Yukishimaki

Elaine pushed her way into the supermarket, snow whipping all around her until she could hardly see her hand in front of her face. When the doors slid closed behind her everything felt strangely silent. There was no longer wind rushing by her ears, which accounted for quite a bit, but she also didn’t notice the telltale signs of people shopping. There were no squeaky wheels on carts, or footsteps a few aisles down, no chatter between friends waiting out the storm, not even the sounds of items being scanned and bagged. Before fully taking this in, though, Elaine brushed herself off, snow already starting to melt into a puddle around her feet. She unwound her scarf a few loops, and then walked further in. 

Upon further inspection, Elaine became even more aware of the strange silence. A light flickered overhead and the sound of it blinking in and out ricocheted through the deserted store. Elaine walked up and down a few aisles, and then towards the checkout lanes to confirm her suspicion, she was alone. There was a blizzard raging outside, the supermarket was well lit, warm, and safe from the elements, and she was alone. 

The longer she spent in the empty supermarket, the more on edge Elaine began to feel. The more she became sure that something wasn’t quite right. Deciding that she’d rather brave the blizzard than spend another second in here, all alone, beginning to jump at shadows, Elaine made her way back to the front of the store. Before she could make it out the doors though, she was stopping in her tracks. There, alone and abandoned on the floor, was a baby. An infant simply laying on its back, reaching up towards no one. 

Elaine looked around for any trace of the infant’s parents, or even a less savory individual, but the only traces of people in this store were the infant in front of her, and her own puddle of melted snow in front of the doors. The doors that slid closed just as she looked up at them. Elaine hesitated for only a second before leaving the baby alone to dart out the doors in search of whoever seemingly just left. However, Elaine didn’t see anyone, and the snow was thick and blinding. If there had been footsteps to follow, they were swept away with the storm before she could even spot them. Instead of wasting more time looking for no one, Elaine went back inside and approached the infant. 

The baby was right where she left it, sucking on three fingers at once. Elaine bent down and noted that the baby was a very undressed girl, probably freezing if she’d just been out in the storm. Sparing no time for second guessing, Elaine removed her scarf, brushing off any remaining water droplets, and wrapped it around the baby. She noticed that her skin was icy to the touch, and she frowned, picking the child up and cuddling her, hoping to raise her body temperature. 

“Who left you all alone, huh?” Elaine spun around in a circle, again looking for any sign of other people. The baby blew a few spit bubbles at her, and Elaine realized once again that the supermarket was completely empty. 

Elaine looked to the doors again, and hesitated. She wasn’t in a rush to take this already freezing child back out into a blizzard, but there was no one here to ask for help. Making up her mind, Elaine tucked her scarf more firmly around the infant, and held her as close as she could, then she made for the doors. She didn’t run, knowing that wouldn’t help her situation, but rather she angled herself against the wind to protect the baby, and shouldered through the buffeting snow. Squinting against the white, she managed to reach the parking lot, and spent longer than she frankly appreciated searching for her car. Eventually she managed to find it, and pull out her keys, brushing a pile of snow away from the handle she rushed into her car, trying to keep as much snow out as she could.

Once she was in with the door firmly closed, Elaine turned on the engine and started the heat. She didn’t feel comfortable driving anywhere in this weather, especially with a child she didn’t have any kind of seat for. But she also didn’t want to just sit in the storm in her car with a baby that potentially had hypothermia, and parents somewhere looking for her. Deciding to do what she could, Elaine turned up the heat and took her hat off to tug it down around the baby’s ears. She giggled in response, sucking again on three of her fingers. Her skin felt no warmer, but she didn’t exhibit any other signs of hypothermia. In fact, the child seemed perfectly healthy. 

Elaine released a pent up sigh, and pulled out her phone, figuring the least she could do was call the police. As the phone rang, the office likely being busy with the severity of the blizzard going on around them, Elaine kept an eye on the baby. She noted idly that the child’s eyes were an icy blue rather fitting for the circumstances. Before too long, her call finally went through and Elaine was greeted by a warm, but strained sounding voice. 

“Eldricity Police Department, how may I help you?” In the background of the phone call, Elaine could hear more phones going off, and a general ruckus. 

“Hi, my name is Elaine Straut, I was just at the Olio Supermarket, and I found an abandoned baby. I don’t know who she was with, they seem to have disappeared into the storm. But I’m in my car outside the store now, I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to try driving anywhere in this weather with a baby that I don’t have the proper seating arrangements for.” Elaine paused here, taking a breath and thinking through what she needed to ask, and what help she potentially needed. “Do you know if anyone has filed a missing child report? And do you think it’s possible to send a car out to retrieve her?”

