Story prompt: You are on a research post alone in Antarctica when you discover an ancient city buried beneath the ice. Upon further investigation, you realize the people are thriving in a pre-modern society, and you are forced to make a choice: live with them or be put to death?

Story word count = 498

The sweet song started as no more than a whisper in frigid winds, growing day-by-day in slow crescendo. She sang in the language of dreams, reaching deep within my soul. But there was also a yearning, a captive's desire for freedom. Intoxication became obsession. I had to find the singer and help her.

Alone at an Antarctic research station in the dead of winter, I should have known not to venture far outside. The long fall into a glacial abyss should have killed me. I remembered clawing at slick ice as I slipped into the void.

Where am I? My eyes would not yet open and my mind swirled. This place was warm, though, and smells of life filled my nose.

A deep voice growled. He spoke in a strange tongue, yet I could understand. "This cannot be! He is not of the people."

A feminine voice answered, "But yet, do you not also feel the quickening? Should we not try?"

He huffed. "Very well. But if the Goddess does not stir, I will kill the outsider myself."

My eyes snapped open. "Umm, what?"

Two faces the color of cinnamon stared down at me. They wore simple brown tunics tied with leather cords. The eyes of the gray-haired woman projected caring, but those of the massive man showed contempt. I gulped as he put a hand to the bone knife tucked into his waistband.

Without another word, he tossed me into a crude horse-drawn cart like a sack of potatoes. Then things got really strange.

This place was like a tropical paradise. Twin suns warmed a lush landscape of palms, sprawling trees, and colorful flowered plants. A clear blue sea sparkled in the distance. Eyes gazed at me from within simple houses of wood and thatch. How could this exist under the ice?

We made our way up the hill to a white stone palace. The song rose again, the singer hopeful at my arrival. A long hallway led to a central courtyard. Before entering, the man and woman went down to one knee and bowed their head. In response to a not-so-subtle suggestion, I did the same.

There on a wood dais under the shade of a high roof laid a sleeping woman surrounded by a shimmer of darkness. With soft-flowing dark hair and a pleasing face, she was alluring by any standard. But the most beautiful of her was the heart revealed by the song.

The massive man scowled, lifting an eyebrow as if to say 'well?'.

This had a 'Sleeping Beauty' vibe to it. So, risking sacrilege, I bent down and kissed her full lips.

Her amber eyes opened, and she smiled. She spoke without speaking. "You came."

"Why me?"

"You have the blood of the enemy within you, yet your heart is good. Only that would break the curse."

"So, what now?"

"Your broken body dies in your own realm. Stay here with me."

Paradise with a Goddess would sure beat winter in Antarctica.