No sooner had Dick finished speaking than they heard someone calling them from ahead.
Dick and Mia exchanged a helpless glance, resigned themselves to their fate, and started running toward the source of the voice.
The howling wind and blizzard raged on relentlessly. Their two frail figures struggled forward, inching through the storm. "Are we servants not human? It's freezing cold, the snow's so thick we can't even keep our eyes open, and they want us to find the way? A stronger gust, and our scrawny selves will be blown away! Find the way? More like they'll be collecting our bodies soon!"
Mia, huddled against the cold, followed behind Dick, silently listening to his endless complaints.
Unable to stand her silence, Dick snapped at her. "Why aren't you saying anything, Mia? You're always like this, quiet as a mouse, never making a fuss no matter what happens. No one knows what's going on in that head of yours. No wonder everyone at the manor picks on you. Don't think I can always stick up for you. What happens if I leave, huh? What will you do then?"
Seeing her remain silent, Dick grabbed her shoulders and shook her, as if trying to jolt her sluggish soul awake. "Speak! Speak! Speak…! Say something!"
Dizzy from the shaking, Mia finally spoke. "Dick, you've been talking so much—are you thirsty?"
"What!?" Dick froze, then roared, "Mia…!"
God, I'm done for. Utterly done for! Dick's face turned deathly pale.
"Dick…" Mia spoke up first for once. "Look, the snow's stopped."
"Huh? Oh!" Dick looked around, realizing the snow had indeed stopped without them noticing. Silence enveloped everything, as if nothing had happened. If not for the blanket of snow covering the ground, he might have thought the blizzard was just a dream.
"My God!" Dick's legs gave out, and he collapsed to his knees in the snow. "I heard the weather in the Northern Desert was unpredictable, but this is just too bizarre, isn't it?"
"Is it?" Mia didn't see anything unusual.
Dick, still kneeling in the snow, shot her an incredulous look. "Your brain—nothing's ever abnormal to you."
Mia scratched her cheek awkwardly. Everyone called her strange. Ever since she was young, she'd been particularly sensitive to white things, feeling they were where she belonged. She liked sleeping wrapped in white sheets; otherwise, she couldn't fall asleep. She loved staring off into space, standing still and gazing into the distance as if waiting for something to appear, sometimes for an entire day. She also liked bandaging injured animals and talking to them endlessly, whether they understood her or not.
Mia was anything but sociable. Her quiet, reserved nature and peculiar personality were among the reasons why. Having a friend like Dick was only possible because they grew up together, weathering countless hardships side by side, which forged their close bond. Being servants was tough—no freedom, no power, always treading carefully in everything they did. But ever since Mia found a friend in Dick, they could secretly share small moments of joy and little secrets with each other.
"Hey, Mia, are you spacing out again?" Seeing her standing still with her head lowered, Dick stood up and waved a hand in front of her face.
"No, I'm just thinking about something," Mia said, shaking her head.
"Good, thank heavens. The snow's stopped, so let's hurry up and find the way back to report to the overseer. It's getting colder." Wow, the more I talk, the colder it feels! It hadn't even felt this cold during the snowfall!
Cold? Mia froze, looking at him. "It's not cold at all. I feel like it's getting warmer."
Dick looked at her with pity. "Poor Mia, you must be exhausted."
"No…" She knew her own condition. But before she could finish, Dick cut her off.
"I get it, I get it, I get it. I believe you," he said, though his expression suggested otherwise. "Right now, finding the way is the priority. Let's not talk about anything else—I'm freezing to death here!"
The weather was brutally cold, and he didn't want to waste another second. He couldn't stand being in this awful place a minute longer.
"Oh." Seeing the urgency written all over Dick's face, Mia stopped arguing and hurriedly followed his steps forward.
For some reason, the sensation of stepping on the snow felt strangely familiar to Mia. The crunching sound under her feet stirred a sense of déjà vu. Why was this happening? As the feeling grew stronger, her heart began to race, pounding so fast that she instinctively grabbed Dick's sleeve, stopping him from moving forward. "Dick!"
"What's wrong?" Dick asked, puzzled, noticing the rare look of anxiety on Mia's face.
"I feel like I've been here before," Mia said, her expression earnest.
"Mia, don't be ridiculous!" Dick assumed her odd quirks were acting up again. He patiently explained, hoping to snap her out of it. "If anyone else said that, I might believe them. But I know your family history better than you do. Our parents were servants of the Ivan family, and you've been a servant there since you were a kid. Do you really think someone like you, a servant, could've ever gone far from the Ivan estate? If it weren't for Lord Ivan's eldest daughter getting married off to the Northern Desert and us being unlucky enough to be chosen as her accompanying servants, do you think you'd ever be here? You'd probably spend your whole life in the Ivan household until you died!"
"I know, but…" I really have this feeling. "Dick, trust me, it's true. I can even tell you—over there, right there, there's definitely a cave!"