Mirka slipped through the thick first floor door of her small house, leaned against it, and looked out across the bare grey rocky shore toward the snow-covered Mount Erebus. A few small patches of green were all the natural color she could see. Although they looked like they might be grass from this distance, she knew they were only patches of moss or lichen. The midsummer sun hanging low in the midnight sky behind her house provided a softened, reddish illumination. A few flakes of snow stirred up by the wind glistened in the air. The sound of the Adelie penguin rookery could be heard in the distance.
She rested quietly against the door as she took in the view. Her thoughts drifted to to winter to come. There was the possibility that this would be her long-awaited first winter here, but that was still a question at this point.
