Called by the Duke of North

I was taking deep heavy breaths as I had been running around this whole dark afternoon, the wet gray slush soaking all the way through my shoes to my feet, almost freezing my toes off. Not to mention the number of cars at this time of the year. The day before Christmas. Instead of the usual merry atmosphere, all the people were hurrying, pushing through the crowds, skipping the queues, and the edgy drivers were making sure to break at the last possible moment before they hit someone, as if that would make them get there sooner. It was the last day for getting all the gifts before everything would be quiet at least for an hour or two, when all the families or friends would sit around the table, talk, and eat. But that was not the case for me. I indeed had to rush to buy the last-minute gifts like the thousands of people around me, but there was no quiet time at the table at home left for me. The gifts were for my friends as I had no family members left alive. And ever since I had ended up alone over fifteen years ago just a week before Christmas, I never celebrated the day. It was the time when I decided to take overtime at work, to be there in case someone had decided to show up with a frozen shoulder or moved back while putting up the decorations or the tree. And the plan for the evening was to get a nice bottle of wine, some bread and a small charcuterie board to enjoy time studying more about the Chinese medicine I had gotten my degree in four years ago and I had been practicing ever since. Damn, my phone was ringing in the pocket of my worn-out jacket. But my hands were already full of bags and boxes. With some clumsy movements and hopes of not dropping everything on the ground covered with the disgusting slush I had finally managed to grab the phone and answer the call, putting it up to my ear. “Heeeey, Merry Christmas, Zoe!” The shouting voice right in my ear almost made me go deaf. “Merry Christmas to you too, Julie,” I held up a sigh that wanted to escape my lips. She sounded so overjoyed about Christmas while I just wanted this hell to be over. “You don’t sound too happy, is something going on?” “No, I’m fine. Just too many bags on me right now. Last minute shopping, so you guys can all get your gifts on time.” I grunted as I pulled the bag's handles slipping down my sleeve back to my shoulder. “Playing a little elf for us every year, aren’t you? How about you take a break, get a flight ticket somewhere warm, put your awfully white skin on the beach and get some sun? It will do you good!” She did mean well. But right now I just wanted to push through this crowd, take off those freezing socks and warm my body up with preferably some hot chocolate. “Silence means yes.” Julie literally sang the last word in my ear. “Maybe next year. Can I call you later? It’s getting hard to carry everything while keeping the phone at my ear.” I sighed, thrusting up the heavy bags, so they would stay put on my shoulders and not try to slither down as they always did. “Alright, stay safe out there!” “Thanks, you too.” I mumbled in response and fumbled with the phone to end the call and finally put it in the pocket. It was so cold. My lungs were hurting and burning at the same time. Cold snowflakes were falling onto my face and the gifts were scattered all around me. The icy snow I was lying in felt like a freezing cushion slowly lulling me to sleep. What a dream I had. It wasn’t enough that the shopping itself was so stressful today during the daytime, I had to be even this cold in the dream I was having this night. Yet the freezing bites into my skin, my fingertips losing their sense of feeling, and the snowflakes melting on my face felt way too real. I sat up. It was dark, the fir and spruce trees were covered with heavy layers of snow. There wasn’t this much snow in my hometown. It wasn’t this cold, either. Did I have one of those so-called lucid dreams, which many people described as feeling so lifelike and where they could do anything they wanted? There was only one way to find out. I left the gifts as they were and started making my way through the snow. I hadn’t seen this much white around me for a very long time, when the top of it was almost hitting my knees as I pushed my legs through it. Back when I was a child, we could make huge snowmen and there was still enough of snow left for a bunker or two to play in. But not anymore. Not for many years already. I rubbed my hands as I blew some warm air from my lungs into them. It was getting colder and all the sounds were muffled by the falling snow. I had been walking for quite some time, but none of the coldness made me feel like I was waking up. I couldn’t fly or turn the weather into summer, either, as if this wasn't a lucid dream after all. It kept snowing and snowing and the cold eating away all my leftover warmth was somehow becoming so real. And then I heard it. A howl. Wolf. Wolves. And their footsteps scrunching the snow almost behind me. If this was a dream, nothing would happen to me and I would survive anything. It had to be a dream. How else would I end up in such a desolate place with the gifts I had bought just about an hour or two ago? This was a dream. And nothing could harm me. Not even the giant wolf, almost a foot taller than me, I had just found myself facing.