless with each passing moment. "Nathan, have you seen any blood around here? Do you know why it would be here?"

      Nathan stopped.

      Ava bumped into his back. He stayed in front of her so she peered round his shoulder, wondering why he wasn't still moving. And then she saw it.

      Blood.

      Painting the lowest branches of the tree in front.

      The pungent metallic smell of the old blood made Ava's head ache. She assumed it must have been having the same or a similar effect on Nathan but that wouldn't stop her looking around them until she found a congruent splatter of blood a few metres away.

      Nathan turned to face her and lifted his eyebrows in question, waiting for an explanation.

      He didn't get one.

      Ava walked towards the second patch of blood, seeing her chance to find answers, grabbing Nathan's hand and pulling his braced feet through the parting snow. After what felt like forever, Nathan picked his feet up and walked alongside her. What Ava couldn't see were the silent tears running down his cheeks. Together, they reached the second pool of blood, and once again, Ava looked around them for another. There was one, and another just behind it, and possibly even a third.

      Mouth drawn into a thin line, she followed the trail of blood. Trusting that Nathan would follow, and zoning out the world around the scarlet spills, she didn't grab his hand that time. Eyes glued to the ground, her footsteps failed to skip a beat or two over the blood and instead trod right through it.

      And on she went. More stale blood appeared with every puddle they passed. "Maybe we should go back..." Nathan's rattling voice whispered to the back of Ava's shaking head. The wind tore at Ava's hair, throwing the sharp ends into his face.

      Nathan dropped back, "Ava..."

      She waved his concern away and kept walking. "Isn't any part of you interested in what we'll find? Doesn't any part of you want to know what you're living out here with?"

      "I already know," he whispered, much too quietly for Ava to hear. 

      Ava grew more and more uncertain with every step. She could find anything, and there were some things she wasn't ready for. A few paces later, she turned off track a bit and stood still, staring at the next dribble of blood, a little dizzy. She looked away from the blood, feeling sick. Turning around, she start moving again, slower. "Nathan!" He wasn't right behind her as she'd imagined he would be. Disappointed, she called for him again, "Nathan?"

      Nothing but the singing of distant birds.

      The woods suddenly felt a lot colder as Ava followed the blood path back to where she started. Her pace increased as her worry grew. "Nathan?" Again, nothing. Maybe he really wasn't to be trusted and he'd meant to leave her all along. Maybe he knew that blood had been there and had led her straight to it on purpose. What if he's meant it to scare her away? Only it hadn't done, so he had to leave her instead.

      What if he was waiting for her to die out here, watching from behind a tree.

      What if he'd only given her the coat, gloves and hat because he planned to take them back?

      How many people before her had worn this same coat?

      Was Hazel his first victim?

      Ava kept walking, not so sure she wanted to find Nathan anymore but knowing she wanted to get away from the blood, whatever answers she first thought she could get.

      Twigs she hadn't noticed the first time snapped loudly underneath her heavy feet. Stones skipped across branches, running from the toes of her shoes. Everything seemed so loud. Clicking, cracking, snapping, clacking. And breathing. Deep breaths rattled around her aching chest as her eyes threw tears down her face, washing sweat from her cheeks.

      She found the original splat of blood they'd stumbled across, where their footsteps changed direction dramatically to the left, facing her. Nathan wasn't waiting for her and it was only then she realised she had always wanted him to be.

      With a heavy heart she continued in the direction they had been walking before the diversion, trying to carry on, pretending none of it had happened at all.

      To pass the time, she started singing to herself. An old little tune from the folk songs that had grown up in Smalltown, shared around campfires for generations from hundreds of years ago. There was one rhyme in particular that everyone knew, if only because everyone claimed it was written and first told over three thousand years ago. Though Ava suspected the person who first told it actually told it only one thousand years ago, if that, and simply gave the credit for it to someone from two thousand years before him who may never have existed.

      As it came back to her, she spoke it:

"A time will come
When old and young
Decide they all need more

And in their search
They fail to see
Selfishness will bring war.

When they meet at
The diamond cave
They fight among themselves

Behind their backs
Danger rises
Needing not its stealth.

All want jewels
A battle starts
And the diamonds sit untouched

And the time did come
When old and young
Fell dead by the dragon's claws."

      Before long, the rush of water sounded from her right and she looked over to see a stream that had run down a hill to meet her and was now running alongside her. The meteor's Winter hadn't frozen everything. Occasionally, parts of the water launched itself at outcropping rocks to fly over in a gentle spray before pattering back down rather quickly the other side. Small, shimmering rainbows appeared in the spray. She walked to where  tree had fallen across the stream, a bridge between the rocky bank and sat down on the dusting of snow on top of the log.

