Germafrost rubbed his head in annoyance at the latest thing that fell on it.

He could've sworn that this time, it was a chocolate chip, a piece of fruit, or anything else small enough to not knock you out. He was too exhausted to care about what it was. His only thought right now was not letting anybody see him, especially not the way he was. His nose was almost entirely clogged up, and the cold, dry air all around him wasn't helping things. His eyes were so puffy, they felt like they were going to disintegrate. He could just now sense a slight tinge of pain in his upper forehead.

He was leaning against a wall and panting hard and heavily. He'd been running fast for a while, but he didn't have a clear idea of where he was going. When he turned his head, he could see a tiny, sparkly blue shape or two on the snowy ground. Was that all he'd left behind him, or was there a whole trail of shiny sprinkles that someone could soon follow?

What was he running from? Technically, it wasn't anything, but right now, he wanted to get away from it all. And not in an eagerly-going-on-a-holiday sort of way. He no longer wanted to wake up and assume for the moment that she was in her room, brushing her fur, or in the Grand Sundae Hall saying hi to Piano on her way outside, only to remember she wasn't there anymore. She wasn't here or anywhere in Ice Cream Land, but his thoughts of her were everywhere, and they seemed to be catching up to him again.

Along with those, a cloud was, too. Within a minute, white specks would be sprinkled on his head, or if it were more intense, he'd be totally covered in them. Day after day, a whirl of snowflakes would land on his ears and arms, and before he even noticed it, he'd look like he was topped with fluffy white cream. When Germafrost's mood dropped, so did the temperature around him, and then that cloud would appear. It had been appearing for a while now like it was a mosquito that couldn't get enough of the taste of his blood.

Mere hours after the royal family, his family, announced something, every ice cream cone, popsicle, caramel square, marshmallow, and other sugared creature in the kingdom would know. Her departure became the top subject of conversation for the kingdom's citizens, and Germafrost tried to avoid talking about it as much as he could. Discussing it only stretched out his cloud, intensifying the snowfall. They all gathered at the castle to say their last goodbyes to her, so they surely knew about his emotional blizzard during the ceremonies. He'd given them smiles and polite waves, trying to tell himself that everything was going to be okay. His parents had told him she'd never really gone away because she had a special place in each of their hearts. Germafrost didn't want her to just be in his heart, though. He wished to have her there, right by his side, because she had been taken too suddenly. They could have done so many more things together, but now, there would never be a chance. 

Germafrost tried not to draw attention to himself when they stood around her hole in the ground to put her in it. Unfortunately, every head turned in his direction. Once he saw them all looking at him, he noticed the specks of snow falling around him. He then looked up, and there it was. To make a long story short, that day didn't end well.

He swatted at the current cloud hovering over him, trying to get it to leave him alone, until he heard some footsteps approaching. His heart jumped in his chest, and he sucked in a breath. Whoever was coming this way, he couldn't see them out on the rich brown road of ganaches, but even he could hear the reverberation of that gasp. Shaking, he backed up, just now getting a look at the towering height of the columns that supported the roof of the building he'd been leaning on.

Then, he ran for his life. Besides being noticed by passersby, something that tall falling on his head was the last thing he wanted to happen. Why were those things even still there, anyway? He'd talked to his parents about illegalizing buildings with them, not caring how "professional" it made Judge Fudge's courthouse look. The waffle cone structures and sundae-shaped buildings across the kingdom were all they needed. Plus, they were a lot less dangerous. He'd have replaced every single structure in the kingdom that had pillars or columns with better structures if it meant she would come back.

As he sprinted away, he couldn't feel anything falling down on his top side, so that was at least okay. He kept going until he couldn't hear nearby chatter or see clouds and small blue bits. By then, his legs were beginning to burn out, and his mouth was running dry. Suddenly, his front paw didn't touch the ground when he very quickly took a step. What came next was blurred vision and many unpredictable hits on the ground.

Germafrost struggled to stand up, his entire body sore and as limp as noodles. He couldn't tell where he was, not even once the vertigo from the tumble wore off. The quietness of this spot wasn't the peaceful, comforting kind of quiet that defined your usual day in Ice Cream Land. The wind whistled softly and almost chillingly. It was a warmer breeze that rustled up his fur like wind blowing on the grass. The barren ground in front of him was fading from a bright white to a dirty brown. When he glanced behind him, he couldn't see even the high, frosted peak of Mt. Dairy in the distance, nor could he see the chocolate-striped waffle stick tower at the top of his sweet castle.

He took a deep breath and carefully picked himself back up on his feet. Checking his surroundings, he found no snowflakes in the air and no cloud for them to descend from. It was relieving that he wasn't being snowed on anymore, but it didn't mean he felt any better than earlier. He crossed his arms, gazing down. Maybe he'd stay in this field and wait until his mood improved, until he was sure that there wouldn't be a cloud above him again. There was nothing here that reminded him of her, and no one to continuously ask him if he was doing alright. But then came the issue of how he'd eat and keep himself clean...

"Whatcha doing all alone out here, pal?" asked a raspy voice just then.

The prince jerked up. Seven feet or so away from him stood a person he'd never seen before. They were draped in a dark red garment that covered their body completely. There were two little pointy black wings spread out from their upper back. A yellowish light beamed from under their hood. Germafrost's paws trembled as he took a step back. "I... would... rather... not say."

"Don't worry. I understand. You don't have to tell me anyway. I've heard the news. On my way here, at least sixteen people mentioned her name. It's been in your cold, sweet kingdom's papers for... who knows how long?"

