A Tale of the Snow Queen
There was once a young woman who was not especially kind, nor especially brave. In fact, there was nothing particularly special about her at all, save that she was human, and that kind was of a sort that was never entirely similar to one another. Perhaps it was because her life had been rather clear-cut, with nothing of challenge or consternation to develop her character. Or perhaps it was because little was expected of her, or that she had never witnessed need. And perhaps all of that had made her heart a bit small, a bit cold, a bit distant, and little inclined to care. One winter’s day she wandered about the forest, to be free of village prattle and intrusions on her thoughts, when she came upon a pack of mice, seven in all, who looked frozen with cold. They seemed dead, but for the faintest beat of their hearts. A spark of compassion lit within her, and it seemed a fate of gross cruelty that snow and ice should cause the animals such pain. And in a des