My Little Force

I.B.F.Fs: Sisters Of The Snow

Once upon a time, my Egyptian mummy sister Zura and I lived together in the Arctic as sisters. It wasn’t too hot or too cold for us, so we liked it just the way it is, and played together in the snow every day. We’d swim in the open seas  with polar bears. We’d roll down snowy hills. We’d have snowball fights, although it was clear that Zura always won. But best of all, we liked sliding on the ice together. No matter how much fun it was, we always liked sliding across the icy pond towards the other side. It was so much fun that we always tumbled and slid into the snow banks. We’d always emerge laughing and try to get up onto the ice, but we always slipped and landed in a heap.

One day, Zura and I were playing on the ice pond as always, sliding across the pond and crashing into the snowy bank on the other side. As we emerged, we were laughing until we couldn’t stand up - on literal ice. “Wow, that was great!” I cried. “You’re right, Sophie, it’s always fun to play together in such an icy, quiet paradise.” said Zura. “Yeah, just us two, no one else, on ice.” I smiled. Zura tried to get up, and I did too, but we slipped as always and landed atop one another in a heap. We were laughing so loudly that we almost didn’t hear voices calling for us. We looked up, and saw a young human boy (in real life, I know him as a werewolf) and a young vampire. Their names were Fang and Luna.

“Hi, you two! You come from the nearest ice tribe to play with us?” I asked. “Yeah, sure,” said Fang, “You girls are playing ice sliding! Mind if we join you?” “You bet!” said Zura and I together. We lined up at the edge of the pond, and Fang and Luna were boasting. “Bet we can slide all the way to the other side faster than you can!” laughed Luna. “Bet you can’t slide all the way to the edge of the ice!” I giggled. Fang playfully punched me. “I’m going to go even faster than you.” “Want a race?” asked Luna, and he was about to jump into action when Zura grabbed him by the scruff of his tribal coat. “No!” she cried. “Let me teach you.” “Actually, I’ll teach them first.” I added. “I’m an expert slider.” So saying, I leapt onto the ice and slid like I never slid before. “Wheeeeeeeee!!” I cried. BOOF! I landed into the snowy bank. Zura cheered for me, but Fang and Luna looked at each other, annoyed.

“Come on, guys, it’s fun!” I called. “Alright,” said Fang, but Zura stopped him and insisted it was her turn next. Zura leapt onto the ice and slid across, yelling in joy, until she collided with me and landed in the snowy bank. We emerged, hugging and laughing. “Our go!” called Fang. “Wait! Luna has to wait his turn first!” I shouted. “Who cares?” asked Luna, “We can both have a go!” Luna and Fang slid across the ice and landed head first into the snow. They emerged, laughing and high-fiving. Zura and I were astonished! “What? You…” I began, but Luna just pulled a face and Fang jeered, “We’re much better than you!” “Why?” I asked. “Because boys are better at ice sliding than girls. Girls stink! Boys rule!”

These words hurt us so much that we turned and walked away. I was crying softly over what Fang and Luna said. “There now, sometimes people say hurtful things, but I’m sure the boys will learn their lesson sometime soon.” “You mean you will punish them for what they’ve done?” I asked. “Like this!” said Zura, and she pinched my ear gently, causing me to giggle. “Still, we shouldn’t have invited them into our game, they’re far too boyish for our taste.” Meanwhile, Fang and Luna were sliding across the icy pond continuously. “Yeah! Woo!” called Fang. “Now watch me!” Fang leapt onto the ice, but it was too late. The ice began to crack and divide, and Fang fell off his ice floe and into the cold water. He was struggling for his life, and Luna was on the edge of the pond, worried for him. “Help! Luna!” he cried. “Don’t worry, Fang, I’m coming!” called Luna, and he leapt into the water. But soon after he dived in and held onto Fang’s shoulders, he was struggling too! “Help! Help!” they both cried.

