This is great! Wonderfully atmospheric. Terrific descriptions and setting. Reads absolutely beautifully. Wow! Outstanding.

I'll agree with Oshun 100%. What I loved about this story from the first time I read it as a draft to when I read it for the n-th time when you sent in the final version is the setting: the sense of hush, of foreboding, the proverbial calm before the storm as Beleg navigates the snowbound environment. (Which I know well! That quiet, snowy calm before all hell breaks lose and you wake up to a meter of snow outside your door! :) This entwines and works so well with the meaning of the story itself, in addition to being more than a little Tolkienesque. Beautifully done!

its a shame that 'Iced Gems' are a kind of biscuit in england, (cookie, to americans). 

however, a charming piece, like the intro to a children's story.

Oh I can feel the winter chill of the forest in this one! And the harshness of the season afflicts even the elves - of course it does. But Beleg has his priorities in order. :D (also makes a pretty picture in my mind's eye running through the forest with his cape flowing behind him)

You set this up so beautifully: the palpable harshness of this winter, Beleg still capably  dealing with his environment even so, and still-defiant Turin.