      She swung her legs absentmindedly, humming another tune to herself, allowing herself a moment to take in the natural beauty and dispose of all previous thought. Birds, now visible, circled overhead. Their sweet song sweeping through the trees, over the hills and along the water's surface. A hare popped its head over a rock, ears spiked upright. And then they fell down, and the hare came out from behind the hiding place to poke its nose around the ground at a bush at the base of the log, where the roots had been pulled out of the ground into a lump of twisting wood, hairy thin roots and clumps of earth. Ava watched as the hare lifted its head, a dark purple blooming over the white fur of its nose and mouth. Blackberries.

      The hare stayed to feast and was joined by another and a few birds came to drink from the stream and pick food from the sloped sides of the snow-free river bank. Blackbirds and goldfinches. And from behind a tree swished a white, fluffy tail. Much larger and longer than that of any hare. From the other side of the tree, poked forward a small black nose and thin twitching whiskers. An arctic fox. The head emerged from the thick trunk, fore legs next, low against the ground. The whole fox was crouched so low it almost melted into the snow around it, unseen by the eyes of the hares perched in front of it.

      Ava gasped loudly, sending the hares skidding across snow and frost and the fox choosing one and giving chase and sprinting after the bounding hare through the trees until they were nothing but the rustle of leaves. And then silence.

      The birds had scattered too, just m's in the sky getting smaller and smaller. New birds came closer though, flitting quickly over stones and sprays of water. An owl sat in a tree not far away, hooting loudly. Even closer came the hammering drill of a woodpecker against the bark of an old alder tree, reverberating around the forest.

      Ava's fingers brushed at the powder snow beside her and she watching it drip into the water below, creating little ripples in the softly flowing stream. It almost made her feel powerful, to know such a simple movement could have such an effect. Except it didn't. Not really, when the water continues to flow seamlessly over where she'd dropped the snow with no sign that it had ever been there. She looked away, towards the woodpecker and the wood chippings flying from the tip of its beak.

      Behind the woodpecker, stood the silhouette of an elegant stag, its horns a sight to be proud of. It strode towards her on strong legs, the beautiful brown fur coming fully into view, framed by tall trees with arching branches.

      Then the snow started falling again. And Ava just smiled. It really was beautiful when you took the time to just watch it. Imagining what each individual snowflake must look like, trying to picture each one as completely different to all those around, Ava started filtering the snowflakes that survived her knocking them off the log through her fingers.

      A noise caught her attention, a tiny squeak and a rustling of leaves, skirting quickly around the bases of nearby trees. Squinting, she saw a grey streak shoot across the floor, darting through a hole in the bottom of the tree trunk and then out again a moment later. The mouse's tiny whiskers were twitching crazily, nose to the ground, sniffing, searching for food amongst the frosty covering of ice cold snow. And a crunching sounded as the mouse ran over a crisp packet. And an empty plastic bottle and a sweet wrapper close by it. Ava was horrified that someone would litter in a place like this, but she was more worried about how they had managed it. The bottle and packets weren't buried beneath the snow so they had been dropped there recently. But no one had been out here recently. Well, no one except herself and-

      "Ava!" Nathan called happily from behind her turned head.

      She could hear his footsteps growing louder as he approached along with the fearful beat of her pulse throbbing in her chest, wrists and neck. But she could also feel the relief break through the skin of her forehead in beads of sweat. "Nathan," she smiled as she turned to face him. How, considering all her theories, her fears, could she be so happy to see him?

      Ava's smile fell flat as she remembered how she'd parted from him to begin with, "Where did you go?" It came out harsher than she'd meant it but she had to admit, it felt good to see him wince in shame. "Why did you leave?"

      "I stayed still, Ava. You left me." Nathan spoke quietly but this time she could hear him crystal clear. There was no mistaking his words. "I didn't think you'd come back so after waiting a moment more..." He didn't finish the sentence but he didn't have to. It was obvious what he was implying.

      "How dare you blame me?" Ava almost shouted.

      "I don't," Nathan whispered, walking over to join her on the log despite essentially being told off by her. "I am sorry."

      "Apology accepted," Ava proclaimed. "How did you find me?"

      "I come here often. This time, you were here too."

      A simple response but likely the truth, Ava thought, considering the crisp packet the little mouse had stumbled over. "Now, can I ask you something... bigger?" Her voice had gone soft again but it didn't completely mask the accusatory overtone. Nathan nodded. Ava asked, "Who's Hazel?"