Who should hear their cries for help but us. “Oh no! Fang and Luna are in trouble!” I cried. “Perhaps they’re wrong, girls CAN do anything. This is why we need to rescue them.” Zura and I raced towards the pond and leapt into the water. I grabbed Fang, and Zura grabbed Luna, and we both dragged them towards the edge of the water, dragging them onto dry land again. Fang and Luna coughed up water and looked up at us. “Oh thank Drac, you saved us!” said Luna. “You’re both right,” said Zura, “Girls AND boys are good at sliding along the ice.” “Then we’re sorry we didn’t believe you were good. All the slipping and sliding and everything, we thought you weren’t good at it. We thought us boys ruled.” said Fang. “Yeah, sure, but now we’re both wrong.” sobbed Luna. “Cheer up,” I smiled, wiping Luna’s tears away from his soft, pale face, “I think we could slide down icy hills together.” “Why?” asked the boys all at once. “Because that’s what both genders do together.”

“Everyone ready?” I asked a few minutes later as we lined up at the top of a snowy hill. “Sure!” my friends cried. “Three, two, one, GO!” I called, and off we went downhill, until we landed head first into a snowbank, laughing all the way. This continued for the rest of the day, until Fang and Luna had to go back to their Eskimo tribe. Zura and I returned home to our cave too, and as we disappeared into the swirling snow, we vowed we’d play with Fang and Luna someday soon again.

THE END.

Sisters Of The Snow

Once upon a time, Cleo and I lived in the Arctic together as sisters. The cold didn’t bother us one bit, so we were used to playing in our icy, frozen paradise we called home. Every day, we’d race out of our cave and spend all day playing in the snow. We’d slide down snowy hills and roll about in the snow, and sometimes the occasional snowball fight was added in for good measure. Every day was a splendid day - not too hot or too cold. There was one thing we were forbidden to do by our father Niles, though - we were never to swim under the ice. Legend has it that there were divers who swam under the ice before, and those who couldn’t make it to the surface drowned. We were forbidden to go anywhere in the sea, because it was too dangerous and we could be frozen to death. No matter how hard we tried to ignore it, thoughts of the sea just came back to us like the tide washing up a message in a bottle.

One day, we were out walking when we came across the edge of an ice floe. It leads all the way out across the sea. Cleo and I saw that there was a seal swimming under the ice, so we decided to slide on our tummies towards where the seal was swimming. We learnt from penguins how to slide like that, and to be honest, it was actually quite fun. We slid so fast that we didn’t notice an icy pond just nearby. We slipped off the ice and fell into the water straight under the ice. The water felt quite cold, but it was really quiet under the sea, almost quiet enough for a pin to drop. We had no choice but to explore the ocean ourselves. It was really beautiful. Our eyesight was indeed blurry because we couldn’t see underwater, but wow, it was lovely. Fish swam past us and tickled our toes, and we swam past mighty whales singing ambient whale songs. The ambience reached our ears, and we could hear correctly even though we are underwater. There was water blocking our ears, but we didn’t care. We just swam along until we came to a cave in a giant glacier.

We swam into the magical crystal depths of the glacier and looked all around us - we couldn’t believe what we saw. We could see our own reflections painted like a work of art in the glass ice, and some of the sharp spikes down below were a little dangerous, but we kept on swimming. That is until we reached a huge ice passage leading out of the cave and into another cave, with water up above. We felt like two fish who have reached their landmark and were ready to crawl out into a new world. But when we looked up again, we realised that it wasn’t water, it was ice! And there were so many passageways we didn’t know which one lead out. Desperately, we tried other caves, but they just lead to icy walls which blocked our path, and we had to go back into the cave again. 

By that time, we were losing air, and were on the verge of drowning any second. With the last of my air bubbles coming out of my mouth, I took hold of Cleo’s hand just in case I wanted to tell her ‘I love you’ again…but as we sank down to the bottom of the cave, a huge shadow swam in and took us onto has back…

Minutes later, we woke up on the surface again, and found ourselves looking into the eyes of a friendly polar bear. We coughed up water and tried to get back onto our legs in a wobbly kind of manner, but we were helped up by our new friend. “Thanks for saving us, Mr Polar Bear.” I sighed. “We thought we were going to drown, but you saved us.” said Cleo. The polar bear just rumbled out a groan in acceptance. “We promise never to swim under the ice again, I think it really is too dangerous.” I coughed. “I think so too,” said Cleo, “I think the ice is a dangerous swimming ground for us.” The polar bear agreed with one last grumble, then leapt into the water and swam off as we waved goodbye to our friend.

And so we went off back to our icy home, through the wind and the swirling snow, all whilst we disappeared without a trace.

We are nowhere to be seen now.

THE END.