There was a brief silence on the other end, she suspected the officer had covered the phone speaker to speak to someone on his end, and then he spoke again. “Well, Miss Straut, I’m afraid to say that we can’t get any cars out in this weather at the moment, however I can look into the child if you’re able to provide a description.”

Elaine held in a sigh and turned back to the baby, looking her over before speaking again. “Female, white, blue eyes, white hair, if I had to guess I’d say she’s around six months or younger.”

“Alright, I’m going to put you on hold while I look through our recent reports, do what you can to keep her warm in the meantime.”

Elaine sat back, phone cradled between her ear and shoulder, and tried to bundle the baby up a bit more. When she checked her cheek to see if she was warming up at all, she found her skin still icy and cold. And yet the child was perfectly happy, and didn’t seem bothered by the cold at all. Elaine sighed, and watched as she reached up to tug at the hat, pulling it down over her eyes. She smiled and folded the edge up, met by bright blue eyes watching her as she did. As she smiled at the baby, the line came back in and she heard the officer’s voice again. 

“Miss Straut? Are you still there?”

“Yes, I am, were you able to find anything on her?”

There was a brief pause, and then, “No, I’m afraid not. We checked across multiple departments but no missing children reports match the description you gave. It’s possible the parents are the ones who left her at the store, in which case they might not be planning on filing a report. However, given the circumstances, it’s hard to say. There are few other possibilities, though.”

Elaine frowned, who would have a child just to abandon it in the middle of a blizzard? “What other possibilities are you looking at?” 

“Well, this whole situation is rather unusual, but not unheard of. Although the child appears, to an extent, normal, it’s possible she’s not human. Unseelie fae children are occasionally left here as changelings, how is she handling the cold? You mentioned possible hypothermia, but if she’s from the winter court, that may not be an issue, and you would be able to notice the signs.”

Elaine blinked, looking back down at the child. She hadn’t even thought of that, hadn’t considered the possibility of fae running wild during the storm, though that would be perfectly in character. She noticed again, as if for the first time, how cold the child was, but how she didn’t seem to mind at all. She noticed the alertness in her eyes, and how the only thing that seemed to prove that she was cold, was the temperature of her skin.

“I...think you might be right. She seems fine beyond her temperature.”

“In that case, there are centers in town that can help with changeling children or fae dealings, once the storm lets up enough for travel. Stay safe ma’am.”

“Yes, I will. Thank you officer.” Elaine hung up a moment later, and looked the child over once again. 

“A fae hm? Seems like we’ll be stuck together for a decent amount of time, I should call you something. Other than ‘child’ or something.” Elaine found her eyes drifting to the blizzard outside her car again, even with the doors closed and the heat on, she could feel the wind beating up against the vehicle, feel the chill in the metal and glass surrounding her. She looked back to the baby and smiled, something snow related would be fitting, given their meeting. “I’ll call you Yuki, until I find out what you’re really called.”

The child, Yuki for now, giggled as if she liked this. Elaine wondered briefly how long her car battery would last, just sitting in the snow blasting the heat, and considered going back into the store. But she remembered the eerie silence, the complete emptiness, and the way the shadows flickered with the lights, and decided against it. Instead she turned a song on from her playlist and set her phone on the dashboard. Then she huddled up in her seat, knees bumping the steering wheel, and held Yuki through the storm. 

* * * *

Eventually the storm calmed enough that Elaine could drive, and she wound up going straight home, instead of to one of the fae centers. She figured they would be closed due to the weather, and didn’t think it would be too much trouble to take care of Yuki for a little while on her own. Once she got inside she shrugged off her coat and found something more appropriate to dress Yuki in than her scarf. 

Once the pair were settled in, Elaine sufficiently warmed up and Yuki seeming content, even with ice cold skin, Elaine checked the weather. The blizzard had picked up again, painting the outside world a blinding white. The wind rattled the windows every now and again, and the floor was cold to the touch, ruling out the option of going around the apartment barefoot. 

At some point during the storm, Yuki fell asleep, and Elaine tucked her into a bundle of blankets on the couch next to her while she read. Elaine read late into the evening, only stopping when she realized she was hungry. She made a quick dinner, and her eyes strayed to Yuki, wondering what she was supposed to feed her. She really wasn’t equipped to care for a baby, fae or not. For now though, Yuki slept. 

