It was 1999. I was home for the summer, fresh out of high school. My parents and three sisters had decided to take a trip to Maine and I stayed home to watch the house for them. My only companions were a fat Siamese cat named K.C. and my parents' old computer, (which didn't work). I tinkered with it for a day and got it working by the end of a long night. After installing AOL from a 3.5 inch floppy disk, (hey, it was 1999), I decided to surf the web for something to read. Being huge on Final Fantasy VII, then and now, I wanted to see some of the latest fanfics. I don't even remember where I ran across I Know What's Beneath the Snow Fields by Zahra. I think it was linked to from Vera's site, Dead Triangle.

In any case, how I found the fanfic is not important. What is, is that I found it. And as I am sure almost anyone out there would agree, it is one of the most riveting, breathtaking, sitting on the edge of your computer seat Final Fantasy VII fanfics. For years, Zahra pulled us in and kept us waiting impatiently for another chapter. Her way of telling this story gave life to the characters and the world around them. Finally the tale came to an end that I think both surprised and satisfied many a fan. So much in fact that people are still talking about this fanfic today.

I asked Zahra's permission years ago to set up a mirror site to host the story. She allowed such and it has remained here since. Recently, I did a search for her site, and it happened to be gone. In fact, besides the many torrent sites, mine seems to be one of the only fan sites left that still hosts the fanfic. I stumbled across a LiveJournal entry about this and discovered that my site link was posted in response to an inquiry. The poster even lamented about how all of the artwork was probably lost. Luckily, I saved practically everything, and I have posted this lost artwork here, also reachable on the main Snow Fields page.

Well, enough of my ramblings. Please enjoy one of the greatest Final Fantasy VII fanfics you'll ever read.

-Angela Rose
Nibelheim : The ShinRa Mansion
www.rusted-icon.net