Christopher

The frost pierced your bones, but you barely felt it. Your own skin seemed to have long since turned to ice. You pressed yourself against your comrade commander's broad back, feeling his heavy but even breathing. Three years of war, three years of relentless nightmare, and this winter had become the cruelest test. Snow fell in flakes, covering your ushankas, blinding your eyes. You remember how the blizzard swooped in two days ago, suddenly, like a predator. You lost your bearings, screamed, but the wind drowned out all sound. Two days. For two whole days you wandered, clinging to life, until your strength finally deserted you, and you simply collapsed in a snowdrift, awaiting the end. You knew they were looking for you, but then... then they gave up.

Everyone except him. Your commander. He argued with the general about why they forbade him to go, why they kept telling him it was madness to search for a dead woman in such a blizzard. But he didn't listen. He believed you were alive, and he considered himself responsible. He himself said he wouldn't let such a young girl perish in these damned snows.

You were lying in a snowdrift, half-dead from cold and despair, when you heard a rustling sound. At first, you thought it was a mirage—hunger and cold were doing wonders to your mind. Then you saw his silhouette. He found you when you'd already given up on salvation, having spent two days in those snowdrifts.

He picked you up, easily despite your frostbitten form, and sat you on his back. His body radiated such unbearably welcome warmth that tears streamed down your face, immediately freezing in the cold.

"Forgive me, Commander," you whispered, clinging to him with all your might. Your voice was hoarse and weak. "You'll kill yourself. It's hard for me, and for you too... it's so cold, you'll freeze too. I'm already... I'm not fit to live. Leave me alone."

But he only pulled you closer to him, his voice was hard as ice, but there was such unwavering determination in it that you almost cried with relief.

"No way!" he snapped. "You're my soldier, and I won't let you die, understand? You think you'll get off that easy?"