Alpine Lake Alone, For now

The lake was indeed small -- nowhere near as thawed as she wished for it to be, but the fae supposed it would only make sense with the seasons. Ellie was never a fan of snow, frost or anything cold and much preferred to hole up home until winter's rage passed away, but that no longer seemed to be an option. The girl was on her own from now on...
Eloise had already begun to miscount the days where she'd actually been gone, but a good estimate would've been around a month, right? Enough time to herself came with some unwarranted self-doubt of course, of whether leaving at the sight of her saddened mother and disappointed father was actually worth it at all. Funny enough though, the only thing she had to do was remember her betrothed's dumb, smug face and suddenly the guilt of arguing with her parents that day was the least of her worries.
Family or not, Ellie would not sell away her life to become someone's housewife.
As she trudged aimlessly through the thick forest, snow crunching beneath dark paws and leaving a trail behind her, a startling howl had caught the dame's attention and nearly made her jump with it's proximity. That's when soft hued eyes snapped in the direction of the noise towards the lake she'd been walking away from, only to see a pale figure trailing it's edge.
"Sir!" she'd call out to them, straining her voice from the distance between tree and shore -- "-you shouldn't be wandering so close to a freezing lake. What if you fall in?"