Germafrost put his paws on his face and groaned. "Could you please leave me alone?" he murmured, his speech muffled.

"Now, now, hang on. Don't shoo me away just yet. I've got an idea I'd like to get by you," offered the cloaked figure.

"No thanks. I'm really not in the mood. Please, just go!"

"Wait! Just hear me out! Are you thinking right now that if you could rewind time to stop that terrible catastrophic event from happening, you totally would?" He placed his hand on Germafrost's back. "If you could do things differently, you would have taken her somewhere much safer?"

The icy shepherd dog looked up but said nothing.

"GREAT! Listen up." As they spoke, the hooded one moved around him, waving their hands about like they were shooing away fruit flies. "Out there, there's this thing I know about that can right this huge wrong in your life. Something that'll ease all of your woes and worries in no time flat. I'm talking about something... that can bring her back."

Never at any time in his life had Germafrost seen a melted person be refrozen back to normal, but just because he'd never witnessed it didn't mean it wasn't at all possible. Still, an object with that kind of power sounded like something he'd see only on the heavily dramatized shows Neapolitan sometimes watched. He crossed his arms. "You don't know anything. Can you go away?"

A tiny, cottony puff floated near his horn, much to his dread. That was his signal to exit out of the conversation and head wherever this stranger wasn't like he'd been doing for days on end. The hooded one, unfortunately, wasn't giving up. They got so close to him that a wave of heat hit Germafrost right in the face. He yelped, flinching.

"You think I don't know what I'm talking about? Would you be convinced if I told you I had solid, photographic proof?" From a pocket in the side of their cloak, they pulled out some printed photos and a thick book, handing them to him.

Surprisingly, the book wasn't all that heavy, but both of its covers had been collecting some dust. He opened it to a page marked by a folded top corner, which described a shiny bronze object that for some reason looked very similar to an ice cream scooper. According to the texts, a guy working in an office with his brother lost him to a train accident while they were on their way home one night. Then, he found this stick-like thing tucked away under the foundation of someone's house. When he fed "happy sparticles" to the stick and spoke his brother's name to it directly, it brought him back, good as new. One sentence in the third paragraph caught Germafrost's eye. "When I had him back, it was like nothing had happened at all," Gary said.

He read that sentence aloud, letting it sink into his mind. If he could bring her life back into his, he'd feel a lot better, and he could keep living it the way it was. Examining one of the photos, Germafrost could see a train track that was blocked by a thin yellow fencing and a man sitting on the ground in front of it, his face resting on his hand. In another, he saw the man watching his sibling go down into the earth, just like he himself did. A third one depicted when he reunited with his brother once he came out of the hole, the two of them happily standing side by side.

"Could this thing... really bring her back?" Germafrost asked.

"The facts don't lie. Trust me," answered the hooded one.

"Where did you even get this from?"

"Science... Textbooks... Monthly?" they answered again with a bit of hesitation.

Germafrost closed the book and found that it was, in fact, from Science Textbooks Monthly. The back cover stated that the information written in it was provided by trained scientists from all over creation. If you won't take our word for it, check the pages at the end, it read. There are a bunch of citations listed there that are definitely from reliable sources and not made up!

The works cited for the observations of the stick thing had all the necessary components, too, such as the full name of the source, the person it came from, and the place of research they worked for. "It seems legitimate..." he said.

The light from the hooded one's concealed face shone a little brighter. "So, are you in?"

The feeling of opportunity tingled within Germafrost. This would mean no more clouds and no more things floating down upon his head. Before, he hadn't expected there to actually be a way. Although a little bit of skepticism lingered, this was a chance that he wanted to take. He looked at the hooded one and said, "Okay, uh... yes. I am. 'In,' that is to say. Where is it now?"

"Word is that it's hidden somewhere in a place called the Unikingdom."

That was a rather funny-sounding name, but Germafrost was concerned with less trivial things. "Oh. How are we going to get there?"

"It won't take long." The hooded one took Germafrost by the arm. All of a sudden, something seemed to consume him from his back paws up at lightning speed. He winced, whimpering for a moment.

When he next opened his eyes, they were both in a much greener and much hotter place. The sun was large, warm, and had an inexplicable tiny face on it. It was even wearing a pair of tiny sunglasses. It literally smiled down on a colorful town that encircled a hill as wide and round as the one he was now standing on. On top of that hill was an enormous building shaped like a cat, with a unicorn horn on its head and a blue horse's tail in the back. Germafrost looked down at himself, somewhat amazed with, but also confused by, his own body's likeness to it. Upbeat music with thumping beats was faintly playing in the distance. From way up here, the bass vibrated the ground beneath his feet. As he and the hooded guy went about their search, it would hopefully drown out any noises they'd make.

"Oh. That WAS fast," said Germafrost.

"Wasn't it?" The hooded one then took off their hood, but it shocked Germafrost to see that their head was a burning flame. He tried to shield his eyes from its radiance, his jittering body stricken with intimidation. He already didn't know how long it would be before he'd melt in this weird ardent land. "My apologies if I frightened you. I think it's time I properly introduce myself. You are Prince Germafrost, is that right?"

He almost froze. Even so, he didn't find their knowledge of him that surprising. He timidly nodded.

"You can call me 'Hazz.' I'm wishing you the best of luck."

"Wait... You're not..."

"Hey, I don't know much about this relic myself. I won't be with you every single step of the way. I will occasionally pop in to provide you with suggestions, though."

Germafrost shook his head around from left to right, regaining his composure. "Alright... Hazz. Where do you think I should start?"