(Yes I know this is LWW-ish I mean it to be that way.
)
The next day they entered Snow Valley.
At first it wasn’t all that bad but gradually the weather got worse and worse; snow whipped around them trying to tear them away from each other.
Before they had quite entered the valley though Fire had happened to look up and see a black speck high above them. ‘Prol’y just an eagle.’ She thought but when she glanced again there seemed to be another, much smaller speck with the first one.
Hope pulled her cloak closer around her. The temperature was well below freezing and with the wind-chill it must have been at least minus twenty.
The five little kittens huddled close stumbling to keep up. Fire suddenly noticed though that Jako was nowhere to be seen. She panicked for a moment but then heard a frightened cry; Jako stumbled into view a little ways behind them. He had a wild terrified look in his eyes.
“What happened?” she asked her twin.
He shuddered, “There’s, there’s…. oh I can’t even speak of it!” he shivered violently as they continued walking, but from fear or cold Fire was never sure.
What Jako had seen were the captives of the valley. They were creatures who had been encased in ice. They were all still alive but so frozen that they could not move or speak or do anything. Their eyes were still open, staring at whoever was unlucky enough to pass them by. Ribbony had once been told that these sad prisoners would someday be released from their icy bonds, but when that day was he did not know, for he had only ever heard that it was to happen when ‘The scorching warmth of the earth opens and cracks to melt the Snow Valley and free its occupants.’
The ‘occupants’ of Snow Valley were kept alive by the very thing that held them; the ice. The ice that surrounds them is so thick that nothing can harm them, not the wind, not the cold, not anything. So was their fate.
Tansy had never been the musical or artistic one of her family but like any young child or kit she was creative. So the young kit made up a song about Snow Valley. It is as follows;
“Snows alla time,
Neva stops,
Keeps snowin everyday.
Freezes my paws,
Makes me rweal cold,
Makes me wish I was home.
I won’t never complain,
‘Bout snowstorms at home never again,
‘Cause if I wive den I won’t neva forget,
Snow Valley an’ its cwod.
Snoooooooow Vaaaaaaaaalleeeeeey!
Keep your snow in your valley!
Snoooooooow Vaaaaaaaaalleeeeeey!
You rweally need to work on your welcomin’ skills as Miss Dora would say!
And I’ll be gwad,
When I leave,
This bad owd Snow Valley!”
