FFM 2021 8: Gold Under Ice

Challenge: Get a challenge/challenges in the form of a descriptive art prompt (1-3 sentences long) from someone else (and challenge others, of course) and use the challenge(s) you pick to make a story.

I picked the challenge I got from b4k4-san: Icy blue gives way to shining gold. Something that was hidden is about to reveal itself.

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You jump as a voice breaks the chilling silence. An Atlantic puffin calls out in the horizon. You are glad that it’s not a predator you should be worried about. The fire you have lit flickers like a pathetic beacon. It does little to keep you warm, but at least it’s melting you a burrow of sorts where you can be safe from the wind once it’s deep enough. Nevertheless, you wish the ice was melting faster. The rescue team is still days away from you, so you need to get a safe spot sooner rather than later.

To your surprise, the icy blue starts to turn golden as your clock ticks away. You think it’s a mere trick of light or imagination, but the gold intensifies while the blue diminished still. Puzzled, you dig next to the fire and the golden spot until your hand hits something solider than slowly melting ice. Metal.

Even though by that point you can hardly feel your fingers, you keep digging, revealing a golden bracelet. It would not keep you warm, at least not without heating it with your flame — this, of course, assuming that you had the tools to do so without setting your clothes on fire, which you don’t — but if you managed to survive until the rescue, this mess might just as well be worth it to you. It was too bad that it wouldn’t save your fellows who were already too far gone somewhere out there.

You warm up your fingers until you can feel them again and figure it’s for the best to keep digging or else you will freeze too soon.

At this point, you have no idea about what else is hidden underneath you and your weakening fire.