by Bill Tiepelman
Frozen Dreams in a Maple Frame
The leaf lay in the snow, impossibly untouched by the wind that howled through the valley. Its veins glowed faintly, as though embers of a forgotten autumn were still burning within its delicate form. Sarah stumbled upon it while trekking alone through the frozen wilderness, her breath fogging in the biting cold. The winter sun was fading, and shadows stretched long across the snow. She crouched to examine the leaf, mesmerized by the scene it held—a tiny, crystalline river winding through snow-laden pines. It looked alive, too alive. Her fingers hesitated, hovering above it. "This can't be real," she whispered. The vibrant blues of the river shimmered, as if responding to her doubt. A small figure, no larger than the tip of her fingernail, appeared to paddle down the river, its motion smooth and deliberate. Sarah’s heart raced. She knew she should walk away, knew she shouldn’t touch it. But curiosity had always been her weakness. Ignoring the whisper of unease growing in her chest, she reached out. The moment her fingers brushed the maple leaf, the world shifted. The ground beneath her feet vanished, replaced by a sudden rush of cold air. She landed with a soft thud on snow, but it was no longer the snow of her familiar mountains. This snow glistened unnaturally, as if dusted with crushed diamonds, and the air was still—too still. The river was no longer a scene trapped within the leaf; it was here, rushing past her in luminous blue ribbons, its water so clear it seemed otherworldly. Tall pines loomed around her, their branches weighed down by frost. Somewhere in the distance, the faint sound of paddling echoed. The tiny figure she had seen before was no longer tiny. It was a man, dressed in strange, tattered clothing that shimmered faintly under the silver light of the sky. He stopped paddling and turned his head sharply, as if sensing her presence. "You shouldn’t be here," the man said, his voice low and gravelly, carrying an edge of warning. "No one crosses the boundary without reason." "What is this place?" Sarah asked, her voice trembling as she rose to her feet. Her boots sank slightly into the powdery snow, but the ground beneath felt solid, almost warm. She glanced around, searching for something familiar, but there was nothing—only the trees, the river, and that strange, hollow silence. The man stepped out of his canoe, his eyes narrowing. "This is the Passage, the space between what was and what might be. People like you don’t belong here." He studied her for a moment, then added, "Unless…" His expression softened slightly. "Did you find the key?" "Key?" she echoed, clutching her jacket tighter around her. "I don’t know what you’re talking about. I found a leaf. A maple leaf in the snow." At this, the man’s face darkened. "The leaf chose you, then. It always does." He sighed, brushing frost from his hands. "It’s too late now. You’ve been pulled in, and the only way out is forward." "Forward to what?" Sarah demanded, her voice rising. "I didn’t ask for any of this!" "No one ever does," the man said simply. "But the Passage isn’t random. It shows you what you need to see, even if you don’t understand it yet." He gestured toward the river. "Come. The current will carry you to the truth, or at least to the next question." Every instinct told her to run, to flee back into the forest, but when she glanced over her shoulder, the path she had come from was gone. The trees stretched endlessly, an unbroken wall of frost and shadow. There was no going back. She followed him to the canoe, her heart pounding as she climbed inside. The icy water lapped gently against the sides as the man began to paddle. They traveled in silence, the world around them growing stranger with every bend of the river. The sky above shimmered with unfamiliar constellations, and the trees seemed to hum softly, as though alive. Sarah couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched, though she saw no one else. Finally, the man spoke. "The Passage is a mirror," he said, his voice quiet. "It reflects what you hide, what you fear, and sometimes, what you hope for. Whatever you find at the end will be yours to face alone." "And what happens if I don’t like what I find?" Sarah asked, her throat dry. He glanced at her, his expression unreadable. "Then you learn. Or you don’t." The river suddenly widened, opening into a vast, frozen lake. At its center stood a solitary figure, cloaked in shadow. The sight of it sent a chill down Sarah’s spine, deeper than the cold that surrounded her. The man stopped paddling and turned to her. "This is where I leave you. The rest is yours to walk." "Wait," Sarah pleaded, panic rising in her chest. "Who is that? What am I supposed to do?" He didn’t answer. With a single push of his paddle, he sent the canoe drifting back down the river, leaving her alone. The figure in the distance seemed to beckon, though it made no movement. Sarah hesitated, her breath catching. Fear gripped her, but so did something else—a flicker of hope. If the Passage was a mirror, then perhaps, just perhaps, she could find something here that she had lost long ago. Squaring her shoulders, she stepped out onto the ice, her footsteps echoing in the silence. The figure waited, unmoving, as she approached. Each step felt heavier than the last, the air around her thick with tension. But even as fear gnawed at the edges of her resolve, she pressed on. The ice groaned beneath her weight, but she didn’t stop. She wouldn’t stop. Whatever waited for her at the end of the Passage, she was ready to face it. 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