* * * *

The next day the ground was covered in thick layers of snow, with windswept piles of it around mailboxes and bushes, but the roads had been cleared enough to drive. Elaine managed to find an old car seat in her storage, tucked away and forgotten after she stopped nannying a few years back. She strapped Yuki in and drove to the nearest center that provided assistance in caring for changelings or other fae related issues. 

When she got there, no one seemed to know anything about Yuki’s parents, or why a changeling would be left behind without a trade for a human child, but they did provide Elaine with a few basic care items like formula, diapers, and clothing. Once the two were back home again Yuki was clearly hungry, and Elaine was just glad she had something to feed her now.

* * * * 

Eventually Elaine managed to get back out to the supermarket, filled with people like normal this time, and pick up a few more items to take care of Yuki. The weather stayed cold and snowy, and Elaine was just grateful she was able to work from home so she wouldn’t have to worry about trying to find a sitter as well. 

As the days went on, Elaine noticed a few things about Yuki. She didn’t seem particularly troublesome, like Elaine had heard changelings could be, and aside from the cold skin and wintery appearance there wasn’t really anything strange about her. Elaine also noticed that Yuki seemed enamored by snow, and would be perfectly content to watch the flakes fall out the wide front window. 

Before she knew it, Elaine had grown used to Yuki. She stopped wondering where she came from, stopped worrying about unseelie fae showing up in another blizzard, and started just caring about the little girl. She would bundle her up, despite her not seeming to need it, and take her out to see the snow after lunch, and had a small collection of stuffed animals for her. Elaine hadn’t ever really given much thought to being a mother, but in a quiet turn of events, she found herself with a daughter that she loved and cherished. Unfortunately, all good things seem to come to an end. 

Elaine was dozing on the couch with Yuki asleep on her chest when the storm started. The blizzard blew in much like the first, all those nights ago, quickly coating the world in white despite the fact that Spring was fast approaching. The wind howled and outside objects began to vanish behind waves of snow. Elaine woke up to an eerily silent house, with the wind rattling her windows. A light flickered in the kitchen. 

Standing in the doorway, Elaine found a tall woman. She was pale white, with icy eyes and snowy hair, and she smiled like the sun glistening off an iced over puddle. Elaine stood, cradling Yuki, and noticing the similarities between the child and the woman. She wasn’t sure how, but she knew this woman was Yuki’s mother. 

The woman spoke, and it sounded like the rushing blizzard outside, though somehow the ice in her voice was not biting, simply smooth. “Thank you, for taking care of my daughter.”

Elaine held Yuki a little closer, feeling that an ending was coming, an ending that she wasn’t prepared for. “Who are you? Why did you abandon her?”

The woman frowned, but it wasn’t angry, just sad. Elaine’s heart went out to her, despite her better judgement. “I didn’t want to. You must think me a terrible mother. But I didn’t want to lose her. I am, for lack of better term, a blizzard. I am not fae, though I understand why you may have thought that. I am more similar to a spirit, by your standards. On the night that you found my daughter, I was a raging storm, and I lost her. You see, it was her first storm night, and as a young blizzard herself, she got lost trying to be her own tempest.”

Elaine found herself recalling the night, the way the only thing left at the scene was the wind and snow, the way Yuki was ice cold but perfectly happy. It made sense, of course it did. And now her real mother wanted her back.

The woman smiled softly, eyes filled with understanding. “Thank you for taking care of her, truly it means more to me than I can express. I have been looking for her, but I was only able to find her tonight, during my biggest storm since that night. Please, let me take her home. And please, allow me to express my gratitude in a blessing?”

Elaine swallowed, she didn’t want to say goodbye to Yuki. To the girl that had so easily become like a daughter to her, but this was her mother. Her real mother. And she belonged with her. Elaine wouldn’t know the first thing about raising  a blizzard, or the magic that came with it. She wanted what was best for Yuki, and she had to face the fact that she wasn’t it. She had done what she could to take care of her, and now she had to go home. Elaine gently handed Yuki over to the woman, and she stirred slightly in her sleep, sighing contentedly. The woman smiled, brushing a curl away from her face.

Elaine was quiet for a moment, before looking back to the woman and speaking. “Will I be able to see her again?”

The woman smiled, “Winter comes each year, and blizzards are fond of visiting during the stormy season. If it should happen, I hope you will care for her again. For my thanks, I offer you my blessing, may the cold comfort you, rather than harm.” She leaned down and kissed Elaine’s forehead, sealing the blessing.

The woman and Yuki then disappeared in a swirl of ice and snow that didn’t bite at Elaine’s skin, but rather felt comforting. Like a promise.