      Once his eyes had found the coat and the confusion cleared from them, the tears started to fall, slowly to begin with, then a little quicker, tracing muddied lines down his cheeks. Ava started to regret calling him a thief and a murderer but also couldn't push aside the idea of it being a pretence. She gave him some time and kept the air around them empty of words. "She..." Nathan started shakily. Ava didn't say anything, just left him to continue in his own time. "She's my sister."

      That was when Ava made the awful mistake of asking, "Where is she?" And the waterworks started again, a fountain of tears doubling the stream running below.

      About twenty minutes of crying and ten minutes of silence later, Nathan decided to answer her question, choking down further sobs. "The blood you saw," he started. He shook his head at Ava's wide, gasping eyes. "No, that wasn't hers. It belonged to the man who killed her. He'd been stabbed and we came across him a good while later it seemed, he'd lost so much blood, his skin was so grey." Nathan's gaze grew more distant the more he talked, which may have explained his new comfort in speaking. "Hazel wanted to help him. There wasn't much she could do but... her eight year old self couldn't even begin to accept that. She knelt down next to him in the snow, knees in the man's old blood, and... he bit her. Right on her forearm. I was so scared. So was she. I could see it. But I was too terrified and cowardly to do anything but stumble back a little and watch as the dead man tore Hazel's arm right off. My Hazel, the only one who came with me out of that stupid town. And I watched as, a moment later, she turned to face me, the brilliant, always sparkling emerald green colour in her eyes fading, the look behind her eyes becoming crazed as she screams at me, 'Run!' And we both knew she'd caught The Fist."

      Once again, the world around them plunged into silence as they both thought about every word Nathan had spoken. All his fear, his guilt, his regret and sadness and fury hung in the air surrounding them, suffocating them. "That was two weeks ago. We left town a week after Winter hit. I should have made her stay at home."

      Ava rested a hand on his shoulder, "No. No, you shouldn't have done. She knew what sort of world she was running into but she did it anyway. I don't know if that was to get away from Dursley, to feel free or just to spend her life with her amazing older brother, perhaps for all three of those reasons. But listen to me, we both know she enjoyed her last week with you a lot more than she would have liked any amount of time stuck in Dursley without you."

      Nathan sighed, "You're right. And I know you are but it's hard to focus on that when you're left alone with nothing but a great loss to keep you company."

      "You're not alone anymore. Okay?" Ava said more than asked, looking into his eyes as if challenging him to speak against her. He didn't. "Right then. So, tell me about Hazel."

      "I don't want to sound rude but," Nathan said, again not finishing his sentence.

      "Okay, tell me about Dursley."

      Nathan nodded and gave a small, grateful smile. Then he turned to stare out over the stream and spoke through clenched teeth, "I hate it. The whole town. I love my family but they seemed just as happy to listen to the idiot we call Mayor as everybody else in that blasted town. Everyone is so intent on re-industrialising the area, despite the obvious bad weather that doesn't seem to be leaving any time soon, if ever. They started building straight away, large metal monsters to bite through the snow, to drill through ice and rock and to tear trees from where they stood, where they had been stood long before the meteor even crashed here." He seemed angry at his town for being active and trying to work past the devastation. "The thing is, yes, it's all well and good to work through pain, to keep moving forward through rough times. But they don't care that the food supply is awfully low, they want gold. They don't care that everyone is freezing even as they're wrapped up in jumpers and coats and blankets and duvets and sheets, they want coal and oil. Think you can use them to start a fire? Wrong. Mayor Joseph decided it should all be stored ready to begin a trade deal when the snow melts. He thinks about the far off future that may never even happen and he cares about his wealth. And I think, Ava, that's where the list ends."

      Ava nodded, suddenly realising her own teeth had clenched. She parted her teeth again, flexing her stiff jaw. "That's awful. That's worse than Smalltown."

      "What's so bad about Smalltown that made you want to leave there?" Nathan asked. "I almost didn't leave Dursley and if Smalltown wasn't as bad then..."

      "It was worse, in some ways, I guess. Depends what angle you're going for," Ava shrugged. "Food, we have orchards. We have farms. Our whole town takes equal shifts in both places, keeping the animals warm and fed, keeping the food coming in. But we don't have warmth, and we never had much money. School closed down and that was the only interesting thing about some days. But the worst part was that they kept us in. Drew out an official border that Smalltown had never had before, and much smaller than the assumed one from before the crash. I wasn't allowed to play in the river, even the calm part behind the orchard. I wasn't allowed to climb trees because all trees inside the border had been chopped down for wood for fires. I felt trapped, Nathan. I felt like I wasn't allowed to be me in Smalltown. Barely allowed out the house unless I was being escorted to work in the orchards. Plum picking, that was my job."

      "I'd have traded anything for a life like that for Hazel," Nathan whispered to the wind.